gumert wrote: I would like to paint/epoxy the floor, so that future messes are more easy to deal with, but I imagine that I need to do something about the current state of the cement first.
Any suggestions for products, treatments, etc are welcome.
I epoxied the floor in my garage just before we moved into our house. This was not an easy job and took a little over a week; most of the work was prep. Overall, I've been pretty happy.
Prep: I rented concrete floor grinder from Home Depot and worked for about 5 days to remove old sealant and expose clean concrete.
Epoxy: I used Sikagard 62 because it was available locally. If I remember correctly, it took about 8 gallons for ~1000 square feet. Not cheap, but has held up reasonable well. It took two days of application, one coat on each day. The odor was reasonable.
Clear top coat: I made a mistake on this and used some goofball coating based on forum wisdom. I'm sure it's actually a fine product, it was just a poor choice for this application. I don't think it was truly compatible with the epoxy substrate, so it's been peeling off over time. It also stuck the house up for months. It only took about an hour to apply on day three of application.
Outcome: The epoxy has help up well, but it's definitely lost its luster in the main work area. Of course, it's frequently covered with gritty grime, which is then ground into the floor by our shoes. So, I guess I need to cover the floor covering? I don't think other products would withstand that any better as I suspect the grit will probably wear most any epoxy. I can say, however, the epoxy itself hasn't lifted at all anywhere.
Lessons learned for next time:
- Use a grinder that has some sort of dust collection or control built in. The dust was really out of control.
- Use a Sikafloor product, which provides for broadcasting flakes and covering with an appropriate (read as compatible and durable), clear top-coat.