Garage Floor Paints
The Most Affordable
Garage Floor Protection

Garage Floor Paints Protect your Garage Floor!

Because cars travels to all kinds of places in all kinds of weather, they accumulate dust, dirt and grime. When they return to a Garage Parking Space, much of the dirt and grime is deposited on the garage floor.

Unlike your kitchen floor, the garage floor doesn't always get cleaned when the grime or dirt is dumped on it. The result is stained concrete floors and the dirty, unfinished feeling of most garages.

Transform your garage into a neat, clean easy to maintain room. Start by cleaning the stains and grime from the floor with concrete floor cleaners, then protect it with Garage Floor Paints.

Garage Floor Paints - Types

Garage Concrete Floor Paints are an affordable and useful means of finishing a concrete garage floor.

There are three basic types of concrete floor paints. Latex is the most widely used, but Oil-base paints offer a harder, shiny finish. Epoxy or epoxy-polyurethane paints are the most durable and longest lasting, but are costlier and substantially more difficult to apply.

1. Latex Concrete Floor Paints are the most widely used. Latex paints have an excellent adhesion properties and are the most user-friendly to apply.

Most latex concrete garage floor paints are designed to be applied directly to raw concrete. The first coat serves as a primer, the second offers a full, uniform finish.

2. Oil Concrete Floor Paints offer a harder, shinier finish. Unlike latex, oil-base garage floor paints should be applied over a coat of oil-base concrete or masonry filler-primer.

This application is similar to latex, but mineral spirits are used for cleanup. Thinning the primer with mineral spirits will enhance the penetration and improve the bond.

3. Epoxy Concrete Floor Paints or epoxy-polyurethane paints are the most durable and longest lasting. They are more expensive and substantially more difficult to apply.

Epoxy paints generally consist of two separate products which, when combined, create a chemical reaction that results in an above-average bond and an abrasion-resistant finish.

Epoxy floor finishes are available in a host of solid colors or randomly seeded decorative variegated color chips, and can include an integral non-skid finish.

Garage Floor Paints - Preparation

If grease stains and dirt have stained your garage floor removing stains from concrete is difficult, but not impossible.

4 Steps That Can Help Renew Your Garage Floor Are:

1. Cover concrete floor stains with a layer of absorbing material like sawdust or cat litter. Leave the material on the floor for at least one day.

2. Use a push broom with rigid bristles to sweep up the sawdust, cat litter and dirt.

3. Pour dry dishwasher detergent or a concrete cleaning agent on the concrete garage floor stains. Let the detergent sit for 45 minutes, then pour boiling water on the area and scrub the stained section with a stiff brush or stiff broom.

4. Use a pressure washer that produces at least 1200 pounds per square inch to clean the entire garage floor.

Once you remove the stains, applying Garage Floor Paints will provide a smooth finish and that neat clean look. To reduce slipping, you can add sand or a similarly gritty substance to the mixture to create a better gripping surface. If you follow these instructions, you should be able to revive the look of your garage floor at a reasonable price.

Garage Floor Paints - Paint Peeling

Three factors cause garage floor paint to peel:

1. Improper Surface Preparation. It's difficult to adequately clean a garage floor because dirt and grease are ground into the concrete's pores over a period of many years.

2. Moisture Intrusion. Because concrete usually has cracks or the concrete garage floor lacks a vapor barrier below the slab, ground moisture works its way to the concrete floor surface and lifts the paint from the concrete floor surface.

3. Hot-Tire Pick-Up. Car tires get quite hot, and when the car returns to the garage, the hot tires soften the paint on a garage floor and cause it to stick to the tires.

Hot tire lifting is a common garage floor problem caused by moisture. Because tires can come in at over 175 degrees is a very difficult problem to stop. One habit that will eliminate the problem is to let tires cool before parking in the garage.

All three can act together to cause the paint to peel.

Although the porosity of latex paint helps it resist peeling from moisture vapor, the main problem with latex paint is hot-tire pick-up. Unfortunately, regardless of paint quality, how thorough the surface preparation or how carefully the paint was applied, latex and oil paints will usually peel when subjected to hot automobile tires.

Garage Floor Paints - Application

Moisture Test

To determine if you have a moisture problem before using any floor paint, take a sheet of clear plastic about 3 x 5 Ft square. Tape all of the edges securely to the floor with duct tape. If you see moisture building up under the plastic then you probably have a moisture problem, and may see some minor tire lifting. You may have to touch up those areas every few years.

Where to Buy

Garage Floor Paints can be purchased from most Home Improvement or Building Supply stores. A good source for quality concrete floor paints is Do It Best, the World's Largest Hardware Store.

Garage Floor - Other Protection Methods

There are several other methods to protect a concrete garage floor from deterioration caused by road salt and to prevent stains due to oil and other auto fluids. They include:

* Garage Floor Covering

* Garage Floor Mats

* Garage Floor Concrete Sealers

* Garage Floor Tiles

* Armorpoxy is a popular brand floor paint. Armorpoxy claims it can be applied over any existing coating or bare concrete. The user must make sure that the existing coating must be completely flake free.

Remember, Armorpoxy can only adhere to what is under it, so if your present coating is flaking or coming up, it will have to be removed by pressure washing or sandblasting. They claim hot tire lifting is usually due to application errors and/or moisture. Armorpoxy is only available from the factory directly.