Garage floor... to paint or not to paint

LifetimeLandy said:

Why is it that if you knock over a tin of paint on concrete it's there for all time, but if you paint a concrete floor it wears off ? I painted my garage floor about ten years ago with red floor paint from B&Q. It's still OK on the areas that I don't walk on and where stuff is stacked on it, but quite a bit has worn off nearest the door where it's been scuffed by the tyres of my Harley when I push it backwards into the garage. I have a piece of old carpet in front of my work bench to stand on for when the weather is cold as I have no heating in the garage. It also cushions the impact if I drop something breakable, or something that would clatter, however a load of dust has penetrated it and coated the floor underneath it. The paint there is still good though. The floor looked great after painting it, but when it dried and I put all my bits and pieces back in; I thought it had darkened the floor area a lot. I wish I had bought the light grey paint, but I will next time I paint it.
I had emptied the garage and swept, then vacuumed it before painting. Tried to evict a large spider that lived in the corner by the door but he dashed into a hole so I had to leave him. Next morning when I opened up to check if the paint had dried, I found him stuck to the floor but still alive. Luckily for him he had stood still and not laid down so I got my Stanley knife and carefully cut the paint under each of his eight legs and off he trotted looking as if he was wearing red patent shoes.

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Bobsticle said:

I’ve often wondered how a vinyl safety floor would hold up in a garage. The concrete would have to be perfectly flat but it holds up well for donkeys years in hospitals and behind the bar in your local.
It could be worth the cost if it lasted.

I think most paints fail because the first couple of coats should be thinned enough to go into the surface rather than sit on top of it.
By building it up from that it becomes part of the concrete rather than just a covering.

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boguing said:

Another suggestion for a different direction. I wanted a warm floor, lots of chassis/kneeling work on the cards, so I've laid OSB/Sterling board on top of bubble wrap. I figured that it'll last at least as long as paint, and that the glue holding it together would stop oil stains, which seems to be working - so far.

(Bubble wrap is not for insulation but because the concrete was pretty rough and it's worked quite well - it did do a bit of popping while it settled, presumably on the high points, but trolley jacks and engine cranes don't burst any. Downside is that it's probably going to cause some rot through not breathing where I have a couple of damp patches).

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discomania said:

I should have put under floor heating pipes into my concrete! Could have fed it from a wood stove in the garage! Damn!

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discomania said:

Right, I have been building a new garage over the summer, it is largely finished now, but I have yet to decide on what to do with the floor.

Now for my reasons against not painting it: At my business premises I have an area I sort of incorporated a garage into and installed a 2post - this floor area was always painted and I have just kept painting it but the issue is that I have to paint it every 6 months, it's an ongoing project and it only looks good for about 10 minutes! I don't really like painted floors, they just need cleaned and painted all the time!

So on my garage I wondered if I should just seal it, and let it get dirty and greasy and oily and just give it a sweep every now and again and that is that. My worry is that once I paint it that is me committed to a lifetime of painting garage floors. At my business it is OK as there is nothing there, just a floor space with a 2-post, you can paint the area in 20 minutes but the garage will have usual garage stuff in it and I don't want to have to gut it every 6 months/year.

I have looked at the epoxy coatings but I am not overly keen because it seems once that is down you need to use that again and again and it won't just take a normal floor paint so I could be stuck with a floor needing £200 of expoxy a year!

So thoughts on a postcard please, what have you done...

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rogerwhemr said:

My current task on the ‘never ending job list’, is to tidy up the man cave. Most of the storage has been sorted out, the only problem being that I am the I untidiest person imaginable, so a state of order doesn’t last very long. I digress. While I’ve got it tidy, should I paint the concrete floor. It is about 35m2, and it is capable if producing more dust than the Sahara. Will painting it solve that? Cheers

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discomania said:

Right, I have been building a new garage over the summer, it is largely finished now, but I have yet to decide on what to do with the floor.

Now for my reasons against not painting it: At my business premises I have an area I sort of incorporated a garage into and installed a 2post - this floor area was always painted and I have just kept painting it but the issue is that I have to paint it every 6 months, it's an ongoing project and it only looks good for about 10 minutes! I don't really like painted floors, they just need cleaned and painted all the time!

So on my garage I wondered if I should just seal it, and let it get dirty and greasy and oily and just give it a sweep every now and again and that is that. My worry is that once I paint it that is me committed to a lifetime of painting garage floors. At my business it is OK as there is nothing there, just a floor space with a 2-post, you can paint the area in 20 minutes but the garage will have usual garage stuff in it and I don't want to have to gut it every 6 months/year.

I have looked at the epoxy coatings but I am not overly keen because it seems once that is down you need to use that again and again and it won't just take a normal floor paint so I could be stuck with a floor needing £200 of epoxy flooring phoenix a year!

So thoughts on a postcard please, what have you done...

Click to expand...

rogerwhemr said:

My current task on the ‘never ending job list’, is to tidy up the man cave. Most of the storage has been sorted out, the only problem being that I am the I untidiest person imaginable, so a state of order doesn’t last very long. I digress. While I’ve got it tidy, should I paint the concrete floor. It is about 35m2, and it is capable if producing more dust than the Sahara. Will painting it solve that?

Click to expand...