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How can I paint my garage floor?

EpoxyGarageFloor.jpeg

You can either paint the floor or do an epoxy garage floor project. Either method will give you good results and a strong cover from future stains.

 

White Knight 4L Medium Grey Ultra Pave Heavy Duty Concrete And Paving Paint does not require a primer. You can paint this directly onto your garage floor. There is no need to use the White Knight Ultra Pave Garage Floor Primer.

 

The other garage paint options are the Dy-Mark 4L Water-Based Grey Epoxy Coat Garage Floor Kit and the Garage & Factory Floor Protector 10L Charcoal. But among the three the White Knight is the easiest to apply. - EricL

 

Preparation is key to laying a fantastic looking epoxy coating on your garage floor. Do you happen to know if a sealer has been applied to the concrete already? If not, you can do a simple water droplet test. If the droplet is readily absorbed, then you are good to coat the floor. However, if it just sits on the surface, you'll need to acid etch it before proceeding.

 

You should find this step-by-step article useful: How To Apply Epoxy To A Garage Floor. - MitchellMc

 

 

You can easily give your garage floor a great new look by applying a protective epoxy floor. As well as looking good, the epoxy floor resists oil stains and is easy to wipe clean.

 

I purchased a Dy-Mark epoxy kit from Bunnings for this project as my research into their product showed it had everything I needed in one simple kit to get the job done.

 

I also spent quite a bit of time caulking my garage. A slight gap between the garage floor and the skirting meant that there was possible risk of seepage of the epoxy when laying it down. So some quick caulking and taping of skirts was completed just to ensure there was no epoxy going under my walls or onto the walls

 

As my garage floor was brand new - there was no need to complete any deep cleaning or etching of the garage floor. This easily saved me a couple of days of work.

 

Once the floor was all prepped I began the process of mixing the contents of the epoxy kit. Due to the temperature (below 15 degrees) I had to mix the activator and the base for slightly longer than the recommended 8 minutes and the resting time was recommended at 25 minutes so I left it for 30 minutes just to stay on the safe side.

 

Once the epoxy has had time to rest after mixing, it's time to start rolling out the epoxy with a simple paint roller. The instructions suggested painting in square metre sections so as to give ample time to apply the coloured flakes. I stuck to this instruction as it made the process of cutting in and rolling out the epoxy pretty simple - and meant I didn't get too boxed in during the application.

 

After each square metre was rolled out I applied my flakes pretty liberally across each section - I definitely went overboard in the first few sections which meant I was running pretty low by the end of the garage so I suggest going easy on the flakes.

 

The difference between the old garage floor and the epoxy is night and day - seeing some instant results as I worked definitely made the rest of the work a lot easier.

 

After close to 2 hours of rolling out epoxy and liberally throwing around coloured flakes my new garage floor was complete. The drying time due to the temperature was 72 hours - so I tried to keep the garage open for at least 6 hours a day as the smell of the epoxy was incredibly strong. You need to wait another 10 days before the floor is ready for vehicle use.

 

This was one of the easier D.I.Y. projects I've undertaken. It really is as simple as painting a wall - you are just doing it on the floor. The only difference would be if it is an existing garage floor there is some prep work required to get the floor ready for the epoxy. But the kit I bought had all of the materials needed to do this prep work as well. 

 

Word to the wise - when the instructions say wear gloves and avoid contact with your skin, listen to it. Although not harmful to your skin - the adhesive nature of the epoxy meant I added close to an extra hour to the project trying to scrub off all of the epoxy that was covering my hands. - maknilsin

 

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