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My father in law was the general contractor when we built our house. He is one talented builder and we are very fortunate to have him. But it also creates a situation where if things aren't quite how you expected them to be you are careful to not mention it in a way that may suggest he could have done things differently, or even better.

We have lived in the house about 2 years now and my wife is frustrated at how impossible it is to clean our garage floor. Of course when it was poured it was beautiful, clean, white etc. It was not sealed or anything and it sat untouched for almost 6 months during the rest of construction. From time to time boxes of siding or appliances would be stored in there and I think they may have made some sawdust in there for a while but no chemicals, no sun/rain etc as it was poured after framing and after roof was on.

From the get go the cement seemed a tiny bit porous, almost sticky on top. The fine sand/clay mix we had seemed to just blow into the pores and when you went to sweep it you just couldn't get it out. I grew up with a garage where the cement was dark grey and very slick. I think my dad said that the old time cement guy that did the garage we grew up in troweled and troweled until it was slick as glass and that the extra troweling likely make a less porous surface? He regrets how slippery his cement can be when wet, but he likes how nothing stains it and it hoses clean even after processing deer, making applesauce, etc.

So fast forward to us living there, for a while no grass so kids tracking the clay into the garage, then last year getting our dog and him coming up dirty out of the pond and laying on the step up part by the back door and embedding more dirt into the cement. You pick up the rug by the back door and it is like 3 shades lighter under there.

We hose it out every week, but don't use powerwasher or chemicals. No matter how much soap and a stiff brush we can't make it look any cleaner.

An additional issue is that somehow rust drips off the frames of our vehicles and adds nice rust stains as well. I can live with the rust stains but the overall dirt would be nice to remove somehow.

So my wife called this morning and said is it time to paint the garage floor?

I'm leary of that as the only way to do that right is get the pros in, grind everything down, put in way expensive epoxy, worry about adding non-slip sand or flakes into it, and then after all that money, still get rust spots on it and have to work hard to keep that clean. cost for 3 stall garage is probably north of $5000?

We have cement steps going down to a basement access door and have an unfinished cement floor basement. Soon after we moved in we had so much limestone dust from the basement tracking through the house that I did end up painting the basement floor 2 coats (huge job) Now with kids flying around on push toys, bikes, rollerblades, scooters, some of the paint on the corners is peeling off but at least we did take care of the dust problem. The kids do track the garage dirt down the cement steps and into the basement.

I considered getting those rubber stair treads that you see in commercial stairwell applications with round nubs on them. Of course those would have to be hosed down or mopped regularly as well.

So, outside of acid treatment which I imagine would clean OK but just open the pores back up again, any ideas on floor cleaners?

I'm open to ideas of grinding the cement and applying a sealer but then I'm not sure how much further ahead I am.

Did we just get a porous mix of concrete that day?

I'm sure there are concrete experts here who know the answers...

Thanks

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I'll add some pictures if that helps anyone recall what they used to clean their concrete shop or garage floors.








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As a contractor we never leave a slab trowel finished. It's a slip accident waiting to happen. We always finish with a horse hair broom which leaves a little texture. As far as cleaning, you could acid wash it but it will open the surface even more than it is. That would need to be done anyways if your going to use epoxy (best choice if you are a clean freak like myself. I don't even like chips or sand, but I'm in AZ so we don't have that much rain to make it slippery.). I would never use paint. it won't hold up. You might want to just invest in a floor machine and scrub it once in a while. That will also end up polishing your floor over time. You can even get waxes made for concrete.


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I recently mixed some blue pond die plus an algicide to treat some small ponds and accidentally dripped it in a line on my driveway. I wet the concrete down, carefully poured bleach on the spots then power washed it off. Came out great.

Try a small spot in your garage and see how you like it. For more even application maybe use a hand held sprayer to apply the bleach and a broom to work it in...

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I've never seen a painted garage floor last longer than a year before it starts showing signs of peeling and ware spots. I have epoxy on my shop floors and I'll be adding rubber backed shop/garage mats in heavy traffic areas. They are available in any size, color and material, drag it outside and blow or spray it off and your done.

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CLR works pretty well to remove the stains and rust from concrete. I have only used it on small spots though.


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wow if you think that's dirty you wouldn't want to see my garage floor... LOL.

I grew up in Wisconsin though so I get what your going through right now in the winter time! It's even worse with mud and snow and dirty snow and nasty stuff on your car!

Looks like you have done a petty darn good job considering. I would try the easy not so expensive way first. Pressure washer and some bleach sounds easy enough unless that would hurt the floor? I don't know....

Course if your wife wants it a different color all together well then your in trouble!! Like the guys said above paint just wont last. I have been told myself epoxy is the way to go on a garage floor.

Good Luck
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Folks I know covered their concrete porch and garage with pebble stone. I think the epoxy goes over it? Anyways, it is interesting. Due to their color choice little things like you see in your photo would likely be camouflaged, but drop a screw or bolt or washer on it and what a pain to find it. smile

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Originally Posted By: canyoncreek
I'm leary of that as the only way to do that right is get the pros in, grind everything down, put in way expensive epoxy, worry about adding non-slip sand or flakes into it, and then after all that money, still get rust spots on it and have to work hard to keep that clean. cost for 3 stall garage is probably north of $5000?


Canyon I got a 3 car garage floor coating for less than half that price.

This is what mine looks like...it's worked our well.



ps: As others have stated I'd avoid the paint too.


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Can someone fix the picture Zep linked? I guess my firewall at work is blocking his hosting service. I'd love to see it.

Zep, I didn't know what a quote would be to prep and do the work but glad to hear it isn't as high as I thought.

Thanks for advice from others.

Did anyone go with these rubber sheets that lay down and interlock and cover the whole floor?

Jimsplace, do you have links to the type of throw/shake out rugs you are talking about?

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Originally Posted By: canyoncreek
Can someone fix the picture Zep linked? I guess my firewall at work is blocking his hosting service. I'd love to see it.


Canyon I will take a picture of my actual
garage floor when i get home tonight.

I looked at my invoice and it was $2400 total for a 3 car garage.
They prep it one day.
The next day they apply coating.
Then I think it was 24 or 48 hours to stay off it.

I am sure there are cheaper ways...
but this is really nice.
Some offer this service on Craigslist.

It looks great...feels great...does not show dust/dirt.


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These guys and girls have all the Q&A for you.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=20

As far as the floor mats, I just did a Google search for ' rubber backed garage mats' and found a few I that I like for my garage floor.

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Well like stated above a smooth trowel finish is trouble if your tracking snow in. A broom surface will hold dirt too but you will not slip and slide around.

In your case I would look at using some easy off oven cleaner first. It is a caustic so it will whiten your concrete too when applied. It will lift any oil as well being a caustic with high PH. Acid will etch the cement but can have a sulphide smell linger because of the concrete being the opposite PH.

There was a great product that Diversey Lever called diver foam. It was a liquid oven cleaner extra strength that cleaned cement like new. Oils greases dirt you name it..... it lifted it. It whitened the cement too.

I would try mopping with bleach first but it is an acid too.

Cheers Don.


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DonoBBD, i see diversey lever is now johnson/diversey?

They have a diver spray "low foam blended caustic detergent for food and beverage CIP" I assume high ph, Caustic

Then they have a oxofoam chlorinated foam cleaner that has mix of caustic and also contains hypochlorite (acidic?)

Are you thinking it is the oxofoam product? It says it is for use on stainless steel but not softer metals like aluminum?

These don't look quite right. MAybe it was an oven cleaner?

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Yes Sr thats the stuff. Diver spray. We would place it into a hand pump weed sprayer with all plastic wand. It would clean stainless like it was brand new. If you wanted to paint an aluminum boat after stripping the old paint you spray this stuff on and it would etch the aluminum. The new paint would stick like it was powder coated.

If you spray it on any aluminum it will take away the shine and etch it.

Years ago I had a power wash company and we would wash hog barns with this Diver spray or at the time it was called Diver foam. The concrete would look like new after our washes. Other company's could not repeat what we could do with this stuff.

READ the MSDS before using. You do not want it in your eyes or on your skin for very long. If left on stainless it will eat through it too.

Cheers Don.


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Canyon, you never did read that PM where I gave you the MI state contacts, all nice and neat, for your HSB adventure. That was over a month ago.

If I told you how to apply Epoxy on your concrete floor that would last 20-30 years, would you even listen?

Epoxy is easy if you get the right stuff and do it correctly. A 3 car garage may only cost about $400.00, for the good stuff wink

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JKB, yes, I read your PM and your info was helpful. I was referred from your contact (the head Vet in charge of aquaculture) to a different person as she had no expertise in the area of stocking private ponds. The different person did answer my initial email indicating that outside of the few species on the prohibited list (invasive, non-native species in general) that there are no regulations as my pond has no inlet or outlet so regulations cannot apply to it. I had several questions in followup and some questions to clarify and he said he was busy but would try to get to them. This was a month ago. I sent a reminder this week. Hopefully he'll provide more clarity. He admits that the challenge may be getting the species I want since I would likely have to source them from in state. But he said if I obtained them from out of state, I would not need a permit. I would not need any type of VHS testing etc, but that for my own good I would probably want to know what I'm putting in my own pond. Of course those trying to ship them to me would have to have proper permits to haul into Michigan and that is another story. I think I need more clarification. But likely the solution is to have them shipped in a box to my door. I'm not sure yet how I"ll proceed. I do plan to start a thread about this when the questions are answered. I did find the gentleman's recommended stocking program a bit different than what I have otherwise learned here at PB forum.

I'm all ears about the right epoxy and how to apply it. With a little help from my painting buddies we may even tackle it, although grinding concrete sounds a bit over my skill level.

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Is your mail flag flashing by your My Stuff? I just checked the PM and it says unread by canyoncreek.

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all current messages read. Eager to hear about epoxy products

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I'm also interested in learning more about the epoxy products, JKB. Evidently, on some computers, the flashing flag doesn't stop flashing after a PM is read. I don't know why my flag finally stopped, maybe when I changed computers.

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Yep, you finally read it. Click on the MAA link and browse the site. You can post questions there. Not sure how long it will be to get a response tho.

How many square feet is your garage?

Generally for unpainted/coated/sealed concrete, all you really have to do is etch it with muriatic acid, then rinse it off and dry it. It's a crappy process, and it get's worse. If it's already been sealed/coated, then you can grit blast it. Not sure if you can rent the gizmo, but your floor would only need an acid etching. The dust you are getting indicates it's not sealed.

Don't look at the big box stores for your epoxy, they won't have it. Around West MI you can get really good epoxy from Applied Industrial, Repcolite or Sherwin Williams Industrial Coatings.

My preference is Sherwin Williams Tile Clad. You mix this 50/50 and have to sweat it in properly. That means, once you dump the 2 components together you have to stir this on a regular basis for a time period. When I instruct a newbie on the sweating in process, I go at least an hour (temp/humidity dependent) with a thorough mixing every 5 minutes.

What has happened here is you have thoroughly incorporated the components together. Chemical reactions are well under way and now you have some happy epoxy. Trust me, you want happy epoxy.

Well, this stuff is in the process of curing, right? How much time do I have? Oh, plenty of time. It's on it's way to setting up in your mixing container, but if you notice, only the top side of the container is exposed to atmosphere. You can seal this off and come back tomorrow.

Now that it's mixed and happy, you think you may want to start laying it down, right? Wait a minute, we have one more step here.

It's kinda thick at the moment and you want this to fill in a porous surface such as concrete, small pores?

If you didn't get a buzz from the sweating in process, you will now. You'll have to cut this... thin it out to be more fluid. You can spray epoxy from a cheap spray gun and end up with a really nice finish. Depending on the epoxy, you will use a Xylene or Xylol, which is some nasty stuff.

What this does, and you have to mix it in really, really well. It kinda separates, get's in between the epoxy that is setting up to make it more fluid. Once this is mixed in, you will want to apply it. The Xylene will evaporate out and the epoxy will continue to cure, it never stopped curing, just slowed down a bit.

Once you roller it in well, and you will want to roller apply on concrete. Let the first coat cure for a day or so and apply a second if needed, but you should be able to get it in one shot.

Allow full cure time, very important! This will be dependent on temp and humidity. Generally expect up to two weeks for full cure, but if you did this correctly, should probably be able to walk on it in the next day or so. I would just block it off until the cure is set.

I have a shed on my property in Bridgeton (Fremont). Only 8' x 12' by my garden area. External siding is 7/16" OSB eek I had a some epoxy primer left over from a job, and rolled that on. Then rolled some eggshell appliance white epoxy over that. It's been out back for 6 years and looks like new.

The point is, you can do it correctly and make it last, or go with the flow...

I really like Zep's floor.





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Epoxy works great if the prep is done correctly. If not, it peels up in large pieces.

Look into a clear sealer like some garages do to their service bays. The stuff that I used on Mom & Dad's driveway, garage and pole barn was discontinued. It would have made the floor slippery but I mixed in Sherwin Williams "shark-bite" or something like that. The sealer is clear, impervious to gas and oil. Oil, etc. cleans off the surface with soap and water. It seals the pores and stops any dusting.

If I didn't use the sealer, I would have used epoxy. NOT "paint". The epoxy is similar to paint, it's a 2 part mix and can be colored. If you go that route, look for one that has a very high % of solids. To clean the concrete, I've used a high concentration of citrus cleaner that was made for concrete, scrubbed it in, flushes with water and used a wet dry vac to suck up as much as I could. Put a fan on it and painted the floor the next day. *shark-bite* will work in the epoxy too.


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Thanks JKB. My PM flag is always flashing. Don't ask me why.

Thanks for advice on epoxy. Sounds a bit like a job best left to the pros or at least someone who has done it a few times before doing it on my garage myself.

Esshup, I'm interested in the clear sealers like you see on polished concrete floors in Walmarts etc. I'd like to research that. Of course, I'd have to do a lot of cleaning as i wouldn't want to seal my floor the way it looks now.

I have used the SH shark grip on the paint that I put on our basement floor. It was OK, very grippy at first and destroys your socks, but now with traffic of kids and bikes it pretty much wore off. Maybe a thick sealer on the garage floor would trap the shark grip better and it would last but I cannot have a slick floor smile

I love the idea of wiping grease/oil right off!

If I had a busy pattern like Zep that would be ideal.


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