[DeTomaso] Garage floor options...

[Scott Mead Photography]

Aloha all,

Years ago, I went with a roll-out, ribbed mat that I sourced from Armor
Garage (http://www.armorgarage.com/armatripa.html). As my garage is an odd
size (housing two cars, storage and a dedicated space for tools and a
Bridgeport mill), I opted for a couple of 7.5'x20' mats. The come rolled,
but after a couple hours in the sun, they lay flat as a pancake. 

After some 10+ years of use and abuse, they've held up really well. I only
have two issues: first, if you use old-style, steel jack stands, the weight
of the car will turn the stands into rubber cookie cutters (I've since cut
out areas in the mats for the jack stands). Second, they stain easily, so
you'll ALWAYS know where that oil leak was. That said, they're incredibly
easy to clean (spray on Simple Green, scrub with a brush, then hose off) and
they do keep all spilled liquids in a contained area. 

Mahalo,

Scott

-----Original Message-----
From: DeTomaso [mailto:detomaso-bounces at server.detomasolist.com] On Behalf
Of Kurt Byrnes
Sent: Monday, March 13, 2017 10:17 AM
Cc: detomaso at server.detomasolist.com
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Garage floor options...

 From Garth, until we get his posting ability back...


Kurt - Please forward this message to the list if it doesn't get through.
Thanks!


Hi Bobby,

Perfect timing, as I just did my garage floor this weekend.  First of 
all, don't waste your time and effort on a cheap hardware store epoxy 
kit. After a little online research you'll find tons of forum posts and 
videos of these systems failing.  The most popular hardware store kit is 
the Rustoleum Rock Solid Polycuramine (whatever the hell that is?!) 
kits. Note that they are only 1-2 mil thick when cured, compared to most 
professionally installed high quality coating options which are 8-10 mil 
thick, or thicker, depending on whether you do light flake or 
full-rejection (complete coverage) flake coverage.

The tiles in Ed's pictures look like standard Armstrong Commercial Vinyl 
Tile - probably the least expensive option for a durable surface. I was 
first planning to do this - even went so far as to purchase all the 
material at my local Lowe's, then talked with a friend who did this in 
his garage about his experience. Found that if done in colder weather, 
the tile glue took weeks to fully cure and set.  When he moved is car 
into the garage 3 days after doing the job, all the tiles the car rolled 
on moved!  He spent considerable effort re-setting those tiles to get 
everything back into it's proper place. His floor is beautiful though, 
but don't expect to do the job and put everything back into the garage 
in a day or two.  I then decided to go with a "epoxy" floor - not I'm 
using the term generically as there are 3 main types of "epoxy" systems 
- epoxy, polyaspartic, and polyurea.

I went with the Nohr-S system from Legacy Industrial. Their primary 
business is durable industrial coatings for the marine, oil, medical, 
and lab environments. The primary benefit of the Nohr-S system is that 
it has unlimited pot life, so you're not rushing to get it on the floor 
before it cures in the tray.

Attached is the finished floor pic, taken this morning. And here's a 
link to see more pics of the process.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxCZNwRStKBoQlFEekx2RUlJREU

For patching the cracks in my concrete I used the hardware store 
Rustoleum patch kit - huge mistake as this stuff takes 24 hours to set 
up and cure, which means that I spent way too many waiting for the patch 
to cure so I could grind it smooth. Be sure to use the professional 
crack patch kit from Legacy (or whatever vendor product you choose) as 
it sets and cures within 30 minutes - would have saved me days!  I also 
found that since the weather has still been cold, the primer coat took a 
full 36 hours to cure before I could top-coat it.

Regarding the flakes and not being able to find a nut or screw if 
dropped - very true according to friends who have done this. BUT, the 
solid color floors show ALL the flaws in the floor!!!  I spent days 
(weeks) grinding, and patching cracks and small inconsequential chips in 
my floor that I probably shouldn't have spent the time on, and I was 
surprised at just how bad my floor looked when the solid primer coat 
cured. Every chip and ding from tools being dropped over the last 40 
years stuck out like a sore thumb when it was in solid color primer - 
and I thought I went to the anal extreme fixing all this stuff. The 
flakes hide all the blemishes in the floor and are attractive, and now 
it looks like a new floor!  I could have done a better job dispersing 
the chips in a more even uniform pattern, but it was more challenging 
than I thought to toss those things evenly - tossing smaller handfuls 
would have been good.  However, once all my crap is moved back into my 
garage you'll never see that the flakes are thicker and thinner in 
different areas - it's only obvious with nothing in there now.

Do you plan to do this yourself?  If so, second set of hands this is 
VERY helpful; almost a must!  In hindsight, I almost wish I hired a 
contractor to do this - they would have come in with a crew of 4 and 
knocked it out in a day or two. The two contractors I called for 
estimates didn't call me back for over a week so I passed on them and 
decided to do it myself.  I spent over $1,300 on the materials alone, 
and another $160 renting a professional grinder for a day to prep the 
concrete. I also acid etched it 2 weeks before applying the coating.

Email me directly if you have any other questions. I'm happy to share my 
experience.

Cheers!
Garth
#4033