Painting the garage floor is a relatively simple and affordable way to keep your garage cleaner and more inviting right away. Painted floors offer greater resistance to mold, mildew, and vehicle fluids than unfinished concrete floors. They will also stop the dust that settles on bare concrete floors, be water-resistant, and be simpler to clean. It benefits both parties!
For your garage floors, you can essentially use epoxy paint or latex acrylic paint. In the short run, latex paint may seem like a more cost-effective choice, but epoxy paint is stronger and will form a stronger bond with the concrete, increasing its resistance to chips. The epoxy paint should last anywhere from 3 to 4 years, while latex paint should typically last two years.
Prep work
Clean the floor
Because concrete is highly porous and readily absorbs grime and dirt, it is best to clean it using a floor buffing machine or a floor buffing machine. This is an important section that you should not skip! To get things really clean, you can also add some degreaser to the water. Let it thoroughly dry! If you don’t have access to a power washer, you can still get the job done with a hose fitted with a nozzle and a stiff-bristled scrubbing brush that you can hold on a broom handle. To truly remove that dirt, you will just need to apply a lot more elbow grease!
Fill all the cracks in the concrete
You can close the gaps with a variety of products available on the market. You can apply concrete or mortar repair compound on smaller cracks, but a patch with concrete is required for larger holes or cracks. Should the crack be more profound, you will have to fill it in layers, making sure that each layer dries completely in between. To produce a smooth surface, use a wet rag or scraper to remove the access product from the crack. For recommended cure times prior to painting, make sure you read all of the manufacturer’s instructions. Some suggested as long as a month, but ours was only meant to last a week.
Etch the floor
You might need to carve the surface of your concrete floors, depending on their condition. In short, etching allows the garage floor paint to absorb well by expanding the pores in the concrete. Drop some water on the floor and watch how quickly it is absorbed to determine whether your floor needs to be etched. You probably won’t need to carve if it absorbs fairly quickly. It is advised to use a commercial etcher if the mixture has a tendency to pool on the floor’s surface. Let it air dry completely.
Apply a bonding primer
The purpose of the primer is to increase paint adhesion. We simply painted the garage’s surrounding edges with a paintbrush, using a roller for the remaining areas. It applies somewhat milky to allow for painting visibility, but when it dries it gets transparent. Before painting, give it 4 hours at the least, to set.
Apply one part Epoxy paint
The paint was covered well and applied smoothly. Similar to the primer, you can simply use a brush to move around the edges before rolling on the remaining material. After just one coat, it would look fairly good, but we decided to apply a secondary finishing coat just to be sure. Applying the second coat in the opposite direction of the first coat is advised. For example, if the first coat was applied lengthwise, the second coat should be applied along the width.
