Epoxy vs Painted Floor?

I just moved from a home where the previous owner had painted the floor. I lived there for almost 20 years and I never had a flake, peel or anything. He had just done it before we bought it and I asked him to tell me what it was so I could patch it and it was just plain ol' garage floor paint from Home Depot.

I've done my new shop with it as well and no complaints so far.

Contrary to all the popular "wisdom" paint can and does work fine.

I think carguy12 is a spammer. Bringing up year old thread and linking to a commercial site.

In any case I'm happy with my epoxy floor I bought from Costco online. It was a lot of work but worth it. It does chip if hit right, and I have some SMALL areas of pealing. It is a well used garage though.

I'm no pro on flooring. Is there any option for a less glossy finish on anything, whether it's epoxy or just sealed concrete? Flat and satin finish is more up my alley.

Mods, PLEASE ban this loser's IP!

Oh and I'd go as far as to recommend we all NOT use this product...

Wow, that's a persistent canoe.

Hey, this is a great thread, here is my question, I want to coat my basement floor but I am confident that no vapor barrier was installed as moisture does come up through the slab. So what should I do????? Oh, and to add another level of complication one of my wife's cats (notice I said it was my wife's cat) peed on the bare concrete. I've been using something called odor mute and it does seem to help as its an enzyeme product. So what I'm hoping to do is put something down that will seal. I saw someone had mentioned Thompson's water seal, that sounds like a good choice. Any other suggestions? The floor is painted right now in some spots and bare concrete as I mentioned in others. I will prep the floor but I used Muratic acid once and I almost killed myself with the fumes so I doubt I will be doing that kind of prep again. Oh and while I want it to last as long as possible, Im moving soon so Im just trying to make the floor look presentable, doesn't have to be perfect.

Rent a concrete grinder. The best way to get epoxy or paint to stick is to remove the top layer of concrete. I did it on my brand new floor before the epoxy. If you epoxy when the floor is dry you won't get anymore moisture.

there are concrete penetrating sealants, if you have a persistant moisture issue going on you need one of those most likely, and as mentioned, surface prep is KEY!

Tom Heath wrote: That said, next time I'm doing a floor, I want to try polished concrete. Something about that look really appeals to me.

Is there a DIY way to do this that won't make me wish i was dead?

Assume 1000+sq ft.

I looked up prices to have a pro do it, and it looks like $3-$6/sq ft. That's an assload of money.

polished generally = sealed. Much of the prep is the same as for epoxy. I've done work in warehouse facilities with polished floors and there are two downsides vs. epoxy. One is maintenance - the floors are cleaned and re-polished (with a walk-behind machine) at regular interevals. Second is you don't get the lighting benefit of a light-colored (gray, tan, etc) floor, which to me is much of the reasoning behind going through that much effort. The main benefit is it is more durable and easily repaired should something cause a scratch.

Have you browsed www.garagejournal.com ? There is a whole forum dedicated to floor coverings and all of your answers can be found there. Unfortunately, the long and short of it is there really isn't a short cut to a nice floor covering that will last.

Ian F wrote: polished generally = sealed. Much of the prep is the same as for epoxy. I've done work in warehouse facilities with polished floors and there are two downsides vs. epoxy. One is maintenance - the floors are cleaned and re-polished (with a walk-behind machine) at regular interevals. Second is you don't get the lighting benefit of a light-colored (gray, tan, etc) floor, which to me is much of the reasoning behind going through that much effort. The main benefit is it is more durable and easily repaired should something cause a scratch. Have you browsed www.garagejournal.com ? There is a whole forum dedicated to floor coverings and all of your answers can be found there. Unfortunately, the long and short of it is there really isn't a short cut to a nice floor covering that will last.

Ah... so besides the look, there isn't much benefit to this?

http://concretepolishing.com/

It LOOKS awesome, and they talk it up pretty well.

IMO, no.

Yes, it does look great. But those looks were the result of no small amount of work with specialized tools. Could a DIY'er do it with common tools? Probably. But they'll be on their knees for a loooooong time. Espcially if they have a 1000 sqr ft to polish.