"RicodJour" wrote in message
...
On Aug 8, 9:01 am, " wrote:

i believe concrete is best left plain concrete.

At the very least it should be sealed, otherwise it's a bitch to keep
clean.

otherwise every X years you must recoat with whatever the latest
greatest last forever coating is which will cost a fortune, and sooner
or later fail...

Garages are no longer strictly utilitarian. People are dressing them
up. I don't have a problem with that, if that's what they want to do.

the most practical solution is forget about it or get that garage
floor sheet material installed, it just lays there.

That won't be cheaper than an epoxy paint job.

vehicle tires get very hot after a long drive, over time the heat
damages whatever coating you use

What's very hot? Not more than, what, 120 F? It's not like the guy's
pulling into the pits at Talladega. He's pulling into his garage, and
it's probably a safe bet that his driveway doesn't open onto an
interstate highway. It's a non-issue for epoxy paint. Latex may be
another story, but I'd tend to think that the paint company tweaks
paint for its intended environment.


The home is in Las Vegas, where air temperatures alone can be 115f or more.
Asphalt streets can be as hot as 150f or 160f. The ultraviolet light and
heat degrades asphaltic materials, including roofing, leaving a layer of
carbon on the surface in as short a period of time as weeks. What happens
is that any traffic, including foot traffic, across or along a street picks
up this carbon dust and transports it to concrete or other surfaces. I can
pressure wash my concrete driveway and within a few days can track the
passage of every tire that rolls across it.

As a footnote, in Las Vegas and similar communities, it is considered good
manners to remove your shoes before entering a house. It's like Japanese
culture, but from a bit more practical level. The dust also gets onto shoe
soles and any traffic into a house, even from a garage, leaves the same
blackish tracks. Here, we clean our carpets 3-4 times a year and even
ceramic or Travertine flooring needs a similar cleaning to prevent the black
traffic paths from becoming permenent.

My concern with any flooring other than epoxy, such as lay-in tile, is that
our two garages are at right angles to one another and it's necessary to
turn the front wheels to back out of either. The squirming of a tire on
anything really creates wear and tear quickly. My neighbor has a black rug
that was given him by his wife. It's a garage carpet that is intended to go
under a Corvette, including the logo. It's fine as long as he keeps his
hands off the steering wheel when the front tires are on it, but it already
has bunches and a tear where he learned this.

We presently have a Rustoleum coating on our garage here, but I was hoping
for brand names or other helpful suggestions about coatings that might give
me a better experience in the next house we're considering to purchase. My
present epoxy floor is holding up well, except where it it slightly exposed
outside the garage doors. There, even the vinyl chips are already fading
after 4 years of sun exposure and I'm seeing a milky sheen, similar to
oxidation on the clear coat. The coating is a light tan and despite
frequent scrubbings, there are now permanent tracks where the car pulls in
and oval area where the tires rest.

Thanks to all for the comments.

Nonny