wrote:

I am going to paint my shop (garage) floor with epoxy paint. Rustolium sells
two grades, "Garage floor paint epoxy " and "Industrial epoxy" paint. I
purchased the "Industrial" quality on the assumption that if it cost more and
is more difficult to apply that it must be better. Does anyone have
sugestions/precautions/advice on applying these products? How good are they?

Best



Best benefit is increasing light in the shop. If you choose a light or
white color, it will seem like the shop is twice as bright. Second
benefit is ease of clean-up. When you are looking at sweeping chips and
mopping spills, it works great.

The negative is that it WILL flake in areas over time. No matter how
good the prep, there will be spots of reduced adherence. Generally, I
see this in areas where water has leaked onto the floor and sat for a
while. I have an auto shop in the adjacent bay and sometimes they use
too much water to clean their floors...leaks under the wall on weekends
and forms some puddles on my floor (yea, complained to the landlord and
such but only superficial improvements).

Where you will probably see the most wear. however, is the traffic areas
in front of machines. Any chips that get on the floor eventually grind
the coating away under your feet. You can probably alleviate some of
this as well as fatigue by using rubber horse stall mats or similar
directly in front of machines.

I'd re-coat the place with white again in a second. It's getting a
little scabby after 7 years but it's now too hard to work around the
machines to do a proper prep. I might try spotting in the worst areas
though. As others have said PREP PREP PREP is everything. Rent a floor
buffer with a scratch pad if you need to. Etch WELL. Rinse acid WELL.
Dry BEYOND WELL.

The floor itself isn't that slippery. However, when sawdust or
(especially) plastic chips get under your feet, it changes from no
problem to an ice rink. I suppose we should be sweeping before anything
piles up anyway but just a warning in case you're the kind who puts off
cleaning chores.

I used 1 part water based by the way, not the 2 part. I think I'd go
with the 2 part in the next go-round.

Koz