Concrete Floor Sealer Repainting

[AlfinCT]

I'd like to recoat my garage and shop concrete floor with sealer. The surface is worn after about 30 years in spots and it needs to be refreshed from a cosmetic standpoint. There are no or oil spots grease or other stains on the floor.

I've considered epoxy but the need to grind off or to mechanically abraid the sealer seems to be a problem. Even the professionals at $3-5 per square foot won't guarantee their epoxy job epoxy not to peel, delaminate or fail.

So the question is: Has anyone top coated a sealed concrete floor with some wear? What preparation did you do? What did you or would you use? What the original sealer on the floor is unknown since I bought the house from the second owner.

Thanks!

[Doug in NJ]

I am in the same situation, and I recently saw that a nearby Home Depot will rent a diamond brush concrete grinder. They gave me a brochure which has this web site:

http://www.diamabrushbymalish.com/

If it works as advertised, I could sand off all the paint on my 2-car garage floor in one day for about $100.

Doug

[Steve Wastler]

concrete sealers are meant to penetrate into the pours, deeply. Epoxy's are made to penetrate into the pours as well for proper adhesion. You must remove enough material to be below the 'sealed' pours of the concrete. If you have a high psi strength floor, it will laugh at any grinding needed to be deep, and will take way more time than anticipated to ensure removing enough material. If I had a previously sealed floor, I would buy commercial grade VCT and glue it down. Would be cheaper and more time efficient.

[silversink]

Go or call your nearest concrete supply dealer and ask them the question. I would guess you would have to acid wash the floor, then etch it before applying the sealer. It's going to depend on the sealer you use as there are several kinds. There is 10.00 gal sealers and all the way up to 100.00 a gal.
I did concrete for 30 years and pool sealer is the most common sealer used for a durable product and can be reapplied over the old sealer and will hold up for a garage situation.

[bart78]

I've seen the epoxy coating get burn marks from slag when cutting.

[whirnot]

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[QUOTE=Steve Wastler;755310] If you have a high psi strength floor, it will laugh at any grinding needed to be deep, and will take way more time than anticipated to ensure removing enough material.
QUOTE]

I would have to disagree with that, I build custom concrete countertops, Using 5000# psi concrete, and they are ground and polished to a mirror finish. A quality grinder does just fine, especially at the finishes needed for a floor.

[Rex_A_Lott]

I dont have an answer to your question. However I will suggest that you go to Ryan's sister site, Garage Journal, and post your question in the section on Flooring. I'm sure you will receive enough answers to make the decision even more difficult. Good Luck!

[Steve Wastler]

I have been doing commercial construction work for 31 years. I have had the opportunity to grind many a slab, to grind off the thickness of sealed concrete pours on floors to the depth needed to have a good bond of epoxy, is gonna take at least a 1/4 inch of material off. Very long process, and yes the floor WILL laugh at you, and take a tremendous amount of time to achieve the best surface for epoxy to adhear. But I like the stuff I do to last the tests of time.

[Roadster Rich]

A couple points. I have used the diamond rental grinders and they do work quite well if you want to remove a top coat of regular paint. Yes you can do a large space with a half day rental. I do not think you want to attempt to get all the way through the concrete sealer to the point where you can put down epoxy. While you have some experienced people posting above, I think they will all admit that this will be a long and expensive job to be at a point where good epoxy will really work. I am about to set up a 1400 sq. ft basement workshop (with side door opening) and a combination of the amount of prep work and the VOC issue, I am going to put down the locking tiles for the full floor. I have seen some really impressive garages with these (Racedek is the one I saw last) floors. The cost is about double what the good 100% solids epoxy will cost, but if you need lots of prep to get ready for the epoxy, I bet it might be cheaper.

[Steve Wastler]

Rich, I think you made a wise decision on you floor covering. The biggest problem with trying to prep correctly a previously sealed floor, (epoxy manufactures strongly suggest not doing so) you will not know it isn't sufficient enough until your applied epoxy fails, way too much time, effort and money to find out after all of that, it has pealed, bubbled or what ever. At that point, the manufacturer will tell you prep wasn't good enough....and don't forget possible missing moisture barrier. Moral, best to not try epoxy on a previously sealed floor.

[Lee Mitch]

I have been really pleased with my Miller's floor paint. I put it over a poorly sealed concrete floor after a simple cleaning with TSP about 10 years ago. It has held up very well. Tire marks from my Model A, but no peeling.

[SSsssteamer]

About a year ago we did the 7,000 square ft floor of one of our buildings. The building (originally a hardware store) was built in 1923 and the cement floor had never been sealed that I could tell. I purchased concrete floor sealer from Home Depot and I followed the directions. A good cleaning with TSP gave us a floor, that after drying, was ready to apply the sealer. The floor came out fabulous and it even shines under the bright lights. It was money well spent. It also got rid of a lot of the dust that is associated with a bare cement floor.

[Chris in WNC]

my garage floors are always sealed with grease, oil, Ospho, paint overspray and spilled beer. best surface ever and the price is right. it's a garage, for God's sake. don't guild the lily......