1. I degreased the oil spots three times until they were gone for the most part. (i.e. water no longer beaded on the spots)

2. Sprayed down and scrubbed with brooms everyday for a week.

3. Applied the included acid etching, following the instructions. Then rinsed.

4. Sprayed down and scrubbed the floor clean of concrete dust that was created from the acid etching for a week.

5. Applied Epoxy. and followed with the flakes. 2×2 sections.

We did however thoroughly scrap up old glue/paint/whatever we could that was not concrete, then we acid etched the floors (as recommended). We also made sure we laid it on thickly, and it was a rather dry time during the summer so that may have helped as well. The nice thing is we are just going to do some mild cleaning of it and then apply another layer on top, and if you ultimately do not like the look you can easily put something on top of it.

The interlocking tiles from HF are a pretty good value. Welding sparks do melt holes in them, but they cleanup OK, are comfortable, and look good.

So overall, Rustoleum 2 part epoxy system works well as long as conditions are ideal. I think the plastic interlocking tiles are dirt traps and pricey ones at that.

Stuart.

As for the original topic at hand - the epoxy floor - my dad and I jackhammered the floor in his three car garage that was all cracked, etc. and laid down a new gravel substrate and poured a new slab. Once it was cured for about 6 months, we prepped it based on the instructions on the Rustoleum product. We used their paint flake finish and it’s held up very well. It’s been installed for about 2 years come this summer. We forgot to put the sand additive in the first bay (we did it in 1 bay sections) - But the second and third bay has it, although I’m convinced we didn’t use enough. In any case, the one without is slippery when wet. The other two are not. BUT, if you come in with workboots, tracking in snow - it’s slippery on either. It’s held up pretty well, we actually have a concrete border around the bottom of the perimeter walls that’s about 4 inches tall. We epoxied to the top of that, so we can take the hose and just spray everything down. We love it. We haven’t done too much in the way of shop work on it. A few brake jobs, and oil changes - that’s it so far. But it’s held up very well. We almost went with the U-Coat product - or whatever it’s called.. and for the cost we don’t think we’d get it much better. At my old job at a automotive shop we had a thick, rubbery style of epoxy floor which didn’t chip, and was pretty good in terms of traction in the wet. We had a few gouges in it from dropped tools and parts - but nothing that went far enough to gouge down to the concrete. I’d say it was somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick, and professionally installed.

Once I have my own garage - I’m partial to a black and white checked pattern in 1 foot tiles of some sort. Mostly for the look.

Doesn’t cork smell funny? I’ve been thinking about making a backboard for my dartboard out of cork, but worry it’d smell too much.

Good little video over at a site worth looking at on installing cork tiles in a workshop:

http://www.askthebuilder.com/Cork_Flooring_Video.shtml

I also want to cover my garage floor at some point in the future. It was painted at one point but most of it has worn off. I’ve thought of the epoxy covering, but after reading Pencilneck’s post, I will probably look at something else.

I was also thinking about interlocking plastic tiles for my garage. I read an article about them in ShopNotes a while back. They are expensive (Canadian Tire sells boxes of 10 for CAN$30) but they’re designed to resist gasoline and motor oil and you can pick them up and bring them with you if you move.

I’ve had a shop with a more textured, broomed, surface finish. I can’t much more than rough sweep that very well.

My next shop I hope my finish comes out half as good as my current shop floor is. I may try tiling my next shop with some really cheap tiles and see how I like that. I’ll just get extra tiles for the inevitable damage that will occur. I’m going to go with a heated floor too.

When it was first done, sure the floors looked great, but this stuff chips. We had a lot of sand mixed in for texture but this made it really hard to clean the floor of oil spills because it was like mopping sand paper. It isn’t an issue now because the sand gets worked out of the mix from normal use (foot traffic) so running a mop over the floor now doesn’t shread mops like it use to. But of course this means the floor is slick when wet, slicker than the concrete surface it covered. And wit a few years of daily use on it, the floors have a dingy look about them even if you steam clean them… maybe better looking than the concrete.

Bottom line, looked good when new, no other benifits.

For instance, a rough texture might not be very good where you need to slide underneath a car. But a nice rough texture next to the entrance where you might be coming in with wet shoes.

I think it would be much easier to sweep and clean up sawdust and the like after a project.