Protect Your Garage Floor with Epoxy Sealer

April 24, 2011, By 3 comments

Protect Your Garage Floor with Epoxy Sealer

Back in the day, our one-car garage was a place to keep my mom's Buick, the lawnmower, rakes and shovels and the storm windows or screens—depending on if it was winter or summer. We also used the garage for routine car maintenance, such as changing the oil. Spills, drips and stains were inevitable and expected.

Dad's nod to protecting the garage floor from spills was usually a piece of cardboard. Winter salt wasn't much of a problem—they didn't use it much in our town, just sand. If a scrap piece of heavy plastic sheet happened to make itself available, that might take the place of the cardboard. Despite Dad's protective strategies, oil and other fluids ended up on the concrete, and the stains are still there—hidden by the ever-present sheet of cardboard.

Now that I'm grown up with a family of my own, the garage is used for more than storing a few outdoor tools and the family van. It has room for two cars, is a place to stash boxes, holiday decorations, lawnmowers, weed trimmers and sometimes even doubles as a workshop. And in our case, the garage is the primary family entrance to our home.

We want it to look good and stay looking good--which requires protecting it with more than a sheet of cardboard. I change my own oil and top off my vehicle's fluids (a good way to save a few bucks), and I don't want oil stains or antifreeze and windshield-washer drips becoming permanent stains.

Road salt is another problem. Road salt does more than eat away at car metal—it gradually ruins concrete when salt water seeps into it. Hosing off the garage floor helps prevent this destruction, but do you want to hose off the floor every time you bring the car inside?

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Comments (3):

Ken M. After waiting months for it to cure- and not using it- I sealed my new 3-car garage floor 6 years ago with a popular one-part epoxy garage floor seal available at home centers, following the on-line instructions exactly, cleaning, scrubbing, etching with muriatic acid, etc. I waited a week (longer than necessary) for it to cure. The first time I parked on it all the epoxy came up under the tires. I called the help line and they told me I failed to follow ALL the instructions- I put it on a dry, etched floor, I was supposed to put it on a wet floor. I read them all their internet prep and guidelines and it was no where in there. It was on the 5 gallon bucket, they said, and I said it was unreadable, scuffed up when I bought it. I asked them to update their web page, they said OK, 6 years later, nothing, still the same. I rented a huge floor sander and for a week sanded, scrubbed, and washed off the floor, etched it again, and this time used a more expensive two-part epoxy only available direct. It has lasted very well for 6 years now, though abrasive action under the tires has worn it thin where the cars park, but not worn it entirely away. My advice- use a friction additive between coats, as wet epoxy floors without it are VERY slippery, follow ALL the manufacturers instructions (call them first), and skip the one part epoxies. Even with all that, I love my epoxied garage floor, even though it was more than twice the work it should have been. - 06/27/2011
Keith C. One of the first task accomplished in my new home was to seal the garage floor with epoxy. WOW!!! Spills wipe up. No rolling on the dirty cement. No cardboard to catch leaks. Easy to clean and maintain after projects. About every two months, weather permitting, I move everything outside and scrub the garage floor. Using hot water and diluted dish soap, I ensure a spick and span floor while the H2O in the water heater gets circulated. The vehicles are parked daily inside and as the garage is considered a "room" of the home, it makes an excellent for neighbor hood parties, meetings and other get togethers. Yeah. It's anal, but my garage is cleaner than some living rooms that I've been in. Especially the floor. - 04/25/2011
Frank F. I'm confused. Why are stains in my garage a bad thing? I can't remember the last time the family and I had a picnic on the garage floor..... Also, wouldn't pictures of the before and after be awesome? - 04/25/2011

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