Hello all
I am in the need of a coating for my shop floor. I need something that will be able to take the odd coolant spill, a forklift and a truck or two. Im after a tough coating but also something that wont break the pocket book to buy.
Sujestions?

I used this in the shop about 6 years ago.
http://www.litexinc.com/2PART-EPOXY.html
It's a 2 part epoxy that drys quickly, you can walk on it after 24 hours and drive on it after 7 days.
I bought a few 1 gallon pails at the local home depot.
Holding up good after 6 years of foot traffic and lots of spills.
We don't drive the forklift over this section but it would handle it with no problems.
Don't remember price but it wasn't that expensive, maybe $30 for a gallon which covers ~250 square feet.
Hope this is helpful
Dr Pete

Hi: Boiled Linseed oil and varsol mix. Simple, effective and inexpensive.

regards

thanks guys that is the input I'm looking for. I wrote that post on my cell phone on my coffee break today, im impressed it worked :)
cam1 I think thats a little light duty for what I would like, or more for a little light for what I will be able to convince my father to let me use. (its a joint shop, he had 2 months to look for a coating, now its my turn)
Dr Pete I like what you have there now I just need to find it locally

the 2 part epoxy is the way to go , its strong and easy to clean , you'll have an excellent floor if you use it , when i worked for Kavo we had that on the floors , it blew me away the first time i saw it

I just did my garage workshop and the 2 part epoxy is awesome. If you expect a lot of wear and tear on your floor then go with the 100% solids. It only covers 100 - 150 square feet per gallon but looks better and is much tougher. Some people pre-treat the floor with a cheeper water based epoxy to seal it first. Water based epoxy sinks in better but isn't as hard and doesn't cover as many sins. It's very do able even for a novice. The key is good floor preperation.

what did you do for your floor prep.?

what did you do for your floor prep.?

floor prep for epoxy is critical! Professionals, which charge $25 sq/ft (25 year warranty also) use a shot blaster that looks like a floor cleaner, like the ones you see janitors using at Wal-Mart. If the floor is not too dirty, it may be ok. But I worked in a shop that had been a nasty dirty machine shop for the previous 25 years, then the owner paid some general matience contractor to epoxy the floor using the home depot kinda epoxy and process and big sections lifted and cracked. They supposedly used acid to prep the floor, probably an alkili solution, wasn't enough. Then they just opened thier wallet and had to pro's come in, but that floor was destroyed from the previous renter.

Epoxy is the way to go! BUT, it's choice between traction and cleaning. The high gloss is great because you can just wipe up oil spills with a rag. The high traction kind made to prevent people slipping and falling in case of an oil spill, is hard to clean, gets dirty fast and you can scrub that stuff with a wire brush and you'll never the the stain out of it.

MC

Here's how I did my floor:

First (optional); level the floor via mud jacking or sand jacking ($500 - $1000). Most people won't need this.

Second (optional) ; degrease the floor. Use an industrial degreaser and a lots of scrubbing. If you have stains and water beads then you need to degrease it.

Third; pressure washed the floor.

Forth (optional); acid etch to remove any sealant and to open the pores of the concrete. If water bead where their is no stains then you have sealant and need to etch. I would etch anyway.

Fifth; chisel the cracks. I used a 4" masons chisel and widened all the cracks 1/4" - 1/2". Bang along one side straight up and down and then along the other at an angle. It takes about a minute per foot of crack. Note It doesn't have to be more than 1/16" deep.

Sixth; patched the cracks with concrete patch. I used Quikrete but any polymer modified concrete will do. Make sure the surface is clean and wet. Get rid of excessive water. Put it on thick with a trowel. Let it set for 10 min then using a wet trowel smooth and feather it. A light sweep with a broom also works. Don't patch expansion joints.

Seventh (optional); put down a water sealant if necessary. You can tell if rugs or cardboard lying on the floor tend to get damp underneath. Cheap water based epoxy works well for this or their are many other good products. Note! It must sink in and leave the concrete pores open.

That's it now your ready to epoxy. There are additives for no slip or anti slip specs can be broadcaste while the epoxy is wet. A uv protective top coat could also be applied (Epoxy yellows in the sun).

If your floor is really in bad shape (ie covered in grease ) I might just get the professionals in to shot blast it. Note/warning; not all professionals use shot blasting. Depending on how many steps this can be alot of work but the end result is incredible to look at and durable to use. Good luck.

I'd recommend De-greasing before shot blasting, as the shot blasting may embed the crap buit up on the floor.

regards

Depends on how many sq. ft. you need to do. Although I'm a newb here, flooring and structural epoxies are my business (including machine base castings which we'd started over 12 years ago now). Anyone really interested can always send a message to get a quote, but I'm not here to do a sales pitch.

Well now this is more info then i was expecting. So i feel i need to give you guys a bit more info about my floor.
The floor is less then 2 years old and is very clean...dusty but thats all. I have a large CNC that can't be moved for coating but the rest of the floor can be emptied. The floor was power troweled when poured its not gloss smooth but its not rough either. The floor is 30'x70' so its 2100 square feet that i need to cover.
I'm still looking, I haven't decided on a coating yet.

There's a couple of different ways to go with a floor like you have, especially since it seems like it hasn't already seen heavy traffic/staining. Although we love to sell epoxy floors, especially .25" floors in clean buildings; in your instance (and if I were in your shoes), I'd save some money and have the floor ground, polished and impregnated. We're doing a lot more of that lately and the results are phenominal. Overall, you get the same appearance characteristics, minus the colorant. The floor is shiny, much easier to clean, won't stain, AND best of all the price is much less, our fees generally run $4.5 - $6.5 sq.ft.

No, you won't get a 25 year warranty at that price, but it will hold up for years (we've had some last 10 already in stamping plants with heavy traffic), and will require a good annual mop job (with our acrylic polymer to fill in scrapes, nicks, gouges). But, you also won't have a "lip" around a machine that you can't move that's going to trap machine cuttings. Give it some thought, and if your interested you can always send me an RFQ.

Procrastinate until you have so much dirt and oil embedded in the concrete you have no hope of ever getting it clean enough to coat.

That is the least expensive approach.:)

Ultimate1 I have never heard of what you describe, sound interesting. But I need to convince my father and he is what you would describe as a stubborn old hand. This has been the hardest part, Now Geof that is exactly what I want to do then the floor has a story to tell. But I must coat it......

2100 square feet multiplied by $6.5 equals ???? Stick that number in front of the 'stubborn old hand' and see if he becomes less stubborn.:)

It sounds like you might be able to skip most of the optional steps I mentioned, and just pressure wash it, etch it , and then epoxy it. Just make sure water doesn't bead before you start and you should be fine.

Ultimate1 is talking about a technique that is used in a lot of restaurants lately. It's a beautiful effect but I heard tires marks in hot climates can be a problem. Acrylic polymers are always improving so you might want to ask Ultimate1 about it.

Note that I'm not an expert. My garage is about 1000 square feet and epoxy job turned out well, but every installation is different.

The finishing technique and materials used in restaurants is different, materials are designed for the application. One of the things that I haven't seen mentioned in this thread is the potential for heat (fabricating areas) within shops, and the potential damage (resulting in fire and pitting) to epoxy flooring, or ground and polished floors. I can say with confidence that the ground and polished stands up long term better to fabrication than do most epoxies, but when we had a customer that required high heat application contact us a few years back we developed and installed a system in that area that withstands 1100 degrees F on a regular basis without degredation. That job is still holding up today, and we've installed that same product at some of that customers other foundry locations with the same results. Whatever you do, just stick with 100% epoxy solids compounds IF you decide to use epoxy. Otherwise you're literally paying for something that's evaporating from the time you put it down. Another primary factor to consider is compressive yield as you are in an industrial setting and you don't want a product that will chip out if something were to ever drop off a table.

Well now this is more info then i was expecting. So i feel i need to give you guys a bit more info about my floor.
The floor is less then 2 years old and is very clean...dusty but thats all. I have a large CNC that can't be moved for coating but the rest of the floor can be emptied. The floor was power troweled when poured its not gloss smooth but its not rough either. The floor is 30'x70' so its 2100 square feet that i need to cover.
I'm still looking, I haven't decided on a coating yet.

Same thing at the shop that I worked at that had thier floor epoxy'd, they paid the contractors to come in Friday evening and they had to be done by 7am on Monday. We didn't move any machinery, took all day to move all the work bench's, that was enough time lost. Doesn't seem like the right way to do things, but they just epoxy'd around the machines. But it would have taken 2 weeks to move the machinery out, epoxy the floor and put the shop back together, would have cost an unreal amount of money, plus we wouldn't have been making money for those 2 weeks, what else can you do? Plus we were in the repair business and had a 10 day turn around time, it's not like we could put parts on the shelf or just tell the customer to send his parts in 2 weeks.