Concrete floor coating for shop

[Ultimate1]

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.

[Geof]

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.

[automizer]

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......

[Geof]

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.

[jpd]

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.

[Ultimate1]

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.

[mc-motorsports]

Originally Posted by automizer 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.