Painting garage floor...who's done it?

I used the two part epoxy from Home Depot (Machine Grey, Rustoleum) on my garage at a previous house. Pretty good but I got tired of the dark grey. Oh yeah, DON'T use it outside anywhere UV breaks it down quickly.

For my shop (2400 sq ft, new slab) had to wait 3 months for the concrete to cure. Didn't want to be stuck with the two colors Home Depot here has and talked Lowes into ordering a tintable Valspar epoxy. My buddies all voted for white, I ended up going a really light beige (matches the dirt around here, caliche).

Both worked well (inside, both were new concrete). The floors are slippery as snot if you get them wet (Not a problem that often). I would highly recommend tinting to a color you can live with. Cleanup is a breeze, most oils/antifreezes just puddle and cleanup like a Bounty commercial. The amount of dust is WAAAY down, you can actually crawl on the floor and get up still clean AND the best part...when you sweep it you just get a dust pile the first time. I will never have a unpainted/unsealed garage floor again.

For the Acid etch just get a bunch of Muriatic acid from a pool supply, mix it (by the tint instructions) in a 5 gal bucket and we used $3 brooms to brush it into the concrete then threw them away. I never had an issue of oil being in the slab but I can see where that would require extra care.

Mix the epoxy good and roll it on thick (don't be stingy here). Plan on multiple layers. I actually have a thin spot in my shop because I got tired of moving the pile of stuff. I initially put down 3 layers but ended up going and getting more and putting down 5 total.

One of my buddies put down the u-coat it stuff. First let me say this guy is @n@l (he orders his shirts in his closet the order of the color spectrum...no kidding). When he was done it looked fantastic. He slightly overused the anti-slip stuff but now has incredible traction. He also ran out of the chips you throw down and had to get more so swears he can see a line where he picked back up (I cannot). However, it cost him as much to do a 2 car garage as for me to do 2400 sq ft.

Ignore the car on the lift...it's a foam mock up I ordered off EBay.

<a href="http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii246/Woliphint/?action=view&current=ZoeCamaroLiftInstall0005.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii246/Woliphint/ZoeCamaroLiftInstall0005.jpg" border="0" alt="lift"></a>

I recently had a gentlemen looking at renting my place who runs a company that sells supplies for professional floor coatings- then one thing he gauranteed me was that if I was to paint a floor it will chip or come up in a few years.

I did mine almost a year ago, about 8 hours of prep work followed by 2-3 hours of painting, it still looks great.

Before and After:

I used U-Coat about 2 years now and the stuff is great. I agree, it's pricey but I wanted something that would really hold up so I wouldn't need to do it every 3 years. Sorry I don't have a pic available. As everyone else pointed out, prep is everything with these paints. I can't knock the Home Depot or Lowes brands because I haven't used them, but I do reccomend U-Coat. Kit was complete, instructions were easy to follow.

I did the tintable stuff and it came up with the quickness. You can almost peel it with your fingers. My floors were sealed though so I guess my cleaning and etching didn't do good. I'm redoing it this weekend but will clear it afterwards.