The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest Finish for Shop Floor

My shop is an old 40x80 Farmlander slant wall steel building from the early 1970's. It has a concrete floor that saw several decades of farm implement storage and repair, so there are more than a few scratches and stains on the concrete.

I have cleaned the stains (mostly hydraulic oil drip stains) as best as they can be and I have filled the deep scratches with concrete patch/leveling.

So I am ready to put some sort of finish on the concrete to seal it. I plan to do the front half, a 40x40 area, first because it is the shop area where I am working on my '53 truck.

Anyone have an preference, suggestions or experience on products to use to finish the concrete. I'm looking for a durable surface that spills won't soak through and that can be cleaned.

Thank You
Tim

The machine shop I go to used Sherwin Williams on his floors, very durable

i tried Sears concrete paint a few years ago, it didn't hold up and now I have to try to resand whole floor.

Epoxys are nice but I'd stay away from them. Aside from being expensive, they require a good sound slab with a lot of prep ( patching, grinding, cleaning ). If you don't do it right, they fail. I'd use a good quality concrete paint, and expect to redo it in 5 years.

I have been watching home improvement shows where they just polish the concrete. I wonder what they use and how much maintenance would be required.

Sorry guys, I guess I'm old school.
It's a work shop with floor jacks, hammers, grinders, cutting torches and other emplements of distruction.
I throw some wood stove ashes to soak up the spills and use a good stiff broom to sweep up.
If you want a show place, paint it with something, then pour another pad somewhere, to do real work.

Just my opinion.
Don

Now there's a man after my own way of thinking. Fancy floor
finish is like those fancy paint jobs, look great but not
very practical when you're running down a gravel back road.
When I worked at the Accelerator Lab in order to get rid of
access budget....the powers to be elected to have the floors
ground and epoxy coated. Looked great...for a little while.
Then after running the steel wheels of the die carts and
gantry cranes over it for a few months it was cracking and
lifting all over the place. The other down side is the
slightest bet of water made it feel like the neighborhood
skating pond in the middle of winter.
I like to have the floors look "nice", not fancy, just nice
mostly because it seems easier to sweep. So I've just
scrubbed them down and hosed them off and roll on a single
coat of Rust-Oleum Epoxy Shield one part paint. Not sure if
they are even offering that paint anymore, a couple of years back,
when I first moved in to the new place it was only bout $30
a gallon.
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/161235728
My welders, gantry and a couple of carts have steel wheels and
it stands up pretty goot to them. And, as the other Mr. Graham
suggested, I'll just touch it up or repaint it every 5 or 6 years.

dg

As others have said, epoxy tends to crack out after a while. The best finish I have seen to date is just a plain old concrete seal.

Well, have you ever seen an Air Force Machine Shop? You can eat off the floor. Epoxy painted floors throughout. All you have to do at the end of every day is allot the time you need to clean the shop. But truth be told, my Dad wouldn't work at my shop because of that. He didn't want to clean up his own mess.

I get lots of stuff done on a daily basis and everyone comments on how neat and clean it is. Shiny floors would add to that ambiance! I use cement sealer but I wonder if wax and a floor buffer once a month or so would make enough difference to go to the trouble.

Denny, probably used the same Rustoleum Epoxy as you mentioned on my floor back when I built my new shop in 2005. Before I put anything in it I painted the floor mainly because I do, or use to, do a lot of wood work and its nice to be able to sweep the floor clean vs the porus concrete.
What I found out is its nice to have a spill on the floor and be able to wipe it with a rag and the floor is still clean. I have always hated creepers and now I just lay on the floor.
......my little short wife even bought me a big rubber maid mop bucket with a big mop.....YES, I have pour purple power on it and mopped it a time or two. I like my area clean and when I finish working on a car things are cleaned up before another comes in.
I think it goes back to my days, when I was a young teenage having to work on my hot rods laying in the sand and rocks and I always said I'd have me a nice clean shop someday....and after working with only a 1/2" 9/16th 3/4" along with a screwdriver and pair of pliers I swore I have some decent tools someday. YES, they are clean and organized in my tool box.
Call me OCD or just call me Strange.... its the way I am

oh, it has held up well. I do have "spots" from welding and other things but I never regretted painting. I could touch up some spots....maybe one day.

"... home improvement shows where they just polish the concrete"

that would be 'high pressure' concrete, a special mix to be chemical/acid resistant, like used for gas station aprons

Bill

aha! I didn't know what it was. Thanks!

Anybody know how long a newly poured floor would need to cure before painting?

I do not remember the length of time but it is usually noted on the paint can. I "believe" it to be 7 days.
I'm sure someone will chime in with a definite answer.

When I was tiling floors it was recommended to wait 30 days before setting tile on green concrete.

Kept the floor wet for about a week after the pour, then dried
it about a week, acid etched and pressure washed it and let it
cure for another month. Then applied three coats of 2k
polyurethane and it stood up to 27 years of use while it was
under my care. But....as I said, when it was wet it could have
been mistaken for a skating rink. Actually stood up to the steel
wheels of the floor jacks pretty good. But around the wood
stove where I split wood, it did get pretty well chewed up
from flying wedges.
dg