I have an old shed with a sound but stained and unsightly concrete floor. I am considering painting it and would appreciate any advice on best choice of paint and how to prep it for paint. It is approximately 8 by 10 ft.
I am especially curious if anyone has tried an “epoxy” paint as I am seeking to avoid peeling paint down the road. The name epoxy leads me to hope it might perform in a similar manner to the two part epoxy adhesives that cling so tenaciously wherever they have spilled on my workshop floor.
Thanks in advance,
Karl
Replies
Two part epoxy is the paint of choice for a concrete floor. If there is paint on the floor now , it will have to be stripped.
Clean floor with muratic acid , and rinse. Follow directions of epoxy chosen as some are different . I reccomend the aid of Sherwin Williams . They will have a few to choose from and they are very imformative. It always helps to have technical help in your corner. If you ever run into problems, they have lab support .
Tim Mooney
My parents have one of those 2 part expoy concrete finishes in thier garage, that stuff gets to darn slippery when wet, its like walking on ice.View ImageGo Jayhawks
They have different anti-slip material to put in them. Some use sand, some use colored plastic chips.
Well the colored plastic chips must not be that affective, Thats whats on my parents floor, slippery as heck.
Sand might be a good way to go.
But that stuff sure does let you clean up oil and paint spills.View ImageGo Jayhawks
I have put blasting sand in epoxy but I dont like to sweep it . I prefer a slick finish , but I havent been hurt on it either . Decisions,....
Tim Mooney
30 some years ago used leftover plain old interior latex paint for the basement floor when the concrete was still green, about 2 weeks old. Still holding up well, although worn in spots in the high traffic areas, but easy to sweep. Inspiration was an article about how DaVinci's "Lords Supper' was flaking after centuries 'cause he hadn't painted the plaster when wet, like had been the custom before -yes, totally different paints, etc, but seemed to work for my basement floor.
hmmmmmmmmm cover it with pt plywood less hassle and no future peeling!From a painter with 24 years exp.
Thank you all for the input.
Given that it is just a shed I will probably go with the latex concrete floor paint. The only reason I can see to go with the epoxy is to try it out using the shed as a test bed before I ever consider trying it on something where the results are really significant.
Karl
I don't recommend "adding sand to the paint material.
Coat a section of the floor with the epoxy paint. Cast silica sand over the section. Move on to the next section and repeat. After the entire floor is sufficiently dry (an hour more or less, depending on conditions, for the material you intend to use), recoat with the epoxy paint.
This way you can control the distribution and density of the sand over the surface and your remaining paint will still be useful. Adding the sand to the paint will leave you with paint with a heavy layer of sand at the bottom of the bucket. When you go to use it again, stirring to remix the paint becomes impractical. Don't even know if a paint store would place the stuff in a mixer to remix. I bet that htey wouldn't.
I use tsp to clean previously painted cementous surfaces (cleans and deglosses). By the way, I'm referring to trisodium phosphate, and not the TSP househould cleaner available in supermarkets. You can obtain it in Home Depot (paint department). Weak muriatic acid would be the choice for concrete.
Recoat every six months.
brian
I grew up in a True Value Hardware store... We had numerous requests for cement paint... they make a polyurethane paint that I seem to recall was very good for cement as well....
Big problem with garage floors, is that car tires breathe... and the chemicals they exhale(for lack of a better term) break down paint on garage floors... Its why a lot of times you go to indoor car shows and you see the cars are sitting on mats etc....
I used the polyurethane paint about 5-7 years ago on a basement floor... dont remember any slippery problems, but I remember as the painting progressed you could feel the knap of the roller getting REAL tacky. hehehe made a nice finish on that basement floor though....
you mite want to look into painting the floor with one of those diy bedliner paints. i have never personally done it but i have seen an old installation and it looked good
james
I have been most impressed with the cementitious coatings. They seem to stick better and have a similar surface texture to the original cement finishes. They are reccommended for vehicle traffic areas too though I have seen them break down after a few years in such high wear conditions. The good thing is that they are easily recoated when that happens. You don't have to strip as you might with epoxy paints. Just clean and recoat.
Watch out if you have the tar type of tile adhesive on the old concrete. I had that in my basement where i removed old tile. Even though I scraped up the majority of the adhesive the oil based paint I used melted the adhesive into the paint. Very unattractive.
I switched to latex concrete floor paint and it works like a champ. It is cheap and pretty effective. You do want to wash down the floor and get all the oil and grease up. Etch or TSP it depends on what you have on the surface. I'd etch unless you have an aversion to acid.
Hey it is a floor! and it is a color so expect you'll have to repaint it eventually because it looks worn or it is the wrong color. Good news is the dust and moisture level drops dramatically. It is even better if you paint the basement walls as well.
Good Luck! That is probably the cheapest money you will spend to make a big visual difference.