# Painting the Floor?



## HighWall (Oct 13, 2014)

I am in the process of building a new house in the Sierra Nevada foothills, about 3400' elevation.  The workshop, which is attached but on a lower level, has a lovely concrete slab on grade floor.  My builder is very proud of it.  He likes to leave his level on it over the weekend so the casual observer can determine how level it is.  It is quite level in carpentry terms, although I haven't brought out my machinist's level as I don't want to burst his bubble (so to speak).  Anyway, I will eventually have a 12x36 lathe, some kind of mill (yet to be determined), bandsaw, etc.  I enjoy hobby gunsmithing and knife making, but am a hobby collector and want to keep the space as versatile as possible.

Until recently, I just assumed I would leave the concrete floor bare, but now I am starting to worry about oil and stains making permanent messes, so I was considering painting the floor with some kind of coating.  Probably a two part epoxy in a mid gray, I think.  I was just wondering what you folks thought.  In my photo studio in San Francisco, in a 1920s industrial building with concrete floors, I've had rather poor results with paint and eventually went with a fully polished floor, which is very nice but cost a bundle.  The problem with paint on these old floors was that there were multiple layers built up over the years and not all well applied.  It tended to flake off and even stick to casters that didn't move all that regularly.  Now that we have a fully polished floor, it's much better, but oil spots tend to be permanent.  

I know that surface prep is everything when painting and since I have nice virgin concrete at this point, maybe I should just go ahead and paint in the new shop and it will be the best solution.  Also, to make matters somewhat more difficult, I am building in Kalifornia so getting the really good paints might require a trip to Nevada...


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## zmotorsports (Oct 13, 2014)

Personally, I didn't use epoxy on my shop floor due to the fact that it does some funny things when welding.  Hot sparks and/or slag on epoxy can cause sections the size of half dollars to violently pop up and turn in to projectiles.  I learned this by our floors in our shop at work.  In the garage attached to my house where my wife and I park our daily drivers, yes I epoxied it in a machinery gray color with grit added to avoid slips when wet.

However, in my shop, I painted the floor with a polyurethane paint when I built the shop in 1995.  It held up great for the first six or seven years but now after nearly 20 years it is needing to be recoated.  Especially the high traffic areas between toolbox and work benches.  I really need to recoat it but I am not looking forward to moving equipment around to do so.  More than likely I won't do anything more than "think" about re-coating it at this point.


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## pdentrem (Oct 13, 2014)

The old way was boiled linseed oil mixed with mineral spirits for penetration. Without a coating of some sort, the dust will be driving you nuts, stains are forever etc etc. You could look at commercial grade floor tiles. Our plant uses these through the whole building. Under machines, offices, etc.
Pierre


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## HighWall (Oct 13, 2014)

pdentrem said:


> The old way was boiled linseed oil mixed with mineral spirits for penetration. Without a coating of some sort, the dust will be driving you nuts, stains are forever etc etc. You could look at commercial grade floor tiles. Our plant uses these through the whole building. Under machines, offices, etc.
> Pierre



When you say tile, are you talking commercial grade porcelain or some kind of vinyl?


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## pdentrem (Oct 13, 2014)

Vinyl not ceramic. The same stuff you will see in most stores at the mall. It is much thicker than the home use stuff, usually over .125" thick. Naturally dragging a machine across it is not the best idea, but use a fork lift, skates (rollers), floor jack, pallet jack they tend to just shrug it off. 

We have 4 EDM machines and a milling centre that leak water and coolant onto the floor and with prompt clean up, we have had not issues. In fact we had the floor cleaners come in to strip and apply a new coating of non slip wax just last week.
Pierre


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## drs23 (Oct 13, 2014)

All comments very interesting. I epoxied my wife's photography studio 3 years ago and it still looks great. Her largest "machines" though are her rolling box lights so it's not even apples to apples.


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## Terrywerm (Oct 13, 2014)

I was thinking about an epoxy coating on the floor of my basement shop, but I have been having second thoughts in that regard. I've been leaning more toward vinyl tile also. The only thing with most of those vinyl tiles is that the mid-colored ones, such as a light or medium gray are hard to find in a pure color. Most of them always have little flecks of various colors in them. Of course that can be good, because it helps to hide any small chips that may have been missed by the broom or shop vac, but can be bad as they are equally as good at hiding tiny setscrews and springs that get dropped.

I know I will have to get something on that floor, just not sure yet exactly what.


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## kd4gij (Oct 13, 2014)

If I where building a new shop I would use race deck. I have never used it but have heard nothing but good from people that have.
http://www.racedeck.com/


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## LEEQ (Oct 13, 2014)

You nailed it when you said prep is everything. Against good advice to follow directions on the can I helped paint a brand new basement floor with $50/Gal. two part epoxy. We did not etch the floor as required by directions. We painted the garage floor after etching it. Guess which you can drive on and which had to be removed and reapplied for free. I am glad this was not my job, but I would have went to the trouble if it were my decision. Having the floors left unsealed and not used until painted would have been the ultimate bond, but following the directions to etch if sealed seems to be a close second. Good luck no matter the direction you go.


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## LEEQ (Oct 13, 2014)

kd4gij said:


> If I where building a new shop I would use race deck. I have never used it but have heard nothing but good from people that have.
> http://www.racedeck.com/



That is some cool stuff. I wonder how cost compares to epoxy? Either way, till I get the lottery won, Ill live with the floor and spend on tools.


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## TomS (Oct 14, 2014)

Rustoleum has a latex floor epoxy paint kit that comes with a citiric acid etching component.  Bought mine at Home Depot.  Painted my garage/shop floor with it about eight years ago and it looks as good as the day it was painted.   Have not had any paint lifting and nothing I've spilled on it has caused damage, including gasoline, brake fluid, or acetone.

My 2 cents.

Tom S


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## chips&more (Oct 14, 2014)

All are good comments above. I also tossed around the “what do I do with my man garage concrete floor”. The epoxy stuff looks good at first, but after a while it will develop problems that will bug you. Wood, tile, vinyl and all of the floor coverings will look good at first. Then comes the maintenance issues or possibly total redo. A bare concrete floor will last your lifetime, but yes, it will stain and other problems. And for some people does not have an eye appeal. I chose to use Concrete Sealer X-1. It does not change the concretes natural color. It does seal up its porosity and will last the life of the concrete. If you spill anything on the floor, it’s an easy clean up and maybe without staining, I have no stains yet. I think prep is very important to. It all depends on how smooth the surface of your concrete is and was it trowelled well when laid (get that cream to the top)…Good Luck


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## John Hasler (Oct 14, 2014)

The Cadillac way to go is to grind the concrete before finishing.  I'm just glad none of the cracks in mine are large enough for my machines to fall into.  Yet.


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## george wilson (Oct 14, 2014)

Due to having to quickly move my machinery into the new shop after the contractors were late in getting it finished,I was not able to paint my floor. However,it is polished concrete and I have not noticed any dust issues.

I was also hesitant to use an etchant and soon move my machinery in. Too late now.

Once you do paint your floors,you must realize it will be an ongoing maintenance keeping the worn out areas repainted.

In my woodworking machine area,which is in another room,I laid a plywood floor and sanded it with a belt sander. I applied 2 coats of gray,good wearing porch paint,and nothing has worn in 6 years.


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## fixit (Oct 14, 2014)

After working in a large as Maintenance supv (30 plus years) I favor just sealing the concrete. Once you paint the floor you will constantly have to repaint. Sooner or later the paint is as thick as  floor tile & you will hate it. The shops in the factory that had sealer on the concrete floors always looker good.

fixit


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## cjtoombs (Oct 14, 2014)

TomS said:


> Rustoleum has a latex floor epoxy paint kit that comes with a citiric acid etching component. Bought mine at Home Depot. Painted my garage/shop floor with it about eight years ago and it looks as good as the day it was painted. Have not had any paint lifting and nothing I've spilled on it has caused damage, including gasoline, brake fluid, or acetone.
> 
> My 2 cents.
> 
> Tom S



I used the Rustoleum 2 part on the floor about 10 years ago, it worked well, but I didn't get the best coverage the first time around.  When I redid it a couple of years ago I got a floor buffer with an abrasive pad to clean it and and I filled in all the cracks, porous spots and divots with some epoxy made for that purpose.  The recoat looks much better than the first time, and seems to be holding up well.  You have to make sure you don't let welding slag drop on it, as this will burn it, and I find that Acetone tends to change the color, so that you can permanently see where acetone has droped on the floor, but it does not lift or blister the floor.  I used a lighter grey with no grit or flake additive, it makes the floor smooth to sweep and easy to see things that you dropped.


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## george wilson (Oct 14, 2014)

The floors at Lowes and Home Depot were sealed,and have seemed to stand up well. Not as nice looking as a color of paint,but maybe more durable as mentioned.

My own floor is polished as mentioned,concrete with fiberglass binder 6" thick. I have not had a dust problem,though I know that dust is a common problem. Is mine not dusty because they went over the drying concrete and polished it with a rotary machine till it was quite smooth?

I am not experienced in this area. I had my concrete poured over plastic,so have not had a problem with humidity penetrating it. We had a very damp shop at work until they got around to sealing it. Then,much drier. This was before I became toolmaker.


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