Garage floor coatings such as Polyurea and Epoxy can leave you with a beautiful seamless floor. If you have a lot of concrete repairs to do, they can also leave you with a hole in your wallet, a lot of wasted time, and a major headache. Patching a small 3×3 area can still be a DIY project. Even coating over a damaged floor and not expecting perfection can be done. If you need to repair or level the majority of a floor, you need to use extreme caution and we would suggest a professional — or alternate product.
There are many ways to coat a heavily damaged garage floor, but what do you do if extensive damage needs to be repaired first? This question comes up often and recently plagued a customer who had the best of intentions. Because of this, we decided to address it again.
If there are small isolated areas that need to be repaired, we still believe this can be accomplished as a DIY project. We have a wide variety of patching and repair materials, and we also have suggestions for epoxy-based products you can pick up locally.
It is our opinion that extensive repairs and leveling is a professional project. If you decide to embark on the project yourself, you must understand that you are assuming all risks. We simply cannot guarantee adhesion to patching or leveling materials purchased elsewhere. We are not experts in concrete repair, and we can’t guide you through the process. We can make some suggestions based on what has worked for other customers.
First, as discussed here, if you are looking for ‘good enough’ and not perfection, you may be able to coat the floor using multiple layers of epoxy. Using thinner products, which we would typically suggest, is not a great idea on a repaired floor, as repairs may show through.
For larger repairs, companies like Ardex make cementitious repair products that can be used over a wide area. We have not tested their products, but many customers have used them. Since they have a great variety of products, it is important to check the data sheet and confirm that the product can be coated.
We always recommend calling and emailing the manufacturer to confirm the product is appropriate for your use. Do not rely on FAQ on resellers’ websites. Also, you need to be leery of products that are designed for an underlayment. Typically this means that the product is designed for vinyl or tile and not for coatings.
Many customers will also consider garage floor tiles when coating is just not an option.
