Many home owners prefer to keep their concrete garage floors unpainted. The reason is hot tires, weather, moisture, rough use can be real hard on the paint, causing it to peel off. Hence, people believe it is better to keep it unpainted, than see your efforts and money go waste. However, painting your concrete floor may have more advantages than you can imagine. For one, it gives a brand new look to your old garage and also protects the concrete flooring underneath from abuse. However, one must be careful while choosing a concrete floor paint for their garage, as wrong type of paint may deteriorate as soon as you apply it.
How to Choose a Concrete Garage Floor Paint
Untreated concrete floors may have a tendency to gather dust and grime. Over the years, the flooring becomes stained, grimy and extremely unappealing. When you decide to paint it, you cannot simply do away with cleaning it with water and soap solution. Such extent of dirt accumulation can only be cleaned by industrial strength solvents. If the floor has not been cleaned properly, the paint will not adhere to the surface. As a result, it will peel off at the first instance of abuse. Therefore, it is a must that you clean your concrete floor thoroughly prior to painting your floors.
Garage flooring is susceptible to damage from underground moisture that is passed to the surface by concrete flooring. When you use alkyd paint or oil based paint, the moisture reacts with the alkaline substances in the paint leading to formation of soap. Soap causes the paint to lose its adherence to concrete surface and peel off. Another factor that one needs to take into account while choosing a concrete paint for garage is that the paint is often exposed to tremendous heat from car tires. The heat, along with the pressure of the car is directly transferred to the concrete paint. Hence, the paint that you choose must be able to withstand such high temperatures.
Besides, the paint should be preferably stain resistant. Your car is likely to leak engine oil and similar fluids on the garage floor. Similarly, you may often drag your unfinished home improvement projects in garage and work upon them. As a result, the flooring is susceptible to lot of spillage and leakage. A stain resistant paint helps in keeping your flooring clean and new for a long time.
Best Concrete Garage Floor Paint
Epoxy paints are ideal for concrete garage flooring. They have a water based coating and are made of epoxy and resinous materials. Some garage floor epoxy paints come with color chips which you have to sprinkle on wet paint. Apart from adding style and uniqueness to your flooring, these chips also prevent skidding. Epoxy paints generally come with a kit which also includes degreaser, which cleans the grime. Epoxy paints are better formulated to withstand heat, stains and harsh chemicals. Epoxy Shield and Behr are some good options for garage paint.
Another way of painting concrete floor is by staining. You need a special masonry stain for this purpose. Masonry stain is not as thick as wood stain, hence, it is easier to apply. As it gets soaked in the concrete you do not have a film which renders a glossy appearance to the floor.
If you consistently have water leakage problems in your garage or the conditions inside your garage are dark and moist, then it is best not to use any paint for garage flooring. When using paint, make sure you let the paint dry completely before you drive your car in. Concrete garage floor paint can only sustain if you take proper care and precautions.
