Epoxy finishes are one of the most durable and easiest to maintain flooring options for a garage floor resurfacing. While epoxy garage flooring finishes are easy to apply and last forever, the success of the application often depends on the prep work you, or the professional you hire to do the work, does before laying the finish. If you're restoring or repairing your garage or basement floor, proper preparation for an epoxy garage flooring coating may include any or all of these steps depending on the current condition of the floor.
Purpose of Prepping Your Floor for Epoxy Coatings
Just as you wouldn't paint your walls without preparing them first, you shouldn't lay down an epoxy garage flooring finish without preparing the surface to accept the epoxy resin. Preparing your floor is similar priming your walls. Not only will it make your finished floor look better, it will also ensure that the epoxy adheres to the surface and provides a much longer lasting finish. There are several ways to prepare your cement floor to accept epoxy coatings.
Chemical Etching with Acid
The cheapest and easiest way to prepare your floor for an epoxy floor finish is chemical etching, which is most often done with muriatic acid. The acid helps remove years of oil and residue from the floor. In addition, it etches the top surface of the concrete, providing a roughened surface with which the epoxy can bond. This method is easy enough for most homeowners to use if they're planning a do-it-yourself garage floor resurfacing job. Muriatic acid is easy to get, easy to mix and inexpensive. The process involves mixing the acid with water, scrubbing and rinsing the floor thoroughly. The biggest disadvantage of using muriatic acid as a chemical etch to prepare your garage floor for epoxy coatings is that it's wet. Before you can continue, you'll have to be sure that the garage floor is completely, absolutely dry or your epoxy garage flooring paint won't set up properly.
Surface Sanding
Grinding the cement floor down is the second choice open to the home do-it-yourself floor refinisher, and by far superior to chemical etching. It's also more expensive, since it involves renting a grinder or floor sander. You may also need to rent or borrow a truck in which to get it home. In addition, you'll have to buy diamond grinding pads, and you'll need the strength to actually operate the sander. That said, grinding will effectively remove years of grime and oil from your garage floor and rough the existing concrete in preparation for applying the epoxy garage flooring finish.
Hiring a Professional
The easiest way to avoid all the additional work is to hire a professional garage floor resurfacing company to do your garage floor for you. While it's the most expensive option, when you choose a professional company to resurface your garage floor and apply a new epoxy garage flooring finish, you're guaranteed of excellent, long-lasting results with very little work on your part.
To learn more about subjects like epoxy garage flooring please visit the web site at: http://www.epoxyprofessionals.com/Epoxy_Professionals/Welcome.html
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About the Author
Chris Robertson is a published author of Majon International. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2011 (Mon May 09 2011) Majon International. Majon International is one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing and internet advertising companies on the web. Visit their main business resource internet marketing web site at: http://www.majon.com
