Hey, TT ! Where did you steal that pic ?!?!

Darkness, I'm loving the garage ! Of course, I'm pretty partial to red with black and white chex.

 

No, sir, I am not.

FORZA FERRARI!!!!!!!

 

I wasn't ******* your floor darkness it looks very nice I have just been in awe of those tiles since I saw them & now when I build a garage I know my intent will be to steal CR&PW&JB's floor & your walls

 

Unless you do wall paper, you're going to need alot of tape to mask that off. It took 6 rolls.

 

I'll start hording tape right now

 

Make sure you horde the good stuff otherwise the paint is going to bleed.

 

very nice!

 

Update on the garage: I've detailed a few cars and have more lined up so that means I'll be getting me some new lights today! Going to get a pair of T5 fixtures from lowes so that should give me enough light for detailing at night.

Also the epoxy floor has not held up well chipping, peeling, and coming off in every direction. I didn't rush the cure time (waited a week before I washed), but I did spread 1 gallon over a two car garage when they say it will only do a 1 car garage per gallon. I don't even know how to use that much paint. I'll be scraping it off and starting over next spring on that

I'll still go with Tan though because it looked awesome.

 

sorry to hear about your epoxy. all that work for only a short
while, huh? could it be that your concrete is prone to moisture?

if you can, place your lamps near the edge of your roof line. that way
you can get better illumation angle to the lower parts of the car without
getting floor lamps.

 

Could be. They said wait 7 days for car traffic but that wasn't going to happen for me. On the 3rd day after applying it, it rained and the wet tires pulled it up when we moved them. It was neat to see the stance of the cars, i guess. Now it's peeling pretty much every where, even where a tire was not. The builder puts some sort of coating over the concrete in the garage so maybe that's why it's not adhereing. It's only peeling on that large area and not near the edges where they did not put the coating

Thanks for the tip on the lights. It would have really worked that way but I've already put them up where the regular lights were They still work REALLY well. It's super bright in there. I'll try to snap a pic later on. Since I center the cars in the garage when I work on them it will be great for detailing. With two in there it's kinda dark on the side of the car facing the wall. When winter hits I'll have both in there doing rinseless washing so I'll have to set a light up, but that's just an excuse to wire two more fixtures by the roof lines!

 

I think your poor epoxy adhesion was due to the drying sealer the contractor put on your concrete.
You'll have plenty of time to research how to remove all that and prep before you reapply. Google is your friend, but you might find DIY epoxy is not. I've heard enough horror stories that I dropped the idea for my garage.
Your garage looks great otherwise. You should be very proud!

 

isn't part of the process a concrete etcher? use that, let the concrete dry, put some plastic on it over night to check for condensation (wait until there is none), then roll on the coating.

 

They definitly put a sealer of some sort in the garage. They laid a foundation for a new house a few days ago and it's pretty obvious there is something there. They're supposed to come over sometime this month and do a 1-year walk through. Kinda like a service check-up and repair any cracking in dryway or anything else that needs attention. I'll ask them what the hell is going on and how it can be avoided when I redo it. I would almost say forget it and just scrape it off and just have a concrete floor, but the tan brightened up the garage so much and really gave it a finished look that I want to keep it that way. It also made it easy to find tools, screws, bolts, and small animals.

 

did the kit you used come with a concrete etcher? you'd know...it's acid

 

I don't have the instructions handy right now, but it was supposed to come with some cleaner. However, my dad gave me this kit and he used the cleaner in his garage (6 car!) and this gallon was left over from his. The instructions made it out to be a degreaser, so we used simple green and followed with some dawn i believe.

Probably the key there

 

yep. the acid etches the surface to make it porous so that the epoxy will soak in. this is the only way to keep it from flaking or chipping or sticking to your tires.

 

I epoxied my garage floor two summers ago and it is holding up very well. I bought a second bottle of cleaner (which is really just phosphoric acid) and cleaned the floor twice. You could really see how the acid etched the surface of the concrete and removed all the surface contaminates.
I think if you attempt to epoxy your floor again Darkness, you should spend the majority of time in prep. Also don't use the cheep epoxy kits from Lowes or Home Depot - go with a professional grade. Go check out http://originalcolorchips.com/ which is what I used. It is expensive but mine is now over a year old with absolutely no chipping, lifting or staining.
Here's a picture after I finished.

and a close-up

 

I'll keep the link saved for the future. We actually spent a considerable amount of time prepping; twice as long as we did painting. Sweeping, rinsing scrubbing, rinsing, washing, rinsing, squeeging, then waiting for it to air dry. Of course no good becuase we didn't have the etcher

 

Well one other thing to consider, as Kenchan eluded to, the concrete must be absolutely dry. No residual dampness from your cleaning as well as no moisture migrating from the ground below. If you have a garage floor that is damp other steps need to be taken to seal the floor. You can check this by taping a piece of clear plastic over an area of the floor over night. If there is any condensation under the plastic the next day, chances are you will have to do some extra steps to seal the floor before coating. That is the extent of my knowledge on that subject

 

That explains the jumbo bottles of Pinnacle & poorboys products. Garage looks great

 

Yeah, I try to buy in bulk when I can because this stuff is so expensive.


The cabinet is officially full now. I've put in 3 orders this month for addtional supplies for winter protection and so I can detail cars for co-workers. Everytime I do one I need something else. I've also been experimenting with products. I'm going to get detailing going full swing after winter and try to get 3 or 4 autos a week, so expect to see gallons and gallons of supplies then.

 

Wow! That's a gorgeous garage!

I really like the chemical cabinet with the clear doors. Everything is safely stowed yet easy to see without having to open it.

Nice work!

-Heather

 

Yes the cabinet is really cool! Best purchase for the whole garage. Everytime someone is over while I'm detailing they see me over there fiddling around with everything and think i'm making a well informed, professional decision of what I'm going to use next, when in reality I'm just lining all the bottle and labels up

 

I am currently undergoing a garage renovation. I have looked into these tiles but was unsure of how they hold up to oil without staining. I have 2 mini's...a liquid yellow and some weird blue color....like a liquid blue or something. My wife painted the walls and ceiling a gray color and my workbench is black with aluminum.....any ideas as to the floor color? I thought about painting the inside of the garage door as well......any decorating ideas would be appreciated...

Thanks