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And from what I've heard the floor has to be super clean in order to apply the epoxy (am I wrong?). Although I didn't realize it was that cheap for the epoxy, maybe I could hire someone to clean the floors.
Garage looks great. Congrats!!
As to the epoxy, I would recommend it. Below are some pictures of my garage (and previous garages). You are right in that the floor has to be prepped, but I think it's something you can probably do on your own, if not have someone sand them down. I did my last two garages (pictures below). Current one is the one with the yellow stripes down the middle.
You can buy everything you need at Home Depot. And yes they can match the epoxy paint but it has to be the one part epoxy, which I wanted to use anyway because I wanted as high a glass as I can get (more on that later). The only real issue with this is the dry-times. You're gonna have to find another place to park the car for a while, depending on how involved you get with the colors. As you can see, I've succeeded in making it as difficult on myself as possible. Anyway, here's what I did/used:
1. Etch the floor - they can guide you to this at the store. Pretty straight forward. Although I would recommend not diluting it too much. This stuff is like muratic acid. Strong stuff but easy to apply. Pretty much just scrub it onto the floor with a broom/scrubber.
2. Bonding agent for the floor - VERY important. They failed to tell me about this the first time I did it and I had paint coming up pretty soon.
3. Applied 2 coats of the epoxy. From what I ready on the can it says not to do more than this.
4. Applied 3 coats of polyurethane
5. Taped off area where the yellow lines would go. I did this last and over the polyurethane because it was a high gloss Rustoleum yellow caution paint. Came out great. Oh and MAKE SURE to use the green frog tape when taping something off. DON'T use the blue painters tape. It'll bleed and WILL end in tears.
6. install industrial vinyl baseboards. This I think really finishes things off.
You'll notice the caution tape around the tool cabinet area. I wasn't able to find that at home depot and after looking around a bit I found it at Lowes. Home Depot only had the non-adhesive type and I was onbviously looking for one that was TAPE. Worked great. Gives it a good look and also helped in hiding the edges where the two different colors met (learned my lesson from the first garage (one with the white and red floor pictured).
If you're wondering if it hard to keep clean, it really isn't. I pretty much just hose the garage down and have a foam squeegee that I use to dry it. Takes about 5 minutes. The key is to keep stuff off the floor to not have to move anything to clean. Overall i'm really happy with it.
Forgot to add that I painted the electrical panel door with Rustoleum safety red paint (gloss spray paint)
My last garage. The red with black border under the GP is also epoxy paint.
This is the first garage I did. Had race-deck flooring, which I loved, but it's much more expensive and I personally found it harder to clean and keep clean.
You make it sound so easy to do. I wish I was that confident about doing it myself. I'm going to try and do it in the next couple of months. In my head I picture an all black floor with a MINI logo in the center. I bet painting the logo would be a real pain in the *** though. I wonder if I could find a decal of the logo that would stick to the floor.
You make it sound so easy to do. I wish I was that confident about doing it myself. I'm going to try and do it in the next couple of months. In my head I picture an all black floor with a MINI logo in the center. I bet painting the logo would be a real pain in the *** though. I wonder if I could find a decal of the logo that would stick to the floor.
Thanks for the compliments. It really isn't that hard to do. It's more a matter of patience. When you etch it, you have to wait til it's completely dry. Each coat of paint will take you maybe 45 minutes to do, but you have to wait an entire day between each one. Same goes for the polyurethane. Then you have to wait weeks before direct contact with the tires and use cardboard under them until then. The easiest and quickest was the bonding agent.
You can have a decal made that can be polyurethane'd over. I was going to do it and have a Michelin man decal done. Never got around to it but if I ever decide to do it I can just lay it down and polyurethane over it.
Thought I'd re-open with a pic of my garage. I utilized a series of prefab cabinets from Lowes and I rolled on an epoxy floor. The wainscoating is a silver gel to emulate an eraser burnished finish. The checkered flag border is the finishing touch my wife suggested to tie it all together...
My garage is about 21'6" x 20'. Unfortunately, it's completely uninsulated and not the greatest, but it's what came with the house we could afford.
I plan on doing the floor "paint" mentioned in the first post, charcoal gray with red, black, white, and yellow flecks. Then I'll do these cabinets in red.
I don't have too much stuff, so that'll pretty much be it for awhile. Maybe someday I'll make it a proper structure with insulation and drywall (or steel pegboard as far as the eye can see).
This is the most inspirational thread I've read on NAM in quite a while. After selling my project '76 Jeep CJ5, I'm trying to degrease my garage and make it a place you wont accidentally knock over a bucket of radiator fluid.. No joke.
When you own a project car and have 2 toddlers, you're constantly making time for wrenching, but not cleaning and organizing. Now that I'm on my 4th MINI in 10 years, I'm cleaning out my garage to make it more inhabitable.
I've started by finally organizing my tools neatly in my toolbox (putting them away was pointless with the Jeep). The kids stuff is gradually getting hoisted on wall hooks and the rest goes to the second floor. Those of you jealous of the square footage just be reminded that its not heated/cooled. Its currently 38 degrees in my fortress of solitude.
I moved to a new home 4 years ago. When we first bought, the first thing I did was order new plastic floor tiles and put 'em down. I added several new cabinets from Kobalt (Lowes) and a workbench, along with a mechanic's tool chest (we did well on the sale of the condo we owned in San Francisco for 3 years, so my wife and I made a budget for new home furnishings and I got those rolled in to that plan).
Another bit of fun is on the ceiling. I found 'em on Amazon... home-grade electrical and air supplies on spring-loaded reels. It's SO convenient!
You can also see the Rubbermaid Fast-Track system on the side walls for tool storage.
I mounted some laser pointer projectors on the ceiling, pointing a red dot straight down. My wife's car is fairly long and just barely fits in the garage. The laser points down through her windshield, so when the red dot hits a certain line on her dash, she knows that it's time to stop and put the car in park.
The last nice add is the myQ system for the Chamberlain garage door openers. It connects to my home WiFi and allows me to use my mobile to control the garage doors. I also get alerts if the doors are open for more than 15 minutes (configurable).
I've got a Sonus system in the house... a few zones inside, some waterproof speakers on the front and back porches w/ Sonus Amps driving them. I had a spare Sonus 3 (midsized speaker) from our previous home, so I put one out in the garage... a wonderful addition when you are out there working on the car.
One of these days I want to finish the drywall in the garage, paint and finish the trim out there, but I've been putting my spare time into the MINI for the past few years. That's getting close to being complete, so maybe next winter.
Last edited by agranger; May 19, 2020 at 07:58 AM.
