“Hi Matt, I just wanted to say thank you for your help with selecting the correct epoxy paints for my garage floor. My wife and I did the 3 stages and it looks great.”
Products chosen: –
- 5 lts 2pk epoxy floor sealer
- 5 lts 2pk epoxy floor paint: slate grey
- 5 lts 2pk epoxy clear finish
Floor after basic preparation
Step 1: Floor Preparation
How to paint garage floor – Step 1: The concrete floor was a relatively clean surface and was not power-floated, so did not need a clean and degrease nor clean and etch. The floor just needed a brush and hoover to remove the surface debris and dust. If your garage floor is showing signs of ingrained oils or grease, we recommend that you use Regal Clean and Degrease to prepare the floor prior to painting. If your concrete floor is overly smooth or power-floated, we recommend that you use Regal Clean n Etch to open the pores of the concrete and allow the paint to absorb into the substrate.
Floor painted with 2 pack epoxy primer
Two-Pack Epoxy Metal Primer - Designed for a wide range of metal substrates, our two pack epoxy primer offers excellent durability and resistance to contact with solvents, acids, alkalis and salts. It’s hardwearing surface gives good protection against corrosion due to it’s phosphate content. Two-Pack Epoxy Metal Primer is suitable for galvanised steel and aluminium. - Coverage: 5-10 m² per litre - Touch Drying Time: 12 hrs - Recoat: 24 hrs - Hard Drying Time: 48 hrs - Full Cure: 7 days
Step 2: Two-pack epoxy primer
How to paint garage floor – Step 2: The customer used 5 litres of 2 pack epoxy primer – this is usually a red or pinky colour to contrast with the topcoat. Epoxy primer is thinner in viscosity to the topcoat, so that it is able to soak down into the concrete, penetrate the concrete. The base coat is anchored in the concrete, not just sitting on the surface. Epoxy primer dries with a flat (matt) and porous finish – if you could at a cross-section of the dried primer under a microscope, it would look like peaks and trough. This is purposefully designed so that the dried surface-area will readily accept a topcoat, to lock into those peaks and troughs, giving good intercoat adhesion.
Applying the Epoxy Topcoat
Paint Mixer - Ideal for mixing paint, adhesives, grout, mortar, cement and most liquid materials. This is drill attachment for mixing paint and can be used with most power drills. You must fully immerse the mixer paddle in the liquid before use. Stirrer-head size: 103mm x 80mm Length: Approx 40cm
Two Pack Epoxy Floor Paint (Top Coat) - This epoxy floor coating is designed for application to concrete, cement and non ferrous metals. It provides excellent resistance to water, solvents, acids, alkalis and salts and gives superb adhesion to all recommended substrates. Tough finish has long lasting abrasion and impact resistance. Recommended for areas receiving heavy traffic (vehicle/trucks). Following application of the product: Do not park vehicles or place heavy equipment on the floor for a minimum of 48 hours Do not get the floor wet for a minimum of 7 days as this will cause bloom (discolouration) - Coverage: 5-7 m² per litre - Touch Drying Time: 12-16 hrs - Recoat: 24 hrs - Hard Drying Time:48 hrs - Full Cure: 7 days
Step 3: Two pack Epoxy Floor Paint (Top Coat), Paint Mixer
How to paint garage floor – Step 3: The customer used 5 litre of 2 pack epoxy topcoat in slate grey. It is very important that you use an epoxy top coat with an epoxy primer because they are both made on the same resin system (the coats cross-link well, giving good intercoat adhesion). An epoxy topcoat is an extremely hard-wearing product. It is important to allow epoxy paint to have the recommended induction period (sweating time) after mixing and prior to use.
Painting tips on how to Paint Garage Floor
The paint is poured directly onto the floor and a roller is used to spread the coating, rather than using a tray. When painting floors, rollers trays are unnecessary – they are time consuming and you may find that an epoxy paint starts to dry in the tray, creating flakes of dry paint which you then mix with the wet paint from the can. You only really need to use spiked shoes if you need to access areas by walking over the wet paint. On such large area, we would recommend rolling the paint onto the floor in approx. 3x3m sections – roller in one direction and then re-roller having rotated your position by 180 degrees (this will help to alleviate roller marks).
This customer then sprinkled a glitter over the wet paint, (please note – we did not provide the glitter). If using a glitter, do not mix it into the paint as it will just turn into lumpy paint (the glitter will just get covered in the paint), rather sprinkle it over the top.
Fig 4: Rolling on of paint
Regal Clear Finish is ideal as a finishing coat over our epoxy or single pack floor paints to enhance gloss levels. A 2-pack acrylic which is fast drying and has excellent hardness. To be applied very thinly.
Step 4: Products used: Regal Clear Finish
How to paint garage floor – Step 4: After sprinkling on the glitter, the customer used Regal Clear Finish – this is a 2 pack acrylic clear coating which gives a nice, glossy finish. 2 pack acrylic is non-yellowing.
The finished job
