Supposedly the guy spend $10K to get trained and buy equipment to resurface pitted concrete slaps with that epoxy coating and fleck painting.
Says he can restore a floor that's pitted up to a 1/2" deep, which is what is needed. 75% of the floor is badly pitted and getting worse.
Western NY on the shores of Lake Ontario. Well, not exactly *on* the shore...about a mile inland. ;-)
It's the first estimate my friend got and he's wondering if this guy is even in the ballpark.
Thoughts?
Are you balancing contractor price vs do-it-yourself. If so, you can probably do it for $200-400 depending on size of floor and condition. Actually, patching is not horrible but the epoxy kits can get a little pricey.
There are other, less expensive, concrete finish options.
RonB
I guess it all depends on one's troweling/floating skills.
Never having done much masonry work myself, I would how a DIY job would look compared to a contractor with both the tools and the experience.
I'm pretty sure the guy who needs this done has not done much (if any) concrete work. He's pretty handy, but not experienced in that type of work, as far as I know.
Doesn't sound outrageous to me. If it's a good two part epoxy, with two coats put down, including the side foundation up to drywall, in a standard residential garage, you are looking at over $200 just for materials alone. Porportionately less for fewer stalls.
Second, as with most paint work, prep is 80% of the job. Removing oil spills and acid etching the floor takes a lot of effort, so labor won't be cheap.
Folks had an acryllic coating put down in their two car garage. Looks similar to epoxy, but slightly thicker and fills in any dimples or small cracks. Was around $2000 as I recall.
Curious. Sounds totally insane to me.
What the fsck are you gonna do on this garage floor? Eat dinner off it, sans tableware? It's a freakin' garage floor, ferchrysakes!
Fer ppl this braindead, YES! ...have the garage floor epoxied. Have it chromed! Have it glassed! Better yet, have it jammed up yer ass!
nb
Actually you're right on the money. The "estimate" was from a mason who said his friend does the jobs. He said that the last time he helped him it was for a 2 car garage and the cost was $2K, so he estimated that a single car garage would be about $1200.
We're not sure the garage is worth a fancy flecked paint finish, but something needs to be done to prevent further deterioration.
I used to store a trailer in a neighbor's garage where the slab had deteriorated so badly the dirt underneath was showing in many spots. I laid plywood down to bridge the gaps so the trailer wheels didn't drop into the holes!
It would be ever so special if you could post a list of what people are allowed to spend money on, and how much it should cost. Wot a maroon.
My brother is a total motor head. He spends more time in the garage than he does inside the house. First thing he did when he bought his new house was to spend a lot of money to get the garage floor epoxied. To me it's a big expense that I'd question if I really needed, to him it's a necessity and worth the money to do it right. BTW he's a contractor, and a damned good one, and he choose to hire someone to do it because he knows what's involved to do it right.
R
I can't tell you how many times I've sold a house where the buyer said one of the main selling points was the epoxied floor. If the drywall is arctic white and the floor is a medium gray, you end up with what looks like another interior room.
I chose to ignore the idjit.
I doubt he'll go away, but we can hope.
I'm of a mixed mind about epoxy garage floors. They sure are pretty, and make cleanup a lot easier, and if I was a rich man building new, I'd probably go for it. But I'm not rich and never will be, and have seen first-hand many failed epoxy surfaces on old concrete. Nor am I a gearhead (not since my teens at least), so I don't do any significant wrenching any more, and don't hang out in the garage other than when I have to. That puts a fancy floor way down on my list of things to throw money at. But I'm not gonna slam anyone who does- different strokes, etc.
Any slab THAT bad, the tool to reach for is a jackhammer, not a paint roller. Too thin, and likely frost-heaved at some point. I've seen countless cookie-cutter houses where, to save a few bucks, they did not continue foundation under garage door opening, so slab was not supported on that edge. Many garages have no foundation ledge to catch slab anyway, and substrate/drainage under garage slab is often poorly done. Seal at bottom of apron rots out, water gets under slab and freezes, and you can guess what happens next. Doing it right only adds a few hundred to cost of house. Do it wrong, and there is NO cheap way to make it right.
I agree its time to replace the floor.....
Scenario: oil covered area from old spill in walkway. Drive a snow covered car in and the area gets wet. It is now like ice. Dangerous situation. Epoxy the floor and you can clean up the oil spill completely. Wish I did that to my garage floor.
Actually, the thicker acrylic coating sounds even better. My concrete man was an idiot and put a heavy texture on the floor against my orders. Not nice when you are crawling under a car and feeling around for tools. Much rather have the smooth floor painted with the slip-resistant chips on it.
I had my new concrete floor covered with epoxy last year, and posted questions and comments in this forum at that time. My two car garage is roughly 27 by 24 feet.
The job was bid by several experienced epoxy painters, and the bids averaged out to a little over $2K. The job was awarded to a guy at $1900 cash.
The work took 3 days given that the surface had to dry before a topcoat and abrasive sand layer were added. The job was mostly a one person job.
The price did seem a bit high but I was not looking for a cheap job, rather I wanted a great job.
The benefits of the epoxy immediately showed up last winter:
I no longer have ugly stains of salt and dirt staining my concrete. The new floor can be so easily cleaned, and absorbs NOTHING....... Oil and dirt and road salt from the winter sit on the top surface of the epoxy and are easily removed.
One word of caution:
Be sure to have adequate abrasive / sand material added when the floor is applied. The epoxy will be very slippery unless a knowledgeable person applies the sand in the proper quantity. Mine is quite good although I would have preferred a bit more traction as my wife and I are senior citizens looking for a safe and stable surface to walk on.
Installers hesitate to use too much since the sand makes the floor more susceptible to retaining dirt. I would rather have some dirt which can be easily washed away then have a surface which can become slippery.
We wound up adding some LL Bean "WaterHog" rubber runners to the walking area to add more traction, "just in case".
Yeah, it's in the ballpark for a good quality job.
However, given the state of the concrete, I think one has to consider the risk that the finished job may be rather ugly.
I might consider a different approach such as the modular heavy duty plastic floor tiles designed for garage and workshop type environments.
A good installation will still require some surface restoration but at least one can be sure it won't be visible when the job's complete. And I think this approach will be more tolerant of any subsequent small movement of the slabs due to subsidence, freezing etc.
The total price will not be dramatically different from a good expoxy job -- more on materials but less on labor.
If its got 30 years of grease and oil on it and it needs cleaning with acid , degreasers by using a floor buffer 1200 may not be that high, I used to have my own painting co and it took about 20 hours and 350$ in chemicals and the floor bufer to clean it. 18 years later it still there but its worn down, but it didnt peel. It all depends on the floors condition. Prep can be 95 % of the job.
Any clue what a tear-out would cost, considering the $1.2K epoxy estimate seems about right based on various responses in this thread? I know it's probably a "regional thing" but since the other "$2K for a
2 car garage estimates" mentioned in this thread match what my friend was told, a ball park number would be good enough for now.QUIKRETE Fast-Setting Self-Leveling Floor Resurfacer can also be used as a wear surface for light duty industrial floors.
and
Following are typical substrates: =95 Precast concrete plank =95 New concrete floor slabs with unacceptable finishes =95 Existing concrete floors with damaged finishes
As far as I know, there are no plans to ever park a car in the garage, at least as long as the current owner lives there. The garage is used mainly for storage.
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