Treating dusty garage floor?

Our garage, and the area directly outside, has a concrete floor. I reckon it's now about 16 years old. It always seems dusty, and I'm constantly sweeping it out. Is it likely the floor material is soft and wearing out? Is there something I can paint or spray onto it to 'bind' it or whatever please?

Reply to
Terry Pinnell
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This is quite a common problem, Terry, because builders don't make a good job of garage floors.

There are three options that I would consider.

1) If the floor isn't actually crumbling and is sound but not dusty, then a mix of about 5:1 water and PVA adhesive spread and mopped over the floor should fix the dust problem.

2) You could paint the floor with an inexpensive garage floor paint and it will last a few years and give a useful working surface that's easier to clean

3) If the floor is crumbling slightly in one or two places, you can use an epoxy floor paint (Decorating Direct is a good source for this). This has an epoxy sealer base coat and a top coat. Result is a very durable surface.

.andy

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Reply to
Andy Hall

Excellent - thanks, Andy.

Reply to
Terry Pinnell

I've never had much luck with PVA. It tends to form a skin, rather than soaking in, and this skin has negligible wear resistance.

I'd prefer to use the paint. Cheap red-oxide floortile paint from a DIY shed is OK for a quick job, a real epoxy floor paint is much better but costly. Chlorinated rubber floor paints are about the best compromise of cost and quality, but you'll need something like Industrial Exchange and Mart to find them.

I've seen one garage where a beautiful job was done with two-part isocyanate car paint, applied by brush instead of spray. It was a large quantity of surplus paint, bought cheaply at auction. The only problem was that it was bright yellow, as it used to belong to BT's van fleet, until they switched to grey livery. Very cheery, but a little eye-scorching to work in there.

If you can find it, and you can find it cheaply enough, waterglass is a pretty good stabiliser for dusty concrete.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Some years ago there was a scare concerning the use of 2xpack isocyanate car paint without wearing protective breathiing masks. If I remember correctly it caused grave damage to the lungs.

Perhaps it would be worthwhile checking before use.

John. =====================================================

Reply to
John

Yes - I didn't mean to imply wear resistance but have found it fixes dust if that's all that's needed.

.andy

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Reply to
Andy Hall

Scare ? No, the stuff'll just kill you dead, no question.

That's for spraying it though, when it's an aerosol. Brushed on it's OK - a minor fume hazard, but no worse than most other modern paints. For a large area in an enclosed space like a garage, a respirator is a good idea anyway.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

I'm just about to get the roof on my garage this week after the floor has been exposed to the british summer for almost 4 months now. Any idea on how long I should leave the floor before applying "something" to stop the floor dusting?

Reply to
Sean

For my garage I used a clear concrete sealer first before putting on red garage floor paint. The sealer first does a couple of things, stops dust, soaks in deeper than paint does, provides a good base for the following paint and prevents further dust a later date when you damage the floor paint exposing the concrete. Oh remember to paint the walls as well, as a mate of mine sealed his garage floor but left the walls un painted and still suffers from dust from both the breeze block and brick built walls. I just used two coats of external emulsion on the walls, first coat thinned with water and a very long haired roller to ensure it got in all the crevices of the breeze blocks.

Reply to
Ian Middleton

I would leave it for a week or so and see if it looks reasonably dry if you are going to use PVA, maybe a couple of weeks if you are going to use a paint.

.andy

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Reply to
Andy Hall

In article , Terry Pinnell writes

Yes, use a dustproofer, a resin-based in surface seal, invisible to the eye but will harden the surface If you end up going the floor paint route make sure its UV stable for the outside bit, a polyurethane not an epoxy

Reply to
David

In message , Ian Middleton writes

Yep, I always regretted not doing the floor and walls in our garage when we moved here. by he time I thought about it, it always seemed like to much effort to empty the place out again.

When we move next year, one of the first jobs will be to do the garage floor and wall before unpacking.

Painting the walls also makes it seem a lot lighter

Reply to
chris French

Thanks for all those helpful replies - much appreciated.

I hadn't thought about walls. Frankly it's now impossible, as I have floor to ceiling shelves everywhere, all packed with stuff. I sure wish I'd done that at the outset. As others have said, it would make the space look a lot brighter. Why the heck don't builders do it as a matter of course? OK, yes, silly question I suppose - obviously it's to save a few pounds. But how easy it would be at that time...

Reply to
Terry Pinnell

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