Sealed Garage Floors

Garages are probably the least thought of and most overlooked areas of a home.  But if you are like most homeowners, you usually enter your home through the garage.  With the garage doors constantly opening and shutting, it becomes a great collector of dirt and dust that inevitably comes in with you into the home.  To makes matters worse, bare concrete does not clean up easily.  It soaks up any kind of oil spilled onto it.  That is deposited right into your home.  So what's the answer?  It might be having your garage floor sealed.

We tried the inexpensive route of painting the floor, but that was a waste of money.  When cars are pulled in, their tires are hot and will eventually wear through the paint.   And once the paint starts to chip, it just continues to erode and there is no way to stop it. 

If you want to seal your garage floors the right way, it is not going to be cheap and it may be a short term hassle, but it will pay off if you are a "neatnik".  A sealed floor sweeps out quickly and cleanly and oils will not penetrate the coating.

The floor sealants are usually epoxy based which means you have to stay off the floor for 4-5 days for it to set up properly.  However the newer polymer based sealants allow you to walk on the floor the day after it is applied.  It is still realistically a three day process, but it lasts a long, long time. 

Is it worth the expense?  It depends on your budget, but I can say for sure, it is a pleasure to have and I also believe it is a real selling point.  In fact, the two homes I have had listed with sealed floors installed both sold within 30 days of the listing.  Of course, those homes were also in perfect condition inside, so it seems one leads to the other. 

The price for a typical three car garage is going to be around $3,400.  These companies will not empty your garage for you, but they have contacts with other companies that can move and store your garage items while the treatment is taking place.

For the floor to be sealed correctly, the concrete floor must first be treated.  That means sanding it down to remove any oils and then treating it with muriatic acid.  It is then left overnight to dry.  On the second day they will come in and apply the polymer and spread the decorative paint flakes on top of it.  There are quite a few colors to choose from.  They let it dry for the rest of the day.  On the third day, they come back and scrape the excess paint chips off the floor and apply a coat of polyurethane.  You can walk on the floor the next day, but I still would not bring your car into the garage for another day or so.

Once the treatment is completed, the concrete will have an extremely tough film which is almost impenetrable to spills and scratches.  Most companies will carry a 10 year warranty on their product.  The real payoff comes when you are sweeping out the garage.  Even after I sweep out a garage floor it still always feels dusty and not really clean.  This floor easily cleans up with soap and water.

You can see here the installer is standing on the very last area of the garage floor that has not been treated.  And yes ... I asked him if he had ever unwittingly painted himself into a corner and he said he had :-)  He is spreading the polymer evenly with a roller.  The area with the flakes to the right already has the decorative flakes thrown on it and the clear polymer coating he is applying now does not.

Here, the installer is reaching into his box of decorative flakes ready to throw it as his helper is behind him painting the concrete corners with a paint brush.

As you can see, the installer has just thrown out a hand full of the decorative flakes.

After the floor has dried, the installer takes a scraper and peels off the excess paint flakes which have not adhered to the surface.

They follow with an air blower which gathers the chips in a corner where it is swept up.

The last step is applying the polyethylene top coat.  You can walk on the surface within about 5-6 hours, but you should keep the car off for three days. 

The final look (on another home).  If you really want to spiff up your garage, you can have cabinets built for it.  Notice how these cabinets are all sitting off the ground so the garage can be swept out easily.  You cannot see it very well, but there is a built-in sink to the far right of the cabinets. 

We chose Premier Garage Floors to seal our floors and build our cabinets.  We had them do it on the home we sold and the home we purchased.  We were happy with their work.  They showed up on the day and time they said they would and kept on schedule until the floor was completed.