DIY Guide To A Professional-Grade Epoxy Garage Floor Coating

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I will walk you through the full installation of a professional-grade epoxy garage floor kit. By doing this yourself you will get superior results as compared to DIY Rust-Oleum kits and save $1,000's in labor costs from hiring a professional. There are many critical steps in this process and I will walk you through start to finish including anything I did wrong and what the finished product looks like.

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Chapters
0:00 DIY vs Pro Epoxy Garage Flooring
1:59 How To Grind A Garage Concrete Floor
5:53 Filling Concrete Floor Cracks, Chips, and Spalls
8:08 Final Cleaning and Temperature Ranges While Applying Epoxy Coating
9:14 Supplies Needed For Professional-Grade Epoxy Garage Floor Coating
12:40 Applying The Epoxy Primer (Layer 1 of 3)
15:14 Applying The Intermediate Epoxy Coating and Flake (Layer 2 of 3)
18:42 Applying Anti-Skid and Clear Coating (Layer 3 of 3)
21:23 Final Results And Product Impressions (Also What Not To Do)

DISCLAIMER: This video and description contain affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission.

[wg]

I have no reason to watch this video, but yet I’m intrigued.

[philpeters]

Having used an epoxy coating in two different garages I can't emphasize how important it is to properly prep your floor. The degreasing/acid wash method is not adequate. Grinding down the concrete is an absolute must. Failure to do so will ensure poor adhesion of any product. Scott does a wonderful job of explaining the process. Don't shortcut any steps. Good materials cannot overcome poor prep.

[DJGrenadier]

I was not expecting flashbacks to the summer I spent running a grinder in commercial moisture mitigation. Some tips:
1) Rent the stand up grinder. Running a hand grinder on your knees will humble you real quick, and hitting those edges is going to suck.
2) The vacuum is only gonna get like 80% of the concrete dust. Make sure you have the correct respirator and ppe. Once that silica is in your lungs it don't come out. Throw plastic sheets over anything left in the garage.
3) We had much longer mixers (3-4ftft), which are much easier on your back when mixing
4) Get a roll of heavy construction paper and tape it down either outside the garage or in the hallway as a safe area to mix, change shoes, etc
5) We used large, cheap paint rollers for our epoxy - toss the rollers as soon as you're done and pop another one on if you needed it

[Busydadgarage]

Just had a quote for this job from a professional company. $4200. This is well worth the effort for the savings and results! Well done!

[jfmaniac]

I'm loving the beetle or whatever it is, it's been with us through the whole process so far :)

[peterpowers]

That floor looks amazing and you clearly put a ton of work into getting it like that. I used the DIY kit from the box stores back in 2017 in my last house and it failed within a year. It started peeling up under where the cars parked at first (I noticed it was where the water would drip off of the cars and sit on the ground) but then continued to spread. By the 3 year mark before I moved, the floor looked absolutely horrible. It was always peeling and chipping and those peices of the coating would always be all over the garage floor and would always find their way into the house. I tried many times to peel it all up, but with just a scraper it would never come up and would just chip away in random places over time. If anyone read this far, avoid the DIY kit at all costs unless it's going to be used on a low foot traffic area that will have no sitting water on it.

[hassanbazzi]

Wow. It is definitely shows the best out of the three. You get what you pay for. Well done.

[eaglye]

I’m about to grind my old concrete floor and am going to acid stain instead of using epoxy. I think my problem with epoxy is that I’d constantly be subconsciously worried about it - even if I did the perfect prep job and used superior products. I’d constantly be waiting for that morning that I walk out into the garage to find paint coming up somewhere. With acid stain, it actually soaks into the surface, reacts with the minerals, and becomes part of the concrete. Couple that with a nice clear coat and you’ve got a maintenance free, durable floor.

[philsmock]

Great video Scott. After watching your video I'm going to hire it done. I'm old and not up for that much of a DIY challenge. Thanks for sharing.

[BackyardMaine]

Great video Scott. Very informative.. What an awesome result.

[ReclusiveMountainMan]

Yes, def worth the upgrade. Great job.

[johnwrycza]

my Rustoleum lasted 10yrs, ended up thinning out, hot tires damaged it too diamond grinding off the old coating, and layering on the new epoxy+clear 5+ yrs ago; bombproof - and like others have commented; it the prep / grinding. also note; there's 2 different Rustoleum products being sold Rock Solid is the better option.

[archermark]

Great video and excellent results, thanks for this demo!!

[ElMoeMan]

Thanks Scott, another perfect video as usual!

[Rhaspun]

Yes. I watched a few videos from another channel. It was a professional doing the garage floor treatment. He said grinding is the only way to have a good long lasting epoxy coating. Your floor coating looks really good.

[Vincent-rqdx]

Another thing is you can use the angle grinder and grind the side concretewalls right below the drywall, and then use a paint roller and put on more epoxy + flakes, gives you a really nice clean look on the edges too! Plus its more waterproof kinda like caulking your corners in the shower!

[readyplayer]

It ideally wouldn’t need to be said, but if you’re using a gas powered grinder, make sure you leave the garage door open and set up ventilation to blow the byproducts of combustion out. If you have living space above the garage, ventilate that too.

[T_Jonesy]

Looks amazing. Great video. I think its worth the extra money.

[darrensaltiel]

the reason rustoleum epoxy doesnt work for people, is a couple reasons, 1) the surface isnt clean or dry enough, its gotta be bone dry zero moisture let that garage dry out for three days after your acid wash . 2) the kits dont have enought epoxy primer or compound to lay thick enough before it cures . buy 2 for one . and mix both parts from each kit ie primers and compounds together separately so you dont run into color differences when it dries . 3) order extra flake and sealer . work fast but take your time and it holds up

[budnspud]

I think this is amazing. I had the DIY coating on a concrete floor and it did fail at the 6 month mark chipping etc.