DIY Garage Floor Epoxy Coating

hey what's up guys so i finally did it i epoxy my 
garage floor and this floor used to be stained and   super ugly and i am so glad i took 
the time to knock this project out   and i did it for less than a third of the cost 
and i learned a ton and i want to show you exactly   how you can do the same thing to your garage 
floor on this episode of field trader designs the first step was to peel up the carpet tile 
that i had placed from my back door to my garage   office there and it came up pretty well although 
it did leave a sticky residue that i had to work   on here and there when i power washed next 
my wife and i cleared everything out luckily   i'm pretty organized and so it's just a matter of 
moving the big pieces into the side room the pulp   workbench there moves really well in case you 
haven't seen that video series i would highly   encourage checking that out but yeah just moving 
everything out getting everything cleaned up   and once the floor was all kind of uncovered 
you can now see man it is really as gross   as it first looked i mean it is nasty like i 
said earlier 50 years worth of stains and junk   and so i really want to help you see what i'm 
dealing with in case you're dealing with the same   obviously my biggest concern was will the epoxy 
paint cover it and hide those stains for good and   i'm excited to say that it worked the first thing 
i did was power wash the whole garage floor i used   a pretty inexpensive ryobi pressure washer and i 
actually did a review video on that if you want to   check it out on my channel but this thing works 
great i wanted to get as much dirt and junk off   the floor so that i could then tell what stains 
i would be working with and i took a few of the   things off the walls because of the splash factor 
but yeah i just did a general cleaning get as much   out there down the driveway as i could and then 
i'll return to do more detail surface prep the   next step was to use some goof off stain remover 
and i am applying that to these really awful spots   and so there's a lot of different chemicals and 
cleaners you can get so this is what i chose for   the stains there's also a lot of different methods 
on diluting with water and applications and   set time and all that and so for me i just 
poured it straight on i used the concentrate   and then after it was on the surface i then used 
a bristle brush just to work it into the general   stain area i let it sit for a little while then 
i power washed it all off next i did a treatment   with zepp heavy duty citrus degreaser so the 
concrete stain remover worked decently well on   the stains but it had an interesting effect in 
that it made the outside areas of the concrete   that weren't treated look a lot dirtier while the 
stains kind of still stuck out so i wanted to just   make absolutely sure that these stains were 
treated as well as possible to minimize any   chance for the stain to come through the paint 
later on and then the exact same process i'm going   to let it sit for a minute and then i'm going to 
power wash it off the third step in the concrete   prep is doing concrete etching so this is going 
to go over the entirety of the surface i pour it   into the bucket then i dilute it with water to the 
right ratio for the square footage that i'm using   and then i stir it as much as i can to dissolve it 
kind of like salt into water although a lot more   dangerous and then i pour it into sections but 
i have to act really quickly it starts to hiss   and starts to really have a chemical reaction on 
the concrete and so i brush it into its spots and   then after i get that done i power wash it off so 
i had to go really quick i couldn't film this very   easily and here's what it looked like so pretty 
good i mean those stains are a lot lighter i mean   it looks really bad on camera even as i'm doing my 
voiceover work here i mean it still looks pretty   awful but if you remember what it looked like 
before i feel like i've done a lot of good work   but it's funny how these different treatments make 
the concrete look a lot different a lot splotchier   and so to be safe i decided to do all three 
processes over the whole garage floor one more   time i sucked it up i mixed a ton more stain 
remover and then i applied it over the entire   floor then i power washed it all out then i did 
the same thing with the degreaser after that i   power washed all of that out and then number three 
i mixed a whole new batch of concrete etching   and i did a huge pour over and brushing for the 
concrete etch one more time i really worked it in   and then i power washed it again after i finished 
i let it dry for 48 hours and here's what it looks   like while it's drying and i would say it was time 
well spent on the prep even though there's still   some stains it's going to be great okay from my 
garage floor there was one more step of prep and   that was mixing up some easy quick crete to fill 
some holes and some cracks so that i could smooth   out some areas of my garage floor and so the 
paint as i'm sure you've read will not fill cracks   and so it's super important to make sure that 
you fill in any holes or cracks before you do   your paint job i just used a trowel to get the 
concrete into the holes and kind of smooth it   out a little bit and then while i let it dry and 
cure i had some other projects to work on and so   one of them was to paint the bottom trim around 
the garage floor it was mostly concrete and so   i primed it and caulked it and then i'm using 
great stuff here and there to fill the holes   and then i painted it the same color as the wall 
which turned out really well once the concrete   patching was dry i actually took my random orbital 
sander with some good grit sandpaper it was able   to smooth them out and it worked perfectly i had 
never done this before and even though there's a   few little pits in it after the paint it won't be 
any problem at all okay all the prep works done   here's what the garage floor looks like it's a 
huge improvement and i'd love to introduce you   to my host andrew bacon all right so i just went 
for a run so excuse the short shorts but i got   the two car garage epoxy kit and this covers 
this is rust-oleum covers for 450 to 500 square   feet this my garage space and i'm going to 
go a little bit outside the doors it's 485   so i'm right in that sweet spot for coverage but 
i've never done this before and i don't want to   stress out about um you know it being too thin or 
getting to like the last couple of feet and it not   making it so i bought a single stall kit as 
well and this covers two to 250 so worst case   i have to bust this out and um best case i 
had this and then i bought two bags of chips   as well because i read that you need to sprinkle a 
bunch more that what they give you doesn't fit so   so that's what i've got let's open it up and 
read the directions okay thank you andrew aka   myself so here's what's inside the box this is 
the two-car garage kit got the stir stick in   the directions we've got two bags of chips 
and then you'll see here that we've got two   large containers paint cans of the base paint 
and then there are two quartz sized containers   of the activator it also comes with the concrete 
etching chemical but i had already used that   after i read the directions i realized that you 
have to commit to the amount of paint you're   going to use because the base paints could 
be tinted just a little bit differently so   earlier i had said that i might hold the single 
car garage kit for later but i had to decide to   commit to using it because you've got to mix 
all three together and then redistribute them   into their cans and so i went ahead and bit the 
bullet and i didn't want to run out of paint and   i'll show you how much was left after and i think 
that i made the right call but basically here   you have to dump all the base paint into a bucket 
stir it up really well then redistribute it   into each bucket because you want to activate 
each amount at the right time because it doesn't   have a very long pot life once the base paint was 
all mixed up and redistributed back in the cans   i put the lids back on and then i matched them 
up with their parts and now they're ready to go   next i consolidated all the chips from the 
different packages and the extras that we had   bought on their own thinking that we might run out 
because of what i had read online well it turns   out i had way more than i needed so this step is 
not needed at all but this it gives you an idea of   me thinking that i needed to be conservative with 
the chips and have them in four different buckets   for four different quadrants but as you'll see 
later we had way more so don't open them until you   need them finally it's time to paint so i open the 
base then i open the activator and then i pour it   in and i've got my drill with the paddle on there 
to get ready to mix it up which i highly recommend   having this and then you want to have a place for 
it to go when you're done because i need to paint   immediately so once it was mixed i then poured it 
into the paint tray and so all of these supplies   i'll have links to them in the show notes below 
and thankfully my wife is helping me out here   and that brush is going to be used to paint the 
perimeter sections and so i start by painting   the outline and i'm working in about four feet 
section so i do the outline and then i get that   done i hand the brush to my wife then i grab the 
roller and get started the best way i can describe   the paint is really thick and it did change while 
i was painting which was really interesting so   it started off really thick the edging was really 
thick the roller was thick and then it was almost   as if the paint kind of loosened up as it stayed 
out and was ready to be used to paint so i really   just went along and used the roller and i was able 
to use the same roller brush for the entirety of   the floor which was kind of cool so i'm gonna 
do my best just to kind of show you our process   and go from there so i did four feet ish by four 
feet sections and then my wife went behind me and   sprinkled on the chips and we learned that you 
didn't want to do too much painting because you   wanted to be able to reach the sections with those 
chips and we just kind of went section by section   i highly recommend having a buddy to help you 
get this done by the end i was so tired and   having my wife throw those chips onto the paint 
while it was still wet was perfect and i think   we're doing not a heavy pattern but we're not 
doing a light pattern maybe somewhere in the   middle and again we still did not run out at all 
we had way more left over i was definitely curious   about the stains if i would start to see anything 
show through and i can even say after a month of   use as i'm doing this video now not any stain 
has gone through so it's covering really well   again i'm really glad i prepped well and so next 
i had to go around our middle pole there and so   just like you would normally i just grab 
my brush and just paint it around it and   again my wife is sprinkling those chips on and 
we're tag teaming which is working really well all right here's kind of a progress shot 
again the sprinkling of the chips trying   to give you an idea that was something 
that we just didn't know how it would work   and this is the quadrant we've gotten 
done and yeah it's looking really good   time for quadrant two so i worked my way around 
the perimeter first just to get that knocked out   then i was able to do an extended rolling 
time and then after i got that done my wife   continued to follow up with the sprinkling 
and so we're just tag teaming along here and   here's kind of a detailed shot just giving you 
a look at how it's going on and this process   is it's taking a while but it's going on great 
and every time i'm thankful for the prep work now we're almost done it's the home stretch 
so i've got a strip of painters tape at the   transition i had put some quikrete in there 
while i was working on this project to make   that transition smooth and so that line marks 
the end of the epoxy it's going to extend a   little bit beyond my garage doors which is great 
so my wife is just following up sprinkling i am   dead i'm not going to lie i'm so exhausted by 
this point a couple things i want to point out   is have a towel like i've got over in the corner 
there ready to go for all the extra stuff that you   throw down i ended up staining my concrete on my 
driveway a couple times which kind of frustrated   me then my wife had to grab our blower so have 
your blower handy or a broom because the wind was   blowing in debris because it got a little windy so 
that as you can imagine was frustrating us but all   in all we got it done i painted around those edges 
with the brush and then i'm using the roller and   we moved along and we finally got this thing done 
then we lowered the garage doors to about a foot   open to allow airflow to go in and then i blocked 
the outside with some wood then once it was dry i   grabbed a work glove and loosened up any chips 
that may not have dried on the paint and then i   grabbed my blower and i blew them all out just to 
prep the surface for the clear coat epoxy and by   the way i think the clear coat it's a no-brainer i 
would totally advise doing the clear coat because   those chips that are great for the coloring 
and the look of the epoxy floor they don't dry   flat or glossy and so you want something to have 
an extra layer of protection and smoothness here   i am popping the mixture of the clear coat finish 
that i'm going to put on and for some reason this   is not included in the kit i have no idea why i 
think it is absolutely mandatory to do the paint   throw the chips on it and then add the clear coat 
but i guess it is what it is so then i cut open a   corner to add in the non-slip material it's 
kind of like a very light coarse sand and i   didn't want to overdo it and i put about half 
to three quarters of the bag into it and then   here's kind of the dilemma it's hard to mix so 
i opened up the bag and i used the included stir   stick just to kind of get it going and mix it as 
best i could so then once i got that mixed i then   poured it into the tray and so unfortunately 
the bag doesn't fit all the way into the tray   and so you have to pour about half the bag full 
and then set the bag down and try to not allow   it to drip anywhere while you go and do your paint 
and then it just paints on like i did earlier so   i just repeated the process that i had used for 
the epoxy painting and i did the perimeter then   i would use the roller and i had to kind of 
learn it was a little bit different texture   than the epoxy and i kind of just went along the 
same way it's very hard to see what you've painted   on and so keep that in mind and then the only 
other thing i would do here is i would have a   towel underneath my tray i don't know why i didn't 
do that just to avoid drips and things like that   and then the other big thing that i did wrong 
was i underestimated i should have bought two   clear coat kits so here i am at the end i'm mixing 
up a new batch of clear coating because i had to   run back to lowe's and buy another one so don't 
make my mistake buy an extra one just in case   i don't want that clear coat to be thin 
and stretched out so i made sure it was   nice and generous but luckily it all worked out i 
just continued on painting it and got it all done   real quick here's what i had left so for the 
base i had plenty of epoxy left but i'm glad i   mixed it because i would have run out and then 
the decorative chips i sure wish i hadn't opened   those two extra bags because we had plenty 
and here it is guys the epoxy garage floor   it's finished in all its glory there's nothing 
on it everybody take your shoes off before you   walk on it you know don't make dad's floor a mess 
but guys this project i'm so glad i took the time   to do this this is amazing i think the amount of 
chips that we put in the floor it breaks up any   deviation crack of the old concrete no stains 
have come through and then obviously the clear   coat is a must so make sure you plan for that 
hey i'm gonna have all the links and details in   the show notes below or on my blog thank you 
so much for watching i hope it was helpful   don't forget to hit that like and subscribe 
and i'll see you on the next video thanks you

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