01-14-2015, 02:43 PM
join me, won't you, on my adventures to complete one of the ritualistic tasks ascribed to all adult male car enthusiasts: acquire and customize a space in which cars can be safely parked, wrenches can be turned, parts broken, and great quantities of beer drank. not necessarily in that order.
so here's the ongoing saga of my attempts to build a kickass garage and/or place of automotive hoonery.
we bought our first place in extra-crispy July here in GA and after a decade in apartments, one of my non-negotiable criteria was that the house had to have either a double garage or an outbuilding that I could build into a garage - option 1 preferred. we ended up finding a great little place (that I came to find was owned by a local autocrosser) with a pretty nice double. i lucked out with a few bonuses, one being that the PO hadn't trashed the garage or bolted too much stuff to the walls, and that he also ran line to, and installed a flatscreen up on one wall. we negotiated the TVs into the closing (we threw out our old busted one when we moved) so its nice to have a big screen out there.
the blueprints:
![[Image: garage_zpsf315f93a.jpg]](http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/scottyb226/garage_zpsf315f93a.jpg)
floor space is approx. 23x21 with a 2x12 foot deep outset section on one wall. compared to the space in our last rental home its like having the whole deck of an aircraft carrier to myself.
after spending an unhealthy amount of time on garagejournal.com, first thing i did before we even moved was plan on a floor covering. i always wanted a garage with a nice coating for aesthetic and cleanup purposes. i wanted my son to be able to go out and play in an open garage sometimes and a nice floor would allow me to keep it clean and free of dirt and oil. i knew my only chance to do this right was before we brought everything in...there was no way i was going to find time to pull everything out of the garage for possibly days while i either installed a floor or waited for it to cure.
i settled on epoxy coating with a $1,000 budget. it was either that, or Racedeck, and the decking was out of my budget, plain and simple...although i love the way it looks. There are a ton of pros/cons to any flooring but I was plan on this being a "working" garage and i felt that between my 2 "finalists", for the money, the epoxy coating would work the most easily for general grungework, cleaning, and maybe even welding later on.
additionally i had a second challenge - whatever coating i got had to be able to be applied and cured in a day. the wife and i planned to head down from NC during closing and stay for a few days to do some projects in the house to make it move-in ready, like painting walls, top-to-bottom cleaning, decorative crap and garage stuff. neither of us could take much time off from work or get babysitting help for more than a few days so we had about 4 days to get down and out, and most epoxies are a full-time 5 day process between cleaning, etching, applying and curing if you're doing it alone or with a helper.
I settled on a Polycuramine base color coating with a Polyaspartic Clear Coat for extra protection. both the polycuramine and polyaspartic products are supposedly just as strong as regular epoxy but cures in a single day which is exactly what i needed. there seemed to be only 2 companies that could supply what i needed in small quantities (< 750 sq ft), which was either Rocksolid or Legacy Industrial. I like Legacy's product a lot and they have kickass customer service, but they could only do larger quantities than i needed, and their polycuramine + color chips + clearcoat came out over budget. that left Rocksolid for the polycuramine, who is carried only by Menards (sort of an Ace hardware of the midwest). I had to order it online - 3 kits total at 250sq ft. each - which was a PITA but it was still the most cost effective solution.
![[Image: 5512441-Garage-Coat-MockUp-Grey.jpg]](http://www.menards.com/main/store/20090519001/items/media/Wallcoverings/rock_solid_wall/ProductLarge/5512441-Garage-Coat-MockUp-Grey.jpg)
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.menards.com/main/p-2272039-c-8022.htm">http://www.menards.com/main/p-2272039-c-8022.htm</a><!-- m -->
![[Image: IMG_0824%20(640x626).jpg]](http://legacyindustrial.net/cart/images/IMG_0824%20(640x626).jpg)
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here is a laundry list of everything that i got a hold of to do this. total spent was around $900, and my dad had a few things lying around that i used so realistically it would have been close to $1000 if i bought everything straight up. some things are pretty obvious (like a hose, or old shoes) but i figured i'd list everything i could think of. I also painted the cinderblock apron which is what all the brushes are for.
Coatings
- RockSolid Polycuramine Grey Garage Coat (the color main coat, comes with acid etch and color chips)
- RockSolid Oil Destroyer degreaser
- Legacy Industrial Xtreme PolyAspartic 80 Clear Coat
- Legacy Industrial HDgrip Anti-skid Additive, standard coarseness
- Legacy Industrial Salt and Pepper Designer Flake chips
Supplies i had a 3 man team: apron painter, floor painter, and chip thrower
red items are "optional" depending on your floor construction and coating goals
- hose for rinsing floor after acid wash
- (1) pair of spike shoes to allow walking on coating to spread texture chips
- (1) 3 in. brushes
- (2) 4 in. brushes
- (2) 1-1/2 in. brushes
- (1) roller extension handle
- (3) 9 in. roller frames
- (2) paint trays
- paint tray liners
- (7) 3/8" nap paint rollers for the frames
- (2) paint mixer paddles
- (lots) box of latex gloves
- pair of old sneakers
- stiff bristle floor push-brush to scrub the acid wash
- stiff bristle hand brush (for concrete apron, optional)
- floor squeegee
- shop vac
- work lights
- safety glasses
- 1.5 to 2 gallon cheap plastic mixing bucket/container to mix the clearcoat in
- 20" box fan
Prep and Cleaning Day 1
PREP IS KING. IF YOU DON'T PREP RIGHT THE COATING WILL FAIL.
try to do this at a moderate temperature. above 60 and under 80 is great if you can manage it.
- use your vac and get all the crap up off the floor
- go over the floor with your degreaser...use all of it. we did 3 rounds of cleaning with the stiff brushes and plenty of rinse water.
- mix up your acid etch. if you get it in your eyes or on your hands you're gonna have a bad time. pour out acid per instructions and watch it bubble up as it eats a small layer of concrete away to give the coating a biting surface.
- rinse super thoroughly not only to remove it but to dilute it enough that the runoff doesn't destroy all the grass at the edge of your driveway.
- set your box fan(s) to VTEC and get a good hurricane going with the garage door cracked to evacuate the humidity and dry out the concrete. takes longer than you'd think especially in the summer.
- try not to walk all over your clean floor with dirty-ass shoes
- put down a layer of duct tape on the part of the garage entry where the door seals, as a mask when you run the paint up to it. past that point there is no coating and you don't want it under the rubber seal where it can risk pulling up if the rubber gets hot and tacky in the summer.
drying out:
![[Image: DSC_0322_zps7cc95ea9.jpg]](http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/scottyb226/DSC_0322_zps7cc95ea9.jpg)
Main Coating Day 2
make sure there are no distractions. you really can't start and quit halfway to watch the last 5 minutes of the game or whatever. once you mix the coating it will auto-harden in about 20 minutes so be on point.
- put down a layer of plastic or a tarp under where you plan to mix paint. this is kind of a big deal if you do it in your driveway, since that stuff is never coming up (hopefully) if you spill it.
- mix your coating according to directions. for Rocksolid this means squeezing and bursting the pouch so the components can mix, a lot like a first aid cold pack.
- cut open and pour mix into a paint tray and get to work on the cinderblock first if you wish to paint it, with the brushes.
- once you are ready to start on the floor, have your roller ready and start at a far corner, working in about a 3x3 space at a time. do not be afraid to put it on heavy but be aware of how much you use so you don't run out, or else you done F'd up real good.
- if you did not fill in any concrete cracks, just be aware this coating will not fill them in either. its thick but not that thick. be sure you get coating way into the cracks though, so that the coating has minimal opportunity to chip away from the edge due to a good uniform coat.
- go until you run out, then slap on your spike shoes because you need to throw the chips down while the paint is still tacky
- get your chip bag and toss them underhand way up in the air. if you chuck them sidearm like you're skipping stones the chips will land in a clump.
- don't drag your feet in the spike shoes. they are designed so that if you walk carefully the tiny spike points won't leave a trace
insert Tab A into Slot B waaaaaitaminute..... this is what the burst pouch looks like. also what a sweaty guy dressed in yesterday's clothes looks like.
![[Image: DSC_0323_zps13fc4dfe.jpg]](http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/scottyb226/DSC_0323_zps13fc4dfe.jpg)
letting the base + chips cure. needs 24 hours.
![[Image: DSC_0324_zpscd5dcbc5.jpg]](http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/scottyb226/DSC_0324_zpscd5dcbc5.jpg)
Clear Coat and Non-Slip Additive Day 3
- don your spike shoes again and go over your floor with the shop vac to remove any loose chips. don't be afraid to put pressure on them to work any "hangers" loose, you wouldn't believe how much they stick to the floor.
- pour out clear into paint try, carry on just like the previous coat
- my manufacturer recommended adding the non-slip (basically silicon powder) directly to the clear, mixing it, then pouring it into the paint tray. my opinion is that its a waste, all the grit sinks to the bottom and never sticks to the roller so you end up seeing piles of it in the bottom of the tray, wasted.
- as a result i switched up halfway through and broadcast the grit onto the tacky clearcoat just like i did with the color chips. worked awesome and the grit is so fine that it spreads very uniformly in the air.
- i did not put clear on the apron due to the clear being used primarily for wear protection and as a medium to hold the non-slip grit on the floor and seal down the color chips.
- same deal when done...needs 24 hours, so walk away and get many beers
Day 4
finally, all done! coating looks just OK up close (aesthetically speaking), i suck and throwing the chips evenly so its really on me for that, and i'm picky. that said, its just all the more reason it feels like "i did this!" for better or worse. very happy with the color, its very bright and not too mundane while still being practical for not showing dirt and grime.
![[Image: DSC_0325_zpsbe822cf0.jpg]](http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/scottyb226/DSC_0325_zpsbe822cf0.jpg)
getting to finally walk on it, pictured here with my nephews who were very satisfactory slave laborers. you can see some of the gloss sheen under the bikes and stool that the clearcoat provides.
![[Image: 20140718_101058_resized_1_zps7b5db5ca.jpg]](http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/scottyb226/20140718_101058_resized_1_zps7b5db5ca.jpg)
stuff i learned
- BE VERY CAREFUL HOW YOU DISPOSE OF THE COATING. when it cures, the chemical reaction causes it to get VERY HOT and the denser the quantity, the hotter it gets. i balled up some of the bust pouches with some coating still in them, and tossed them in a plastic garbage bag on the driveway. i came back out 2 hours later to bring the bag inside and almost gave myself a bad burn. the pouches were curing inside and had gotten so hot they almost melted through the bag. i'd be concerned they'd catch on fire especially with all those chemical soaked things in a closed-up bag. leave ALL COATING material outside in open air, preferrably on dirt so you don't have to worry about leaks or drips as much.
- you really only need 1 pair of spike shoes
- BUY THE BEST QUALITY ROLLERS YOU CAN AFFORD. i used the kit supplied rollers and they disintegrated twice during the coating...as it got tacky it literally pulled them apart. changing slippery, tight fitting chemical-soaked rollers in gloves while the clock is ticking sucks big time. i switched over to some backup Wooster rollers and never had another issue.
- don't paint a concrete block apron. the concrete sucks up the coating unevenly and looks like crap. i'm considering paint over it all in white paint.
- they say this stuff is low VOC, but whatever, the fumes are awful. get air often and never shut the garage door, even if its windy. if stuff is blowing onto your coating then all i can say is tough luck. if those fumes come into the house you're going to hate life for days and you probably won't get laid for a month at least.
- get the non-slip grit. stuff is awesome and when the floor is wet it would be an utter HAZARD if that stuff wasn't on there.
so here's the ongoing saga of my attempts to build a kickass garage and/or place of automotive hoonery.
we bought our first place in extra-crispy July here in GA and after a decade in apartments, one of my non-negotiable criteria was that the house had to have either a double garage or an outbuilding that I could build into a garage - option 1 preferred. we ended up finding a great little place (that I came to find was owned by a local autocrosser) with a pretty nice double. i lucked out with a few bonuses, one being that the PO hadn't trashed the garage or bolted too much stuff to the walls, and that he also ran line to, and installed a flatscreen up on one wall. we negotiated the TVs into the closing (we threw out our old busted one when we moved) so its nice to have a big screen out there.
the blueprints:
floor space is approx. 23x21 with a 2x12 foot deep outset section on one wall. compared to the space in our last rental home its like having the whole deck of an aircraft carrier to myself.
after spending an unhealthy amount of time on garagejournal.com, first thing i did before we even moved was plan on a floor covering. i always wanted a garage with a nice coating for aesthetic and cleanup purposes. i wanted my son to be able to go out and play in an open garage sometimes and a nice floor would allow me to keep it clean and free of dirt and oil. i knew my only chance to do this right was before we brought everything in...there was no way i was going to find time to pull everything out of the garage for possibly days while i either installed a floor or waited for it to cure.
i settled on epoxy coating with a $1,000 budget. it was either that, or Racedeck, and the decking was out of my budget, plain and simple...although i love the way it looks. There are a ton of pros/cons to any flooring but I was plan on this being a "working" garage and i felt that between my 2 "finalists", for the money, the epoxy coating would work the most easily for general grungework, cleaning, and maybe even welding later on.
additionally i had a second challenge - whatever coating i got had to be able to be applied and cured in a day. the wife and i planned to head down from NC during closing and stay for a few days to do some projects in the house to make it move-in ready, like painting walls, top-to-bottom cleaning, decorative crap and garage stuff. neither of us could take much time off from work or get babysitting help for more than a few days so we had about 4 days to get down and out, and most epoxies are a full-time 5 day process between cleaning, etching, applying and curing if you're doing it alone or with a helper.
I settled on a Polycuramine base color coating with a Polyaspartic Clear Coat for extra protection. both the polycuramine and polyaspartic products are supposedly just as strong as regular epoxy but cures in a single day which is exactly what i needed. there seemed to be only 2 companies that could supply what i needed in small quantities (< 750 sq ft), which was either Rocksolid or Legacy Industrial. I like Legacy's product a lot and they have kickass customer service, but they could only do larger quantities than i needed, and their polycuramine + color chips + clearcoat came out over budget. that left Rocksolid for the polycuramine, who is carried only by Menards (sort of an Ace hardware of the midwest). I had to order it online - 3 kits total at 250sq ft. each - which was a PITA but it was still the most cost effective solution.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.menards.com/main/p-2272039-c-8022.htm">http://www.menards.com/main/p-2272039-c-8022.htm</a><!-- m -->
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://legacyindustrial.net/cart/xtreme-polyaspartic-80-p-266.html">http://legacyindustrial.net/cart/xtreme ... p-266.html</a><!-- m -->
here is a laundry list of everything that i got a hold of to do this. total spent was around $900, and my dad had a few things lying around that i used so realistically it would have been close to $1000 if i bought everything straight up. some things are pretty obvious (like a hose, or old shoes) but i figured i'd list everything i could think of. I also painted the cinderblock apron which is what all the brushes are for.
Coatings
- RockSolid Polycuramine Grey Garage Coat (the color main coat, comes with acid etch and color chips)
- RockSolid Oil Destroyer degreaser
- Legacy Industrial Xtreme PolyAspartic 80 Clear Coat
- Legacy Industrial HDgrip Anti-skid Additive, standard coarseness
- Legacy Industrial Salt and Pepper Designer Flake chips
Supplies i had a 3 man team: apron painter, floor painter, and chip thrower
red items are "optional" depending on your floor construction and coating goals
- hose for rinsing floor after acid wash
- (1) pair of spike shoes to allow walking on coating to spread texture chips
- (1) 3 in. brushes
- (2) 4 in. brushes
- (2) 1-1/2 in. brushes
- (1) roller extension handle
- (3) 9 in. roller frames
- (2) paint trays
- paint tray liners
- (7) 3/8" nap paint rollers for the frames
- (2) paint mixer paddles
- (lots) box of latex gloves
- pair of old sneakers
- stiff bristle floor push-brush to scrub the acid wash
- stiff bristle hand brush (for concrete apron, optional)
- floor squeegee
- shop vac
- work lights
- safety glasses
- 1.5 to 2 gallon cheap plastic mixing bucket/container to mix the clearcoat in
- 20" box fan
Prep and Cleaning Day 1
PREP IS KING. IF YOU DON'T PREP RIGHT THE COATING WILL FAIL.
try to do this at a moderate temperature. above 60 and under 80 is great if you can manage it.
- use your vac and get all the crap up off the floor
- go over the floor with your degreaser...use all of it. we did 3 rounds of cleaning with the stiff brushes and plenty of rinse water.
- mix up your acid etch. if you get it in your eyes or on your hands you're gonna have a bad time. pour out acid per instructions and watch it bubble up as it eats a small layer of concrete away to give the coating a biting surface.
- rinse super thoroughly not only to remove it but to dilute it enough that the runoff doesn't destroy all the grass at the edge of your driveway.
- set your box fan(s) to VTEC and get a good hurricane going with the garage door cracked to evacuate the humidity and dry out the concrete. takes longer than you'd think especially in the summer.
- try not to walk all over your clean floor with dirty-ass shoes
- put down a layer of duct tape on the part of the garage entry where the door seals, as a mask when you run the paint up to it. past that point there is no coating and you don't want it under the rubber seal where it can risk pulling up if the rubber gets hot and tacky in the summer.
drying out:
Main Coating Day 2
make sure there are no distractions. you really can't start and quit halfway to watch the last 5 minutes of the game or whatever. once you mix the coating it will auto-harden in about 20 minutes so be on point.
- put down a layer of plastic or a tarp under where you plan to mix paint. this is kind of a big deal if you do it in your driveway, since that stuff is never coming up (hopefully) if you spill it.
- mix your coating according to directions. for Rocksolid this means squeezing and bursting the pouch so the components can mix, a lot like a first aid cold pack.
- cut open and pour mix into a paint tray and get to work on the cinderblock first if you wish to paint it, with the brushes.
- once you are ready to start on the floor, have your roller ready and start at a far corner, working in about a 3x3 space at a time. do not be afraid to put it on heavy but be aware of how much you use so you don't run out, or else you done F'd up real good.
- if you did not fill in any concrete cracks, just be aware this coating will not fill them in either. its thick but not that thick. be sure you get coating way into the cracks though, so that the coating has minimal opportunity to chip away from the edge due to a good uniform coat.
- go until you run out, then slap on your spike shoes because you need to throw the chips down while the paint is still tacky
- get your chip bag and toss them underhand way up in the air. if you chuck them sidearm like you're skipping stones the chips will land in a clump.
- don't drag your feet in the spike shoes. they are designed so that if you walk carefully the tiny spike points won't leave a trace
insert Tab A into Slot B waaaaaitaminute..... this is what the burst pouch looks like. also what a sweaty guy dressed in yesterday's clothes looks like.
letting the base + chips cure. needs 24 hours.
Clear Coat and Non-Slip Additive Day 3
- don your spike shoes again and go over your floor with the shop vac to remove any loose chips. don't be afraid to put pressure on them to work any "hangers" loose, you wouldn't believe how much they stick to the floor.
- pour out clear into paint try, carry on just like the previous coat
- my manufacturer recommended adding the non-slip (basically silicon powder) directly to the clear, mixing it, then pouring it into the paint tray. my opinion is that its a waste, all the grit sinks to the bottom and never sticks to the roller so you end up seeing piles of it in the bottom of the tray, wasted.
- as a result i switched up halfway through and broadcast the grit onto the tacky clearcoat just like i did with the color chips. worked awesome and the grit is so fine that it spreads very uniformly in the air.
- i did not put clear on the apron due to the clear being used primarily for wear protection and as a medium to hold the non-slip grit on the floor and seal down the color chips.
- same deal when done...needs 24 hours, so walk away and get many beers
Day 4
finally, all done! coating looks just OK up close (aesthetically speaking), i suck and throwing the chips evenly so its really on me for that, and i'm picky. that said, its just all the more reason it feels like "i did this!" for better or worse. very happy with the color, its very bright and not too mundane while still being practical for not showing dirt and grime.
getting to finally walk on it, pictured here with my nephews who were very satisfactory slave laborers. you can see some of the gloss sheen under the bikes and stool that the clearcoat provides.
stuff i learned
- BE VERY CAREFUL HOW YOU DISPOSE OF THE COATING. when it cures, the chemical reaction causes it to get VERY HOT and the denser the quantity, the hotter it gets. i balled up some of the bust pouches with some coating still in them, and tossed them in a plastic garbage bag on the driveway. i came back out 2 hours later to bring the bag inside and almost gave myself a bad burn. the pouches were curing inside and had gotten so hot they almost melted through the bag. i'd be concerned they'd catch on fire especially with all those chemical soaked things in a closed-up bag. leave ALL COATING material outside in open air, preferrably on dirt so you don't have to worry about leaks or drips as much.
- you really only need 1 pair of spike shoes
- BUY THE BEST QUALITY ROLLERS YOU CAN AFFORD. i used the kit supplied rollers and they disintegrated twice during the coating...as it got tacky it literally pulled them apart. changing slippery, tight fitting chemical-soaked rollers in gloves while the clock is ticking sucks big time. i switched over to some backup Wooster rollers and never had another issue.
- don't paint a concrete block apron. the concrete sucks up the coating unevenly and looks like crap. i'm considering paint over it all in white paint.
- they say this stuff is low VOC, but whatever, the fumes are awful. get air often and never shut the garage door, even if its windy. if stuff is blowing onto your coating then all i can say is tough luck. if those fumes come into the house you're going to hate life for days and you probably won't get laid for a month at least.
- get the non-slip grit. stuff is awesome and when the floor is wet it would be an utter HAZARD if that stuff wasn't on there.
2010 Civic Si
2019 4Runner TRD Off-Road
--------------------------
Past: 03 Xterra SE 4x4 | 05 Impreza 2.5RS | 99.5 A4 Quattro 1.8T | 01 Accord EX | 90 Maxima GXE | 96 Explorer XLT
2019 4Runner TRD Off-Road
--------------------------
Past: 03 Xterra SE 4x4 | 05 Impreza 2.5RS | 99.5 A4 Quattro 1.8T | 01 Accord EX | 90 Maxima GXE | 96 Explorer XLT
![[Image: YjgUuFa_zps51334be3.jpg]](http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/scottyb226/YjgUuFa_zps51334be3.jpg)
![[Image: 74ea5f52-1c5c-4a08-a928-66cdf1c6fa10_300.jpg]](http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/300/74/74ea5f52-1c5c-4a08-a928-66cdf1c6fa10_300.jpg)