Garage floors take a heavy beating over time. They are sometimes cracked and neglected because they are separate from the home. Anyway, it is not the first place guests will visit in your home.
But it is now time to touch up the garage floor and bring new life. The floor may be either patched, recoated, or replaced.
Below is the epoxy garage floor prep procedure before repair.
Preparing the Garage Floor for Recoating
Touch up means you are repairing or correcting defects on an already existing epoxy coating. And epoxy garage floor prep is preparing the current epoxy coat for repair or additional coating.
One rule of the thumb when preparing the floor to take up a new coat is scratching or making it rough to provide a surface area on which the repair or fresh coat can adhere. Here are several procedures you can follow.
Rough up the current coat with sandpaper or sander
The first option is blasting the surface with a pole or orbital sander or 120 grit sandpaper for smaller areas. The surface will lose the shiny, smooth and glossy hue. Aim at roughing up the surface, not removing it. Take care not to sand the healthy areas next to the defective surfaces.
Sweep the big and medium debris with a bristle brush. Suck up the fine dust with a shop vac. Please don’t use a home vac, for the debris can damage its delicate inner parts.
Clean the repair surface with denatured alcohol. Dip a towel in denatured alcohol and wipe the entire area. Denatured alcohol has had impurities such as colors and odor added and is poisonous when consumed. They evaporate fast, so you have enough time to move on with the project.
Buff the garage surface
Use this method if you have a larger area per square foot to cover. Get a floor maintainer from your local home repair store. You should also get a 100-grit sanding screen to attach to the floor buffer and use on the floor. You should be able to rent the buffer and purchase the grit at a fair price.
Work from one corner to the opposite corner using circular movements or arcs. It would help if you inspected the sanding screen occasionally for signs of wear or clogging. Go over the work surface with a shop vac to suck up the fine dust and debris. Clean with denatured alcohol as with the first method.
Renewing an older epoxy clear coat or repolishing requires you to get rid of a thin layer on the surface. 60-80 grit sand screen or 80-100 grit sandpaper will help you with this. They are gentle and will only remove the embedded dirt that is spoiling your finish without deep scratches.
How to Prepare Peeling, Flaking, and Chipping Epoxy Garage Coating for Repair
Begin with totally removing the flaking or peeling coat. Peeling finish means that the floor was not properly cleaned or degreased before applying the coat, and discoloration signs will affirm this.
Wedge a chisel at an angle to the coating and apply medium pressure to scrape off the coat. Alternatively, use a razor scraper. Remove even the weak area that looks like they will crumble soon. A grinder or a concrete sander should help with thicker coats.
The next goal is cleaning the surface to remove the impurities so that the new coat will not peel after repair.
Wash the area. Scrub the surface with a brush and a household cleaner or degreasing agent. Then etch the concrete surface with muriatic acid to open up the pores. Rinse with water to neutralize the acid action. Rinsing will also stop the chemical process, which would cause the new coat to peel due to the production of gases if left alone.
Surface preparation is key when conducting garage floor repair. It will determine the success of the touch-up process. Floor preparation methods to rough up the coating include sanding or floor buffing for larger areas. You can also use a paint scraper to remove the older coating for small areas. The last operations before recoating ensure that the floor is clean by vacuuming and wiping the surface with appropriate solvents.