Watching the weather forecast, it looks like this week is a great week, so here is our schedule:

Monday- Clear, clean, sweep, dust

Tuesday- Scrub, and etch

Wednesday- patching cracks / fixing floors

Thursday- prime (Primer to dry for 6 hour but top coat needs to be on within 48 hours)

Friday- Color with flake

Saturday- Clearcoat with anti-skid

Sunday / Monday Cure

So with the week planned out, My family and I laid out the product that we were going to use in the order that we thought that we were going to need it, and then we began. In case you didnt get to read my earlier posts, I'll just put in a small reminder that the floors in my garage were originally installed with a concrete floor sealing and covered with concrete floor paint. My garage is bigger than some, at almost 3500 square feet. Because of the size of this garage, I will be tackling this project in sections with the help of my wife and two kids (ages 13 and 15). The smaller section that we will be doing is over 1100 square feet. The job was not difficult, but time consuming. It takes some forethought to lay out all the product, and break the project into manageable tasks over time. If you think you can get this project done in a day, you will be mistaken for reasons like "dry time" between steps. I will outline what my family and I did over this past week.

Monday was a pretty typical day and all it required was a space to store the stuff while the floors were going to be prepped, cleaned, and epoxied. Any previous loose floor coating was scrapped. To have as small transition from coating to bare concrete as possible, I used 80 grit sandpaper to smooth out the floor, especially where there was some concrete damage. After sanding, we swept the floor to try and get any dust, loose paint chips and dirt off of it.

On Tuesday, we used Rust-Oleum's 3 in 1 Cleaner, Degreaser, and Etcher. This saved us a lot of time because it did the step of etching while cleaning and degreasing. We wet the floor, applied Rust-Oleum's 3 in 1 Cleaner, Degreaser, and Etcher, and scrubbed. Then we rinsed, and squeegeed the floor - it was super helpful to have a floor squeegee of our own for this step, and then we rinsed, scrubbed, and squeegeed the floor again, and then we rinsed, and squeegeed the floor for a third time. We let it dry overnight and everything looked nice.

On Wednesday, it was time to make repairs to the floors. On the outside edge, there was a big crack in the concrete that required a cement repair, so I used Rust-Oleum's crack and patch filler and repair. I started by removing any loose pieces from the crack and cleaned it from all loose debris. Then I mixed Rust-Oleum's crack and patch filler and repair with some water until I had a brick mortar consistency. I then used a puddy knife to pack in the mortar mix into the crack and attempted to blend the texture of the repair to the surrounding concrete to let dry. I then moved to the interior repairs.

In the center of the garage was a rough pour line of the concrete, and it looked horrible. I mixed Rust-Oleum's Fast Patch per the instructions on the box. (As a side note: I have watched other videos that show a mixture of 2 to 1 with this product, but I followed the instructions on the box that says one to one. Be sure to follow your box's directions in case the epoxy formula has changed.) I used a glossy piece of cardboard to put the two parts of the epoxy on, and then I mixed the two parts together to get a smooth consistency. Once the epoxy is mixed, you only have a short time to work with it, so only mix what you can use. I then used my putty knife to spread across uneven surfaces, and to pack into tiny cracks into the floor. I let this dry over night.

All around the garage baseboard, 2 inch wide masking tape was used to prevent future coatings from going up onto the wall.

On Thursday, I sanded the patch with 80 grit sand paper to make sure that any uneven surfaces were smoothed. After sanding Rust-Oleum's Fast patch smooth, we sucked up any dust with a shop-vac, then I stirred Rust-Oleum's Recoat Primer. My daughters "cut-in" the Rust-Oleum's Recoat Primer along the base board, while I poured 2 inch wide ribbons of primer onto the floor, rolling it out smooth with a 3/8 inch napped roller. Once the entire floor was covered, we let it dry overnight. You should top coat over the primer in less than 48 hours for best adhesion. Rust-Oleum's Recoat Primer is a fantastic product because without it, any previously coated floors would need to be completely stripped to bare concrete before applying Rust-Oleum's RockSolid Garage Floor Coating Kit. Rust-Oleum's Recoat Primer allows you to prime over any coating for best adhesion without stripping the floors, saving a lot of time, mess, and hassle.

On Friday, it was time to see some fruits of our labor by applying Rust-Oleum's RockSolid Garage Floor Coating Kit.

See the next post for how this turns out.

Let's Get Started!!!