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Author: Subject: Industrial concrete floor question
blakep82

posted on 1/1/16 at 09:39 PM Reply With Quote
Industrial concrete floor question

Maybe a bit of a weird question to ask, because you need to know what image I've got in my head, but here goes

See the floors you get in industrial workshops, looks like concrete, but is really smooth, hard, and polished, what is it? Is it just polished concrete?
I'm having a major clear out of the garage to make way for the possibility of a trailer, and more importantly, a set of gojak type wheel skates, and a heavy steel workbench on castors I'm intending to build soon, and my garage floor is a nasty soft rough poor type of concrete floor, the type you can sweep all the dust off of, sweep it again and its just as dusty. Not really any good for taking engines apart, or spray painting, for example.

The floor has been painted many years ago with garage floor paint which helped a bit but its time to do again.
Looking for something to give similar results to the floors I've seen before, in both hardness, non dustiness, and smoothness. Are they some sort of resin to look like concrete maybe? Epoxy perhaps?





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owelly

posted on 2/1/16 at 01:39 AM Reply With Quote
Yup. Just polished concrete. My mate made kitchen worktops out of coloured concrete and polished the finish to a shine! Perfect for working pastry on apparently.





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blakep82

posted on 2/1/16 at 02:01 AM Reply With Quote
Interesting! I had seen concrete worktops being done on tv, never really thought about it, but I guess with some interesting aggregates in there, probably looks every bit as good as granite?

I always assumed the floors were epoxy made to look like concrete.

Thoughts on the best type of paint/coverings then? 2 part epoxy paint? The floor is dusty soft concrete, so needs to not break up and lift. Like I said there is paint down already, will that do as a primer?





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LBMEFM

posted on 2/1/16 at 04:07 AM Reply With Quote
Polished concrete is the process used when laying the floor. I used epoxy paint on my new floor and it has worked well, it cost about £50 for as 5ltr tin. However, the paint finish is only as good as the surface it is on. If yours is breaking up then you could consider cleaning off the surface of loose bits a good stiff brush and sealing with PVA bonding befor applying a screed if possible. After that apply a decorative finish.
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mcerd1

posted on 2/1/16 at 08:48 AM Reply With Quote
you can grind back set concrete to give a polished finish (with fancy aggregates and sometimes with epoxy) - I can't remember the name for this but its been making a bit of a comeback on the likes of grand designs etc....

but in this country most folk would polish it as it sets - often with one of these:
http://www.hss.com/hire/p/power-trowel-float-petrol



you do get fancy hard wearing screeds with high impact toughness designed for workshop floors, the ones I've seen were meant to be poured about 1" thick - but they aren't cheap !


In the end I did a couple of coats of PVA (diluted in water) then just normal floor paint - its worked pretty well considering some of my floor was a month old and other bits were 80+ years old....


[Edited on 2/1/2016 by mcerd1]

[Edited on 2/1/2016 by mcerd1]





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19sac65

posted on 2/1/16 at 08:57 AM Reply With Quote
My garage floor was the same
White dust everywhere no matter how much i swept and mopped
I pva'd mine - then garage floor paint
Swept and vac'd,then cheapo pva watered down and roller on
2 coats and it sealed it
I used it like that for a few weeks as the weather had turned and no dust or mess , oil spots wiped up etc
When i painted it went on really well and still looks perfect

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hkp57

posted on 2/1/16 at 12:15 PM Reply With Quote
There are no short cuts that last very long to get a good durable finish that your after assuming the surface is already contaminated with oils and other fluids.

As you said it is a soft surface also you would be looking at scabbling the entire floor back to virgin good concrete then applying one of the many self leveling epoxy screeds or grout's on the market.

Examples

Epoxy Screed

Another one here

And again





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blakep82

posted on 2/1/16 at 03:42 PM Reply With Quote
No, the floor is pretty clean of oils and stuff. Its actually in not bad condition, not cracked, or breaking up, just dusty

Not looking to take shortcuts, but obviously I'm not taking the floor up to lay a new one, polish it, paint it with the top quality coverings, spending thousands on a garage floor, just want a decent hard covering that doesn't kick up dust, and allows the engine crane, jack, and skates to move around easy. Its kinda ripples slightly, only by less than 5mm I guess, if something can be poured to help fill this in a bit, perfect

This looks good
High Build Epoxy Floor Paint 5KG Solvent Free (Industrial Grade For Garages)





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nick205

posted on 2/1/16 at 05:44 PM Reply With Quote
Hi Blake,

In my experience with industrial workshop floors they're made of fine concrete with a polished finish. When done well they're not cheap, but very durable with a good layer or few of paint applied.

For a home garage IMHO it's over the top in terms of cost, preparation and complexity. I'd opt for decent poured concrete with a good layer or 3 of paint. Should be possible to get it flat enough for good vehicle setup as well.

Hope that helps.

Nick






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spray@unispray.co.uk

posted on 12/4/17 at 11:14 PM Reply With Quote
Its polishable concrete

Hi there are few options to achieve glossy finish on the concrete floor. Use polishable concrete now often used to make kitchen worktops other option is spray painting the floor with clear epoxy.

[Edited on 13/4/17 by spray@unispray.co.uk]

[Edited on 13/4/17 by spray@unispray.co.uk]

[Edited on 13/4/17 by spray@unispray.co.uk]

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motorcycle_mayhem

posted on 13/4/17 at 07:30 AM Reply With Quote
When specifying the floor in a garage built for me during a previous life, the builders understood the requirements. They spread the concrete floor carefully and then went over it (when starting to set off), with a huge rotary trowelling thingy. The result was a dark grey highly polished flat surface. Later on, I did try to paint it (I'm not a fan of grey), but it came straight off the surface, completely, with a vacuum cleaner. I gave up on that idea. Anyway, fantastic surface.

The garage/workshop in my current life had a variable floor. Sound dusty concrete one end, marginally cemented material at the other. Builders came in, dug the lot up, laid down several inches of 'MOT', damp proof membrane, several inches of concrete, a layer of weldmesh, and then several inches of screed with some polythene hair intermixed. Not what they 'usually do' in garages I was told.
Although unpolished, it's flat enough to build a chassis on, set a car up, and strong enough to take the usual abuse without detriment. It also took to polyurethane paint, ideal. I love it.

I've sealed a dusty garage concrete floor with solvent-based PU paint in the past, with PU paint on top, renewed every couple of years. I'm guessing this is all you'll need. I looked at epoxy, decided this was too expensive, required too much careful preparation on a very sound etched surface. It also needed temperatures to set off that this grey damp rock struggles to produce. I also errrr'd over it's durability.

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