you know when you go to B&Q and places like that, they've got what looks like a croncrete floor, but its not painted, its very smooth and looks very hard? what is it?

my garage floor is concrete, but i think they used too much cement coz its very dusty, and powdery. i've painted it years ago, but it just sort of peels off. i'd like to try and get it like what they have

i know nothing about this but could you put a layer of that self leverling compound on it ? then a lino so you coulod mop it and keep the dust down.

its a special resin floor covering. They have all sorts of special applications.

My brother in law used to work for a company that did it. I dont think its cheap but its usually guaranteed for at least 5 if not 10 years possibly more

My garage is also incredibly dusty. Our local B&Q has a smooth painted floor.

i think its epoxy floor paint its very tough alot of garages use it

the ones i've seen are definitely not paint

andy, resin sounds right but only guaranteed for 5-10 years? hmmm

me and my dad did a concrete base for a shed, we did proper concrete with stones and everything in it, then for the top 1cm, we mixed up a very wet, very runny sand and cement mix, basically concrete without the stones, and its very smooth, didn't know if it was anything as simple as that. don't know how strong it is though. i'd be tempted to do that again. mix up 2 cement mixers worth, and just pour it in, let it sort itself out

Domestic concrete floors are usually pretty poor quality concrete, poorly compacted and finished, so...

Get rid of all loose dust
Paint with sodium silicate first, then
Paint with a good floor paint

B&Q and the like simply have good high strength concrete floors, properly compacted and finished

Large commercial buildings use a floor sealer which is smooth and slightly yellow in colour. My concrete floor is covered with an epoxy resin sold in the US and Canada by Home Depot, two part process, then small pieces of coloured plastic scattered on the wet floor. Very good results, abrasive resistant, been on 5 years, welding slag does burn it. Cost about $100.00 for single car garage, be about 185 PS over there.

quote:

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Originally posted by JohnN
Domestic concrete floors are usually pretty poor quality concrete, poorly compacted and finished, so...

Get rid of all loose dust
Paint with sodium silicate first, then
Paint with a good floor paint

B&Q and the like simply have good high strength concrete floors, properly compacted and finished

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i believe the the process you are looking for is called screeding. there are many different formulations of screed going from soft to hard. if you google screed all will be revealed.

^ah yeah, screeding is kind of what we did on that shed base. i smoothed it off with a trowel... looks about what i'm after and from one of the sites i saw, the mix we used on that base was about right, but for a garage it could really do with being a lot deeper

Yep, they use resin, two part and hard as nails, i used to work for the world leader in these types of floors.

I did my garage floor two years ago with Screwfix non slip floor paint, only prep i did was to jetwash out the garage, no sealer just painted straight on, its still spotless with no signs of peeling. Only downside is its non slip so rough finish (sand like texture).

Resin will probably cost a lot and a 5litre pot does about 2sqm - so you would need tons of it.

yeah... mines a double garage. any kind of resin is out on cost then!

cheers for all the help guys, i'll have a good think about what to do then. there's kind of too much stuff in there to really go about laying new floor in there, and i don't think the floor is good enough standard to paint in all hosesty...

really wet cement isn't tough. the excess water will weaken it and cause it to be powdery.

As as already been mentioned, use a self levelling compound - the stuff you pour on before floor tiling - it's pretty flinty hard when it sets... or make up some cement 'gravy' with just cement and water and use it as a sealant. (thoroughly clean and dampen the floor first of course)

Or use floor sealant - made for your situation and available in any buiders merchant.


[Edited on 20/6/09 by Litemoth]

Most of what you have heard above is rubbish!

I work for an industrial concrete flooring company that do work for B&Q, Wickes, Hombase etc.

The floors they have are created with a dryshake finish which is cementitious and has either quartz or metal alloy in it.

It is spread by machine and trowelled into the unset concrete as the floor is layed and then power floated to a fine finish. The final surface is normally etched to give better grip and then re-sealed.

You can post apply a resin finish but that is not what B&Q etc have.

What is correct is domestic garage slabs are poor quality concrete and often not properly cured. Mine always used to dust badly so I painted it with concrete paint from Wickes and it's OK. I cleaned it with brick acid first but some paints actually bond with the cement so I'm not sure that's such a good idea (brick acid neutralises the alkali cement and strips it from the surface). It has flaked around the door but it gets pretty heavy wear in that area.

Places like garages and factories may have post applied paint finish and these are fine but expensive.

I would just give it a good detergent clean/power wash and then paint it with a concete paint from Wickes/B&Q and accept that high wear areas like near the door will need re-painting occasioally. At least it will stop it dusting.

Resin flooring is quite specialist and expensive.

Concrete sealer is designed to keep the water in to "properly" cure the concrete. Excess water or low cement (producing a low water/cement ratio) will produce weak and dusty concrete as noted above. Sealer will limit the dusting but will not work as well as a paint that is designed to chemically react and bond with the cement.



[Edited on 20/6/09 by pajsh]