Tired of your rough, oil-soaked garage floor? Several companies now manufacture protective coatings for concrete.
Dan Moran, president of Rock-Tred Corp. in Skokie, says his company was founded over 55 years ago to provide coatings for the concrete floors in factories and warehouses. Now, his workers apply the same epoxy-based sealant to residential garages. The cost ranges from $1 to $10 a square foot, depending on the condition of the floor.
Moran says an epoxy coating keeps oil, grease and brake fluid from saturating into and staining a garage floor. Once a garage floor is coated with his product, “You can hose off spills with a hose and a little soap and keep the floor looking like new,” he says.
Gary Klockowski, of unincorporated Kane County, says he called on Rock-Tred this summer because his garage floor was peeling away.
“I had holes in my garage floor where the door hit the concrete,” Klockowski says, “and every winter I was losing more of my floor. I called around and learned that it was cheaper to coat the floor with epoxy than to replace the concrete.”
Although Klockowski says that the appearance of his floor was secondary, his garage floor now has a bright steel gray finish and cleans up easily with a dry rag.
All garages, however, are not eligible for that shiny finish. You have to have a moisture barrier–a sheet of plastic under the concrete slab–to benefit from a protective coating. If your garage floor lacks such a barrier, moisture will come to the surface and make the coating bubble and peel off, Moran says.
The garage floors of all newer homes include a moisture barrier, Moran says.
According to the Portland Cement Association in Skokie, new concrete should dry for at least 30 days before a protective coating is applied.
For more information, call Portland Cement at 847-966-6200 and ask for its booklet, “Concrete Information.”
