Garage #2 The Mot Centre
Most local garages, especially privately owned ones and not part of a national chain/brand, are likely to exchange owners and property leases over a longer stretch of time. This could mean that youre looking to repair the garage floor for a sale, or from a purchase/new lease from the landlord.
Subject to high volumes of traffic, with cars, vans and motorcycles being wheeled in hour after hour, as a repair centre, the floor is likely to have seen the wars from chemical spills and leakages. There may be discolouration patches, UV exposure near the garage doors, or damage from toolboxes, ramp equipment and storage units. Moving forward, use mats under as much of the equipment as possible, to preserve the surfaces cosmetic structure.
Rawlins stock professional use products for garages, MOT centres and commercial vehicle repair and manufacturing plants
A great example of a busy MOT garage
Whilst floor paint can add a very good layer of protection against further damage, its purpose is not to fill or repair cracks and pitting. Concrete floor paints are generally slip-resistant, which is ideal for garages which conduct repair work, as cars may come in dripping wet from the rain or snow.
Keep your business foundation strong and repair any damage before a concrete floor replacement job needs a quote.
Start Fresh With A Resurfacing
Wear from vehicles, foot traffic, and the elements can turn into spider weblike craze cracking, flaking, or spalling, when the top layer of the concrete breaks off and exposes the patchy and pitted aggregate underneath. Luckily, any of these issues can be strictly cosmetic, as long as they are tended to soon after discovery. Ignore the early stages of spalling, however, and it could spread enough to compromise the integrity of the surface beyond repair.
A high-quality, professional resurfacing product like NewCrete Concrete Resurfacer from CTS Cement | Rapid Set addresses all of these imperfections in a single go. The cutting-edge product is self-curing, requiring no additional primers or products to finish the job after you coat your concrete floors. Best of all? Your garage wont have to be off-limits for too long Rapid Set NewCrete is ready for foot traffic after only two to three hours.
Age Or A Poor Installation Can Lead To A Garage Floor Replacement Or Repair
A garage floor replacement may be needed simply due to its age. A concrete garage floor slab should provide decades of use. Its not unheard of for slabs to last for a half century or more in some garages, however.
A poorly installed garage floor surface could be another reason your garage floor has seen better days. Some home builders cut corners and may not have done the following steps properly:
- dug the garage floor sub base to the correct depth
- used the proper concrete mix or used a high-quality cement
- ensured the right compacting ratio was used so the ground/soil settles properly
- placed the expansion joints in the proper locations
- graded the garage floor correctly
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Why Floortex Is Your Best Garage Floor Replacement Solution
If your garage floors are older or past the minor repair stage, a Floortex floor coating is your best garage floor replacement solution. Rhino Linings, manufacturers of Floortex coatings, are an industry leader in commercial and residential floor coating products.
Floortex polyaspartic floor coatings are superior to epoxy floor coatings in numerous ways:
- they can be applied year-round
- polyaspartic floor coatings are water-soluble and penetrate concrete surfaces better than epoxy coatings, ensuring a stronger adhesive bond is formed
- Floortex floor coatings provide a higher degree of surface protection to ensure a long life
- the textured surface of a Floortex floor coating provides more traction than epoxy coatings and helps to obscure dirt
How To Repair Pitted Concrete Garage Floor
What Will I Learn?
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Last Updated on October 12, 2020 by admin
Lets talk about How to Repair Pitted Concrete Garage Floor.
The reason people hold off their fancy garage floor projects isnt because of some concrete spalling or pitting. Its because the idea of repairing it on your own seems intimidating.
The truth is, repairing your garage floor isnt very difficult, and you only need some guidance and a good quality concrete resurfacer to do the trick.
In this article, well be doing just that.
First, youll gain some basic understanding of concrete spalling and pitting. Then, well go through all the steps on how to repair pitted concrete garage floors.
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Prep Your Garage Floor
Pitting on concrete garage floors usually doesnt extend more than ½ inch deep. After removing any broken or loose concrete, remove any oil stains, sealers, wax, or any bond-breaking material. Fill any holes with a dab of caulking or foam backer rod .
Caulking or a crack sealer can be used to fill any cracks in the surface. Place tape on each side of a crack before inserting filler material, so excess doesnt spread onto the rest of the floor, and use a putty knife or trowel to smooth it out. The tape can be removed when you complete this part.
Preparing The Concrete Floor For Repair
As with all repair work, from garden fences to flat roofs, preparation is key.
- Using a chipping hammer, chip away at and removed loose, damaged and higher ridges of concrete around the repair site. Bigger scale damage areas may require an electric chipping hammer or a jack hammer.
- Thoroughly clean the concrete surface with a stiff bristled brush, using a wire brush to help remove loose damage. When the surface is thoroughly brushed, you could use a vacuum cleaner to remove any smaller particles and dust thats left.
- Using a professional cleaner and degreaser will remove impacted oil and grease from the floor, prior to further repair and resurfacing work.
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How To Fix A Pitted Garage Floor
Even the smoothest of concrete surfaces can eventually succumb to wear. A pitted garage floor can yield more than a jagged appearance. If left alone, these small holes can grow in size and number. Fortunately, a concrete garage floor can be cleaned and resurfaced in a day most of the time, it can even be a fun DIY project. In the end you can count on a smoother, more durable floor by taking the following steps.
Concrete Garage Floor Sealer
If you need to seal your concrete garage floor, expect to pay between $2,400 and $3,600 for a full 240 sq.ft. floor. The price depends on which sealant you want to use. Some sealant materials are stronger, more resistant, and more expensive. Sealing is a great method to protect your garage floor against water damages and oil and gasoline spills.
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Repairing Spalled And Pitted Garage Floors
Pitting of a garage floor can be caused by improper finishing of the concrete or a bad mix. Sometimes it is most notable at the edges of contraction joints or where the concrete might meet up with another slab.
However, spalling is generally caused by freeze-thaw cycles in colder climates. It is aggravated even more by deicing salts. Pitting can be a result of this as well.
During cold weather, water can migrate into the surface of the concrete and freeze. The expansion of the water causes microscopic damage to the concrete and after a few years of this, it begins to break up into small dusty pieces and flake or chip away.
For repair of the floor, you will want to use an epoxy sand slurry or a polymer-modified cement patching mix. Which type you use depends on the extent of the repair. It requires a little more effort than repairing a crack, but its not that hard to do.
After the surface has been prepared properly, you apply the mix over the pitted areas using a trowel. Some mixes are self-leveling and can be applied with a metal squeegee.
Be sure to feather-in smooth and let it cure according to the instructions. You may need an additional application to fill in any small divots or low spots you missed.
You should end up with a nicely repaired surface that wont be noticeable once it is painted or epoxied over. We cover this procedure in more detail, including recommended materials, in our article on how to repair spalled or pitted concrete.
Prepare The Surface By Cleaning And Sanding
The first step to repairing your peeling epoxy garage floor is to prepare the surface. This means cleaning it thoroughly and sanding it down so that the new epoxy will have a smooth surface to adhere to. If there are any cracks or holes in the floor, youll also want to fill these in with a concrete patch before proceeding. Once the surface is prepped, you can begin applying the new layer of epoxy.
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Apply A Primer To The Floor
After the floor is clean and dry, the next step is to apply a primer. This will help the new epoxy adhere to the floor and prevent peeling. There are two types of primers that can be used for this project: an etching primer and a self-leveling primer. Etching primer should be used if the floor is not level. Self-leveling primer can be used if the floor is level.
For best results, follow the manufacturers instructions when applying primer. If using etching primer, apply it with a brush or roller and make sure to evenly cover the entire surface. If using self-leveling primer, pour it onto the floor and spread it evenly with a brush or roller. Once the primer is dry, youre ready to move on to step three.
Why Choose Ogi For Garage Floor Repair
If you are looking for garage floor repair near me, Ohio Garage Interiors is the best choice. On top of being the most cost-effective flooring option on the market, our garage floor resurfacing and high-performance polyaspartic epoxy provide many unique benefits:
Looking for garage floor resurfacing services in Northeast Ohio? Contact Ohio Garage Interiors today!
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Penetrating Sealer Blocks Concrete Pores And Stops Crumbling
In any case the use of a penetrating sealer is essential to block the pores in the concrete. Penetrating sealers are silicon based compounds such as silanes, siloxanes, silicates & siliconates. These are clear low viscosity liquids that can be applied to the garage floor with a low pressure spray.
Silanes work the best with concrete garage floors. They will penetrate into the concrete, react chemically within the capillaries to block them, but will not form any film on the surface.
Due to their small molecule size, Silanes are frequently used for sealing pre-cast concrete and high performance concrete such as: parking garages, bridge decks, building facades, and concrete forms.
Source: ConcreteSealersUSA
Sealing a concrete garage floor is an essential & effective way to prevent the crumbling of concrete garage floors.
Related Blog Post
So far we have talked of the lesser crumbling problems of concrete. These are superficial damages & skin deep. Directly or indirectly they are attributable to water entering the concrete pores.
You can take the precautions mentioned above but these will still occur. The fix for this kind of crumbling concrete is garage floor resurfacing.
Concrete is a very strong building material. Correct? Only partly!
In Civil Engineering practice strength measurements have two components. Compressive Strength & Tensile Strength.
Garage Floor Repair Epoxy Price
Homeowners pay between $500 and $1,600 for epoxy garage floor repairs. Epoxy is applied to concrete floors to make them stronger and more durable, so when we talk about epoxy floors, we refer to epoxy and concrete together. These floors can be more expensive to repair because of the price of epoxy, but they may last longer than regular concrete. Common issues include cracks, sinking sections, holes, and oil stains. Repair methods for these problems include patching and resurfacing.
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Repair Deep Cracks And Depressions
If the vacuum has sucked out deep cracks that leave sizable voids, use non-shrinking concrete patch to fill these areas. Concrete patch is available both in premixed tubs and in caulk-gun tubes for application. Use a pointed trowel to force the patch material down into the crack to completely fill gaps.
Allow the patching cement to fully dry and cure before proceeding. For most products, this requires about 24 hours.
Look For These Telltale Signs Of Structural Issues:
- When the crack is bulging out of the floor, thats a sign that the foundation has shifted and contracted a bit, pushing up the bulging area. This is something that a professional can evaluate.
- Erosion of the floor can be another sign that theres a deeper structural issue.
- When the cement on one side of your crack is lower than the other side of the crack, the crack is likely due to the ground beneath shifting and a structural issue.
Regarding the last sign above, one side below your floor had more wiggle room than the other side, and eventually the floor couldnt support its own weight anymore, and one side cracked then shifted lower.
When this gets really severe, there are companies who can shoot material below the floor to raise-up the part thats sunk, its not cheap but its a really good way to fix this type of issue.
Granted, most of this happens very slowly. If youre in a climate where the temperature varies a lot, for example somewhere with hot, dry summers and cold, freezing winters, this can help amplify and speed up the spread of damage, but even at that, it can take years for it to go from noticeable to bad.
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A Garage Environment Demands A Lot From Your Garage Floor
Consider how much your garage floor has to endure:
- the average weight of a vehicle parked on your garage floor is approximately 4,000 lbs
- regular vehicle traffic
- everyday foot traffic
- garage floors are exposed to materials and liquids that contribute to concrete deterioration
- temperature fluctuations put stress on your concrete garage floor, especially in northern climates
How Do I Fix Up My Garage Floor So I Can Epoxy It
I want to paint our garage floor with epoxy floor coating. It’s 20 years old and has its share of stains. It needs taking care of.
The concrete has a fair few hairline cracks running across the surface, and a few pits here and there. It has also been producing some chalky residue along some of the cracks. The residue has only started appearing in the last couple of years
What do I need to do to get the concrete floor ready to epoxy?
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When To Call A Professional For Cracks In A Garage Floor
Before we get into specifics on how repair cracks in garage flooring, lets go over a few examples of when youll want to call in a professional for help instead of taking the DIY route.
Getting a professional to fix these types of cracks early can lead to less long-term damage, and the sooner you get it sorted out, the better.
Generally speaking, there are cosmetic cracks and cracks that appear as a sign of structural issues. Cosmetic cracks look bad, but thats about it – they arent a sign of a greater problem. Theyre isolated, and once theyre fixed youre all set.
Structurally-caused cracks, on the other hand, are a warning sign that theres something more serious that needs to be fixed. Especially if it propagates along the entire length of your standard garage size.
Why Call In A Professional
Repairing damage near apron may seem like a do-it-yourself project, but the garage floor repair process can be quite complex and time-consuming. If you would prefer to leave it to the pros, we suggest using Advanced Construction MN for all your garage floors and home foundation needs. Also, if the damage is more severe than what can be fixed with a patch or a coating, it may require special equipment or skills that the average homeowner does not have. In these cases, its best to leave it to the professionals.
At Advanced Construction MN, we have the experience and expertise to handle any garage concrete repair job big or small. We also use only the highest quality materials, so you can be sure your garage floor will be back in good condition in no time. Contact us today for a free estimate!
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Applying Basecoat & Decorative Flakes
Our garage flooring basecoat consists of a high-performance, polyaspartic primer layer. We flood the concrete flooring with this material and spread it with a long-handled squeegee. Then, we back roll the basecoat to create a level surface for decorative flake application. We can also apply the basecoat and flakes to vertical surfaces in your garage.
Our basecoat materials require overnight curing, so they can form a strong bond with the underlying concrete surface and provide long term durability. Once the basecoat finishes curing, we remove any remaining extra flakes and debris from the floor surface.
Choosing Epoxy For Concrete Spalling Repair
This is the most common method to repair your concrete floor. Heres why.
- It works extremely well
- It is the go-to method for floor coating contractors
- It can fill large holes
- It can be trowelled out smoothly over pits
- Its easily applied to spalling that covers large areas
If you have a few holes due to pitting, or a localized spalling, this is where epoxy concrete resurfacers will work best.
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