Sweet Garage Flooring

Well, have you?  If not, what are you waiting for?  Once the cracks appear in your garage flooring, your options become severely limited.  In fact, if the damage is severe enough, garage floor tiles can easily be out of the question, limiting you to a ton of repairs followed by epoxy garage floor paint, or a garage floor mat.  Why do that to yourself, and to your home?

Although adding garage flooring can definitely make your garage look sharp, that’s not really the point here.  Did you know that installing epoxy garage floor paint or garage floor tiles will increase the value of your home by far more than the cost to apply such things?  Even if you have to pay someone to do it, it’ll be worth it in the long run.  And consider the value of  painted garage flooring versus a cracked and stained one.  Even if you don’t plan to sell your home any time soon, there’s no telling what the future will bring. By the time you do end up selling your home, it may be too late to easily improve your garage flooring.

Your garage is a part of your home, and it should be treated as such.  There’s no reason to have a bare concrete garage floor when cheap epoxy garage floor kits cost under $60.  There’s just no point in letting it go, or putting it off, especially not when you make it so much harder on yourself by doing so.  Even if all you do is put a garage floor mat down as a temporary measure, it’s much better than nothing.  It’ll protect the concrete garage floor from stains, and some of the biting winter cold until you can get around to taking care of it.

Still don’t think it’s important?  Do a quick search of “damaged garage flooring”.  You’ll find out real quick just how fast your garage flooring can become very ugly.  A bare concrete garage floor may be okay with you, but how about stained, cracked, and chipped?  It’ll happen a lot faster than you think.  Yes, just parking your expensive SUV on your garage flooring will do it.  Just changing your oil will do it.

If you’ve got a new home, don’t think that it’s immune to garage flooring damage.  All concrete is intended to be finished if you want it to last, and that’s not something that home construction people typically take care of.  Make sure that it’s been a while since the concrete was laid, but get it taken care of before you regret it.

A few people have found this site by asking if they can use Quikrete High Gloss Sealer over epoxy garage floor paint, so I figured I would do some research and find out.  As is the norm with Quikrete, you have to be very specific about the name of the product.  Assume nothing!

Quikrete High Gloss Sealer

This is a water based, waterproof sealer that Quikrete says is intended for use on both painted and garage floors, so it stand to reason that it should be fine on painted garage floors.  It can also be used on bare concrete garage floors, and even masonry, brick, aggregate, stone, and pavers.  Hah, this means you could put it on a brick house and end up with a waxed looking house.  Anyway, since this is a sealant, you might not want to apply it to concrete that isn’t etched since you’ll probably end up with a pretty slick garage floor.

Quikrete Wet Look High Gloss Sealer

Another water based sealer, but a different product.  This one does not specifically mention one way or the other if it should be used on paint, but Quikrete does say that they don’t recommend it for use on garage flooring.  Upon deeper investigation into the product specifications, it does say “Previously sealed surfaces must be porous…”, which an epoxy garage floor coating is most certainly not.  So the verdict is, no, Quikrete Wet Look High Gloss Sealer should not be used on garage floors, painted or otherwise.

Quikrete Etching Stain High Gloss Sealer

I’m being dead serious with these product names.  In an age where people find much of their information on the internet, they couldn’t have made these different products harder to search for, using the same three words in every title.  Quikrete says that this product can be used on your garage floor.  They do not specifically mention painted surfaces, but the product information does say, “Avoid using this product on non-porous, sealed surfaces”.  That makes it pretty clear that, no, you cannot use this product over epoxy garage floor paint.  It also says that, as the title indicates, it is meant for use on floors that have been treated with Quikrete Etching Stain, so it would probably create a rather slick surface.

So, in summary, if your garage floor is painted or unpainted, you’ll want to look for Quikrete High Gloss Sealer, and be absolutely sure there are no other words in that title.

Quikrete concrete stain is really more of a group of products, all of which can be used on a garage floor: Etching Stain, Semi-Transparent Concrete Stain, and Multi-Surface Concrete Stain.  Be mindful that the install and final results of each of these products will be very different.

The beginning steps to installing any Quikrete concrete stain is to clean your garage floor until it sparkles.  Can a garage floor sparkle?  I guess you’re going to find out, aren’t you!?

Quikrete Etching Stain

This is the product that Quikrete recommends for use on garage flooring.  This is probably because the etching element will add texture, increasing traction.  Unfortunately, it’s also the most expensive option by far, clocking in at over $300.   It’s fairly easy to install, promising a one coat applications, although that’s sort of misleading since you still have to clean the floor, and then apply a sealant.  Neither cleaner or sealant comes with this product.  The end result is a very pretty, textured old world stone look.

Quikrete Semi-Transparent Concrete Stain

Quikrete recommends that you not use their Semi-Transparent Concrete Stain on garage floors.  Notice I didn’t say that they don’t recommend it.  That would mean that they omitted their opinion on the matter.  No, they actually specify that you should not use this stain on garage flooring.  Personally, I think it depends on what you plan to do in your garage.  If you only plan to park cars on it, I don’t see a problem since you have to use a sealant anyway.  I think the main reason they say this is because it doesn’t etch the concrete, which means no added traction, which I suppose could lead to liability.  Amusingly, though, one of the suggested uses includes driveways.  It may also have something to do with the fact that it is by far the cheapest option, costing less than $30.  Sometimes you get what you pay for, though, and customer reviews on this product are…bad.  Apparently it’s less a stain, and more a thin paint.  It sounds like when they say “Semi-Transparent”, they mean “You really should apply a second coat, but that would make this not so cheap”.  Proceed with caution.

Quikrete Multi-Surface Concrete Stain

It’s a sealer!  It’s a stain!  It’s…something.  No one can seem to make up their mind exactly what this product is.  Quikrete calls it a stain, but every place that sells it sells something with “Sealer” on the label instead of stain.  Maybe it’s supposed to be both?  I’m honestly not sure, and at over $100, I’m not willing to guess.