Epoxy paint on basement floor

[Nino Maini]

Hi all.

I'm a long time reader, but not really had time to post much. About 1.5 years ago I moved into a new house, with a nice basement (1250 sqft) This weekend I just completed the epoxy coating the floor. I know many of you have basement shops, so I thought I would share what I did.

I had no water in the basement, but high humidity

Walls: Acid etched and 2 coats of a Zinsser Watertite concrete sealing paint. Good for 36psi of hyrdostatic pressure.

Floors: Acid etched, next 2 coats of Stone technologies Concrete sealer X2. I top coated that with 2 coats of ArmorCoat 1105 waterbased 2 part epoxy paint

Total cost was about 1200-1500, with about 60 hrs of time, which included taking everything out of the basement. Now the fun part of moving everything back into the basement and doing a real layout

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

wow, very nice! nice job seaming together the pics for a 'panorama' effect.

just a question - why not move everything to one side while working on one half, and then reverse sides? would beat having to carry everything out (and find a place to store it all!).

[Jim Rimmer]

Nice looking basement. I wish my garage floor looked like that. (I guess it could if I worked on it as hard as you did. )

[Lee Schierer]

Until I realized that you had stitched several photos together I thought you had a serious main support beam issue in your basement. Other than that the floor and walls look really nice.

[Sam Layton]

Hi Nino, welcome to the Creek, it is good to hear form you.

Your basement looks great. I think it was dollars and time well spent. Be careful when moving things in. Looks like you will have a very nice shop.

Sam

[Scott Hildenbrand]

RE: The Zinsser Watertite... How well did it cover the walls and what texture is it? Dryloc is like a cheese grater once finished and if you brush against the wall I swear it will sand skin off..

Also seems standard Dryloc is only 10PSI.. Going to have to look into Zinsser Watertite, for sure.

[Nino Maini]

Sorry for the slow repsonse, working is killing me....

John: I had planned to do that, but with the acid etch and pressure washing, I was worried about getting everything wet. I have an old 20 x 24 horse barn that allowed me to store everything while doing this work

Scott: That is the EXACT reason I went with the Zinsser product. It has a very smooth painted like finish. It was a pain to apply, but I liked the higher PSI rating and the finish over Dryloc. I used Dryloc at my old house for a small section, not impressed with the results, but it is more durable for abuse. I will use that for my hatchway exit, since that is a prefab, just paint that with dryloc including the steps

[Rick Metcalf]

That 1250 sq ft space is going to fill up real quick. Going to make that old (and larger out of the house) horse barn look mighty good for a shop! Nice job on the floors and wall. Enjoy making dust!

[glenn bradley]

That's beautiful. One of my regrets is that due to a job changing schedule crunch brought on by delays in the seller moving out of my home and I did not have time to epoxy the floor before moving in. My neighbor and a coworker both have it. Very tough, very durable. Just rough up any smooth spots as you find them. A sifting of sawdust turns the smooth spots into an ice rink DAMHIKT ;-)

[Alan Schaffter]

Nice. I want to do that to my garage.

I have enamel deck paint on my Advantech floor and find it too slippery. Are you concerned about this with the epoxy? Did you add "Shark flakes" or some other non-skid additive?

[Scott Hildenbrand]

If you need anti slip with deck/porch paint, just dust some play sand over the first coat when wet and let it sit till dry.. Then vacuum it up and put down your second coat. Works well on steps.

[Nino Maini]

Rick: That horse barn needs a lot of work, dirt floor, no power, more critters I want to know about. The long term master plan is to knock it down and build something larger and nicer with water, power and in-law step-up upstairs. That will happen after I win the lottery :-p

I was not a big fan of the shark flakes look, so I did not do anything. I started taking some boxes down last night and with wet shoes, can feel it being a littler slippery. I may just get some of those mats around all the work stations

[Sean Hoag]

Rick: That horse barn needs a lot of work, dirt floor, no power, more critters I want to know about. The long term master plan is to knock it down and build something larger and nicer with water, power and in-law step-up upstairs. That will happen after I win the lottery :-p

I was not a big fan of the shark flakes look, so I did not do anything. I started taking some boxes down last night and with wet shoes, can feel it being a littler slippery. I may just get some of those mats around all the work stations

Nino - If the finished epoxy seems a bit too slippery when walking on it with wet shoes, It will be just as slippery when a little sawdust gets on there. I would suggest that once you get all of your equipment down there and have it setup nice, go buy some of the clear epoxy no slip paint they sell for bathtubs and tape off your work isles to spray or roll on a thin coat of that.

In a former life, I ran a high performance coatings company out here on Long Island and we ran into this problem quite a bit. The customer would be insistant on a 'smooth as glass' finish despite our warnings but when the job was done, I'd get a call to come back and isle off the high traffic areas with the non skid epoxy. Just make sure to lightly sand the epoxy you have down now prior to applying the non skid or it WILL peel up (unless you are still within the final cure period of 72hrs for the two part epoxy you put down).

Let me know how you make out! The floor looks great!

[Chris Padilla]

The smooth floor is nice for rolling on and sweeping/cleaning sawdust and gunk off of but not so good for walking on and it can be very bad if things are wet. Sean's idea sounds very good....