How To Paint Garage Floor? Make Better In 3 Steps Now!

How to paint garage floor? Even if you use the garage only for parking the car. Operating fluids such as engine oil, coolant, and brake fluid end up on the garage floor.

Dirt, tar, and temperature fluctuations also cause additional damage to the floor. The foundation must withstand frost, road salt, and meltwater in winter.

Another challenge for garage floors is the plasticizer contained in the rubber of car tires, and they attack conventional paints and varnishes.

The new paint must not only protect against dirt but also against abrasion. The right garage floor paint makes the floor easier to clean, resistant, and durable.

Now let us examine below how to paint the garage floor professionally!

Painting Garage Floor

Many garage floors are getting made of concrete. If it is not getting treated further, this can lead to the destruction of the concrete in the medium to long term. Besides, an untreated concrete floor is also not very attractive after a certain period.

A relatively inexpensive way to give the garage floor a better appearance and, at the same time protection, it is to paint it. But, you may not use any color for painting your garage floor.

Paint The Garage Floor – How To Paint The Garage Floor? / Photo by Brian Hart from Flickr

Paint the garage floor easy in three steps:

1. Prepare the substrate for painting

The priority is a thorough cleaning of the garage floor with a broom and vacuum cleaner. Remove dirt and treat stubborn stains with a special cleaner, such as oil stains—repair holes with filler.

You may have to sand down coarse unevenness and old coatings mechanically. Then wipe the floor damp with a cleaning agent to remove any remaining stains and dust. Wipe it again with clear water to eliminate any residual cleaning agent.

If the garage’s floor is cleaned intensively, you can cover and mask all that might accidentally get painted off with the plastic film.

2. Prime the garage floor before painting

Start by mixing the primer. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions strictly. Start by painting the corners and edges. You can use a paintbrush for this.

Then apply the garage floor primer evenly and not too thickly in strips on the floor with a large lambskin roller. The primer must then dry between 12 and 48 hours before the garage floor paint can follow.

3. Paint the garage floor

After priming, mix the floor paint and apply the mixture quickly. Start again with the edges and corners, then paint the floor in evenly spaced, opaque strips.

If you have not removed an old coat, you will probably need a second coat. Even if you use a 2-in-1 combination for primer and paint, this will require a first primer coat and, when dry, another final layer.

Make sure that the floor between coats is arid. Only then can the paint achieve its full effect later. The first layer should be left to dry for at least twelve hours.

Approximately 24 hours after the final coat, the floor should be ready to be walked on again, and after about three days, it should be prepared to take a light load.

However, the sealant is only completely getting hardened after about one week.

Garage floor durability

There is usually a concrete floor in the garage, sometimes with a screed on top. The floor slabs of prefabricated garages are also concrete slabs.

Especially about prefabricated garages, we must consider that the floor is getting planned in such a design that it can vibrate.

Garage floors are subject to particular stresses — Paint The Garage Floor – Garage floors are subject to particular stress / Photo by kaleigh from Flickr

So if you want to lay tiles on such a garage floor, you have to work with high-quality building materials, which has its price.

However, the levels of conventional garages can also have their peculiarities: in winter, garages freeze over, and very old garages may not have a moisture barrier installed. Tiling can also be problematic here.

Chemical, mechanical stress, and coating

A relatively cheap alternative is painting the garage floor. However, under no circumstances can you use the first-best or even most inexpensive paint – the requirements for paints and varnishes for the garage floor are too specific.

On the one hand, vehicles’ tires release plasticizers, which are then absorbed by the color on the garage floor.

It would make the paint unstable. Paints and varnishes for the garage floor should also be oil and acid-resistant.

Paint The Garage Floor – A garage floor must be able to withstand a great deal of chemical, mechanical stress, and coating / Photo by Decorative Concrete Kingdom from Flickr

Although most garage owners will now say that they do not want to open a garage in their garage, operating fluids such as various oils, coolants, or brake fluid can always be get lost by a vehicle.

Besides, a lot of dirt, such as tar or meltwater, is getting carried into the garage with road salt. Not only in combination with frost is this an enormous burden.

The vehicle itself also represents a heavy load. After all, a weight of one tonne weighs on four minor contact points.

Materials and tools to paint garage floors

Paint The Garage Floor – What you need to paint garage floors / Photo by stux from Pixabay

Paint Color
Garage floor coating as a primer
Plastic film for covering
Adhesive tape for fixation
Oil Stain Remover
Putty and filler to repair
Detergents
Brooms
Vacuum cleaner
Large lambskin roller with telescopic rod
Paintbrush for corners
Agitator for mixing the paint

Requirements for painting a garage floor

acid and oil resistant
abrasion resistant even with high mechanical impact
insensitive to alkaline solutions when cleaning
insensitive to salts
a high anti-slip class
a very high abrasion resistance
the paint layer must have a high elasticity

With these requirements, you will quickly arrive at six to nine dollars for an area of 1 sqm. However, this is still considerably cheaper than tiling your garage floor.

Old garage floor painting

Paint The Garage Floor – Old garage floors come with other features into play / Image by Wolfgang Eckert from Pixabay

In most cases, you will be capable of using paint or varnish that exactly meets the above requirements and seals the floor. However, there are also older garages that are damp.

And this can be damp starting from the floor – for example, if a moisture barrier has not been laid under the concrete floor or screed. However, you can also paint such a garage floor.

In contrast to the paints and varnishes we have described so far, paint for a garage with a floor not one hundred percent dry requires a coating that is open to diffusion and permeable to vapor.

It is because conventional high-quality paints act as a sealant with which you can paint your garage floor. However, a bond is always efficient in both directions.

If necessary, you may also need a bonding agent before painting your garage floor.

Besides, there are also highly absorbent or even sandy garage floors. These floors must be cleaned particularly carefully before painting.

Afterward, apply a suitable primer to effectively adhesion the paint to the floor. Coarse concrete floors should be getting sanded to a certain degree before painting.

Tips for painting the garage floor

Paint The Garage Floor – Some helpful tips when painting the garage floor / Image by Wolfgang Eckert from Pixabay

When painting your garage floor, you can choose between sealants and coatings. Bonds are up to 0.2 mm thick; layers are usually between 0.5 and 2 mm thick.

It would help to allow a newly manufactured garage floor to dry completely before painting it. Only then can you ensure that the garage floor remains undamaged in the long term.

You will find suitable paints, as we have described them, under Floor Sealants and Coatings, which are ideal for industrial and workshop floors.

Although these are considerably more expensive than DIY store goods, they are durable for decades and cheaper because renovation work is not due for many years.

How To Paint Garage Floor? Make Better In 3 Steps Now!