Man cave, which floor paint?

I am finally getting around to doing up our garage. To start with I’d like to paint the concrete floor, it’s not used for a car if that makes any difference.

Oh and pics of yours for inspiration of racking, benches and lighting would be good too.

Whatever you do avoid ronseal stuff utter utter crap.
Leyland paints are great though, but is key as in get everything hoovered repeatedly and scrub the floor with white spirit. I spent a few days prepping the floors in my workshops.
Oh & a light colour in best too for finding things you drop & general lightness.
You’ll also need to do a wash coat & a couple (minimum) top coats.

Is it better to use the epoxy based stuff?

Second the clean dry floor, although I’d caution against using white spirit as that can soak into the concrete and potentially cause adhesion issues with solvent based paint.

Try caustic soda for degreasing and rinse/wash well with fresh water after and allow to dry thoroughly would be my approach.

As for finishes, a 2-pack epoxy floor paint will be as hard as nails and with careful and thorough prep will not chip or lift.

Light colour, eg grey also recommended.

I did have one friend (into motorbikes in a big way) who fitted underfloor heating and then tiled his garage floor, His garage was nicer than his kitchen… But utterly rubbish as a workshop floor, things would bounce and roll for miles and he used darker tiles so it was a bugger to find stuff.

My suggestion (as it requires less prep, is easily pulled up and replaced and is relatively cheap) Lino… Does need a nice smooth floor to start with, but then so does painting.

Have done my (old, rough) garage floor a couple of weeks ago. Two coats of Leyland heavy duty floor paint. Whatever you use, make sure you allow sufficient time for it to cure (as opposed to becoming touch dry) BEFORE you put anything on it! (Not me, but my brother did his garage recently and his car tyres stuck to the floor; not sure what he used though.)

If the floor is quite rough (as mine is), bear in mind that any thicker areas of paint collecting in depressions my take longer to cure than the recommended time (this I DID discover for myself!). As others have said, preparation is key and on reflection I should probably have used screed to achieve a smoother finish.

Just finished mine. Used Leyland heavy duty slate. Goes on easily and Nice colour. Dried to walk on in 24 hours. I put two coats on and seems plenty tough enough. As said though make sure you prep the floor first.

Oh! and make sure you start painting from the inside/back outwards 😉

I’d put rubber down instead. You can get big rolls of it for about £100 – I needed 1 roll, which I then cut in half and laid side by side. It’s thick enough to take out small imperfections in the floor, warm and soft underfoot, and piss easy to clean. Also stuff doesn’t damage when you drop it on the floor

Alternatively you could use the foam tiles that just clip together

As above used rubber mate or tiles in workshop by benches or areas of heavy traffic, although this was for work workshops

Thanks everyone, plenty to ponder. No pics though.

As for finishes, a 2-pack epoxy floor paint will be as hard as nails and with careful and thorough prep will not chip or lift.

the point of the epoxy garage floor paints though is its for floors that actually have vehicles parked in them where the risk is that tyres will lift the paint off if cars are parked there for extended periods. If that’s a risk you have to guard against then its worth the cost/effort/and a lung full of xylene. The downside is it it can result in a very slick/ slippery floor

if all the paint needs to do is make the floor look a bit nicer and make the space easier to keep clean then ordinary floor paint will work just fine as what you are painting is an ordinary floor. Really its job is just to stop you filling the air with concrete dust every time you sweep up. Unless you’re in the workshop 10 hours a day then it wearing out isn’t a worry and even if you do get wear in high traffic areas… those are the easiest areas to paint so just splodge a bit more on at night and it’ll be fine in the morning.

I’d recommend the foam tiles as well. Easy to fit and no floor preparation hassle.

2018-11-24_12-19-25[/url] by Steve Weeks[/url] – Flickr2BBcode
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2018-02-02_03-01-26[/url] by Steve Weeks[/url] – Flickr2BBcode
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2018-01-20_09-44-04[/url] by Steve Weeks[/url] – Flickr2BBcode
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We used Ronseal on ours years ago. It has a van parked in it most days and no sign of it lifting.
The back part has interlocking tiles just because we had some that needed using up.

Big Dug floor tiles for mine in grey and black chequers with a nice blue section for the KICKR. I thought seriously about epoxy, but in the end, the tiles make the room dust free, warmer, set aside an area for training, were easy to fit and best of all, were fitted without completely emptying the garage.

About £400 for the fancy coloured extras, but competitive with proper epoxy. Can take them with you should you move.

@weeksy Did you stick the floor tiles down at all?

Only the front row by the door. Using some spray adhesive, due to being motorbikes with oil etc, spillages, then plenty of sweat from the turbo, i like to take some up, wash them, dry them and rotate with spares etc.

I did the same as weeksy – got hold of some expensive carpet tiles from a neighbour that were destined for a commercial operation (they last 10 years in high footfall areas apparently).
I cleaned/hoovered the floor; sealed it with pva, then self-leveling compound, then fitted the carpets with spray glue that allowed a certain amount of re-positioning before final stick down.

Before painting I used a primer/sealer that gave a good bond and meant that I used less paint.

To do a garage of that size you’ll get the tiles on Ebay/Gumtree for £25-40.

It’s a couple of hours work fitting the edges etc..

Steelfreak or Richwales when you painted your floors using the Leyland paint, what type of roller did you use? Masonary or a normal pile one?

I have carpeted ours. We replaced a carpet in one of our bedrooms a year ago – the old underlay and carpet was then put down in the Garage.

Comfortable to stand on if working in the garage for a few hours, warmer underfoot when getting changed for turbo sessions (No spd’s in house).

Granted it has picked up some oil stains but cant say I care. Will replace with another carpet when I redo the sitting room in a couple of years…

Just a thought – I painted the walls of my man cave with a floor paint. Might have been Leyland trade, but I can’t remember. Anyhow, I had quite a major reaction to it (d&v, sick as a dog) which was confirmed when I repeated using the same paint a few weeks after.
When I built the kids’ shed last summer and painted it using Cuprinol Shades, I had a similar but smaller reaction.

TL:DR use skin protection and maybe face mask. I now have a respirator.

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I have carpeted ours. We replaced a carpet in one of our bedrooms a year ago – the old underlay and carpet was then put down in the Garage.

Comfortable to stand on if working in the garage for a few hours, warmer underfoot when getting changed for turbo sessions (No spd’s in house).

Granted it has picked up some oil stains but cant say I care. Will replace with another carpet when I redo the sitting room in a couple of years…

Same here. Totally cost free. Nothing rolls very far and spills are soaked up quickly. And at the rate her indoors likes to redecorate there will be a never ending supply of fresh flooring.

Lino?

Local flooring shop has weird shaped and unsellable end of roll offcuts dead cheap.

Our garage has a knackered concrete floor that is unpaintable without resurfacing. So I’m off there to get a piece this week.