Its still raining now. I was thinking it might wash the cement from the sand and leave it rough, maybe i'll have to paint it or seal it?
You have to opportunity to paint this new floor with epoxy floor paint. While this is a bit more expensive than normal floor paint it is totally unaffected by oil, petrol, brake fluid etc. And assuming it is applied to a fresh floor (as you could) it will last as long as the building I have got 10 L of the stuff sat there for when I can find the time to empty the garage and get the old paint up.
We built this to replace an existing garage. 3m wide and 10m long. Loads of light through the rooflights, in hindsight I wouldn't have put the windows in, but they look nicer from outside and they were 20 for both off ebay! Loads of room each side for a car I would also recommend putting an RSJ across to put a block and tackle on! This was just some of the soil we removed by hand, we also moved all the sand, cement, and bricks/blocks by hand from the front to the rear. I would have used bigger beams in the roof too but height was becoming an issue without planning permission. We haven't had any issues with the shallow slope of the roof as the sheets are all one piece spanning the whole width, mastic between sheets and foam fillers on each end to stop draughts. It's been up for 3 plus years now and has had a foot of snow on the top with no problems. I would also go for an epoxy mastic floor, mine's a pain in the bum to clean!
That looks sweet!! I'm definaty going to have to paint my floor. I've swept it but the dust never ends. Can the epoxy go onto the dust or would I need to seal it first?
i would give the sealer a miss i used it on my garage floor once it had dryed it was just the same as it was to start with plus the fumes it gives off are unreal was hi for a week lol still have the tin if you need to know witch one not to use
Looking at the safety sheet for Sikafloor ProSeal and comments above I'd give the epoxy stuff a miss and I'd go for something like this a cement based leveling compound. http://www.bostik.co.uk/diy/product/cementone/Cempolay-Ultra/145
...which you'd then apply the epoxy coating over the top of! Our flooring at work (massive. Thousands of sqft) is covered with the epoxy coating. Hugely high traffic, with heavy equipment running over it regularly. Apart from some expected cracks at expansion joints it's as mint as it was when applied 7 years ago. I'll get a pic of it later.
Given the choice of A few days of fumes Of A lifetime of dust Mmmm I would take the fumes every time. Not to mention is the garage is not attached to the house then really there should not be a big issue
I never got round to painting the floor of my workshop, but I did coat the fresh concrete with loads of concrete sealer. It seems to have worked quite well. I can't remember the specific product I used but I might have a can of it left; if so I'll get the name off it.
^^^^ This! The fumes aren't that bad TBH (maybe more so in a confined space, mind), and far more attractive than constant sweeping up of cement dust! Pic of my work as promised; Seven years old and hardly a mark on it. Cleaned with industrial scrubbers everyday too.
Crikey, i work in a proper old-school place, i keep it as clean as i can but its nowhere near that good. this is clean lol
The floor is, of course given the size of it, but the epoxy coating is just rolled on. Given that in a domestic garage it'll be hand-floated, I think you achieve a similar finish (at least good enough for the epoxy) with a decent self-levelling screed. I spoke with Dura Garages and that's pretty much what they do to existing floors when people opt for the epoxy coating.
I've had today off to make a start and been rained off already. Also Holty put his string lines down and my base isn't square, i had wrongly assumed that my back fence would be at a right angle to the side wall but it isnt. Over 8.1mtrs its about 150mm out. He said to bring the wall in at the back to keep it square but i've told him to build it out of square (big as possible) and i'll struggle a bit with the roof. Bad day
