When deciding on your garage floor, you may want to consider garage floor paint. Using garage floor paint, it's easy to put a nice, shiny coat on your garage floor, making it easier to clean and also more attractive. If the garage floor has already been coated and that coating has either worn off or is now undesirable for whatever reason, than paint can be a good option for your garage floor. Most of these garage floor paints can be used to top other sealants or paints, providing they are clean and free of any contaminants. As garage floor paint is fairly thick, there's usually no need for color matching or anything of the sort.

How Long Does It Usually Take To Apply?

Many garage floor paints kits take only three hours to apply, including preparing the current flooring. Though a much more permanent solution, this time frame is similar to other garage floor solutions such as mats or tiling. This estimate also is only for a normal garage; laying down garage floor paint will take longer if you have an unusually large garage.

Preparing Your Concrete Garage Floor

Before the garage floor paint can be laid down, the concrete must be prepared to the paint kit manufacturers specifications. Even if the garage floor is brand new, this still holds true. There's no point in laying down a nice, new layer of paint only for it to not last as long or have a shoddy finish because the concrete wasn't prepared correctly.

The Mandatory 30 Day Wait

New concrete is susceptible to a slightly different set of conditions. You can usually tell it's new if it's unusually dark for concrete, such as a slate gray color, even if you can't still carve your initials in it. If your concrete is at this stage, you will have to wait before preparing it for painting. Most paint manufacturers will tell you to wait at least thirty days, but different instructions may vary, so be sure to check the directions that come with your kit. If you're unsure as to when the garage floor was laid, you'll probably want to speak with the contractor, or wait at least thirty days from the first time you personally laid eyes on the completed floor. As it will have to be prepped and cleaned regardless of condition, it's okay to go ahead and use the garage for storage, be it cars or boxes. Consider your own likeliness to move all that stuff back out, though, before you trap yourself in a hole of procrastination and never get the job done.

Garage Floor Paint: The Best Option?

So, as you can tell, garage floor paint can be a bit of a pain, but it's also, in many ways, the most effective solution. Garage floor paint does, however, come out very nicely when done correctly.

Suzy likes to write articles about her garage floor and garage floor paint.