Garage floors often go bad in short order. This is for various reasons due to contamination, improper maintenance, a bad initial quality of product or installation or worse… all of the above.
The most common thing we see with garage floors that need to be resurfaced is pitting. Pitting can be caused by excessive surface moisture, salt exposure and impact damage. In other cases, the slab was frozen or over watered during installation leading to a weakened surface that is more likely to crumble.
Generally t
he best approach for garage resurfacing is to skip on using more concrete, as it is not very good at bonding with existing concrete, rather, a coating will yield the best result.
This is because coatings are thinner when being applied and are able to penetrate the surface and lock into the pores and/or texture of the concrete.
When using traditional concrete, the installation should be at least 2″ thick to provide adequate strength. Thinner self-levelling concrete treatments are less likely to bond well and still require a sealer or coating of some kind as well.
The best solution is a self-levelling coating like an epoxy. Not only are they self-sealing but they add impact resistance and levelness to your deteriorated garage floor.
Once a garage floor is resurfaced with epoxy, you can either leave it as or coat over top with a 5 layer decorative poly aspartic flake floor.
Polyaspartics are quick curing and UV stable. They allow for a fast install and colour stability but coupled with an epoxy base over a properly prepared concrete garage floor, they work together to make a beautiful and incredibly tough floor ready for a long life.
Now, not all deterioration can be addressed using the above methods. The cause of the problem is not always something that can be fixed by adding a resistant wear layer.
If a slab is deteriorating because of moisture from underneath in the structure, it will most likely need to be removed and replaced, if only to gain access to the structure underneath and to address it as needed.
Rest assured though, most concrete floors requiring some love are surface damaged only. Never assume a floor can’t be recovered, no matter how bad it looks.
There are many reasons things can go bad with your garage concrete floor, but, there are many more options to address the issues when they do come up, or hopefully, before hand by being proactive. Contact a concrete flooring expert today for some assistance.
