CLEANING GARAGE FLOORSCleaning garage floors is very important when some kind of garage floor coating is going to be applied. Having a clean garage floor for the GARAGE FLOOR EPOXY or GARAGE FLOOR RESURFACING material to bond to is critical for the coating to last for many years. No matter how new or old the floor is it will need a rough textured surface in order to achieve maximum adhesion. There are many ways to etch the surface of the concrete, using muriatic acid or an etch-n-clean solution is usually the easiest. But etching the surface can sometimes take multiple applications to sufficiently clean and profile the concrete and then you have to let it dry for at least 24 hours. A better solution may be grinding the surface with a Floor Grinder or using a Shot Blasting machine to roughen up the surface. These garage floor cleaners are usually faster and when your done you sweep & vacuum up the debris and your ready to coat. If a sealer was applied to the floor, grinding or shot blasting is necessary to open up the pores of the concrete so the coating will bond properly. Acid etching will not completely remove most sealers.
HOW TO GUARANTEE YOU START WITH A CLEAN GARAGE FLOOR FLOOR GRINDING - Physical grinding is a far superior method of garage floor cleaning compared to etching. Grinding is usually accomplished by the use of a walk behind floor grinder or for small floors a hand grinder can be used. A walk behind grinder has one or more rotating plates containing extremely hard, diamond faced grinding stones. You can rent these machines. They will be more expensive than etching. But grinding offers much better, reliable abrasion of the concrete surface. Grinding produces a coarser surface, and leaves no acid residue or moisture behind (two very bad things for a coating). Cleaning garage floors with a floor grinder means you can be coating the floor the same day, saving you time, and for me that means saving money.
SHOT BLASTING - Shot blasting is the preferred method of mechanical garage floor cleaning by most coating manufactures. These walk behind machines clean and profile the concrete surface simultaneously. Shot blasting strips thin coatings, removes contamination and laitance (soft concrete) to reveal a surface profile that is great for a coating to bond with. The machine blasts small steel balls onto the concrete surface at a high velocity producing the ideal coating profile. Shot blasting can be used for small and large garage floors. It is dust free, dry, leaves no residue behind, and is very cost effective. A small to medium size garage can be done relatively quickly so you can start painting the same day.
It might be a good idea to hire someone to shot blast. It would be a lot faster and would leave you with a clean garage floor that's ready for coating. Cleaning garage floors by floor grinding or shot blasting will insure your concrete is profiled correctly. If your floor coating doesn't adhere properly you'll be recoating spots every year. These two garage floor cleaners should eliminate this problem increasing your chance for a successful application.
For information on other garage floor related topics click on the links below. HOW TO PAINT GARAGE FLOOR COATINGS EPOXY GARAGE FLOOR COATING PREPARATION GARAGE FLOOR PAINT BEST VS WORST Return from Cleaning Garage Floors to Garage Floors
New! CommentsHave your say about what you just read! Leave me a comment in the box below. |
SEARCH THIS SITE
SITE SPONSERS
LEARN HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH YOUR OWN WEBSITE, JUST LIKE I DO WITH THIS ONE
