Thinking about putting an epoxy floor in your garage, then making sure you have all the proper tools in your epoxy flooring kit before you start the project will save you a lot of time and headaches.

Epoxy Flooring Kit – Analyze Your Garage Floor

Before you buy the materials to epoxy your garage floor, you should test it to determine if moisture is coming up through the concrete from the ground below. Just tape a plastic bag to your garage floor, wait 24 hours, then lift it up and check. If moisture is evident, your garage floor is not suitable for epoxy.

If you are dealing with a new slab, you must wait a minimum of 28 days, preferably two months, for the floor to cure and dry thoroughly before applying the epoxy coating. If you are dealing with a previously painted floor, the best advice is to remove the paint, especially when you are applying a solvent-based epoxy that could soften any that remains.

On the day you select to epoxy your garage floor, the temperature of the concrete must be 55 degrees, and the air temperature between 60 and 90 degrees.

Epoxy Flooring Kit – Preparation

Epoxy is a tough, long-lasting coating that you paint onto the concrete. It resists grease, oil, and many other substances that would ruin ordinary paint. It cleans easily and can be found in a variety of colors.

The reality is that not all concrete floors will hold a coating without a thorough cleaning beforehand that can be labor intensive and tedious. Plan to spend the first day removing oil spots, cleaning and de-greasing the floors, etching it with a mild acid, and scrubbing and rinsing a lot. The next day can be used for filling cracks and applying the first coat of epoxy.

Epoxy Flooring Kit – Measuring Device

Epoxy flooring kits contain some type of measuring device to allow you to measure the thickness of the epoxy between your finished surface and the floor. The thickness of the epoxy that you apply will directly affect the amount of tire heat the coating can absorb. Thin coatings will get discolored, blistered, and dulled much quicker than thick coatings over time. Just like any wear material, the thicker the material the longer it will last

Epoxy Flooring Kit – Etching Tools

If you don’t etch the floors as a preliminary step, then you will not be removing all of the dirt and residues that have been ground into your concrete. You will also not be opening up the pores of your concrete. Both of these factors will prevent the epoxy from adhering to your concrete properly and the epoxy you put on your floor will peel up in a very short period of time.