Automotive News

To be as certain as you possibly could that your concrete garage floor would be protected, you took the time and effort to apply epoxy garage floor paint. It looks great, and you feel a sense of accomplishment just stepping in to your garage. Who knew that garage flooring could be so pretty? But then the unthinkable happens. The epoxy garage floor coating itself becomes damaged. Luckily, it’s not terribly difficult to repair a chip or crack on epoxy garage floors.

Do This Before Repairing An Epoxy Garage Floor Coating

Just like when you first applied the epoxy, you need to make sure that the affected area is very clean. You must make sure the area around the scar is clear of dirt, oil, and grease, even if you’ve never worked on your car in the garage. Cars have a way of leaving a mark, even those that are brand new. Tires, if nothing else, will track stuff all over a garage floor coating. Fortunately, as epoxy is made for resisting damage caused by chemicals, it’s easy to clean, too. There are many cleaners available that are designed for painted flooring, but a good dish soap will do the job just as well, and your hands will thank you. Don’t limit your cleaning to just the damaged area. Make sure that you clean a fairly large section of the flooring near the damage as well.

Removing The Offending Section

Just filling the affected area would be a bad idea as it would be very obvious. Paint in general, and epoxy is no exception, fades over time and changes color. On cars, you can just blend the new and old paint with a scratch removal product or a clay bar. Epoxy, though, resists chemicals, which means that won’t work. To blend epoxy paints, you’ll have to remove a large-ish area so that the new paint isn’t so obvious. A good hobby knife or a box cutter can be used for this. Cut a few inches around the area, or even more if the area is exceptionally obvious, like right in the middle of your floor. Once you’ve made the cut, use a blow dryer to warm the area until it starts to soften, and remove the paint with a newish, sharp paint scraper.

Oxygen Is Important

Now that you have an area that is mostly bare, you can repair the epoxy garage floor coating. Use the directions that are included with your epoxy kit, as well as some common sense regarding the fact that you’re working with a small area. Make sure that you also hit the edges where the affected area touches the old paint, bleeding over at least a little bit, to blend the new and old colors. Most importantly, make sure that your garage is ventilated any time that you are using an epoxy garage floor coating. Human lungs don’t care for epoxy fumes.

Avoiding Having To Do This Again

Next time you’re working in your garage, use a garage floor mat! Anything that happens once is likely to happen again. Any garage floor covering will prevent this from happening, and small mats for where you are working aren’t very expensive. The next time you drop a tool, you’ll be very glad that you got some extra protection. Epoxy garage floor coatings look great, and are very durable, but they are definitely not indestructible.

Check out Sweet Garage Floor for even more great garage floor information.