Garage Floor Resurfacing: Fix a Pitted Garage Floor

Special concrete resurfacers will make a concrete floor look similar new

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Time

Multiple Days

Complexity

Beginner

Cost

$101–250

Introduction

Restore a pitted concrete garage floor with an easy-to-apply resurfacing product. It'll make the floor look fresh and new again at a modest price.

Tools Required

Materials Required

  • Concrete cleaner
  • Concrete crack sealer
  • Resurfacer

Project step-by-step (10)

Stride 1

Results to expect

If your slab is suffering from low self-esteem because of pits, craters or cracks, you can encompass upwardly those scars. Concrete "resurfacer" is a cement-based coating that forms a smoothen, new surface right over the old concrete. The cost of resurfacer for a 2-automobile garage is typically less than $200. You lot'll also need to purchase or rent some special tools, so expect your total cost to exist about $300 for this how to resurface physical projection.

Cleaning and resurfacing the floor normally takes one 24-hour interval (on the other paw, clearing out your garage so yous can work may take weeks!). Spreading the resurfacer smoothly is the trickiest office of the project, so information technology helps to accept some feel with concrete or drywall finishing. Cool weather, with temps in the 60s, also helps. Warmer weather makes resurfacer harden faster, reducing the fourth dimension you have to finish the surface.

As a offset-timer, yous might achieve a perfectly smoothen, flat finish. Or you might end up with a few rough spots and small ridges. But even if your work is far from flawless, you'll withal make a bad flooring look much better. And call back this: If you brand some major mistakes, you lot tin can add a second coat—this fourth dimension with the benefit of feel.

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Step ii

Buy the materials

Resurfacer

We used Quikrete Concrete Resurfacer (about $xx for 40 lbs.). Similar products, such every bit Sakrete Flo-Coat, are available. Buy enough to resurface the whole floor. To estimate the amount you demand, check the label then purchase 2 or 3 extra containers. Better to render some than to run out before the chore's washed.

Plastic sheeting

Plastic

Protect walls with a band at least 3 ft. high. Nosotros used six-mil plastic, simply lighter stuff will work besides.

Castor and button broom

broom

A stiff castor designed for stripping decks and mounted on a handle (shown) will keep you off your knees ($10). And then will a push button broom; get a push broom with the stiffest bristles you can notice.

Squeegee

Squeegee

Go a beefy version designed for floors, not a lightweight window-cleaning tool. A quality squeegee will give yous better results and is worth the toll ($thirty to $45).

Mixing equipment

A powerful i/two-in. drill and a mixing attachment ($12) are the only way to become. Mixing by hand is likewise tiresome.

Protective gear

gear

Rubber boots and gloves protect your peel against the degreaser and resurfacer (which tin can burn down skin). Y'all'll as well need heart and hearing protection. You'll need a pressure washer, concrete cleaner (such as Quikrete Concrete & Stucco Wash No. 8601-fifteen; at domicile centers), a brush, push button broom and a floor duster. Buy enough concrete resurfacer textile (such as Quikrete Concrete Resurfacer; 40-lb. bags) to coat the entire floor. Refer to the coverage specs on the bag to determine how many bags you need.

Everything you'll need for this project is available at home centers. Bated from bones tools similar a hammer and chisel, buckets and a steel trowel, you'll need:

    • Resurfacer
    • Plastic sheeting
    • Physical cleaner
    • Stiff, long-handle brush or push broom
    • Pressure level washer
    • Squeegee
    • Mixing equipment
    • Protective gear

Pace iii

Clean the slab and fill deep holes and cracks

Start with a make clean floor

Scrub with a concrete degreaser and a potent brush, then follow up with a pressure washer. Rinse twice to remove all balance.

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Stride 5

Remove the loose stuff

Chisel away any loose fragments along cracks or craters; there's no need to bust away concrete that'due south firmly attached.

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Step 6

Concrete Flooring Patch: Fill up cracks, craters, divots and pits

Mix up a strong batch of resurfacer, using just plenty h2o for a workable consistency. Scrape off the backlog so repairs are flush with the surrounding flooring.

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Pace seven

Create a dam

dam

Glue weather strip to the floor exactly where the garage door rests. This volition stop resurfacer from flowing onto the driveway. The cleaner the physical, the ameliorate the resurfacer will stick. Showtime with a thorough sweeping. If y'all take oil spots to clean, scrub them with a deck brush and concrete cleaner. Once yous've removed the stains, use cleaner to the whole slab with the brush. And then burn up the pressure washer (Photo one). First in the back of the garage and work your way to the front, forcing the excess water out the overhead doorway.

Important: If you find that the cleaner doesn't soak into the concrete just merely beads up into aerosol on the surface, y'all have a sealer over the concrete that you'll need to remove. In that case, utilize a stripper first to remove the sealer, then clean.

When the slab is clean, find and mark the deep (1/four in. or deeper) pits and divots (Photo 2). Look for whatever pieces of concrete that the sprayer may have loosened. Chip these away (Photo 3) and collect the debris as you go, sweeping it into a dustpan with an former paintbrush. Now's the fourth dimension to make full these cracks, divots and pits. Mix some resurfacer to a mashed tater-like consistency and push the mix into the cracks. Shine it with a cement trowel flush with the surrounding surface (Photograph 4).

If you have expansion joints cutting into the existing slab, push button a weather condition strip into the joint. This will maintain the joint and give y'all a convenient time to finish and take a break. Apply and smooth no more than than 150 sq. ft. of resurfacer at a time for the best results. You can glue a length of weather strip to the slab to ascertain a stopping point if you don't have a command joint and then proceed from that border one time y'all've smoothed the showtime department.

For a overnice-looking finished border under the overhead door, nosotros practical a heavy-duty vinyl weather strip (Photograph five) that we picked upwards at a local home center. Just be certain to dry the slab along the location with a hairdryer so your adhesive will piece of work properly.

Step 8

Mix and spread the resurfacer

Mix like mad

Mix

Recruit a helper to mix the resurfacer while yous spread information technology. The material begins to stiffen quickly, and so the faster you lot get it all mixed and applied, the better your results.

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Step 9

Spread information technology smooth, and then let it set up

Spread

Spread from the middle of the puddle. Button the squeegee forward under moderate force per unit area to piece of work the resurfacer into the concrete and force it into pores and pits. Then drag it dorsum to eliminate edge ridges and to smooth the blanket. Continue spreading until you get even coverage. Aim for a thickness of one/8 in. When you've covered the whole flooring, let information technology cure for 24 hours earlier yous drive on it. This is the fourth dimension to recruit a helper. You'll need i person to mix and some other to spread resurfacer. Take two minutes to read the directions before mixing. The primal to a polish, lump-gratuitous mix is to let the resurfacer 'slake,' that is, sit in the bucket for a few minutes afterwards the initial mixing. And so mix a bit more (Photo vi). Information technology's also skilful to have a slat of woods on hand to scrape the sides of the bucket as you mix.

Saturate the concrete with water and and so apply a broom to push out whatsoever puddles from the pitted areas or low spots. The concrete should be damp when you apply the resurfacer, but not wet to the bear upon. Pour the mix into a puddle on the slab and immediately spread information technology (Photo 7). Work quickly and carefully, blending each stroke into the previous one until yous get a nice, compatible expect. Smoothen the resurfacer forth the side walls by pulling the squeegee toward you. As you reach the border of the door weather strip, use your steel trowel to gently blend the resurfacer against the weather condition strip. You tin remove the backlog with the trowel and driblet information technology into a bucket.

To apply a nonslip texture, lightly drag a clean push broom in one direction across the nonetheless-moisture material (allow no more than than five minutes of setting time before applying the broom finish).

With the slab finished, permit the mix prepare upwards. In hot, dry weather condition, it'southward a good idea to mist the hardened surface; keeping it damp longer will permit the resurfacer to fully harden. After several hours, the finish will back up foot traffic. If the pits notwithstanding bear witness, allow the material set up and employ a 2nd coat later in the day. But you can cease with 1 coat if it provides expert coverage.

Depending on the weather, wait at least 24 hours earlier driving on your newly finished slab. Follow the manufacturer's directions for additional hot-weather misting procedures or extra drying time for cool weather. Afterwards a few days of curing, you can employ a sealer if you'd like to protect the slab from oil and other stains.

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Step 10

Erase your mistakes

If you terminate upward with ridges, shallow craters or squeegee marks, you don't take to alive with them forever. Go to a rental store and rent a physical grinder for about $125 a day. It looks like a floor polisher, simply it grinds down the surface, removing about 1/xvi in. with each deadening pass. Information technology's a dusty job that might take all day, merely you lot'll get a much smoother, flatter surface—perfect if yous want to employ a finish similar epoxy pigment.

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Originally Published: February 22, 2022