How to Paint a Concrete Floor

Learn how to paint a concrete floor. Find out how epoxy paint kits can seal a garage floor where durability is of importance.

LESLIE: Greg in Colorado is looking to seal a floor. Tell us about your project.

GREG: I got a project going on in the garage and I would like – maybe you guys can help recommend a product that I can put down on a concrete floor to seal the floor; not only seal it, to maybe give me some nonstick surface as well that’ll tolerate gasoline, grease, things of this nature. But also I do a lot of welding so I’d like something that may not – is a little…

TOM: Ignite? (chuckling)

GREG: Yes.

LESLIE: (chuckling) Burst into flames.

GREG: Not only ignite but there’s hot cinders that – from welding that go onto the floor that perhaps may burn the floor. Something maybe a little resistant to that as well.

TOM: Well, that’s a pretty tall order, Greg.

LESLIE: Yeah.

TOM: You’re talking about some sort of a real industrial floor and not something that’s going to be very readily available. Generally, when it comes to concrete floors, if you want something that’s really durable, you would do an epoxy paint, which is a two-part mixture…

GREG: I see.

TOM: … where you would mix epoxy with a hardener and then apply that. And I’ll give you an example of it. I don’t know if it’s as tough as welding but it’s pretty darn close. We have a Boy Scout house in my neighborhood that needed a new floor; solid concrete. They poured it with the epoxy paint and so far the scouts haven’t been able to dig through it and that was about a year ago.

GREG: OK.

TOM: And it worked real well. There’s a couple of manufacturers that make that. QUIKRETE makes an epoxy paint as does Rust-Oleum.

GREG: OK. QUIKRETE and Rust-Oleum. OK.

LESLIE: Mm-hmm.

TOM: It’s not too terribly expensive so if you do end up, you know, scarring it up from the welding work you can always put a new coat on every couple of years.

GREG: (INAUDIBLE)

LESLIE: And you know what else? There’s also – oh, I’m sorry. You know, also, if you do that epoxy coating, you know, with the paint across the entire floor, then, Greg, you can go ahead and buy something that’s called an anti-static mat, which is used a lot in the heavy-duty shops, especially where welding is done. Because you know, these are super protective; they’re durable; they won’t ignite and they come in a variety of sizes and you could put that down on the floor in your welding area and get a good sized one to sort of contain your sparks, if you will.