Garage for Sale

This project started back in April. Our garage was so packed. We could barely move around in it. I couldn't even get to my workbench. Stuff was everywhere. We could barely fit a car in here. We needed to do something.

I had bought all the Rustoleum Epoxy Garage floor coating stuff on April 27. I know because Canadian Tire had it on sale less than a month later and I returned it and they gave me a price match on the lower price plus an additional 10%. Saved me a almost 80 bucks.

Because we have a car and a half garage (308 sq ft). I had to get two kits, plus two etcher kits, 1 degreaser, a acid resistant brush, and a squeegee (plus 1 - 4 gallon plastic watering can that I returned the next day).
We went with the clear because 1. it's supposed to be more durable than the gray or the tan coloured kits, and 2. because that's what Tresa wanted (I wanted the gray but I got vetoed).

So here's the shopping list:
1x (depends on spots) Heavy duty degreaser $10.79
- Clean grease areas
2x Epoxy-shield contrete etch : citric etching solution $12.99
- clean entire floor
2x premium clear coat product - apply product $119.00

= 10.79 + 2x12.99 + 2x119.00
= 274.77 + tax
= $310.49 - 77.98 (PM + 10% + taxes)
= $222.37

plus these things since I didn't have them:
1x squeegee
1x scrub brush
1x square broom
2x tray liners
2x rollers
1x paint brush

The coloured kit is slightly different from the clear. The coloured kit comes with the acid etcher but not the anti-skid additive. The clear kit includes the anti-skid, but not the acid etch.

So this product is temperature sensitive. They recommend waiting till after the May 24 weekend. Why...cause the temps are usually above 13 deg C. It's better for the product to cure properly. Otherwise if it rains or is cold. It won't set right and later on, you'll find it'll start to flake off.

But you can do the prep work any time before, and you need to make sure the floor is bone dry before you apply this stuff otherwise you'll trap moisture and the epoxy won't adhere properly. So lots of watching the weather network and patience and planning.

It was a lot of work this project. It started with just the floor, then we purged a bunch of junk in the garage. We found all this stuff that belonged to the previous owner that we had never used and gotten rid of all this scavenged junk that he had, and after 7 years of living in this house we finally dumped it.
Little by little this project grew in scope.
After the floor prep and the purging, we took the cabinets down and some shelving and a metal table.

The hardest part was moving all of our stuff out of the garage. Every time I had to do something major. I had to get everything out and it took me hours.
This weekend we had a garage sale with our friends. So while Tresa and Kieran were over at our Daycare ladies house trying to unload our junk for some hard earned coin. I began the monumental task of unloading the garage for the second time. This time to paint the garage and apply the floor coating. I had been waiting for weeks. But last week I had my triathlon race, so this weekend I was really hoping the weather would warm up and be good. There was a 40% chance of rain, but I played the odds and won. It was a beautiful day, which I spent getting pizza for the Garage Sale clerks, doing some laundry, mowed the lawn and then had to repair the extension cord after I chewed it up with the mower by accident. And it was Hela and Ola's mower and cord. Man...delays. Then I got to the garage.
But little by little we got it done.

Painting was a pain. I was trying to be careful not to spill any paint on the floor otherwise it could affect how the epoxy adheres to the floor. And it took so long. I started at the bench since it was going to be the most work then did the rest of the garage.
I got this concrete paint and waterproof basement paint since we were getting some paint flaking off the walls about 2-3 bricks from the floor. So the upper half is regular concrete paint and the bottom half is the waterproof stuff. And it's so thick almost like pancake mix. It took me forever to paint the bottom 3 bricks. It would have taken me till past midnight to finish painting the first coat if it weren't for Tresa coming home and helping me.
But we got it done. It took about 2 coats to do

I was hoping to do the garage floor as well. But it was too late and I was exhausted. So I called it a day.

The next day I painted another coat while waiting for the temp to climb to about 20 deg C. And then marked off 4ft squares on the floor. The epoxy becomes unusable in 90 minutes, so I had to work fast. I used up the first kit in 45 mins. The fastest part of the whole process was applying the floor coating. I was done in no time. When I started applying the stuff, I noticed that the stuff gives off pretty strong fumes, so good thing Tresa brought home those N95 masks from the SARS days. It came in handy. My head would be spinning right now.

So it's lunch time. And I deserve a treat. I'm done.
Except for putting the stuff back in the garage.

It's like we're putting up this Garage for sale. Like when people want to sell their homes they paint and fix up their house to ready it for potential buyers and tire kickers.

I think we'll keep it or I'll move in there. We're hoping that we can make enough room to work out in the garage too. Even in the winter time. But I may have to install a heater and maybe insulate the garage door. We'll see. The hard part is now done. The things you do as a home owner.




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