Each year, we exhibit at the annual Pennsylvania Home Show in Harrisburg. We get to meet new homeowners and catch up with our garage coatings customers. Sometimes, we even get a great story to share. This year, we spoke with a Do-It-Yourself homeowner whose story spans two year.
Our Story Begins With...
In 2014, the homeowner (we will call him Joe) approached Steve and Zach in our booth to ask about our garage floor coatings. After about 20 minutes of conversation, Joe informed them of his intentions to use DIY epoxy floor paints to spruce up his one car garage.
Fast forward to 2015, Joe returned to our booth once more. Speaking with Steve and Gary, he shared his DIY story. The highlights of this 30 minute plus conversation are as follows:
- He removed the existing garage floor paint using a 4" hand grinder and cupwheels (approx $150 investment). This portion took 4 days and ended with a sore body. Plus it pretty much ruined the shop vac used to pull up the dust ($75).
- He acid etched the garage floor two times just to ensure a good prep; two more days down ($25 of supplies).
- He applied an epoxy/urethane kit which included vinyl chips over a period of three days and then had to let the materials cure for another 3 days ($900 for the kit).
- Overall, Joe is pretty happy with the floor, but it has had a few minor issues (no additional details provided on those issues).
- Joe said it took a lot more effort than he had expected - figuring he had over 40 hours of his time invested in this project.
Our Story Ends With ...
To summarize, Joe had spent over $1,150 and a normal work week of time on this one car, garage floor coating. He lost the use of his garage for nearly two weeks.
What was Steve's response to this story? Joe's 320 square foot garage would have been $1,600 if we had coated it. Joe admitted he would not repeat that DIY project.
Prologue to this DIY Story
While Steve didn't want to go into the differences any further, I thought I would point out several more items that are as important, if not more than just the cost.
3) Our polyaspartic topcoat would be three times thicker and considerably stronger than Joe's two urethane layers.I'm not saying that no one should ever attempt to coat their own garage. Just be sure it's worth the time and effort. Plus, don't purchase the cheap epoxy paint kits at the big box stores or get ripped off with overpriced kits on the web. There are some great products out there - just be sure to shop around.
Mike suggests looking at kits from Formula4Coatings.com, if you do wish to install your own garage floor coatings. You can contact F4C at info@formula4coatings.com. Their website is going through some revisions, so you may need to email them.
