Just thought I'd post for everyone's benefit.

My wife and I just got finished prepping a significant portion of the basement floor for paint. I was thinking of going with some expensive stuff but just couldn't justify the cost. Started looking at the Home Depot stuff, and the local U-pull junkyard swears by Home Depot's stuff in their buildings ("as long as you prep it exactly according to the directions!"). Bought a gallon of Behr 1-part epoxy. NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT TRUE EPOXY PAINT. Not that expensive. If you read the directions, you really oughta prime the surface first, and before that, clean and/or etch. The cost starts going up, but this is the way to do it right.

The basement as it started out:


Anyway, we got going tonight after clearing out significant floor space. We used Behr #990 cleaner/degreaser combined with steaming hot water straight out of the water heater and it did a great job pulling dirt out of the floor. I also took a razor blade and skimmed off any paint spots or other junk (this floor is 38 years old) and the floor looks fantastically clean now. Next step is to clean the walls (they'll be painted after the floor) and fill some gouges in the floor, then we'll be ready for primer and epoxy topcoat later this week. I'll post up some pics as I go.

Washing with Behr #990 degreaser/cleaner.

BTW, Garagejournal.com is THE place for this sort of stuff. If you haven't been there, stop in and check it out.

I love that site. I only jumped in here to tell you about it.

Thanks for the writeup Joel. Looking forward to before/during/after pics! Some day when I get around to doing my garage......

See, now you have room for a nice little layout Joel

Looking forward to the pics. I want to do this in my garage bad. It's on the list!

Yeah, garage journal is crazy. Car forums are bad enough, they make me buy parts and cars. Garage journal made me buy a new house... I mean, garage.

Hi Joel

I'm sure you have it figured out, but I have a couple of questions knowing the winter you have in Rochester which is very similar to my winters.

I would be concerned that the concrete would be cold and the epoxy would not bond. Maybe you have it toasty warm in that part of your basement. Concrete will conduct the cold.

Second, you need to vent the area, meaning you will be taking in outside air at 10 or 20 degrees. Not sure how that would work while trying to heat your house and keeping it warm to cure the paint.

I plan on doing my 2 garage underneath, but I would never think of doing it in the winter, I'm waiting for the summer.

We got the walls washed down tonight. I think I'm coming down with something but fortunately this work is pretty mindless. The previous owners didn't do much about water control around the house and there were mud/clay stains on the walls underneath the three windows. I've since rerouted the sump pump drain all the way to the street, installed gutters, and put in a french drain network in the property so those days are long gone. But the mud was still there. So it took awhile to scrub the walls down.

BTW, I thought I heard somewhere that poured concrete is nonporous. Well, it may not be as porous as cinderblock, but it soaked in a whole lot of water before we could actually start washing and scrubbing it.

Tom, good points. The Behr 1-part Epoxy Concrete and Garage Floor Paint (Slate Gray #902) I bought is water-based, but I just read the fine print and it does indeed mention the need for venting. Ironically, both it and the primer (#880 Concrete and Masonry Bonding Primer) have ethylene glycol in them.

We are getting a bit of a heat wave here starting tomorrow, so I may be able to rig up something to keep the air warm and circulating enough in the basement without fumigating the house. Will talk with the wife on that one.

Another update. Apologies for no pics; I took them, but don't have time to upload yet.

While waiting for the floor crackfiller to fully cure (and some remaining water hiding under the furnace to dry out!), we put the first coat of flat white paint on the walls last night. This is the cheapy cheap $12/gallon flat white paint from Home Depot. Sticks awesome, then again, with the porosity and surface bite of clean concrete, what wouldn't?

I knew white paint would make a difference (versus dreary slab grey) but WHAT A DIFFERENCE! Just having that bright white surface to bounce light off has not only brightened the whole area but actually made the room look larger! I need to do this in my garage too (a different project for a different day).

Picture of one wall done.


We've worked out a ventilation setup for the house to keep the temps up without fumigating ourselves and we will probably lay down the floor primer/bonder tonight, then follow up with the epoxy topcoat tomorrow.

this thread is useless with out pictures......or a how to video

We put down the Behr #880 bonding primer on the floor tonight. You know how it goes; took longer to mask everything and vacuum the floor than it took to put the paint down. Maybe 25 minutes tops. When they say BONDING primer, they aren't kidding. Our oldest son (he's 4) came down to try to help and his shoes were just about stuck to the floor after a few steps. It's just a clear coat with some solids in it. Even 7 hours later it's incredibly sticky.



Here you can see how much I squished down my workbench area so we could clear space around the center support to get paint on the floor. We'll be putting a wall there to separate the areas. I'm sure some of you will scrutinize the crap out of this picture to see what B-body parts are lurking in that mess. I need to thin out my collection for sure. 2011 Festers are gonna get some deals if I don't put that stuff on fleabay first.


Behr says that it must dry for minimum 8 hours but you must topcoat within 30 days. No problem, we'll do that tomorrow. We plan on being real careful with the floor for several days, but if the topcoat gets ripped up or scraped, I will be surprised.

Note to novices: Observe how she is carefully painting herself into the stairway, and not the other way around. This is important.

thanks for the pictures

Oh I spy an OCC grill!

Okay eagle-eyes, how many grills are in that picture?

It should also be noted that the Behr "epoxy" I'm planning to use is a 1-part acrylic, which is basically paint with a little epoxy material thrown in so they can slap a name on it and call it Epoxy. Since we've already put the bonding primer down, I can't go and get the actual 2-part chemically-curing Behr Premium epoxy. There is a gloss difference (the 2-part is glossier) but at this point my main concern is sealing the floor and getting a uniform color, so we'll just keep going with what we've got.

I may end up buying a second gallon of this stuff and putting two coats on. It will be interesting to see where I end up cost-wise versus just using the premium *actual* epoxy.

4,1 OCC, 2RM, 1Caprice

Close. You're missing one.

Oh you mean the one hidding under the caprice grill? that an impala ss grill?

I miss basements. Had them in both Denver and New Jersey. We can't have them in Texas, because of both sandy/rocky soil and a very high water table. I can dig a hole a foot down in my yard and get to water, no joke.

Looks like nice work so far in the pics! Good luck!

-Mike

Nice Joel!

(I spy a LT1 tan cargo cover...muhahaa)