I power washed the floor and then etched it with Muriatic acid. Painted it with Rustoleum Epoxy floor paint. Cost about $200 as I remember. Shop is 24 x 26. I have spilled all kind of stuff on it and washed it down with B-12 several times. Haven't hurt it yet. This is the second shop I have done this way and am very happy with the results. It sure does make it better when you drop something and are looking for it. Much easier to see stuff on the floor. Also lots easier to clean up.

 

It was a 2 part mix epoxy material specifically designed for coving and crack filling on concrete, intended to be used on applications like water and chemical tanks. It has the mix cosistency of bondo. I made a cove corner trowel to apply and smooth it with, trowels smooth. I also used it to fill the sawn expansion crack control lines and any air bubble holes or pockets in the concrete before coating with the Urethane. The Urethane coating is recommended for jet aircraft hanger floors as well as the interior of water and petrochemical tanks. It's easy to use: wait 30 days before applying to fresh concrete, etch the floor with muriatic acid and rinse allow to dry overnight (slight dampness, high humidity is good, unlike epoxy coatings!) . Apply the one part coating (direct application without primer recommended) with an oversized paint roller. Allow to dry overnight before applying a second coat, walk on it the next day, wait a week before driving cars on it. Has a hard glossy finish. bonds to concrete, steel, aluminum and wood.
Vacuums perfectly clean with shop vac or hose down, nothing sticks to it.

My garage door is 20' wide, standard 2 car width, but it is higher than standard at 8' instead of 7'4", extra height adds very little to cost, non standard width does. I should have gone 8'-6" tho. I speced a foamed in place filled 2 sided stee door, Overhead Door's best insulated door with double pane glass windows. With all that area I wanted it as well insulated as possible. All my windows are also insulated glass awning or casement so is the man door.

 

Assuming you are talking 28' wide and 30' deep and not the other way around. My shop is 30' deep and I wish it was 32' minimum or better yet 36'. The reason why is not just the extra floor space but it is a better depth for auto stuff. Initially you will enjoy just the extra space in front of your projects but there will come a day that you want to store an extra vehicle. Figure most vehicles are around 14' to 20' long. With 36' you have a good chance of two fitting end to end. 32' maybe, 30' collect smaller cars. Can't even count the number of times I wanted to store something in the back an still get a vehicle in that I have missed by a foot or two. I have even thought about bumping out the ground floor a few feet in the middle bays.

 

All I can add to this is that my father built his garage/gas station in 1935,
and they added red dye to the mixer. Till this day the floor is still red
like a brick color and believe me they do a lot of repair work 6 days a week. He sold that in 1977 and we put up a 50x40 10x10 door and when
we did the floor we formed a 10'long 3.5'wide and 6' deep pit (chain fall)
over that. I cant live with out that pit. Make it deep you wont be sorry.
I remember some yip yap about pits so there was a car over it when the
bldg. inspector came and that was that. I just wish I had added red dye
in the mixer. Its some kind of powder not expensive just have the mixer
driver to throw it in there.

 

Just about everything is covered in the above post. I use to live in a house built in the 30's and it had the red brick colored porch. Was just a powder mixed in with the concrete when poured. Make sure you make a list of everything you want before you build. I wanted water and a laundry tub in my shop and I forgot about it the day they poured my slab and a new concrete driveway. So now I would have to drill under the driveway for a water line and come in the side of the building. I live in the south and my place sits atop chert, ground is hard as concrete! Would not be easy! I built a 30 by 40 with 10 ft. ceilings. Wished it was 50 by 50 and 14 ft. ceilings. I do have a 200 amp service, but I have a machine shop in one side. and work benches across the back so you lose 2 ft. depth with the bench. I did have an oversize footer poured and I used the 6000 lbs concrete due to the fact I knew I was going to have the lathes and mills in there and I didn't want it to crack. It is insulated all the way around and I covered the inside with the OSB sheeting. Installed an outside propane 225K btu heater. No AC yet but soon. As for the lift a 2 post would be great, but they do make a lift that is like a big hydraulic jack and slides up under the vehicle your lifting. Just remember to add plenty of plugs and LOTS of lighting and if you want cable or phone run the wires before you put up the interior wall sheeting, makes it much easier. You know as an after thought about the only thing I really miss is the laundry tub and water. Everytime I work in the shop I get my hands dirty and greasy! It would just make cleanup soooo much easier! Good luck with your build!

 

My house I built was made to be converted into a shop down the road. I did a lot of planning and replanning, before breaking ground. All I'll add, is plan for all water lines, electrical lines, possible phone/cable/DSL lines, septic lines, drainage/tile & ground slope, before breaking ground. Draw it all out, get your base and pad down, figure in any conduit going under, and then set your forms. Everything should be ready to go before calling in the cement trucks. My 2 cents. And I'll also throw a thumbs up for the Garage Journal.

EDIT: Also, if they put fly-ash in the concrete, expect issues with staining. Don't ask how I know. So maybe talk to the concrete provider and tell them you plan to seal the floor.

 

I agree about planning for wiring/water before building if building detached I had 3 2" plastic conduits with sweep elbows run in a trench exiting up thru the floor in the corner of the garage. Soon I will snake pex pipe water line thru one, data line thru another and save the 3rd for future? I picked up a SS bar sink with gooseneck faucet set at my local recycler for 10.00.
Since my 4' high block foundation is 3' into the hillside at the rear I had a roll on elastic waterproofing membrane added to the outside of the block where it is below grade protected by 3/4" foam board and a french drain all the way around to keep everything dry.

 

I agree with ALBUQ F-1 I put 2 10x8 doors instead of a double. when I work on my 97 1500 I only have 3 inch's left per mirror too close for comfort.

 

I have an 18' garage door on the front of mine and a 9' garage door on the back. The back door was my wife's idea and it is great to have. I can drive through. I can get things in and out easily without disturbing the cars. I can open it in the summer and get a great breeze. I can have only the back open and no one knows I am in the garage. Good luck. One last thing, no matter how big you build it, it will be too small....LOL

 

I'm late to this thread, but in my new shop I stained the floors then sealed them. The product is called kemiko and cost me about 300 for the acid stain and sealer.

The process is simple.
1. Take a floor buffer and use the metal disks that are used for wood floors and sand the floor a couple of times.
2. Mop all the dust up.
3. Use a pump garden sprayer and spray the acid etching stain
4. Next day dilute 1 cup of vinegar to 5 gl of water and mop the floor to neutralize the acid.
5. After it is thoroughly dry, seal with the recommended Polyurethane

This project was inexpensive, and easy to do and and I am very pleased with the results.

FYI: the picture is before I sealed the floor

 

That's what we did, but the stain didn't set. When mopping to prep for the sealer, the stain came right back up with the mop. So after discussing this with the contractor (his fault), the consensus was it didn't work because of the fly-ash. I ended up using a tinted sealer.

 

The grinding of the floor is the secret. I was told to do this buy a commercial floor finisher. Fly ash should not have been an issue. The grinding opens the surface to accept the acid.

Here is a link to the disks that are similar to what we used http://www.nortonfloorsanding.com/Sc...n-Carbide.aspx. Also not not all acid stains are equal that is why I used the kemiko product.

 

I think your problem was the concrete guys put a quick set treatment on your concrete so they could trowel it early and get out of there. The solution they use will resist the stain. My concrete finisher pourrd the slab and screeded it by mid afternoon but he spent the entire night power troweling it and floating it. Concrete takes quite a while to gloss off without the quick cure.
Grinding the concrete breaks thru that sealed layer so the stain could successfully penetrate on TxF 100's floor.

 

I'll throw in my $.02 worth. Consider a car lift. If you think you might want to do that later, the manufacturer recommended that the concrete be 6" thick in the mounting areas. My shop is a 12' high quonset building & that allows plenty of lift.....so think about a scissors truss over the bay of your garage so you have a little extra height.[/IMG] Yeah....I know...it's not a Ford truck, I wanted something light for the first time that I used it. It came in a relatively small package, and the cost wasn't bad.

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Getting in a little late on this but here something I did and use them often.
Before I poured the floor I sunk tie downs. I used 20" truck wheels and welded a 10 inch diameter pipe to the centers. About 4 inched from the top of the pipe I cut a hole in the pipe and inserted a piece of small I beam through the pipe.
This gave me a place to wrap a chain around the I beam inside the pipe. I sunk the wheel flat down and poured the floor. The pipe was about 10 inches long. This let the large truck wheel be under about 10 or 12 inches of concrete and the top of the pipe level with the surface of the floor. I have a flat plate that fits over the pipe and it is level with the floor.
I very often uncover the pipe and chain to the I beam if I need to hold something or bend something heavy. I have 9 under my floor in a 3 foot square pattern.
I do heavy body work and often need to bend frames or body parts. I do have a frame machine but is sometimes much easier to just chain the vehicle to the floor and put a floor jack under the frame to remove a small bend or twist.
I also have a trolley beam and trolley mounted running across the shop and often use it removing engines and moving them across the shop, or simply removing something heavy from the back of the truck. It is faster and easier than using a cherry picker and requires no floor space.
My shop is 50X70 and not large enough. I didn't use the higher ceiling and have my lift outside.
The lower ceiling helps heating and cooling cost.
Good luck what ever you decide to build.
Larry