1. It is easier to clean
2. It looks nicer.
The first thing I did was move all the stuff in the garage including the large book shelves over to one half making sure that anything touching the floor was plastic or something not easily damaged by water. I also threw a tarp over some of the cardboard boxes.
Tip 1. If you want to paint your garage floor do it before you put anything in the garage.
After moving everything I used a friend's (Mark's) pressure washer to clean the floor. The advantage to first using a pressure washer (especially if your floor was as dirty as mine) it allows you to see the oils stains more clearly so you know were to concentrate the acid cleaner.
Using less acid is a good thing. After pressure washing and then acid cleaning (almost everywhere needed the acid ) I waited over night for the floor to dry.My first mistake. When I went to Lowes to get the floor paint I went straight to the paint desk and said I wanted to paint my garage floor.
He handed me the Quikrete brochure. When I saw that the "semi/transparent stain" can make concrete look like real stone I was hooked. I am a sucker for a pretty rock. I chose a light blue color thinking "yeah blue granite garage".
Tip 2. Do not use "semi/transparent stain" on your garage floor. It will not look like natural stone. Most garage floors have too many stains and stuff which show through the semi/transparent stain . It would probably look great on a cement walk near your pool or in a garden but not in a garage.
There were a few different ways to apply the concrete stain, listed in the brochure. The first one I tried was using a paint roller.
Tip 3. Do Not use a Paint roller to apply semi/transparent stain. No matter how hard I tried it make lots of streaks and roller marks. Also the stain is very "thin" and spills and drips easily. Leaving drip spots on the concrete, even after you paint roll over it.
After I finished staining half the garage I had second and third thoughts and almost bought some different solid paint but the cheaper and lazy side of me won out and stuck with what I had.
After letting the stain dry for 24 hours I used 2 coats of the high gloss sealer.
The Brochure says it is optional, but if you are using the stain stuff for a garage the high gloss sealer is a must. I realized after moving everything over to the other side of the garage and pressurewashing where ever there was the blue stain that didn't have a high gloss coat the water soaked right in.
Tip 4. On the other side of the garage I used a half gallon gardening water sprayer (one of the methods recommended in the brochure) which makes a fine mist. It was great for the middle of the floor and definitely created a more even and "prettier" look with the stain. It also easily got on the side walls any time I came close. (I'll have to repaint several spots on my garage wall). To avoid more wall staining I used a roller just along the edges and finished everything else with the sprayer.
After finishing there is sort of line in the middle of the garage where I stopped and started again
I have about a 400 suare ft. garage.
I used about 1.7 gallons of the stain, 1 gallon of the acid (could have used a little more) and about 0.7 gallons of the high gloss sealer.
In the end it turned out OK. hopefully it won't hurt resale value.
