floor finishes, garage/shop

They actually suggested a tan or light beige for the work I do...... they will be sending me a "standard color chart" later, but I can deviate from that.
They said AVOID FLAKES, duh, no kidding. It would be like trying to find one rock in a pile of many rocks.
I can't ever see using colored flakes on a shop floor. That's just asking to lose things and does nothing other than hide dirt. That's a given - NO colored flakes, or for that matter to prove I'm not prejudiced, no flakes at all. Of course that keeps a lot of folks out of the shop, too.

Ah, and as I expected, the shop has to be FULLY empty, so where do I put equipment that now takes up 36' x 10' in the shop? The garage is FULL.
And of course it was wonderful that when I hopped in the car to go home to meet them, the BATTERY WAS DEAD - it cranked the engine over just enough for it to fire and begin to take off, then wouldn't turn it over again.
No, not the Eagle, that battery is fine and great. The 73 - the battery gave up. So I frantically called Barbara - help! Battery dead, come get me, they'll be there in a few minutes!
I emailed them that I was on my way, what had happened.
I was only about 20 minutes late - I expect a couple of tickets in the mail next week with Barbara's picture on them, though.

S Curry wrote: I used flakes just for adding a little traction. I can be slippery when wet. I didn't get carried away and I've dropped many things and could find them. Just get rid of the clutter and stuff is much easier to find.

Shhh - don't tell my wife it's that easy! Geesh!

Traction won't be a problem apparently - they can make the final outcome as smooth or non-smooth as you want. I told them of the issues with the other garage and even this "painted " shop floor - a bit of water and you had better be an olympic ice skater or you'll be on your butt. They said no problem, they can make it unslick, but still easy to broom clean.
They also use a top-coat over the epoxy to protect the epoxy and make it less slickery.

Anyway, I think I've settled on a company and a process. I've done some comparing over the last little bit and while most of the stuff applied in garages, etc. and what you can buy as a consumer is vinyl flake or has this or that or the other thing, this utilizes a quartz/sand broadcast in one of the first layers and it makes it extremely resistant to dropping heavy things. Apparently this also adds to the strength of the concrete. They said I could drop something like a starter or alternator and it shouldn't chip the floor. (at which I gasped and said heck, I sure hope I don't drop something like that - I'd break something other than the floor if I did that! It's hard enough to find alternator frames/cases good enough to use without busting one!)
I found a couple of posts "out there" in other forums, one was some garagejournal forum or something like that where they were discussing the different materials - and the company that makes this material and process and they even said it's much harder/tougher and lasts longer than the epoxy with the vinyl chips because of the quartz broadcast into it.

The nice thing is that it ends up being not any more expensive than the process/materials used by one of the other places I looked into - absolutegarage.

The only thing that makes it a whole lot harder for me is that they want the WHOLE shop empty, every last square inch where the others would be willing to do it in 2 stages - do the west 1/2 to 2/3 and then I'd move stuff from the east over to the west and they'd do the east part. This place says no - do it all at one time, better results, they can save me money by doing it all at one time (trips with the trucks and equipment, etc.) and it will last better with no transitions between the two parts.

So, now I have to arrange to find some people to come over and help move the rest of the stuff out of my shop, every last bit of it, and find a place to store another car so that some of the stuff can go under the lean-to where the other cars are sitting out now.
I have run out of places to put cars BEFORE this, one had to sit out, now I'm really in a pinch. My wife is going to ask her sister if we can keep the 73 in her garage for a couple of weeks and I need to beg and plead and see if I can bribe some folks to come help move things out of the shop. I'll make it easier and move my car hauler into the shop and some stuff can go onto that and I'll just have to tarp it, other stuff can go around the corner into the lean-to where the 73 is now and i'll tarp that, too. (and hope we don't get storms and hope the mice don't get into things!)

Their 1200 pound grinder requires some heavy power, normally they would bring in a generator and that would cost but they said I had plenty of power to run what they need.
NO water in the shop/on the floor for 28 days prior to application - that's cutting it close as I did wash down parts of the floor 2 and 1/2 weeks ago. Fluids had dripped and run out of transmissions and transfer cases in spots so I used my oak sawdust and soaked up most of it, then use Simple Green to get the grease and oil up that was left.

They cut down into the floor a bit where the coating will end so that there's no edge, it would be level with the concrete that's bare.

They also agreed with a forum member here - I can't recall who it was that was very "animate" do not tie the new concrete that will be done outside to the shop floor like the contractor planned on doing. And they gave multiple reasons and explained - so although I can't recall which member here said "don't do it!" whoever that was, looks like they had good advice.

I've researched/investigated the company that would do the work as well as the materials themselves and neither have any complaints, both are BBB A+, etc. The outfit that would do the work has done some major projects, some high-end stuff.

Well, with all of this going on the money has run out so the outside concrete can't be done this year, neither can the garage roof. Those will just have to wait. I guess that's ok as this is about as much stress and activity as I can handle for 1 year anyway. The outside would mean the shop was inaccessible for another month with things all torn up. My wife informed me that with this floor being leveled and now this, there's nothing left so I have to call it done when the floor is refinished.

I wish I had some "mad money" to play around with - they said when I had the outside concrete done to contact them and they could put the AMC logo on the concrete - they can stain/dye the concrete and it was pretty much permanent. They also said that they could coat/seal the outside approach so that salt and other stuff wouldn't cause the galling and pitting and pock marks. (the driveway in front of the garage looks like the surface of the moon full of pits and craters from the winter salts, nearly impossible to sweep and keep it clean)

BTW - my wife pointed to this one and said "I like this one"............ who am I to argue? She's a quilter, after-all and works with colors and patterns all day every day.

My concern with that color is how dark will it make it inside the garage. I would think C15 would make it a little brighter in there.

Party??? Count me in.......hehehehehe
Ollie

If I were closer Id be there