What is the best shop floor sealer?

[66SSFan]

My shop floor wicks up water badly. I need to know if I spend a bunch of money on a epoxie paint sealer that it's going to hold up. What are you guys using on your garage floors?

[66BuickSpecial]

Mike,

I used to own a house that pumped water between the slab and the footing wall if it rained for a week straight.

We had a company come out and install a french drain under the slab along the footing wall on the two sides that had the issue, they then ran the outlet under the footing and into a dry well in the front yard.

The next major rain event had water wicking along the seam between the new and the existing concrete.

The company came back, painted an epoxy sealer along the seams with the parting statement that the dry sump wasn't perking the water sufficiently, and that the floor will probably continue to wick unless I either daylight the drain or stub it into the storm drain in front of my house.

I ended up stubbing into the cities storm drain under cover of darkness
No more problems.

Seems like where you garage/shop is located its fairly flat and hopefully you won't be faced with the issue we had.

You might try calling a commercial concrete sealing company and ask what brand product they use.

[blue55]

I installed 1200 sq ft black/white plastic tiles from Floorjunkies. The only prep was sweeping. With the cost of epoxy and the prep required to get it to stick I felt the tiles were the easiest. I know some of the guys use the glue down tiles (alot cheaper), but again the prep work to get the floor spotless and dust free. I've had the floor down for over a year and nothings bothered or stained it yet. I installed a metal edge at door openings to hold tiles down. Found that sun beating down on black tiles cause them to lift, but as soon as they cooled they go flat again.

[66SSFan]

I'll look into the floorjunkies tiles.
The strange thing is, my property is on top of the hill but seems to collect water easily when it rains as if the water table is really shallow? It wicks water in the summer too, even when it's warm to hot outside you can move anything touching the floor and see near standing water. It dose not do it all the time, but it always feels damp in there. If I warm the shop up on a cool dry day, water starts coming up as the inside temp rises. You can see the concrete is dry and light colored, as it gets warmer the floor darkens in color and it feels real humid in the shop. There is a pea gravel curtain drain all around the shop about 4' deep, all the gutter down spouts drain into pipe that daylight out at the other end of the property. Strange thing is, my rather large attached garage is only about 1' higher and never has a problem, the crawl space under the house is atleast 2' lower than the shop floor and is dry all year around! I'm convinced I have a spring under my shop. I don't think there is any pressure when the water comes up through the floor, but I'm worried the epoxie sealer might lift. Maybe I could epoxie paint the floor and use the tiles on top of that.

[blue55]

With that kind of water issue I'd do the plastic tiles and nothing else. Don't waste your time with epoxy if you've got concrete that's staying wet. At least the tiles will keep your toes dry.

[66SSFan]

I'll look into the tiles for sure, I'm also looking at setting a propane tank and adding a furnace for the shop. Maybe consistant temperatures will help too, right now I just have a fire place in there.

[Herbie67SS454]

VCT tile is fairly inexpensive. Commercial tile is what we called it when I used to install flooring. It is like what you see in Walmart, a bank, or supermarket.
DO NOT get the peel and stick. Full spread glued down will stick forever.
I plan to one day do my garage floor in it with black and white and a red border.
The come in 1' squares. 45 sq ft to a box if memory serves me. (not good lately).