Shooting paint with epoxy garage floors

S

ssanto

Hi,

I've shot paint in my old garage several times. Epoxy primer, base and clear. When painting, the overspray would settle on top of everything as a fine layer of dust. The dust was not difficult to get off of the floor and other things it landed on. My garage floors were concrete and not coated with anything. I could just sweep and hose out the overspray dust after I was done.

In my new house, I've got epoxy floors in the garage. Yesterday I shot rustoleum (from the quart) thinned with Naptha from my HVLP gun. I was painting a bunk bed for my son. The paint job turned out great but the overspray adhered to the epoxy floor and was very difficult to get up. I had to use a combination of laquer thinner, scrubbing with a push broom and a power washer to get the floors clean... and they still didn't come out perfectly clean.

I'm a little bummed that I messed up my new epoxy garage floors :(

My question is this...

Did this happen because there is something different about the alkyd oil based paint (rustoleum)? I've never sprayed it before. Something is clearly different.

Or is the difference the epoxy floors? When I shoot epoxy primer and base and clear over the new floors, should I expect them to stick also and be difficult to get up? What do you guys experience when painting over epoxy garage floors?


Thanks!

- Sal
 
Im gonna epoxy my garage floors too.. do you have any ventilation/fan to hep with overspray before it lands on anything (will land dont matter what but less)..overspray will land on anything you will just see it more on anything shiny or new even on concrete floors i power wash my floors and i was susrprise of the over spray acumulation over the years you just dont see it as much because is darty ect
 
booth paper . put down a floor before you paint . roll it up when your done . floors stay nice and clean . i use butchers paper since it is 1/2 the cost. 48 in x 1000 ft 125 dollars .
 
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And you reuse the paper I suppose? How do you handle the dust when you reuse it? I suppose a combination of sweeping and blowing since you can't hose it. :)

Thanks!
 
turn it over. dont even think of using 3m tape. buy cheap stuff . reuse is more trouble than it's worth. takes 100ft to do my booth so a roll will do my booth 10 times. you can get 60in for a few dollars more.
 
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If I were to construct a paint booth in the garage, what should I use for the walls? I heard that visqueen plastic had some issue with static electricity or the paint flaking off of it or something...
 
I used vinyl kitchen flooring in my temp booth, seems to work alright. I sweep and mop it off periodically and every time before base/clear.

I used plastic as well, 4 mil. It's ok but I've been tempted to sheet it, but thats a lot more money and I only plan on painting 1 vehicle in it so I just left it.

One thing I would do different for sure is put an entry door in other than the garage door. It was an engineering blunder on my part not to have one.
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Epoxy floors have a clear on them to protect the coating from damage and can be melted by gas, thinners etc if left on there too long. The plus side is it can be sanded and recleared to bring it back unless it was left too long and it penetrated passed the clear, then it stains the coating.
I would say that any type of painting will stick to the clear top coat of the floor so use caution when doing it.
 
Hi,

I've shot paint in my old garage several times. Epoxy primer, base and clear. When painting, the overspray would settle on top of everything as a fine layer of dust. The dust was not difficult to get off of the floor and other things it landed on. My garage floors were concrete and not coated with anything. I could just sweep and hose out the overspray dust after I was done.

In my new house, I've got epoxy floors in the garage. Yesterday I shot rustoleum (from the quart) thinned with Naptha from my HVLP gun. I was painting a bunk bed for my son. The paint job turned out great but the overspray adhered to the epoxy floor and was very difficult to get up. I had to use a combination of laquer thinner, scrubbing with a push broom and a power washer to get the floors clean... and they still didn't come out perfectly clean.

I'm a little bummed that I messed up my new epoxy garage floors :(

My question is this...

Did this happen because there is something different about the alkyd oil based paint (rustoleum)? I've never sprayed it before. Something is clearly different.

Or is the difference the epoxy floors? When I shoot epoxy primer and base and clear over the new floors, should I expect them to stick also and be difficult to get up? What do you guys experience when painting over epoxy garage floors?


Thanks!

- Sal

My guess, you never noticed it on your old floors but it was there. I ran in to the same problem spraying epoxy and urethane in my newish garage. Yes, it kind of makes you feel sick.

The overspray that stays airborne longer does dry and simply wipe off, but the floor close to where I speay does get tacky.
 
I recently did my shop floors with epoxy. Used Sherwin Williams epoxy and clear. Came out great. I used rolls of paper from Home Depot to cover the floor the first time I painted. Worked well. I purposely left an area uncovered to see how hard it would be to get the over spray off. Impossible. Would probably have to sand and re-clear. Used huge drop cloths from Harbor Freight the next time. Worked well also. Not sure which I'll use next. Probably paper since it's disposable and I don't have to worry about bringing dirt into the booth.
 
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