Stain, Don’t Paint, Your Concrete Garage Floor
QUESTION: My problem is peeling paint on our concrete garage floor. The floor was dirty and lumpy, so we cleaned it and ground it smooth, then applied deck paint. It looked lovely until the car left black tire marks on the floor and we washed it. Now the paint is peeling. Can it be fixed?
ANSWER: Three factors can cause garage floor paint to perform poorly: improper surface preparation, hot-tire pickup and moisture intrusion. All three can act together to cause the paint to peel. First, it’s difficult to adequately clean a garage floor. Also, the floor is usually cracked, and most floors lack a vapor barrier below the slab. Sub-slab ground moisture works its way to the slab surface and lifts the poorly bonded paint from the slab surface.
The porosity of latex paint helps it resist peeling from moisture vapor, but the main problem with latex paint is hot-tire pickup. Car tires get quite hot, and when the car returns to the garage, the hot tires soften the paint and cause it to stick to the tires. Oil paint resists hot-tire pickup, but sub-slab moisture causes it to peel.
Given the number of problems that can occur to paint on a garage floor, we don’t recommend painting it. A better alternative is to clean the floor and apply a stain. The stain allows moisture vapor to pass through it, and it is less likely to peel or be lifted by car tires.
When to Go Deeper With Termite Solutions
Q: The pest-control service that spot-treated my home for termites didn’t dig trenches to treat subterranean termites. The company seemed to do the entire job quickly, and I question the quality of the treatment.
A: If your house has never been treated for subterranean termites and an active termite condition is found, the entire house should be chemically treated with termiticide. Termite activity is not always localized, and the insects may be in areas you can’t see, like the cavities of a concrete block foundation. Treatment generally includes trenching or injecting the chemicals into the ground around the house’s foundation. But if the house has already been treated and an active condition is discovered, most state environmental regulations allow only a spot treatment.
Enough Water Is Not Moved for a Full Flush
Q: Recently I modernized one of my bathrooms and installed a 1.6-gallon Kohler toilet. The toilet does not dispose of solid waste properly and often requires two or three flushes. What can I do to alleviate this?
A: The first thing you should check is whether the flush valve is adjusted properly. Even if there is enough water in the tank, the correct amount will not flow into the bowl unless the flush valve is set right. The bowl’s installation instructions give information on the proper setting. If you try altering the flush valve setting and that does not help, contact the company’s customer service department: Kohler Co., 444 Highland Drive, Kohler, WI 53044.
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To submit a question, write to Popular Mechanics, Reader Service Bureau, 224 W. 57th St., New York, N.Y., 10019. The most interesting questions will be answered in future columns.
