Portland Garage Floor

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Discover the Possibilities for Garage Floor Coatings

Thinking about doing a renovation on your residential garage floor? As with any other part of the home, one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to garages. Professional contractors mainly deal with four different options when it comes to garage floor coatings and renovations.

Stained and Sealed Floors
This option provides a very nice looking stained concrete look to your garage floor. Stained and sealed floors are considered very durable, but in some instances, they can be negatively affected by heavy use and high traffic in your garage. The typical price is $3.50 per square foot.

Decorative Chip Broadcast Floors
This type of flooring is a popular request here at Smith and Company painting. When installed correctly, decorative chip broadcast floors can offer a long-lasting decorative look that doesn’t reveal dings, scuffs, and scratches as easily as other options. The typical price is $4.50 per square foot.

Solid Colored Epoxy or Polyurethane Floors
This option is another popular demand for residential garage floors. This type of flooring is very durable but there have been comments that it tends to highlight scuffs and scratches more easily than other options. If you’re interested in the solid colored epoxy, request that a polyurethane top coat be applied to prevent staining from car tires. This flooring has a typical price of $4.50 per square foot.

Polished Concrete Floors
This is the premium choice out of all the options listed. If homeowners can maintain the polished concrete flooring, it will last and look great for years. A drawback is that if a spill was to happen on the concrete surface and leaves a stain, it can be quite difficult to remove. The typical price is $7.00 per square foot.

As mentioned earlier, one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to garage floors. Choosing one of the listed options all comes down to your personal preference. Still need additional help in the selection process? Call Smith & Company Flooring for we always want to ensure that you’re making the right choice for you residential garage.

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Disposing of Leftover Epoxy and Other Materials Safely

When working on industrial, commercial, and residential concrete floor coating jobs, painters are often left with leftover materials like epoxy floor paint. The leftover epoxy floor paint that the team at Smith and Company uses is a two component material where part A is mixed with  part B. So what do painters do with their leftover epoxy floor paint?

If the leftover epoxy material hasn’t been mixed yet, then the team can easily save those materials for a future paint coating job. However, if the epoxy coat isn’t expected to be used in the future or the material is already mixed, it can be easily disposed in a safe and environmentally friendly way.

There are two ways that painters can safely dispose of epoxy and other similar materials. If the materials have been mixed, it causes a chemical reaction that makes the material harden into a solid mass. Once the material is a solid, painters can simply throw it in the garbage where it will be taken to a local landfill. Since the materials have been mixed, painters don’t have to worry about harmful chemicals leaking. However, if the materials haven’t been mixed, they leftovers will be taken to a chemical disposal facility where it can be safely disposed.

Here at Smith & Company Flooring, it is very important to us that we dispose all of our leftover materials in an environmentally safe way. Check in with your local painter to see if they dispose of their waste in a safe manner as well!

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Case Study: Polishing a Worn Out Concrete Floor at Boise Cascade

The team at Smith & Company Flooring was called to polish a 9,000 square feet concrete floor at Boise Cascade, a manufacturing facility in Salem, Oregon. Polishing a worn out concrete floor is no small task and the condition of the concrete floor was poor from extreme heavy use of large forklift traffic over the course of 30 years. Boise Cascade has tried to improve the quality by numerous patches and coating with epoxy but the results were failing.

The 150,000 square feet building hired us to develop a plan of improving the concrete condition. With 9,000 square feet to cover, we broke it down into doing 3,000 square feet over a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for three weeks.

Over the course of three weeks, we started the process with 16 grit diamonds to remove the old epoxy that Boise Cascade was previously using and then worked our way up to an 800 grit polish. Throughout the process, we applied a densifier and a couple coats of penetrating sealer to the slab. Take a look of some photos we captured during this process:

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We are happy to report that Boise Cascade is extremely satisfied with our end product for they no longer have any old peeling epoxy on the floor. In addition, they loved the fact that not only does the floor look great, it is also very easy to clean. We left our happy customer with a maintenance plan to help them keep their improved concrete floor looking sharp for the years to come.

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Case Study: A new floor system for Mike’s garage floor

Recently the Smith & Company Flooring team was hired to clean, grind and apply a decorative chip broadcast epoxy floor system to a garage floor in Sherwood, Oregon. The detached garage was quite large at 850 square feet and we had just one day allotted to complete the job.

Before any job, it’s important to make note of the existing condition of the garage floor. This one was already in good shape as it was only a year old. We applied Polyaspartic to the floor and the end result had the floor looking great with ¼ inch brown flakes.

The best jobs go off without a hitch and a satisfied customer at the end. Mike loved his upgraded garage floor and we had no problems installing it. The new epoxy floor system will be very easy for Mike to clean and is stain and scratch resistant.

The before and after pictures of the job below were taken from the same angle so you can really see the difference:

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Painting While Pregnant…Is it Safe?

When it is time to paint your nursery, or another room in the home, you may ask if it is safe to paint while pregnant. Many people wonder if the paint fumes can harm the baby. While it is okay for you to paint while pregnant, you do need to take precautions to avoid putting your health, and your baby’s health at risk.

The exposure you have with the solvents and chemicals in the paint can be dangerious.
You will want to avoid oil-based paints, thinners, and stains; instead, you should use water based paint – latex and acrylic. Ask someone else to scrap and sand old paint off the wall, which could contain lead.

Other Safety Tips

  • Do not eat or drink anything while you paint. This helps you avoid ingesting chemicals.
  • Wear protective gear to avoid getting paint on your skin. Long-sleeved shirts, gloves, and pants are types of gear to wear if you paint while pregnant.
  • Open windows to avoid inhaling fumes. You should also wear mask to screen harmful fumes if you paint while pregnant.
  • Keep the amount of time you paint limited. If you begin to feel ill, leave the room immediately to get some fresh air.

It is okay to paint while pregnant, but it is safer if you have someone else do the job for you. Smith and Company has been providing painting services for over 50 years, and we can get the job done right!

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