So if you work in any kind of garage or shop that is not a barn, there is likely a lot of concrete. The best way to take care of concrete is to clean and seal it periodically. Read more to see how I sealed mine.

We just moved into our new to us house last year. The house is only about 15 years old but the concrete in the garage is already starting to pit and spall a little bit. It also didn’t help that we just had some winter weather which means our two cars drug in a bunch of salt and moisture to add to the mix.

I wanted to seal the floor but not change the color or appearance. I also didn’t want to put down anything that would make the floor slippery when wet. I did a lot of research and checked the local box stores, but wasn’t finding what I wanted. There are epoxy sealants and polyurea sealers, but I had issues with both types. Epoxy wouldn’t work because when welding and rolling jacks in the garage I would inevitably chip it up. Polyurea I didn’t want to do because it makes the floor glossy and can be slippery when wet. Not good when I have a 2 year old running around.

I finally ended up stumbling across sealer with the ingredients Silane-Siloxane. I have no idea what it is, but the formula claims to seal the concrete without changing the color or texture of the concrete. It was cheap enough, so I bought a gallon to try it out.

Nasty garage floor before. This is right after we had a couple of snowstorms.

You can see the salt just eating away at the concrete.

First step, get a good helper! Then take a hose and spray out the garage. Use a squeegee to push the dirty water outside.

Even after washing, there were still some oil stains and other grime.

To get some of the stains up, I used Behr Cleaner & Degreaser.

Be sure to read the instructions on the floor cleaner. It is an acid that must be diluted. Please wear proper PPE, at least a good pair of boots, gloves, and safety glasses. Also it is a good idea to have a strong fan going to circulate in fresh air (please read the safety instructions before using). I diluted it in a bucket then sloshed it out on the floor. Spread it out with a push broom then let it sit for a couple of minutes. Then with the broom scrubbed the stained parts.

Letting the cleaner work some of the stains out. I moved it around with the broom while soaking to keep it from draining outside right away.

Once done with the cleaner, I sprayed the garage out again.

To expedite the drying process I used a fan and leaf blower.

Next up was to address some of the cracks.

Dap 3.0 Concrete & Masonry self leveling sealer.

Be sure to get the ‘self leveling’ sealer, it works its way down into the cracks.

My helper at this point wasn’t being very helpful 😛

Here is a shot of the filler. It ended up sinking in quite a bit further and could maybe use another coat.

Drying with a fan assist. I was on a timeline since this was my one nice warm spring day.

Final step is to apply the sealer!

Upon researching the sealers, once I decided I wanted the Silane-Siloxane based sealer there were quite a few to pick from. I bought EasySeal natural look which turned out pretty good and was very affordable at ~$30 for a gallon. The runner up was GhostShield brand Siloxane sealer, but it was slightly more expensive. Be sure to read the reviews and the actual contents for whatever product you are looking at, the brand doesn’t matter as much as the contents.

I started with a pump up garden sprayer but it was WAY too slow. I ended up just sloshing it out on the floor and spreading the sealer around with the push broom.

Drying. Make sure you spread out any puddles that form. This stuff was really forgiving, I was walking all over it even when it was drying and it left no marks.

ALL DONE!

You might be thinking “umm, it looks exactly the same just a little cleaner?” and I would say that is the point!

I specifically chose this sealer because it was NOT shiny and did not change the appearance of the floor. I didn’t want something that was going to be slick every time it was wet, or chip up over time. This stuff was SUPER easy to put on, was not sticky, and required no cleanup. I still have about 1/3 of the jug left and will need to do the third car garage once it gets nice again.

Now YOU, go out and seal your garage floor because I know you haven’t or you wouldn’t be reading this 🙂 . It is cheap and only takes a couple of hours out in the garage where you should be anyways.