To all who responded, thanks!
Spent half an hour on Saturday with a Sherwin-Williams dealer. He was
incredibly knowledgeable, and if any of you find youself in Bergenfield,
NJ with a question about paint, well, this is your guy!
Here's the rundown.
At the low end are concrete "stains". These go on easily, dry quickly,
and last a couple of years if you're lucky. They're also fairly
inexpensive, and when they do wear out, well, they go on quickly and
they're relatively inexpensive. Another advantage is the coating is very
thin, leaving the surface texture of the concrete intact so you won't
slip. They resist most garage chemicals, except ATF.
At the high end are 2-part epoxy paints. These are extremely expensive,
take a week or more to cure, and some of them can have very glossy
(Slippery when wet!) surfaces. They give a thick, tough coating and
they'll last 10 years or more, but when they start to wear, you need to
shot blast the whole garage to get back to a smooth surface. They, too,
will resist most garage chemicals, except ATF.
There are also 1-part, air-catalyzed epoxies. A bit less expensive, last
a bit less long, and still need shot blasting to remove. And still fold
in the face of ATF.
Polyurethane-based paints are much less costly then the epoxies. They,
too, go on thick and some formulations can be slippery. They take
several days to cure, last several years, and are impervious to most
garage chemicals except ATF. One more negative - the fumes are
potentially explosive! Oh, and if you haven't guessed, ATF eats right
through them.
As for leaving it alone, concrete tends to chalk for the first, oh, 20
years. If the dust is OK with SWMBO, I suppose it's OK with me...
Final note - concrete outgasses for several weeks, and even longer at
lower temperatures. If it's sealed prematurely, it will not cure!
Thanks again for all the replies, including the several of you who
suggested 10W-50 etc. :)
Bill Kelly, Stainmeister
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