Painting/Sealing garage and lanai floors

[JerryLBell]

We recently bought a new house in The Villages and are getting it ready for renters as we won't be retiring and moving there for about 2 years. While the house is gorgeous and ready to go, we found the concrete for the lanai and garage floors to be very raw and dusty. In the long run, we may do something fancy with the lanai floor but for now we're mostly interested in just getting them painted or sealed somehow to keep concrete dust from being tracked into the house.

We've requested bids from a couple of companies recommended in this forum. One cam back with a modest price for basic clear sealant on both surfaces. The other came back with reasons why both paint and sealant are bad for both surfaces and recommended different types of coverings for each surface that would, I'll admit, probably look a lot nicer for a lot longer. But it also increased the price by nearly tenfold.

Has here anybody had a clear sealant applied to a lanai floor or a garage floor? What did you like about it or not like about it? Would you recommend we go this route or leave them both bare and raw until we can swing the much higher cost of the fancier surfacing?

Thanks in advance for any helpful replies!

[Waverunner]

Welcome!

We too rented out our home a week after settlement. We ended up moving in ourselves a year later. One of the best things we feel we did in that first week was to have a professional come and epoxy the garage floor, when it was new and empty. It was pricey, but, in our opinion, worth every penny.

Today, the garage floor looks beautiful and has the same appearance as it did the day it was finished. Easy to clean, no concrete dust, and adds so much to the use of our space. Had we waited, we may have never done it as our garage is overloaded with our "stuff", and it would have been a pain to clear it completely out to do the floor after the fact. Epoxy done right takes several days to complete and you have to allow for moist weather stops. Moving is stressful enough and not the time you want to do this!

We did not seal or change the lanai floor, so we can't speak to this directly, except to say that the lanai is a lot easier to clear off if you decide to wait and do it after you move.

[villagetinker]

You may run into significant problems, if you coat or seal and decide to change this when you move in. Proceed carefully. I would suggest having the concrete power washed, as this will get rid of most if not all of the loose concrete and dust, then just leave it alone until you get here. A neighbor had to have a previously painted garage surface ground off to have it repainted. And I asked the company that stained my driveway if the garage could be done, and the coating I used is in general not compatible with the coating he was using.
Ask a lot of questions, and if you decide to get these coated or stained now, get a guarantee in writing that you can have this redone in the future.
Hope this helps.

[Epic Home Pros]

I would determine what type of product or finish I ultimately wanted on the floors. You are better off with raw concrete whenever you start any coatings because if you use one product now it may not be compatible with the coating you choose later on.. Just a heads up!!

[JerryLBell]

We decided to do a hybrid - get a nice finish for the lanai for now and just have the garage power washed to get the concreted dust out. Thanks all for the advice!

[Xcuse]

I would determine what type of product or finish I ultimately wanted on the floors. You are better off with raw concrete whenever you start any coatings because if you use one product now it may not be compatible with the coating you choose later on.. Just a heads up!!

Good advice.

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

I just bought a new home and the garage floor has a new type of finish. I believe that it's called polish concrete. It's still just concrete, but the surface has been polished smooth so that it is less porous and there is virtually no dust.