Metal buildings make perfect garages. Miracle Truss® offers DIY prefab garage kits that allow you to put up the structure yourself. One thing just about everybody notices about garages – no matter who builds them – is that they tend to collect dust.
Most of us know at least one person who somehow manages to have an immaculately clean garage. How do they manage?
An Unlikely Contributor
There are a multitude of things that create dust, but one of the biggest and most common contributors is the concrete floor in your garage. Bare concrete slabs poured for garages are usually not sealed properly for use.
We don’t have these problems in our homes because the concrete slab is a base upon which interior flooring is installed. If the concrete is used as flooring, there are addition steps taken to seal the surface. This usually isn’t the case if a concrete slab will be used as the exposed floor in a garage.
When concrete used for this purpose isn’t properly sealed, it will start to break down. You won’t see this in the form of cracks and crumbling. It’s nearly microscopic. The surface begins to degrade as moisture and other substances such as motor oil or grease seep into it. The concrete starts to produce a fine sheen of Portland cement and rock dust – two of the main ingredients in concrete. It’s stirred up and becomes airborne as cars drive over this dust, or as people walk across the concrete slab.
Four Types of Sealers
There are generally four kinds of sealers you can purchase to protect a concrete slab that’s used as a garage floor. Three of them form films on top of the concrete surface. Their main ingredient is acrylic, epoxy, or polyurethane. They create an impervious layer of protection on top of the concrete. They’re easy to clean, but care must be taken to prepare the concrete before application. These three types of concrete sealers can also be slippery when wet.
The fourth type is known as siloxane. These formulas penetrate into the concrete slab – rather than form a film on top. They react with the minerals in concrete to form what’s known as a “hydrophobic” barrier. It repels moisture and oils. Unlike other kinds of sealers, siloxane formulas won’t change the look of concrete. It’s why many people prefer this approach.
Our customers love to send us photos of the Miracle Truss® buildings they use to create garages and shops. Check out our gallery!
