Four days ago I spread some Quickrete resurfacing cement over the pitted parts of my garage floor. The bag of mix was 5 years old and could not be poured and came out in chunks.
I could barely manage to mix up the 40# bag into 3 small batches, and I have no idea if I had the right consistency. By the last batch I basically just put a plop of dampened mix on the floor, added water, "stirred" it with the trowel until smooth then spread it.
After 3 days the floor is still not completely dry but does seem to be holding.
However, with all the variations of thin/thicknesses the floor looks very unsightly; instead of grey it's mainly swirls of varying degrees of white. It was suggested that I paint over this ugliness with grey floor paint.
I really don't want to invest much more time, money or effort into this project as it's never going to look good and I'm only going to do the area I resurfaced - not the entire floor. Plus I don't even know it this stuff I put on is going hold.
I've read I should wash with TSP, let it dry, sand rough spots, vacuum, prime, apply 2-4 coats of special floor paint, then seal with polyurethane.
Is all this really necessary???? I was just going to sand the rough areas, vacuum and paint with some old left over grey floor paint I picked up at a garage sale, and be done with it.
I live in Michigan so my car will be unloading its salty snow packs onto the floor (probably the cause of the pitting in the first place), so that's an issue.
So, what happens if I don't prime and/or seal.
And secondly, how long do I need to let the Quickrete cure before painting? It's a very thin layer, maybe 2mm or less except for the pits which could be up to 1/4"+ deep. The garage is slightly heated - right now no colder than 50 most likely.
Any suggestions or your own experiences are welcome.
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