Painting your two car garage floor can add a tremendous amount of utility (and quite a bit of value) to your garage – and the project is simple enough to tackle all on your own with a little help from our detailed guide below.
Of course, before you jump in with both feet you’ll want to know how much paint you need for a two car garage floor. We can tell you that – on average – your typical two-car garage measures between 400 and 550 ft.² and you’ll need about 4.5 to 5 gallons worth of paint to cover that floor reliably.
Sure, you might be able to stretch a little bit and get the job done using only 4 gallons of paint (maybe). Or maybe you go a little heavier – bumping it up to 5.5 or even 6 gallons worth of paint – to get a more durable and reliable finish.
Nothing wrong with that.
Most folks, though, are going to be able to get away with about 4.5 to 5 gallons of paint when all is said and done!
How Much Paint Do You Need for a Two Car Garage Floor?
On the surface, between 4.5 and 5 gallons of paint really seems like a ton of paint – more paint than you have probably ever used to paint the walls of your garage (maybe even some of the walls in your home).
Well, that’s because of a couple of different factors.
For one thing, the paint that you should be using to cover your two-car garage floor is going to be considerably thicker and more viscous than the paint that you are going to be putting on your walls.
This is, after all, going to be paint that has to stand up to daily use and abuse.
Not just with heavy cars and trucks rolling across it on a regular basis, but also being exposed to all the chemicals, fluids, dirt, and debris your vehicles drag into the garage daily as well.
Secondly, these paints generally are a two-part mixture – sort of like an epoxy resin.
These two-part mixtures have to be spread evenly and deliberately across the entirety of your two-car garage floor. If not, you’ll end up with patchy, splotchy, uneven, and ugly garage floors that you’ll have to try and redo.
That’s a nightmare of a project.
Trust us!
No, at the end of the day you should expect to have between 4.5 and 5 gallons of paint cover the entirety of your two-car garage floor.
Go a little over your estimate (maybe 5.5 or 6 gallons of paint) and you’ll be good to go.
Double Up for Even Better Protection
Of course, if you really want to make sure that the floor you’ve painted in your garage is super durable you’ll want to double up the amount of paint you expect to use.
This means that you’re going to be using between 9 and 10 gallons (or more) of paint specifically designed for garage floor applications
You see, a single layer of typical epoxy garage floor paint is going to do a halfway decent job of filling maybe 85% of the dents, dings, pinholes, and other surface defects inevitably left in a concrete pour job.
That might sound all right on the surface. But that means that 15% of all those blemishes are still going to be expose – and that’s where you’re going to see a lot of wear and tear (as well as a lot of “freckling” on the surface of your garage floor, too).
By adding a second coat you guarantee that the extra 15% is filled in completely, giving you 100% coverage – but then you have another 85% of material adding a “buffer layer” across the top of all that to act as extra armor.
Not bad, right?
If you have the budget, the time, and the energy you’ll definitely be a lot happier with a double coat of garage floor paint than you would be with a single layer.
Paint Prep is Essential
The value of preparation before you begin painting your two-car garage floor cannot be overstated.
No, it’s not enough to just clean and sweep your garage floor before you start painting.
That’s the bare minimum, sure – but you want to go well above and beyond the bare minimum.
We are talking about really scrubbing every square inch of your two-car garage floor, making sure that every bit of dirt, dust, and debris has been removed completely.
Then we are talking about hitting the surface of your floor with paint prep materials (like sanders and the like) to not just abrade the surface – which is critical for proper adhesion – but also to smooth, even, and better prep the surface as well.
Take the time to be very methodical with your paint preparation.
It’ll pay off big time and you’ll even be able to use a little bit less paint because of it, too.
Closing Thoughts
So there you have it, practically everything you need to know about how much paint you really need to cover a two-car garage (top to bottom, front to back) without having a lot of extra paint and wasted money on hand at the end of the project.
Of course, it’s important to make sure that you measure your garage, get as accurate a square footage number as you can get, and then figure out – based off of the specific paint you’re going to use – exactly how much you’ll need to get the job done right.
We can tell you that most two-car garages end up between 400 and 550 ft.² or so and that about 4.5 to 5 gallons of garage floor specific paint will get the job done in those situations.
You might want to double things up to get a more durable and long-lasting finish, but that’s entirely up to you and the budget that you are working with.
Best of luck going forward. That properly painted garage floor is going to make a world of difference!
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