Good morning Sydney North Shore 🙂
Today I want to talk about a weekend DIY project. And that is a new, shiny epoxy floor for the worn-out 20 years old garage slab.
Why North Shore Homeowners Are Turning to DIY Epoxy Garage Floors
There are many old houses in the Sydney North Shore area. And it is easy to guess that bulk of them are not in a perfect conditions.
Hair cracks, dents, holes and stains are very common in any garage.
Give it 20 years of you four times more. Give it 35 years and you end up having a worn out concrete.
Other common issue is the water proofing problems.
Yes, I know your builder laid down a plastic sheet the slab. But that was 25 years ago and it is now long gone.
So this is the point that you convince yourself and everyone in the household that IT IS TIME NOW.
Materials You’ll Need and Their Average Local Costs
Congrats. You have made the first important move: making a decision.
If you still need more information, read this article on garage epoxy flooring trends in 2025 and it will convince you 🙂
Now probably you are off to buy the epoxy paint from a close by paint shop or Bunnings.
So what are the options in the market? Let’s start with the cheapest of course the worst:
✅Rust-Oleum Grey Gloss Epoxy Shield 2.5 Car Concrete And Garage Floor Coating Kit. [Product Information Here]
Here, I am assuming you have a double car garage. So this kit should suffice. For the price of $385, it is one of low end products in the market.
Downsides are: Low quality, hardly enough for a single garage where advertised for a 2.5 car garage and NO CLEAR TOPCOAT.
The last one literally mind-boggling.
I mean an epoxy floor with flakes and no clear shiny top coat?
OK, I understand polyurethanes are expensive and you wanted to keep the price down, but skipping it, is certainly the worst course of action.
✅Durebild® STE [Product information Here]
This product is much better. Despite the fact that it is a 85% solid epoxy coating, it can easily meet all your expectations, should it be applied properly.
It usually comes in a 10L pack, with an easy mixing ratio of 4:1 per litre.
In my experience, this should be enough for applying two consecutive coats in normal a double garage.
Best part? It can be tinted in any of AS2700 colours. This part requires you to go to one of the Dulux protective coating specialist shops.
If you are in North Shore, probably Castle Hill Branch is kind of the closest.
Down side? No flakes. No fluff. Simple Plain colourful epoxy only. But way better than the previous option in my opinion.
The price tag is anything between $400-$700 depending on your choice of colour.
✅UltraKote Epoxy Flake Flooring Package [product information here]
If you want a ready to go pack, this is for you. This kit provides you with all required tools to apply epoxy flake system.
Also, the epoxy coating system is 100% solid with a solvent-based polyurethane clear topcoat.
The whole package costs around $800-$1200.
Downside: Ultra high solid polyaspartics/polyurethanes are newer version of older solvent-based two-pack polyurethanes.
These can enhance your floor to some degree. However, you have to buy then separately.
So, it does not go perfectly well with the pack. But this is a minor set down.
Tools, Prep Work, and Hidden Expenses to Watch Out For
Now if you read the instruction provided in the package of the first and cheapest option, it tells you that you should acid wash the surface.
It is very wrong. I do not want to explain it further here as to why not do it, please read this article on DIY garage Failures if you are interested.
You need a proper CP3 surface preparation. That means diamond grinding the floor.
You can hire a diamond grinder from Kennards Hire or any other hiring shop for around $700 per day.
They can arrange a drop down and pick up for a small fee of about $100-$200 depending your distant.
You obviously need a mixer. If you have a power drill, you get a mixer from a toolshop and you are good to go.
Other tools and accessories are very similar to any painting job, so you know them better than me.
If your package is the first cheap option, I strongly recommend to get a solvent-based two-pack polyurethane clear coat from any paint shop and apply it on before using the floor.
That probably cost you another $200-$350 for a small 4L package. They usually are 2+2. It worth it.
Comparing DIY vs Hiring a Professional in Sydney’s North Shore
So a proper flake flooring job will cost you around $1200 (assuming a full flake system) for the material and around $750+$150 for the grinder hire. That is around $2,100 in total. There are some additional like blue tapes and other stuff, but don’t worry about them for now.
A local professional Garage epoxy flooring contractor like Epoxy flooring Tech in Hornsby area, will charge you something around $60-$90 ex. GST for a professional full flake system. So assuming you have a double size garage, it would cost around $2,400 ex. GST.
However, if you are after a solid colour, I would definitely recommend you to use Dulux Durebild STE.
As for the partial flake systems, there are too many options.
I for one would do a proper diamond grinding, and order one $800 kit from Sydney Industrial Coatings.
It would cost around $1,700 in total (grinding and material) and usually a satisfactory results.
I understand you might have many questions, please comment them in the section below and I will be happy to answer any of all of them.