Concrete is a strong durable material commonly found in construction. If you have a garage floor there is a good chance that it is concrete.

A concrete floor by itself isn't the most beautiful thing in the world, but with a little effort and a trip to the hardware store you can change your concrete floor from boring and stale to the eye-catching centre piece of the garage.

First we have to get one thing clear before starting, we are painting a concrete floor in a garage and not a carport.

Moisture in concrete is an all-stop when it comes to painting. If you decide to paint over concrete that tests positive for moisture you will also be deciding to waste your time and money. The moisture vapour will lift through the ground and remove your paint! If you are using oil-based paints on your floor this will worsen the problem, so never use oil based (or alkyd paints) on concrete.

Back to the moisture issue itself, we'll need to determine if your concrete floor has moisture in it. Here's what you do; Take a 2 foot square plastic garbage bag and tape all of the edges down on the floor, then leave it for 24 hours. After 24 hours peel back the bag and check for condensation or discoloration of the concrete under the bag.

If your floor tests positive for moisture you will have to determine and fix the source of the problem. As you can guess it is probably wiser instead to give up on your dream of a painted garage floor at this point, but we will delve into the options at hand in a future article for those determined to paint that floor.

If no moisture is found you can move on to prepping the garage floor for the paint to come.

The number one rule at this point is to read the directions specific to the paint you have chosen. The directions will include preperation instructions, as well as proper surface temperatures, humidity levels and drying times between coats.

We'll cover some general preperations that can be done with any garage regardless of the type of paint.

First, empty the garage completely, use a degreaser to remove any grease stains, give it a good sweep, and then a vaccuum with your shop-vac.

At this point you can patch any small cracks or chips in the concrete with a concrete patch product from your local hardware store. Again, with this product simply follow the directions on the container. Pay attention to dry and cure times before continue further preperations for painting.

After patching you'll want to give the floor another sweep and a vacuum as it's important to keep the floor free of debris.

Likely your next step will be an acid wash of the concrete floor. The paint that you'll use on the concrete will adhere best to a slightly roughed up surface as opposed to smooth concrete. This is where an etching product or an acid wash comes in. Read and follow all of the directions that come with the product you purchase.

After this is done you should be able to move on to painting. Remember that the paint doing a good job and adhering to the concrete depends on you doing a thorough preperation job, so take this task seriously.

Next, read the directions on your paint can. Apply the correct number of coats, at the optimal temperature, with the prescribed drying time between coats.

Also pay attention to the time necessary to wait after the final coat before walking on the floor or moving items back into the garage.

Enjoy your new painted floor!