Griot's garage floor coating vs. Quickcrete
 

I know garage floor coatings come up here from time to time and since I just did my fall garage cleaning I thought I would do a quick report on Griot's vs. Quickcrete since I have now done both. I did the Quickcrete product in gray at my old house (sorry no pics) and used it for about 5 years in a working garage. It is a decent product, but even with excellent prep I had some hot tire pick-up in the first year and it didn't look that great after about the first 6 months. After 5 years it was pretty beaten up.....still better than an exposed garage floor by leaps and bounds, but I probably wouldn't use the product again.

About a year and a half ago I moved and decided to try a different product. I went with the Griot's product in tan this time. After a year and a half the Griot's product is holding up significantly better with no hot tire pick up whatsoever. It also has stayed much more shiny and "new" looking compared to the Quickcrete product. Time will tell how well it holds up over the next 5 years or so, but so far I am pleased and it really wasn't that much more expensive than the Quickcrete product.

The tan color went down a little lighter than I had hoped and seems to show dirt/stains a little worse than the gray Quickcrete product. If I could do it all over again I would definitely stick with the Griot's product, but probably go with the gray color instead of the tan.

Both garages were between 15-20 years old when the coatings went down. If anything, I would say the concrete at my old house (Quickcrete) was in better shape went the coating went on.

http://www.the370z.com/attachments/l...9-13-small.jpg
http://www.the370z.com/attachments/l...9-13-small.jpg
http://www.the370z.com/attachments/l...9-13-small.jpg

Wow that looks great! Thanks for the review.
Very envious of that bend-pak - how do you feel about that lift? Worth the price paid, or would you recommend another unit?

I've had both BendPak (symmetric 2-post floor plate) and Rotary lifts (asymmetric 2-post top cable) and did a lot of research before purchasing both. I think either make an excellent purchase. The fit and finish on the Rotary is slightly better, but the BendPak is actually a bit beefier. It also comes with better standard arm attachments in my opinion. Since it's generally less expensive than a Rotary, it makes a better buy in my opinion. Greg Smith and Fast Foward also make very good lifts, but I have no first hand experience with those. I crossed a few other big name brands off my list due to friends having bad experiences (I have a couple friends that are car service managers....one with Porsche and the other with Mazda/Ford/Nissan so they've seen just about everything out there and were helpful when it came time to buy one).

I would avoid a floor plate lift if you can. I had to get one this time as my ceiling is just over 11' in this garage and could not accommodate a top cable lift (really need to be 12'+ for those). The floor plate lifts work equally well and I can get full rise on mine with a car (obviously not with a truck or SUV though). The problem is the floor plate is much tougher to clean around and just having the plate there it's in the way on the all time. That may not sound like much but I tackled some messy jobs (like completely cleaning the underside of my 911 when I first got it) on the Rotary top cable that I would never try on this floor plate lift. With the top cable I just hosed things off afterward.....no big deal.

I would also get an asymmetric over a symmetric. It gives you more options on where you local the lift and lets you open the car doors more easily if the lift also doubles as a parking spot when not in use.

If I were buying another lift right now (and garage height wasn't an issue) I would definitely go with the top cable BendPak XPR-10A-168. No question about it. Given a height limitation, my BendPak XPR-9 would still be my top choice as it will work in a garage with as little as 9 1/2' clearance and the concrete requirements aren't too bad (the bigger higher rated lifts have some tough concrete requirements as you might expect).

Hope that helps.

Nice set-up.

I've tried both of these products, plus a couple others. Living in Florida, I experienced the "hot-tire pull up" with all of them. I finally surrendered and tiled the floor!