You'll have to use something designed specifically for garage floors. I've seen where folks have painted the floor with oil based enamel deck paint. On a hot summer day after driving (tires hot) pulled into the garage and the paint stuck to the tires and the paint peeled up as they drove off the next time out!!! The epoxy is good on a cured, dry and very clean floor. If the finishers put a smooth finish on the floor, getting anything to stick for long, is a challenge. I too, like the look you're going for but wouldn't want to give my approval from what I've seen. I hate oil spots and tar marks from my cars and trucks on the garage floor. I use gunk engine cleaner and a rag to clean them up right away. There's a magazine a friend subscribes to called "Improvements" or something like that. They have a pad which can be rolled out that keeps the concrete clean. I've also seen where folks have used composite floor tiles (with a design) and that seems to work (I've seen it in car dealer show rooms). I suspect they would be quite slippery when wet or snow and ice gets on them. Don't use carpet if you can refrain, the catalytic converter could melt or ignite it especially after it gets a little oil soaked. I hope I helped.

I guess I have a contrary opinion on the solid redwood stain. I have a small vacation home in the Brazos Cliffs area of New Mexico. Elevation 7500 feet, 90 inches of snow in an average year, monsoon seasons for two months in the summer and outrageous doses of UV year round. I am just a Walmart/HomeDepot kind of guy. When I bought the property 6 years ago the detached garage/shop had very heavy discoloration of cedar siding below the snow level, was cracking badly and looked on its last legs. I ran a horizontal 1x4 of cedar around the structure just about a foot above snow line and stained with then available 3/5 year Behr semi-transparent cedar above the 1x4 and Behr solid cedar stain below. Currently the solid stain looks as good as when I put it down. The semi-transparent is also in not bad condition except for the new cedar rail I installed on the west-facing side...not bad, and I really like the color pairing of solid and semi-transparent. At the same time we stained the deck and rails with just semi-transparent 3/5 redwood. At year three, the deck was clearly in need of staining, but I put it off until this spring from general laziness. The vertical surfaces at year 5 or 6 were in need of restaining from upclose appearance, but looked fine from the road. The product seemed to me to meet its projected longevity goals as advertised. This spring I decided it was time to stain the house and again used the Behr stains. The house, snow-shedding deck cover columns and beams, and vertical supports of the railing for 800 sf of deck are in semi-transparent redwood 5/8 yr and the deck and horizontal hand rail surfaces are in the solid 10/25 yr redwood stain. I really like the color combination and expect long service from the solid stain. We did the 15-min surface treatment prior to staining, but nothing special beyond that. No bubbling, no stickiness, no problems at all. Yes the solid is a bit orangey, but the combination of semi and solid looks justs as attractive as we found it to be on the garage years before. Obviously color tastes vary, but I think using solid stain in high stress applications can be a great labor savings in the long run. I wouldn't want my whole house in the solid stain color, but with the house freshly stained in semi-transparent, I find the solid stain to provide a classy-looking trim effect on the horiontal features of the deck. In a couple of years I plan to stain the garage redwood too, but there is no rush--the stain is holding up just fine for now.

Ava, I think the branch manager meant, if the concrete is raw or unpainted - then it is porous, once it is painted with any type of paint including an acrylic epoxy paint it is no longer porous. Therefore the type of sealer I would use would be different than if I had used a stain on the concrete - with a stain the concrete is stil porous but with an acrylic epoxy the concrete becomes non porous. Since that time I talked with the woman who originally put this treatment on her restaurant floor and she used an oil based varathane. However, I am going to use a water based or acrylic based varathane on mine. I have talked to several people and the water based sealer has less of a tendency to yellow than the oil based. Also I am thinking if I want to change the color or redo the concrete floor in the future, then I am thinking it will be less troublesome to redo a floor with a water based product. One point - I have tried using varathane with a roller before and it tends to put little bubbles in the finish, so I am going to use a flat sponge to apply the varathane. The woman doing the restaurant floor used a flat applicator to apply the varathane too. I am going to try my garage floor this week and will let you know how it turns out.

Yes, you can. Just make sure you feather out any imperfections, so you get a nice smooth finish.