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One of the occasional questions we receive is how to remove tire marks or tire stains from epoxy garage floor coatings. This is usually followed up by the second question of why does this happen. After all, it can be a bit frustrating to put down a nice coating to discover that your car is starting to leave ugly black tire prints – usually right where you park every day. So let’s take a look at what causes this to happen and what can be done to remove those offensive tire marks.
What causes tire marks on epoxy
The process that causes tires to leave black marks on your garage floor coating is called “plasticizer migration”. Plasticizers are a combination of polymer compounds and other chemicals that are used in the tire industry to create a more flexible rubber compound. This flexible compound will give a tire more traction and help to keep it soft and pliable in cold weather.
When a tire heats up from driving, these plasticizers tend to relax and leach out of the tire. This leaching effect is what leaves brown looking tire marks on the epoxy coating. Tire marks tend to be more prevalent with high performance tires and good quality all-season tires.
This difference in tire construction is why some people comment that one car in the garage has a tendency to leave marks or tire stains and another car will not. If a car tends to sit for long periods of time in one spot, this same plasticizer migration can occur, but at a much slower pace.
When a coatings cure, it creates a cross linking pattern that gives the coating its strength as well as density. The greater the cross linking, the stronger and more dense it will be.
This is why commercial quality epoxies, polyurethanes, and polyureas resist tire staining much better than lessor quality coatings such as your home improvement store DIY garage floor coating kits.
High performance clear coats, such as polyurea and polyapsartics in particular, tend to resist tire staining the best. The cross linking is especially dense and makes it harder for the plasticizers to migrate into the upper layer of the coating.
How to remove tire marks
So how easy is it to remove tire marks from your garage floor? Well, it depends on the quality of your top coat and how long the marks have been left there before attempting to remove them. The key is to keep your eye out for any sign of tire marks. The sooner you tackle cleaning them, the more successful you will be.
Generally, the easiest way to attempt removing these marks is to soak the area for a few minutes first with a good cleaner such as Simple Green or a concrete degreaser. After it has soaked, use a semi stiff nylon bristle brush to scrub the tire marks. Be careful about using a scrub pad as these will sometimes degloss the finish.
It may take a bit of scrubbing and a second soaking to remove it all depending on how long you have let the marks build up. Another product that people have had success with is Goof Off. You can usually find it at your local home improvement centers or auto parts stores. Again, be careful with the scrubbing.
If the tire marks are not cleaning up well or there has been a long period of buildup, then there is a commercial product that is designed just for removing tire marks on coatings.
This product is called NAB Black Streak and Tire Mark Remover. It’s produced by North American Bioindustries and is available in a sample size to try out, as well as a 32oz. size containers. It has been used successfully to remove stubborn tire marks on factory floors for years.
If you have a car that is leaving tire marks on your epoxy garage floor, the best thing you can do to prevent any permanent tire stains is to not let the marks build up over a period of time to begin with. Routinely cleaning your garage floor coating is great preventative maintenance that helps to prevent these issues.
Lastly, if you have a car that sits for long periods of time, you may want to park each tire over a small scrap of cardboard, carpet, or similar material that you can later discard.
I like how you said, “Another product that people have had success with is Goof Off”. I’m going to get some of that stuff for my floor. I bet it would help remove the gunk that’s stuck there. Furthermore, it should make the surface shine nicely. What other products do you like?
Vinegar and water also work well for general cleaning of the floor.
The “Goof Off” will take just about anything off my epoxy floor, but it will make the floor dull. Is the dulling the cleaning causes damaging the coating or is it just cosmetic? Thanks, JT
There is a possibility of the coating loosing gloss if anything less than a high performance, commercial quality coating was used. The key is to use it sparingly and quickly so it does not linger on the surface. The dulling effect is just cosmetic and will not damage the coating.
Do you know of any company that will clean tire marks on epoxy garage floor
Sorry Bill, but we are not aware of a company that will clean tire marks.
I used Goof Off. It will not dissolve anything but will get under it and allow it to lift off, thanks.
Great, we are glad it worked for you Cecil!
Will this staining eventually wear off as the tire gets older or will it just be a permanent issue? Thank you for your wonderful information. Michelin couldn’t explain anything. They acted like they never heard of this.
If you are referring to the tire creating less staining as it gets older Jim, we really can’t answer that definitively. What we do know is that tire technology has come a long way and tires no longer tend to dry out and crack as they used to when they got older. Part of this reason is due to the plasticizer technology. More than likely, plasticizers will be leached from certain tires for quite a while. It doesn’t surprise us that Michelin couldn’t really explain anything. The staining problem was diagnosed by floor coating chemists after some research and talks with tire engineers. What we can tell you is that the higher quality polyurethane and polyurea top coats do a real good job of resisting tire staining.
Ugh. Tire marks fit on a garage floor. Leave them they add character and affect nothing.
lol.. That’s how some people feel Greg. Everyone has their own interpretation of what a garage should be.
Once cleaned is there a polyurethane or some other sealer that would slow down tire marks and make it easier to clean in the future? I think I have a cheap epoxy painted garage floor. Just the water that drops off the front end after coming in from it raining outside will leave a brown stain. I can get it up but it takes a lot of scrubbing. Luckily it doesn’t rain all that often.
Yes, you can use a clear polyurethane or polyurea top coat Shawn, providing that your floor is an actual epoxy coating and not paint or a 1-part epoxy paint. Because these types of top coats have some solvents, they would soften paint. It would require roughing up the surface with 100 grit sandpaper and wiping it down with denatured alcohol before applying the top coat.
Our floor has a brown tint to it where the cars are parked. I tried Simple Green and it cleaned it but didn’t take away the tint of brown. Will anything?
Hello Sam. That brown tint is from the plasticizers that leach out of the tires when they are hot. It can migrate into the subsurface of worn coating and lower quality coatings. It can be real hard to remove without sanding it out and applying another color coat or clear coat depending on what you have. We recommend givingGoofOff a try as it has been successful for some people.
I purchased a Clark ma50 to clean my floor what detergent/soap/ solvent do you recommend? They suggest a non foaming detergent.
Hello Kent. There are a variety of detergents that you can use with this type of machine. We suggest contacting Clarke to determine the best soap to use for your cleaning project.
I applied Rust-Oleum EpoxyShield Gray Gloss 2-part. I have front tires leaving marks, I used fast orange and scrubbed with rough cloth. They come up, what should I do to get them off and prevent in future?
We recommend applying a high performance polyurethane or polyurea clear top coat Tate. They will resist tire marks much better. The Rust-Oleum EpoxyShield is more of an entry level epoxy coating that can be susceptible to tire marks.
Rainwater that evaporated off the clearcoat dried and left white spots on the floor. Standard cleaners won’t remove them. Any idea what might work?
Hello Jim. We have an article about cleaning floor coatings here. You may want to try ammonia and water. If that doesn’t do it, a mild solution of vinegar and water will usually do it. Just don’t let the solution dwell for too long as vinegar is acidic and it may dull the finish depending on the type of coating you have.
An off-topic question but I cannot find the answer anywhere else on the internet. I applied two coats of an oil-based, alkyd gloss enamel paint (Armor Coat Porch & Floor paint) over my garage floor (which I am converting to an office) and after two days the paint is still tacky in the locations where there were tire marks (which I mostly removed with TSP and a stiff bristle brush before painting). What chemical reaction has occurred and can you think of any easy solutions? Thank you!
Hello Jacob. It’s the plasticizers that leach out of tires and cause staining. I found the TDS for the paint, but nothing catches our attention as to why it would do this. The polymers in the polyurethane might react to the plasticizers, but it would affect adhesion more than anything else. This type of product does not chemically cure either. It drys just as paint does. Our recommendation would be to contact the manufacturer for more info. There is a number in the data sheet under the warranty information.
Hi Shea, it appears that the solvent in the paint reacted with the tire plasticizers, preventing the paint from ever drying. I removed all the undried, tacky paint over the tread marks with mineral spirits, which did not affect the surrounding dried paint, primed, and repainted and it worked! The newly pained garage floor is fine now. Thanks so much for hosting this wonderful forum and patiently answering questions that often really help others.
Fantastic, Jacob. We’re glad it worked out and thanks for the kudos! It’s why we are here.
Do you have experience in placing some kind of material ( plastic/ Rubber/ Carpet ) strips on the garage floor for the tires to rest on? Would this material mark my beautiful epoxy garage floor ?
Hi Tom. You don’t want to use natural rubber on epoxy. However, 100% polyvinyl mats or any type of carpet strip works fine if you want to do that.
I am applying a an epoxy sealant to my garage floor that has a sand grain non slip texture to it. I also usually put down an oil mat to catch any drips when i’m working on the engine (armor all garage floor mat). I’ve seen in another post that you do not recommend certain types of mats because they will effect the epoxy coat. Do yo know of any reaction with the armor all mats?
Hi Eric. No, the Armor All mats will not stick to the coating or cause any cosmetic issues.
After cleaning my painted garage floor with Dawn dish detergent my car leaves tire marks every time I drive into the garage. It’s very frustrating. Did I mess up the paint? Is there a remedy for this situation?
Hi Ed. Paint is not as effective at avoiding tire marks as a true coating is. Did you rinse the floor well afterwards? If not, there could be a film that is effectively cleaning the tires and leaving the rubber marks. I would suggest mopping the floor with a light solution of warm water and ammonia and then see what happens.
What type of sealer can be used on 1 part epoxy garage floor paint to help avoid the yellow tire marks mentioned in above comments?
Hello Patrick. 1-part epoxy is latex acrylic paint with a little bit of epoxy resin added. It’s not a true epoxy coating. As a result, clear resinous coatings for garage floors are not compatible with 1-part epoxy paint. This article here explains more.
I have a 100% solids epoxy coating with a polyurethane top coat in my garage and had a bit of tire spin while backing my car up into the garage. The area where the tire spun is now deglossed and has some black scrape marks that I haven’t been able to clean off with a strong solution of Simple Green. Is there anything I can do to restore this area?
Another car of ours has left slightly yellow/brown stains where the tires were. They look like the plasticizer migration problem and I haven’t had any luck with Simple Green either.
Hi PD. Yes, black tire marks can be frustratingly hard to remove. At this point, we would recommend ordering a sample of the NAB Black Streak and Tire Mark Remover that we link in the article. If it works well, you can always order more if need it.
Shea,
Thank you – I will try that. As for the deglossing, do you think it can be restored with more clear polyurethane or would the entire floor need to be refinished?
Yes, more clear polyurethane will bring the gloss back. It would require sanding the surface first with 120 grit sandpaper and then wiping the exact area with denatured alcohol. However, areas that are repaired in this way will sometimes be detectable since coatings do not blend like paint does on a wall. Overlap marks can sometimes be detected with clear coats and definitely on color coats. If you plan on doing this, then you might as well sand out the black marks first.