U-coat-it done!

[Pete MacDonald]

Hello, well we did it!!! I've finished my 'U-Coat it' floor. Looks fantastic. Haven't taken pictures yet, but will soon.
It was a lot of work!!!!!
I power washed the floor, then etched with Muratic acid and re-power washed to remove acid. When it was still damp, I painted on the sealer coat which was a 3 part epoxy paint. It was water based so it went on
Very well. When the 1st coat dried, I caulked the saw cuts and let them dry.
About 5-6 hours later, put on the color coat (2 part epoxy) and spread the "flexs" and "sand" onto the floor.
The next morning Deb and I rolled on the clear coat. The floor looks wet all the time! I did my floor over two weekends. 1/3 the first and the rest the next. I learn after the first section that you NEED to spread the "sand". My first section was finish coated without it, and it's slippery dry. I corrected it on the rest of the garage. U-Coat it makes a fantastic product. It's more money, but I never plan on doing it again. I'm now looking for ideas for the walls. Saw a great picture on the Garage Junkies forum that had a old brick wall. Menards has stackable brick that I'm going to check out. :thumbup:

[gb387]

Post some photos when you can... I have always wanted to see the u-coat-it other than in their promo photos... I have never used it but it seems like a quality product. Keep us up to date on how you like it!

[Mr. Stock]

I used U-Coat-it on my garage floor over a year ago. It has held up nicely. I am very satisfied with it.

[ChucksCrib]

I hope it works better for you than the other reviews I have read about H2O based U-Coat-It

[Pete MacDonald]

Thanks for the comments. The floor looks great. It's now 2-3 weeks old and hard as a rock. I drove up to Royal Oak Michigan (I live in Toledo, OH) and talked with the owner's of U-coat it before I bought. They are very helpful. They stressed that you have to prepare the floor well. I'll take pictures soon and post them.
Pete
:beer:

[rrjcfalls]

Just found this web site last week nice garages. I used U-coat last year in Sept One thing I found out prep is everything I wish now I would have used the acid 2 times. My floor is about 6 years old and has stains. The U-coat has flaked off where the oil didnt come out completely. Also where my wifes car parked and concrete pitted it showed up bad. should have used the filler they have. Even after 1 winter in Ohio still looks pretty good. Am finishing the inside of my garage now hope to show some pics later.

[Hammerdown]

I have use UCoat It several times and found it to work very well. I have even used it on other surfaces than recommended and found it to be the answer to jazzing up my place. I re-surfaced a set of 1960s' era tables- dining, coffee and end tables to match my wall and trim paint and it reallys draws attention.

[3vettesnLift]

I used U-COAT have a few blisters after the 2nd year. We need pics.

[roger55]

I would never, ever recommend UCoat-it.
I had a very bad experience with it.

[GearHead_1]

I put down 1650 sq. ft. of it. It's only been down for the past 7 months but to this point I have nothing but good to say about it. It is a lot of work. I would recommend it in a heart beat.:thumbup:

[roger55]

My experience with U-Coat-It:

The product goes on very,very thin and any defects in the concrete show up badly.
I had some small cracks and some small chips in the concrete that are pretty normal for a garage floor that was 18 years old. So, I bought a can of U-Coatit's epoxy patch to fix these areas. Well, their paint is so thin, that you can easily see these patched areas underneath.

Also, their product didn't cover the square footage that they say it does. I had to buy more product half way through the job. I've seen other posts to the contrary, but even on my clearcoat, I had to stretch it as thin as possible to have enough to finish. Maybe on a perfectly smooth concrete floor, the kind that's kind-of shiny to begin with, it would be better (but then, you may have adhesion problems like the 3vettesnlift did.) All imperfections in your floor will be seen with this stuff. When I acid etched my floor in preparation, a some areas got a little rougher looking than others and these areas can be seen afterwards and can be seen in the photo.

http://hotrodders.com/gallery/data/3148/17782Shop.jpg?7040

Also, do you see those tire marks in the photo? They will not come off. I used that foam stuff that makes tires look good and it permanently yellowed the clear coat.

The positives about it is that the paint is tough and it hasn't lifted or come off. But, all epoxies should do that if properly applied. You can scratch it by dragging heavy metal objects across it. But metal wheels from a floor jack or engine hoist don't hurt it.

With the extra product I had to buy, this job cost me $1000 for the 600 sq-ft. WAY, WAY too expensive. How can they justify the price for their product? It is obscene.

My brother did his garage floor with the Griots Garage epoxy (www.griotsgarage.com). This stuff covers 130 sq-ft a gallon and is $58.95/gal. It covers way better, way cheaper than UCoatit.

Explore other options. Don't get the U-Coatit.

[peterj]

I would never, ever recommend UCoat-it.
I had a very bad experience with it.
I am curious as to what your problem with U-Coat-It. What happened?
Thanks