Waiting to dry

[srode]

Worked on the floor til 10pm last night getting it ready for Expoxy - still waiting for the saw cuts in the floor to dry - I blew the cuts out wtih the leaf blower and I have a fan on it but it's taking forever! High today is supposed to be 51 with rain so the weather here isn't helping me out any. Do you think turning on my forced air Kerosene heater would leave a residue on the floor?

[tncatadjuster]

Do not use the heater, it can cause fish eyes later.

[srode]

That's what I was worried about, guess I'll wait it out. Thanks!

[Jaguar Fan]

Don't be surprised if you need to wait a week or more to get fully dry. Do the plastic tarp test to test for dryness.

[thegarageguy]

use a moisture insensitive primer, therefore you wont have to worry...good luck

[srode]

How do I do the plastic tarp test?

[Gotxqss]

You can take a piece of Saran wrap from the kitchen and tape the edges down to see if any moisture accumulates under it. If it's all dry and no moisture you can go ahead!!!

I've been reading a bunch on all this lately as I don't want to screw up the 1000sqft im about to do

[srode]

Thanks, thats what I will do.

[srode]

Looks dry now except the saw cuts which are still dark around the edges - does sealing those with a silicone caulk etc help keep the moisture down in those areas? I haven't done the moisture test yet with saran warp, pretty sure it would fail but I hate to see that moisture coming up in the saw cuts.

[rugerlady]

Absolutely DO NOT use silicone caulk. It repels epoxy. You can use an acrylic paintable caulk if you want to fill in the saw cuts.

[gatchel]

Originally Posted by rugerlady

Absolutely DO NOT use silicone caulk. It repels epoxy. You can use an acrylic paintable caulk if you want to fill in the saw cuts.

Will Silkaflex work? It says it's polyurethane...

[srode]

Originally Posted by rugerlady

Absolutely DO NOT use silicone caulk. It repels epoxy. You can use an acrylic paintable caulk if you want to fill in the saw cuts.

Will caulking with Latex paintable caulk keep the moisture coming through the saw cuts down?

[srode]

Got it done last night, half way there now. I'm going to wait until mid week to move stuff over to that side and start on the other side.

After this first half was done I have some recommendations for people applying Epoxy,

1. Buy enough rollers so you have 1 for each section. Mine got hard after the first section because I laid it flat on a bucket lid and it was lopsided. Fortunately I had another one to use because I bought 2 kits to do the entire garage so I robbed one out of it but it was hard by the time I got to the last section so I had to stop and run up to Lowes to get another one.

2. Aluminum oxide application - I would only use about 25% of the package that comes with the Epoxy coat kit - more than that would be excessive and is too rough. I think you just need enough to get a couple grains under your foot incase you start to slide. I will probably only apply it to the areas a person would walk on getting out of a car to walk around the car and do the garage door on the other half.

3. Appling flakes is easy using the spikey strap on shoe things, highly recommended.

4. Buy about 2 extra gallons of muratic acid in addition to what come in the kit (I bought three total for my garage and used 1 and a half plus what was in the kit) and dliute it 50% to get a good etch on a typical smooth garage floor surface. Just using what was in the kit was not adequate in my opinion, didn't get much if any texture to the surface at 4:1 concentation.

5. 500 square feet is pushing it for good coverage with a single Epoxy coat kit - I had 432 square feet in my first half done and it was a stretch to get a single kit to cover each of the 4 sections I did.

6. Work Fast! This stuff does take set pretty fast in 70 degree weather.

7. Spreading color flakes - doing a couple adjacent sections works very well to get even coverage, harder to get even coverage if you do a section at a time - it's not a problem doing multiple section if you have the spikey foot attachments (see reco number 3).

8. Using Acetone on oily spots works great getting the spot up - degreaser didn't do much to mine, I would recommend not wasting time on it just go straight to Acetone with some good Bounty towels.

Finished product looks very nice! My wife was amazed as am I.

[rugerlady]

We need to see some pics! Glad the floor turned out well for you!

[Ferrino]

srode, thanks very much for the tips - i'm going to be applying mine in the next couple of weeks and was unsure how much anti-slip to apply. i think i will go with your 25% suggestion...

did you buy extra flake or just what came with the kit?

[mrobins297aaa]

Originally Posted by srode

Got it done last night, half way there now. I'm going to wait until mid week to move stuff over to that side and start on the other side.

After this first half was done I have some recommendations for people applying Epoxy,

1. Buy enough rollers so you have 1 for each section. Mine got hard after the first section because I laid it flat on a bucket lid and it was lopsided. Fortunately I had another one to use because I bought 2 kits to do the entire garage so I robbed one out of it but it was hard by the time I got to the last section so I had to stop and run up to Lowes to get another one.

2. Aluminum oxide application - I would only use about 25% of the package that comes with the Epoxy coat kit - more than that would be excessive and is too rough. I think you just need enough to get a couple grains under your foot incase you start to slide. I will probably only apply it to the areas a person would walk on getting out of a car to walk around the car and do the garage door on the other half.

3. Appling flakes is easy using the spikey strap on shoe things, highly recommended.

4. Buy about 2 extra gallons of muratic acid in addition to what come in the kit (I bought three total for my garage and used 1 and a half plus what was in the kit) and dliute it 50% to get a good etch on a typical smooth garage floor surface. Just using what was in the kit was not adequate in my opinion, didn't get much if any texture to the surface at 4:1 concentation.

5. 500 square feet is pushing it for good coverage with a single Epoxy coat kit - I had 432 square feet in my first half done and it was a stretch to get a single kit to cover each of the 4 sections I did.

6. Work Fast! This stuff does take set pretty fast in 70 degree weather.

7. Spreading color flakes - doing a couple adjacent sections works very well to get even coverage, harder to get even coverage if you do a section at a time - it's not a problem doing multiple section if you have the spikey foot attachments (see reco number 3).

8. Using Acetone on oily spots works great getting the spot up - degreaser didn't do much to mine, I would recommend not wasting time on it just go straight to Acetone with some good Bounty towels.

Finished product looks very nice! My wife was amazed as am I.

Thanks for the good advice, I'm getting ready to start my epoxy coat this week. I was wondering about the rollers getting hard, I think I'll pick up a few more. i was wondering did you do your floor by your self? or did you have help?

[mrobins297aaa]

I'm not going to use the anti-slip.........I used on a ucoated floor I did about 7 years ago and I never liked it.

[srode]

I bought extra bags of the Beige mix flakes to go with the 2 kits I picked up. This side is 27 deep by 16 wide, and I divided the flakes that came with the kit and 1 of the bags into 4 sandwich sized zip lock bags and set them in my staging area to apply them when ready, 1 bag to each of the 4 sections. I did the work by myself, I guess having another person might help get on the back rolling quicker, but didn't really have an issue keeping up with it doing it myself, just need to move quick. (Ignore the mess on the Gorilla Racking, it will get cleaned up after I am done! )

I finished at 8pm Saturday and last night (Monday night) started moving some things back over including a SBC complete engine on an engine stand suspended by a cherry picker to put under my work bench area - no scuffs on the floor from it - very hard durable shine to the floor I would say.

Starting on the remaining section which is 21 x 20 this week

[JamieK]

What did you use on the saw cuts?

[srode]

For the saw cuts I just took the brush from the kit and dragged it through them coating the sides and top.

[srode]

One tip I forgot - after mixing your first batch the marks on the measuring stick will be hard to read. Before you start either mark an additional stick for each batch you plan to make, or take a knife and notch the stick at the marks so you can see them for the next batches. If you wipe the stick with a paper towel after measuring out the first batch you may find the marks are gone.

[rugerlady]

Good Job! the floor looks really nice!

[srode]

Thanks Christine - and for all the help and patience answering all my questions too! Much appreciated. I'm very happy with the results, and I'll be much happier when I get the next half done and get the garage back to normal, but much much nicer.

[rugerlady]

Originally Posted by srode

Thanks Christine - and for all the help and patience answering all my questions too! Much appreciated. I'm very happy with the results, and I'll be much happier when I get the next half done and get the garage back to normal, but much much nicer.

No problem, glad I could help. Hope you get everything back to normal soon, I'd like to see some pics of the floor when its done.

[schuyler10]

That's a beautiful job. I'm in the planning stage of building a 24x36 recording studio. I like the epoxy finish.