Polyaspartic top coat - is this normal?

[MaryD]

Just had polyaspartic floor installed in the garage and am unhappy with how it turned out, having the contractor stop by to review in the morning, but would like to get your opinion on some of the issues so I'm not gaslighted into thinking this is "normal":

1) Topcoat looks "wet" in many areas (like puddles of water, especially along the walls) due to what looks like thick application of the topcoat in some places.
2) Coated brick border doesn't look like it was coated with the top coat
3) Some high marks (flakes not scraped uniformly?)
4) Two spots appear to be missing top coat completely, flakes standing up
5) Borders contain two holes (can see brick through the coating) and just generally not even
6) After over 24 hours of having the garage overhead door and back door open, can smell the VOCs from the driveway and inside the house, despite having windows open and running an IQ air in the laundry room leading from the garage (will read through the smell threads on this forum in more detail)
7) Spot where a lizard was stuck is tinted yellow

Main concerns: "puddles" and off-gassing - toddler in the house.

Are these things normal? Can they realistically be corrected, and if so, what's the best way?

Desperate for a second opinion - contractor treating me as a "Karen".

 

[MaryD]

The puddles are kinda hard to photograph under lighting I had, but are much more noticeable in person. I have a feeling they'll come back with "your concrete was uneven", but shouldn't have that been part of the prep?

 

[MaryD]

And more photos with better lighting showing how patchy/uneven the topcoat looks.

 

[Rusty Wrench]

110 views and no response.

MaryD, I'm thinking you've gotten no response because most of your questions have already been asked and answered.

Although that does seem a bit contraindicative on a forum where there's rarely was a thought or idea our collective mouths couldn't use.

I'm no expert; not even well informed. But here are a couple recent threads that may provide some help.

Polyurea or Polyaspartic as base coat?

I've spoken to numerous local companies that do full fleck floor coatings in Polyurea/Polyapartic. Pretty much all of them use polyaspartic as the top clear coat, but I'm getting contrasting opinions about the tinted base coat. The largest and most notable company in my particular area told me...

www.garagejournal.com

Polyaspartic Floor gone wrong?

Hi All. This forum has been a great source of information over the last couple of weeks for our Polyaspartic Flooring experience, so I thought I would share what's going on and see if any of the members here have input on what I should be doing and how I should approach this. We just finished...

www.garagejournal.com

Hope you get some satisfaction from your contractor.

 

[MaryD]

Yup, I've spent hours reading through the threads on here about similar issue, but was hoping for direct responses so I could send this to my contractor so that he stops insisting they did an awesome job and I'm just unusually picky.

They sanded the topcoat yesterday and reapplied with some sharkgrip (originally used all SIMIRON products, but could not get their anti slip product same day), and while it looks slightly better, all of the other issues are still there.

 

[MaryD]

The puddles are kinda hard to photograph under lighting I had, but are much more noticeable in person. I have a feeling they'll come back with "your concrete was uneven", but shouldn't have that been part of the prep?

Btw, this was exactly their response - the low spots of my concrete filled up with the topcoat "and it's not due to any defects in their workmanship". Which, I'm not sure how this makes sense if they grinded the floor prior to install?

 

[dcg9381]

Which, I'm not sure how this makes sense if they grinded the floor prior to install?

Grinding the floor does not make it flat. Concrete is never completely flat. Rolled on products should not "pool" unless you've got a major issue.

This seems to be a "roll-on" application (like polyurea). They usually roll this on with "wide" rollers. Those wide rollers won't get in the corners, so near the walls they have to start with an initial application with a small roller..

I agree that what you're looking at is an un-even finish due to not being precise about application between coats. Frankly, I've got a little of this in all the floors I've done that are rolled on polyurea.. It can be very hard to see what you've already coated and a single miss shows up.

24 hours and still having VOCs seems pretty normal to me. Open the garage and throw some fans in there. Give it a week.

What'd you pay for this install per sqft?

Honestly, it's not terrible. It's just not perfect. I can't do "perfect" myself, but I get that you're paying someone to do it.

 

[MaryD]

Grinding the floor does not make it flat. Concrete is never completely flat. Rolled on products should not "pool" unless you've got a major issue.

This seems to be a "roll-on" application (like polyurea). They usually roll this on with "wide" rollers. Those wide rollers won't get in the corners, so near the walls they have to start with an initial application with a small roller..

I agree that what you're looking at is an un-even finish due to not being precise about application between coats. Frankly, I've got a little of this in all the floors I've done that are rolled on polyurea.. It can be very hard to see what you've already coated and a single miss shows up.

24 hours and still having VOCs seems pretty normal to me. Open the garage and throw some fans in there. Give it a week.

What'd you pay for this install per sqft?

Honestly, it's not terrible. It's just not perfect. I can't do "perfect" myself, but I get that you're paying someone to do it.

Can you advise on:

(1) how dangerous the "slipping" factor is? After they sanded and re-did the topcoat, you can no longer feel the flake texture (except in places they missed during the first coat), and the sharkgrip can't really be felt, it's just a smooth resin texture (that while dry, seems to have pretty good adhesion when walking, especially as of right now, not being completely cured and "flexing" when pushed into). I keep having these images on replay in my head of me choosing to keep the coating and a family member or myself having a debilitating injury after slipping on it.

(2) Should I still be able to leave a dent in the floor with my nail at this point? The company owner stopped by to look at the floor today and had samples with him, and the coating on those is rock hard, while my flooring is kinda very dense resin at this point.

We've had the overhead door and back door open 24/7 since Monday (original completion, reapplied top coat Wednesday), thinking of running an ozone machine for a few hours and setting up fans over the weekend.

 

[MaryD]

Company owner is offering a full refund so that I just leave him alone, but is also insisting that they did a great job. Not currently comfortable accepting the refund, as we run in the same circles and it would not reflect good on me, despite whishing I never started this project with them.

Feel bad about this whole experience, but it's not like I'm making up this stuff - still get burning eyes, scratchy throat, and a bitter taste in my mouth within 20 minutes of being in the house that goes away after an hour away.

 

[MaryD]

What'd you pay for this install per sqft

$6/square foot, with a slight discount for being a repeat customer (used their painting team to skim coat the garage ceiling after flush light install)

 

[dcg9381]

(1) how dangerous the "slipping" factor is? After they sanded and re-did the topcoat, you can no longer feel the flake texture (except in places they missed during the first coat), and the sharkgrip can't really be felt, it's just a smooth resin texture (that while dry, seems to have pretty good adhesion when walking, especially as of right now, not being completely cured and "flexing" when pushed into). I keep having these images on replay in my head of me choosing to keep the coating and a family member or myself having a debilitating injury after slipping on it.

Dry? It's fine.
I have a garage floor done w/o the anti-slip agent. It's not great when wet, but I don't have chips.

I'd pour some water on it (when dry) and see what you think. The interior of my home is done in polyurea, last coat I put anti-slip in it because I have it in beds/bathrooms. You can see it in the texture.

The chips should help. He's a look at the "texture" of my interior floor.

(2) Should I still be able to leave a dent in the floor with my nail at this point? The company owner stopped by to look at the floor today and had samples with him, and the coating on those is rock hard, while my flooring is kinda very dense resin at this point.

I don't know the total cure time of your product. My guess is final off gassing takes a while. Might be on the data sheet for the product(s).

We've had the overhead door and back door open 24/7 since Monday (original completion, reapplied top coat Wednesday), thinking of running an ozone machine for a few hours and setting up fans over the weekend.

Fans for sure. I wouldn't think that ozone would help with curing. Ambient temperature plays and I'm in TX, so things dry fast here.

 

[MaryD]

The chips were a great antislip when it was just one coat, now that it's 2, they're too deeply covered by the top coat. They did put in sharkgrip, in the recommended amount as per them, but I don't feel it/see it at all in a lot of places.

It's day 3 after they redid the topcoat, smells same as on day 2, and can still indent with a fingernail/feels gummy when pressed into.

Wonder how quickly everything that still has to be stored outside will be ruined by humidity. Whish I had never decided to do this.

 

[dcg9381]

It's day 3 after they redid the topcoat, smells same as on day 2, and can still indent with a fingernail/feels gummy when pressed into.

That doesn't seem right to me. Low ambient temperatures?
If you can smell it, it's off-gassing and curing..

 

[MaryD]

That's what I'm thinking. Not really, up to 80s during the day, down to high 50s overnight. I'm giving it until Saturday, and then will request a full grind off and refund if it's still not cured.

 

[rjacobs]

I didnt do polyaspartic, but polyurea...

I think we had a slight smell for 4-5 days, but it was 90+ degrees in early June in Dallas when we put ours down. The manufacturer said "dont walk on it for 24 hours, dont park on it for at least 48 and if you can avoid parking/driving for 7 days that best"... I checked mine daily and by day 7 I could no longer press a fingernail into it, really that was probably evening of day 5 or morning of day 6.

With our "low temps", some area's that were maybe a bit thick and will take longer to cure, plus a sand and recoat on the top, give it 7 days at least from that day before you make your decision, maybe 10 with the cooler temps. I know most of the threads on "excessive smell" and "lack of cure" a lot of the various manufacturer reps on here have said 10-14 days you should have no smell and everything should be cured.

And remember that once you fill up the garage, some of the area's you are obsessing about now with a wide open space, cosmetically speaking, will disappear from view. I know we had a lot of flake clumps(we did it ourselves) and my flake applicator wasnt nearly as good as she should have been LOL. NOW the area's that maybe have a "technical" issue, thats the bigger deal than the cosmetics IMO.

And just because the contractor that put this down says "we did a good job", maybe every job they do is ****** and therefor their perception of a "good job" is skewed LOL. Honestly at 5-6 bucks a sq. ft. you got an "avg job" price from what I have seen around here on some of the super high end jobs.

 

[MaryD]

Well, it's been a week and a half of airing it out with two commercial fans (one on intake and one to move the air out). Can still EASILY indent it with a fingernail, but hot tires with the car left on the floor for ~3 hours left no obvious marks. The smell is almost non-existent, while the fans are running, inside the garage but hit your nose at ~10 meters from the fan outside, and it definitely got bad (but slightly less than a week ago?) when we did a test night of doors closed. I paid the final invoice and chucked it up to a learning lesson. ***** to get something so expensive that should have been a rewarding experience only to learn to "live with it"....

Paid the invoice is because it seems like the smell is getting better (and the tires didn't do damage which is strange considering the nail test)...but if it doesn't completely go away within the next month or so I'll get back to trying to figure out a solution (which will be a nightmare, because everything is going back inside).

 

[MaryD]

I'm leaning on putting my iqair in the garage overnight, if it still smells in a week, but considering the price on replacement charcoal filters and already being out on fan rental and extended storage pod costs...definitely expected a discount on the final invoice, esp. considering that at the last meeting the company co-owner offered a full refund if we weren't happy.

 

[Novah Jones]

It sounds like you’ve had quite the ordeal, and I can understand why you’d be leaning toward using your IQAir in the garage overnight—sometimes you just have to get creative when solutions aren’t lining up the way you hoped. Those replacement charcoal filters are definitely pricey, and it’s frustrating when unexpected costs start piling up, especially when you’ve already spent on fan rentals and the storage pod.

Given the co-owner’s offer of a full refund if you weren’t satisfied, it’s worth having a conversation with them about at least a discount on the final invoice. It’s fair to hold them accountable to their word, especially when you’re still dealing with lingering issues.

In the meantime, if you’re going to run the IQAir overnight, make sure the garage is sealed off as best as possible to help it work efficiently. Hopefully, this will help with the smell and give you some peace of mind. Good luck—hope it gets resolved soon!