Epoxy Flakes and Top Coat Question

[m.michael]

Hi I’ve seen inconsistent advice about the timing at different stages of an epoxy floor and I was hoping for clarity.

For flakes I’ve seen that you should wait for the base to fully cure before scraping up/cleaning the excess. But I’ve also seen that you must add the top coat while the base is still tacky in a 12-24 hour window. When then do you add the top coat? Won't it damage the floor to scrape while tacky?

I also wanted to ask about timing of adding flakes. I’m doing my large basement without additional assistance. I’d prefer to lay base down and distribute flakes at the end with spiked shoes. The problem is that even working quickly it will take a me a couple of hours to do the base. Can I wait that long to start adding the flakes or must I flake as I go?

Thanks

 

[Shea]

Hi I’ve seen inconsistent advice about the timing at different stages of an epoxy floor and I was hoping for clarity.

For flakes I’ve seen that you should wait for the base to fully cure before scraping up/cleaning the excess. But I’ve also seen that you must add the top coat while the base is still tacky in a 12-24 hour window. When then do you add the top coat? Won't it damage the floor to scrape while tacky?

I also wanted to ask about timing of adding flakes. I’m doing my large basement without additional assistance. I’d prefer to lay base down and distribute flakes at the end with spiked shoes. The problem is that even working quickly it will take a me a couple of hours to do the base. Can I wait that long to start adding the flakes or must I flake as I go?

Thanks

Are you doing a full flake application to refusal on a 100% solids epoxy base coat?

 

[m.michael]

Are you doing a full flake application to refusal on a 100% solids epoxy base coat?

I really haven’t committed to a specific product yet. But yes I plan to do a full flake application and the base coats at my local big box store vary from 80-100 % solids. Same for top coats.

 

[FJ4FUN]

When doing a "full flake floor" (broadcasting chips to rejection) Yes, wait until the coat is cured enough to walk on, for our 100% solids products that is typically between 14-16hrs, then aggressively scrape the flakes to make sure that you remove all excess and that you knock down any flakes pointing up (tombstoning). Then apply the following clear coat (within 24hrs of applying the flake coat).

BTW, It really helps us vendors when you describe your projects in square footage rather than terms like "large", "medium", "small".... As far as timing of flake distribution goes, when working solo in +/- 70degree weather, I recommend distributing flakes at the 500-600sf mark or every two 3gal kits of our LiquaTile, based on an average production rate of mixing and distributing one 3gal kit per 20-25 minutes.

 

[Shea]

I wouldn't recommend a solids content of less than 100% for the epoxy in a basement. Otherwise, you will be introducing VOCs, which can be hard to ventilate and can permeate the house. If you are shopping big box stores for a full flake application, don't use products like EpoxyShield or RockSolid. They are far too thin to accept a full flake application. It's one of the reasons their kits only come with a small amount of color flakes.

 

[FJ4FUN]

I wouldn't recommend a solids content of less than 100% for the epoxy in a basement. Otherwise, you will be introducing VOCs, which can be hard to ventilate and can permeate the house. If you are shopping big box stores for a full flake application, don't use products like EpoxyShield or RockSolid. They are far too thin to accept a full flake application. It's one of the reasons their kits only come with a small amount of color flakes.

Shea, good call on the 100% solids for basement applications...

For full flake floors we recommend a minimum receiver coating thickness of 12mils. That's 400sf per 3 gal of 100% solids and right around 45lbs of flakes.

P.S. as long as we're on the basement application topic, do your homework on MVT [Moisture Vapor Transmission]

 

[m.michael]

Thanks for the feedback! Y’all bring up several considerations that I’ll look into.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

M.Michael:
Watch our video for a little more insight:

 

[Armorpoxy]

We recommend that you wait until the floor has cured with the flecks so you can properly sand or scrape the floor. The recoat window is 48 hours or so and you do not want to coat with topcoat a 'tacky' floor. Please see our Help Center for instructions, videos, etc and also visit our website and email us for the Garage Journal discount!