Filling concrete floor seams..Pros/ Cons

[break80]

Trying to decide whether to fill the joints on the floor. I was thinking of trying to pitch the last 4 feet near the doors to maybe help with drainage during the winter when the snow melts off the cars..

I do have a small section behind where my truck parks where the water pools a little bit and then have a joint where the garage floor meets the driveway and water goes down that when I wash out the garage.

 

[pop pop]

Use the urethane sealer made for this purpose. Available in a giant caulk tube.

 

[break80]

Use the urethane sealer made for this purpose. Available in a giant caulk tube.

Do I need to do any special prep? Or just make sure it's clean and dry

 

[tncatadjuster]

I would not use the urethane, Legacy Industrial has the right epoxy gel for this.
To each his own.

 

[pop pop]

I think just clean and dry. I've used the grey color and it's held up for 10 yrs now. It will completely seal the joint and is oil resistant.

 

[dcs Inc]

Hey guys, are you talking the flexable joint fillers?

 

[break80]

Yes, I'm trying to figure out what to use. I'm going with Epoxy-Coat but want to fill the joints in advance

 

[dcs Inc]

Sika and BASF Sonolastic NP1 and SL1 are the the one's I use off the shelf. There are plenty of others but these seem to work well. Large or small caulk tubes, rainbow of colors. The SL1 (self leveling) comes mostly in concrete and stone colors. You need to order the colors. (At least around here).

The depth should be at least 1/2 the width. The self leveling need to have backer rod applied for sure. It wouldn't hurt with the sticky finger stuff either. If using the sticky finger to level out your caulk, use denatured alcohol to keep your finger wet as this slicks out the caulk nicely. gene

www.elitecrete.com
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[break80]

do you just squish the backer rod in or do you need to put down something for it to stick to in advance of using the self-leveling product?

 

[tncatadjuster]

If your going to apply epoxy, why not use an epoxy joint filler? I thought that epoxy would flake off urethane?

 

[dcs Inc]

I thought he was just going to fill the joints. if I apply epoxy, I tend to make the joints the last thing I fill if going with a flexable product.

Epoxy doesn't have any real flex to it and if you're having movement it will crack and may peal off and may cause damage to the epoxy on the finished floor. If this area is heated and no temp swings then you could fill with an epoxy product gelled with your choice of thickeners or purchase an epoxy crack fill that has some flexibility to it. If you have wide temp swings use the products or something familiar I suggested. Concrete really expands and contracts with the temperature and you don't want to hinder that because the stress factors that result will cause random cracks.

 

[break80]

probably will have wide temp swings as this is in Colorado. I'll use something that has the flexibility to it. I know I used some pre-mixed stuff in my last basement just to help cover the gaps prior to laying down the pad and carpet. I'm thinking that just leaving the joints as is may be best as long as I don't get alot of the epoxy pooling in it during the install. but that might actually be ok so the joints are as deep.