Anyone done this to their garage floor?

[Hot Chop shop]

Just bought a new house... New to us anyways and really wanted to epoxy the garage floor before moving in and filling it up with benches, tool boxes, cabinets, 330 pound vise and boxes of Xmas lights etc... But are closing date got pushed back and ran out of time and had to move it. Such is life... So I'll be doing epoxy in two separate times... Move everything to one side then waiting for it to fully cure then moving everything to the other side. Which ***** cause then I'll have to rent the sander twice to prep the floor but I plan on living here for a long time so I wanna do it right... to my question...

The drainage lines in the cement slabs have been filled will some kind of epoxy... Not sure how clean the lines will look after I epoxy the floor plus not sure how well the new epoxy will adhere to it. Should I try to chisel it out? Or just have then floor sander try to level and epoxy over it?
Thanks for any feedback.

 

[nadogail]

Congratulations on your purchase.

Can the maker of your epoxy advise you?
If the present cracks are well filled and solid, I would be inclined to just cover them over. But what do I know?, I am just another electrician.

 

[EOT 4 Life]

Instead of doing the work twice and moving the stuff back and forth, may I suggest you rent a Pod and keep all your equipment stored securely right in your driveway while you take care of the floor with a one day rental. My friend did that a while back and said it was a great help.
https://www.pods.com/Storage.aspx

 

[Armorpoxy]

This floor looks like it has a broom finish which will telegraph through a coating. If you are looking for a nice, smooth floor, rent a diamond floor grinder. Prime after then apply our www.armorcladepoxy.com.

Alternative/easier/but more costly www.supratile.com interlocking tiles.

 

[Garage Flooring]

Just bought a new house... New to us anyways and really wanted to epoxy the garage floor before moving in and filling it up with benches, tool boxes, cabinets, 330 pound vise and boxes of Xmas lights etc... But are closing date got pushed back and ran out of time and had to move it. Such is life... So I'll be doing epoxy in two separate times... Move everything to one side then waiting for it to fully cure then moving everything to the other side. Which ***** cause then I'll have to rent the sander twice to prep the floor but I plan on living here for a long time so I wanna do it right... to my question...

The drainage lines in the cement slabs have been filled will some kind of epoxy... Not sure how clean the lines will look after I epoxy the floor plus not sure how well the new epoxy will adhere to it. Should I try to chisel it out? Or just have then floor sander try to level and epoxy over it?
Thanks for any feedback.

Congratulations on your purchase.

Can the maker of your epoxy advise you?
If the present cracks are well filled and solid, I would be inclined to just cover them over. But what do I know?, I am just another electrician.

This floor looks like it has a broom finish which will telegraph through a coating. If you are looking for a nice, smooth floor, rent a diamond floor grinder. Prime after then apply our www.armorcladepoxy.com.

Alternative/easier/but more costly www.supratile.com interlocking tiles.

First, to ArmorPoxy's point, GRIND. I don't like the feel of Diamabrush on broom finished concrete. I would go with a traditional diamond grinder nut thats me.

As to the the areas that are filled. If they are filled with an epoxy, after you grind your floor, wipe them down with a solvent. prime the whole floor and go back with 100% solids epoxy.

People don't get why the 100% on an imperfect floor is so important. Say you go with one of these 70% solvents products (or worse). Any uneven point is going to take more epoxy. That leaves you with several issues not the least of which are (1) solvent entrapment and (2) when the 70% of your epoxy that is not solids disappears into thin air, you are going to see more 'shrink' in the areas that took more epoxy and your floor will still look uneven

 

[404]

Are those wooden boards left from the original forms?

 

[Shiftless]

Are those wooden boards left from the original forms?

That was also my first guess when I saw the picture. Guys who bust floors to replace or install new buried sewer lines rarely leave such a neat patch with those straight lines. I suspect buried wood... areas where 2 by 4s used to be or maybe still are buried. My back yard patio was done like that in 1959.
The perfect 90 degree angles are another strong clue.

 

[404]

Makes it easy to screed.

 

[Hot Chop shop]

Congratulations on your purchase.

Can the maker of your epoxy advise you?
If the present cracks are well filled and solid, I would be inclined to just cover them over. But what do I know?, I am just another electrician.

I don't think they can't let me know anything if I can't provide accurate information on what the filler is.
But it's worth asking.

Instead of doing the work twice and moving the stuff back and forth, may I suggest you rent a Pod and keep all your equipment stored securely right in your driveway while you take care of the floor with a one day rental. My friend did that a while back and said it was a great help.

https://www.pods.com/Storage.aspx

I'm going to see what a pod rental cost is that's a great idea.
If not even a uhaul truck parked out front for a few days could work great too.

This floor looks like it has a broom finish which will telegraph through a coating. If you are looking for a nice, smooth floor, rent a diamond floor grinder. Prime after then apply our www.armorcladepoxy.com.



Alternative/easier/but more costly www.supratile.com interlocking tiles.

Thanks for the reply I'll look at that diamond grinder.

First, to ArmorPoxy's point, GRIND. I don't like the feel of Diamabrush on broom finished concrete. I would go with a traditional diamond grinder nut thats me.



As to the the areas that are filled. If they are filled with an epoxy, after you grind your floor, wipe them down with a solvent. prime the whole floor and go back with 100% solids epoxy.



People don't get why the 100% on an imperfect floor is so important. Say you go with one of these 70% solvents products (or worse). Any uneven point is going to take more epoxy. That leaves you with several issues not the least of which are (1) solvent entrapment and (2) when the 70% of your epoxy that is not solids disappears into thin air, you are going to see more 'shrink' in the areas that took more epoxy and your floor will still look uneven

Thanks for the info... The venders in this section have been very informative. The epoxy I have is a hundred percent solid. Going to start with a primer then epoxy then top coat with aliphatic urethane.
But before all that lots of grinder to make sure I get good cohesion.

Are those wooden boards left from the original forms?

That was also my first guess when I saw the picture. Guys who bust floors to replace or install new buried sewer lines rarely leave such a neat patch with those straight lines. I suspect buried wood... areas where 2 by 4s used to be or maybe still are buried. My back yard patio was done like that in 1959.
The perfect 90 degree angles are another strong clue.

I don't think it's boards the house is only a few years old. And after hammering I found it comes up.

I mean I think the other owner must have done it so screws didn't roll in it? Well see how it looks after grinding it... It looks good in some spots but in others where is over filled it looks bad... And by bad I only mean bad when it's covered over with glossy Epoxy it won't have that defined crisp lines that id like... But don't know if those crisp lines are worth the additional hours removing it.
More pics to try to show what it mean.

 

[audioworks04]

It is a hard filler correct? The way it looks to have layed out it looks like it could have been self leveling joint filler that is silicon based. If that is the case then it needs removed. I would purchase a diamond grinding cup for a 4in grinder and see how it reacts to that before renting the floor grinding. I think you will probably need to grind all of the filler areas and then patch some of the smaller imperfections that will still be there before you are ready for primer and epoxy. But it is hard to say with out actually being there to see it.

 

[CombatNinja]

That is just self-leveling crack filler. What are you guys seeing that makes you think it is hard?