High Quality Water Based Epoxy Floor Coatings

[SunsetsAndFriends]

I'm curious about the, non-big box, 2 part water based epoxy coatings. What is really the big advantage to using them? Why not use a 100% solids instead?

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Every coating has a purpose...
2 part wb coatings make excellent penetrating primers for 100% solids coatings
Clear wb coatings look terrific over raw, stained, pigmented or dyed concrete.
wb coatings are fantastic for a 50K sq ft warehouse on a budget.
Sometimes, the customer wants a very green product with little or no smell (home basements, food manufacturing plants, beverage plants (soft drinks, beer, booze).

100% solids can add up $$ over many square feet, it takes longer to cure, a bit harder to work with, requires a thinner topcoat to utilize a non-skid properly, overkill for some applications, etc....

 

[SunsetsAndFriends]

Every coating has a purpose...
2 part wb coatings make excellent penetrating primers for 100% solids coatings
Clear wb coatings look terrific over raw, stained, pigmented or dyed concrete.
wb coatings are fantastic for a 50K sq ft warehouse on a budget.
Sometimes, the customer wants a very green product with little or no smell (home basements, food manufacturing plants, beverage plants (soft drinks, beer, booze).

100% solids can add up $$ over many square feet, it takes longer to cure, a bit harder to work with, requires a thinner topcoat to utilize a non-skid properly, overkill for some applications, etc....

Thanks Legacy. A friend of mine recently used ArmorSeal 8100 WB epoxy from Sherwin Williams on his laundry room floor in the basement. He had intended to use a 100% solids epoxy but the salesman at the store steered him to the water based product, saying "it's breathable."

I'm just a little bit skeptical of water based coatings. They make me think of paint.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

I understand your concerns. However, today's high quality wb products perform much better than products of yesteryear.

Our SEC sealer and HD6000 WB Urethane perform amazing and are used in more industrial/commercial applications than residential, surprisingly.

In the coming years, the solvent based products will begin to fade away. New legislation, tougher standards and improved performance from green products make it inevitable.

Keep in mind "breathable" is a loose term. Once you start adding multiple coats or a urethane top-coat, the molecular lock improves and water-vapor begins to get trapped, if present.

 

[Garage Flooring]

WB products have their place. We have a WB breathable urethane and other products we are very impressed with. SO far we have not been impressed with EB epoxy products but we are working on one that we would put our name on.

The big issue I see with WB epoxy products is (a) shipping this time of year (b) dry film thickness (c) some do not have adequate chemical resistance

 

[Armorpoxy]

We have found that WB coatings are fine for certain applications, but for heavy duty use, 100% solids or coatings with some solvents work better, and are longer lasting. If VOC's are the issue, we steer our clients over to high performance polyaspartics, urethane mortars, or polyureas.

 

[Shea]

A high solids content water based epoxy can have many advantages for DIY applications. They have a longer pot life than 100% solids, which will give you more time to get it down, and they are a bit easier to apply. They still provide for a relatively thick coating. This makes for a good base coat for color flakes as well as filling in small irregularities in the concrete which low solids epoxy will not.

And as was previously mentioned, they use newer formulations which provide for better abrasion resistance for longer wear.

 

[SunsetsAndFriends]

A high solids content water based epoxy can have many advantages for DIY applications. They have a longer pot life than 100% solids, which will give you more time to get it down, and they are a bit easier to apply. They still provide for a relatively thick coating. This makes for a good base coat for color flakes as well as filling in small irregularities in the concrete which low solids epoxy will not.

And as was previously mentioned, they use newer formulations which provide for better abrasion resistance for longer wear.

Shea, thanks for chiming in on this topic. When you say "high solids" what percentages are you thinking. My buddy used Sherwin Williams 8100 WB which is 50% solids.

 

[SunsetsAndFriends]

WB products have their place. We have a WB breathable urethane and other products we are very impressed with. SO far we have not been impressed with EB epoxy products but we are working on one that we would put our name on.

The big issue I see with WB epoxy products is (a) shipping this time of year (b) dry film thickness (c) some do not have adequate chemical resistance

DFT/$ is interesting. SW 8100 for example, at 160 sq ft/gal goes on at 10 mil WFT and dries to 4 DFT per the spec sheet.

 

[Garage Flooring]

DFT/$ is interesting. SW 8100 for example, at 160 sq ft/gal goes on at 10 mil WFT and dries to 4 DFT per the spec sheet.

And of course the real question is what is the total system cost and what DFT you need -- and how many coats that will take.

 

[Shea]

Shea, thanks for chiming in on this topic. When you say "high solids" what percentages are you thinking. My buddy used Sherwin Williams 8100 WB which is 50% solids.

The percentages for these type of epoxies start around 65% and go up as high as over 90%. The ones over 90% exhibit a lot of the same qualities as 100% solids but are easier to work with and have a longer pot life.

These high solids water based epoxies make for excellent DIY applications that are of commercial quality endurance and protection.