to flake or, not to flake,, that is the question

[slackdaddy1]

Finishing up construction of my detached carriage house style garage.
This will be used for light restoration, minor car repairs, tinkering, fabbing.
I will be going with an epoxy coating, And While the flakes look great in the "money shots" of the freshly completed shops, before they become filled and cluttered. Do they make a difference once you have moved in there and can only see some of the floor here and there?

I will be doing some mig welding and am aware that I will have burn marks.
do the flakes help to hide the wear, tear and age of a floor coating ?

Opinions ?
Thanks,
Slack

 

[Shea]

I will be doing some mig welding and am aware that I will have burn marks.
do the flakes help to hide the wear, tear and age of a floor coating ?

Yes they do. They also do a decent job of hiding small fasteners, cotter pins, and other things that fall on the floor as well. It's always a compromise when it comes to color flakes.

 

[mrobins297aaa]

How about just the bare min. of flakes?
That's what I did, I just thought I would have a more durable floor with more epoxy showing instead of flakes but I wanted some flakes to help hide some of the wear and marks that are inevitable and would maybe help make the floor more slip resistant. I didn't want to use that grit, I had it at my previous house and I hated it.

 

[mrobins297aaa]

 

[imgn tht]

Who's product are you using what color epoxy and flake blend did you choose? Looks a bit tan on my phone...I like it.

 

[mrobins297aaa]

it's epoxy coat, I know it looks gray on my screen but it's beige, it's been down almost 6 years and for the most part still looks good, it hasn't lifted anywhere.
I'm happy with it, but like everything else if I had it to do over I would do a couple of things different.

 

[mrobins297aaa]

I don't remember on the blend of the flakes

 

[Antoddio]

Tough to beat the look and durability of a full broadcast floor. Here's one I did last week.


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[mrobins297aaa]

looks nice..........does it have the clear top coat on it?

 

[hobie1dog]

Would be hard to find anything small dropped on the floor

 

[James-W]

All things considered, If it were me, I would go with the full flakes and if I dropped something small on the floor I would worry about finding it at that point in time.

 

[Marctrees]

WOW, all VERY nice floors.

WOW.

Marc

 

[Old newbie]

Morning friends, this is my first post. I've loved my rust oleum epoxy floor. I'd post a picture but it's still winter in Minnesota and even flakes cant hide the road salt and sand that's out there now. This summer I will redo it for the third time with each of the two previous applications lasting about seven years. I've always used flakes and can't say it's ever been a significant challenge finding anything I've dropped so flakes will go down again because on my 47 year old garage floor it conceals a lot of imperfections.
The topic of painting a garage or shop floor has been discussed here recently but I don't recall what brands people are using. I am strongly considering doing my home shop floor that I primarily do home fix it projects but also a fair amount of welding and other metal work.
Thoughts? Apologies if this should have been in a new post.


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[Flyingchappy]

Tough to beat the look and durability of a full broadcast floor. Here's one I did last week.


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Newb here. First post. What's a broadcast floor? This looks like what I want.

 

[Armorpoxy]

In our experience many customers that do work in their garages don't like the flakes as it does make it hard to find small parts when dropped. We have actually clients recoat without flecks on flecked floors for this only reason. Full broadcasts are great, and very durable and do hide the dirt, scuffs, etc so while both have advantages it's a personal choice.

All of our commercial dealerships always use solid colors with non skid additives and no flecks.

In either case we can custom tailor a package for any type of level of flecks and any particle size non skid addititive.

 

[Antoddio]

looks nice..........does it have the clear top coat on it?

Yea...UV resistant epoxy top coat. Mostly just used to park cars, so don't need anything else.

The total system was 2 gals primer, 3 gals basecoat, 50lbs flakes and 3 gals topcoat.

I don't really buy the hard to find stuff deal in most situations, unless you are constantly dropping tiny washers. Stuff seems to stand out pretty well, better than a dirty concrete floor I think. Personal opinion of course, but I don't see that being much of an issue unless you have really bad sight. Maybe with a partial flake it is a bigger issue.

 

[Antoddio]

Newb here. First post. What's a broadcast floor? This looks like what I want.

Where you cover every inch of the floor with flakes. Keep throwing them on till it won't take any more. 1lb covers 6-7 square feet. It looks amazing.

 

[cdestuck]

Anything wrong with using a squeegee or broom for finding lost objects on the floor

 

[minytrker]

I didnt do flakes in my shop, wish I would some days. It shows every flaw and every bit of dirt without flakes.

 

[Antoddio]

I didnt do flakes in my shop, wish I would some days. It shows every flaw and every bit of dirt without flakes.

If you just have an epoxy topcoat you could scuff it up and put a coat of polyurethane on with some aggregate in it. Would make a big diff.

 

[bigjon]

I like flake. For a non-pro like me it hides a lot of application imperfections.
House garage. Only used for parking cars.

Shed. Only used for tinkering, minor maintenance and storage.

 

[icthusrulz]

I would not use a mix with white flake in my garage if I had it to do over again. The tires turn them grey and you can see tracks on the floor. I put down a heavy beige/brown flake mix and the white flakes are the only ones that show the tire marks like that. I don't have a clear topcoat. Maybe someone else could comment on whether that helps prevent this.

I did my two car garage with EpoxyCoat and flaked it with about 3-4 bags in addition to what came with the kit. I'm glad that I did the extra. It looks great and hid the imperfections in my install job well. As others have said it hides small items as well. A magnet help to quickly find metal parts.


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[slackdaddy1]

I like flake. For a non-pro like me it hides a lot of application imperfections.
Shed. Only used for tinkering, minor maintenance and storage.

Shed?? mine and your terms on garage, shed, and shop aint the same

 

[RedDirtRoad]

I did a full flake broadcast with 2 coats of clear and I get constant compliments and it looks great if you like to showcase your cars. As some others have said, if you drop any hardware it takes a long time to find it. I am building an addtion soon and this part of the garage will be for storing cars only. In the addition I plan on doing another full broadcast but leaving a 20x20 area painted just gray epoxy where i will be actually restoring and assembling my cars.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Full flake floors act like a resurfacer.
We have a DIY kit for full flake.

Link: http://www.legacyindustrial.net/pro...ing-kits/legacy-sd-full-flake-garage-kit.html







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[Baada]

When I did my basement my wife did not want the multicolor look. I used flakes that were the same color as my floor epoxy and one shade darker and one shade lighter. Overall the effect is a floor that looks almost uniform in color but has enough texture to hide small imperfections and to not be slippery. I also have zero issues finding small parts like the tiny logos my kids drop everywhere.

I also experimented with traction additives which you can see in my basement overhaul thread.

 

[slackdaddy1]

Did you do full, med or light amount of flakes?

Nick

When I did my basement my wife did not want the multicolor look. I used flakes that were the same color as my floor epoxy and one shade darker and one shade lighter. Overall the effect is a floor that looks almost uniform in color but has enough texture to hide small imperfections and to not be slippery. I also have zero issues finding small parts like the tiny logos my kids drop everywhere.

I also experimented with traction additives which you can see in my basement overhaul thread.

 

[Baada]

Probably about medium. I bought two more small bags of flake than is provided with the kit. No where even close to full but I'd say it would look just slightly heavier than normal if the flakes were of contrasting colors. If that makes sense.

 

[Faster346]

I was driving myself nuts with the same debate as my date with the epoxy guy is quickly approaching. A buddy of mine did his floor in a nice grey with no flake and it looked so clean and professional. But now that it's been a year and it has a little wear in it and dirt, it doesn't look that great. I'm going to do full broadcast flakes in mine, I think it will hide a lot of dirt, nicks, chips, and any other small imperfections that may occur over time.

 

[Casey02L]

I've had both and if you work in it and beat it up the flakes will hide a lot.

 

[Armorpoxy]

Here's a tip...

Do a full flake broadcast with the same color not a mix or use two close shades of gray. It gives the look of a solid color but has a nice texture and finish that hides dirt and such.

In other words make the floor less 'busy'.


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[korvinas]

I am starting to like the look of full broadcast. Is the idea to completely cover the epoxy underneath that the epoxy color does not show through? Is there a technique for application?

 

[Armorpoxy]

The tequnique is to throw the flecks onto the wet epoxy like speedy dry covering it completely. Once epoxy is cured sweep and remove excess flecks. Then lightly sand or scrape the floor to remove high spots or corners (use of 1/8" flecks helps to reduce the sharp corner edge issue).

Since the floor is now textured and porous then apply a coat of UV protected clear and then a coat of urethane topcoat. Alternately you can use two coats of urethane or polyaspartic to cover it. A single coat of topcoat which is thin on top of a full broadcast generally will not give satisfactory results.

Due to the significant amount of extra materials required these drops cost at least double and materials with a standard Apoxsee floor cost but they're really not comparable in thickness.


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[LegacyIndustrial]

Here's a tip...

Do a full flake broadcast with the same color not a mix or use two close shades of gray. It gives the look of a solid color but has a nice texture and finish that hides dirt and such.

In other words make the floor less 'busy'.


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Unless your clear coat is perfectly applied and your floor was poured by the all mighty, this will look patchy and uneven especially if a gloss clear is used.
Darker colors are worse than lighter colors.

I would not recommend this.

 

[Armorpoxy]

Perhaps with some company's products this can occur, but in thousands of full flake applications we have never seen any issues or had a single complaint with our products.


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[LegacyIndustrial]

Perhaps with some company's products this can occur, but in thousands of full flake applications we have never seen any issues or had a single complaint with our products.


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Got nothing to do with the products pal.

When you choose a solid flake color, especially a dark color, the inconsistencies in the surface texture jump out at you. It is a useful floor but might bug some folks.

I am sure "thousands" of full flake floors were multi-colored blends, not solid color.

 

[Armorpoxy]

Actually not. Many, many are solid full fleck non multi color with zero issues.




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[tncatadjuster]

Nothing beats a properly applied epoxy without flakes. Flakes are terrible in a mechanical shop. I hate looking for parts. Epoxy with urethane is tops. Flake floors are like popcorn ceilings.

 

[Remythepug]

I've done the flake on three separate garages and never did get a real uniform spread and it drives me crazy. A local installer suggested using a parmesan cheese container.

I'm over the flakes lol

 

[Antoddio]

I've done the flake on three separate garages and never did get a real uniform spread and it drives me crazy. A local installer suggested using a parmesan cheese container.

I'm over the flakes lol

That's why full flakes are the way to go. If I did a partial flake job I'd put a disclaimer on it.