Do your due diligence before painting your floor

[Mickm]

I posted here about a year and a half ago about painting the floor in my new garage. I did everything I was told to do by the product seller and was very pleased with the end result.

Now, fast forward a year and a half. After about a year the painted floor started to turn orange in several spots. I tried feverishly to clean this but to no avail.
I will say here, this was a 6 month old slab that never had any vehicle parked on it.

I contacted the seller and was told I now needed to perform a moisture barrier test; of which they supplied. I followed the instructions and after completion called the seller again with my results. I was informed that my ph factor was too high and that I had no option, if I wanted it painted, other than remove all the original paint, and apply a moisture barrier then prime and repaint.

I was also told that their "life time warranty" did not cover my situation so I am just out $1000.

I am not here to throw stones at the paint manufacturer but to inform anyone contemplating painting their garage to do their due diligence and check everything you can before spending that money.

As for my solution, I opted to leave the **** ugly painted floor as it is and laid Racedeck over it. I have Racedeck in my shop and could not be any happier with their product of their customer service.

Personally, I will never paint another floor as long as Racedeck is in business.

I hope this post will help someone dodge a bullet down the road.

 

[Garage Flooring]

I posted here about a year and a half ago about painting the floor in my new garage. I did everything I was told to do by the product seller and was very pleased with the end result.

Now, fast forward a year and a half. After about a year the painted floor started to turn orange in several spots. I tried feverishly to clean this but to no avail.
I will say here, this was a 6 month old slab that never had any vehicle parked on it.

I contacted the seller and was told I now needed to perform a moisture barrier test; of which they supplied. I followed the instructions and after completion called the seller again with my results. I was informed that my ph factor was too high and that I had no option, if I wanted it painted, other than remove all the original paint, and apply a moisture barrier then prime and repaint.

I was also told that their "life time warranty" did not cover my situation so I am just out $1000.

I am not here to throw stones at the paint manufacturer but to inform anyone contemplating painting their garage to do their due diligence and check everything you can before spending that money.

As for my solution, I opted to leave the **** ugly painted floor as it is and laid Racedeck over it. I have Racedeck in my shop and could not be any happier with their product of their customer service.

Personally, I will never paint another floor as long as Racedeck is in business.

I hope this post will help someone dodge a bullet down the road.

So I looked at all threads started by you and discovered whose brand you used and I am really really surprised. You said paint, but you used epoxy. From what you stated, your floor turned colors. Did they give you a reason? Did you try to PM them?

 

[graffix000]

Good to know. The vendor is in NJ too, and were on my list of potentials near the top due to location as I am outside of Philly for when I do my epoxy install.

Looks like they did you good initially with the extra supplies on the house, but not with long term customer service (where it really counts).

 

[Mickm]

GarageFlooringLLC,
Yes, pardon my incorrect verbiage, I did use epoxy but said "paint". My mistake.
Thanks for setting me straight.
Yes, they said the reason was the to high of a ph factor (10). I am am engineer but not a chemical engineer so I only know what they told me.
I failed to mention that the paint had also lifted in several places.

 

[Garage Flooring]

GarageFlooringLLC,
Yes, pardon my incorrect verbiage, I did use epoxy but said "paint". My mistake.
Thanks for setting me straight.
Yes, they said the reason was the to high of a ph factor (10). I am am engineer but not a chemical engineer so I only know what they told me.
I failed to mention that the paint had also lifted in several places.

Did not mean to sound like I was nitpicking you... I just would not be surprised to see it from a paint..... Had you done any moisture testing prior to install?

 

[ducksface]

I am just not a fan of a 7 step process.
If epoxy had great value over all other coatings, wouldn't hospitals and shopping mall floors all be epoxy?

I know it's the cool kid thing to do, I just don't get it.
I also don't get the serious aspect of golf.

 

[Mickm]

GarageFlooringLLC,
Not at all, but I do appreciate your pointing out my oversight. I do not want to mislead anyone in my posting, I only hope to help save another member the monetary pitfall I experienced

No, I did not do any moisture testing prior to painting. I called the paint supplier three time and spoke with their tech about what I should do.
I asked about priming but was told, since it was a well cured never used slab on a hill that priming would not be necessary. I did question this is respect to the "beige" color I chose and was told since I was using speckles, it would not be necessary.

I will add that my slab has rebar and fiberglass in it and sits on a lot atop a hill where the pad had been initally leveled 12 yrs. ago. The ground is so hard they burnt up a trencher putting in the sprinkler system during the summer.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

I am just not a fan of a 7 step process.
If epoxy had great value over all other coatings, wouldn't hospitals and shopping mall floors all be epoxy?

I know it's the cool kid thing to do, I just don't get it.
I also don't get the serious aspect of golf.

Golf is a tough one, my personal struggle too.

Epoxy, however is used in many hospitals (wash-down areas primarily) and so many food preparation locations it would be ridiculous to start listing (literally everywhere). You can't take one case on GJ and start making broad comments as to the effectiveness of a product. The problem situations ALWAYS come back. The good ones move on, nearly all the time. You are seeing about 1% of the success stories here.

My 2 cents on this situation is to DIAMOND GRIND and not acid etch when doing an epoxy system. The vendor in question promotes acid etching as it is cheap but it IS a dice-roll. We coat only a few hundred garage floors, medical floors,and food prep floors a year and we have NO issues, because we DIAMOND GRIND and prime all the time!!

 

[FJ4FUN]

Scotty's words are spot on. The common failure mechanisms with epoxy application come down to improper prep (usually associated with acid etch) and improper/incomplete mix. Machine grinding is The Gold Standard! Do it now or do it later... It's much easier to do it now when all your grinding is concrete. Doing it later usually involves grinding up a failed coating... YUK!

 

[yeldogt]

I would never epoxy without priming ...