67King
Well-known member
Grr.....Had a huge writeup drafted and somehow lost it. Anyway, I just put this stuff down last week. Was looking for options for a home I'm going to be listing, and posted about that here. Cliff's Notes is I was looking for the Craftsman of floor coatings - not Snap-On, but not Harbor Freight.
Anyway, @FJ4FUN popped in and mentioned this stuff Alpha Garage is selling that is made by Wolverine. It seemed to check all the boxes. A little above what I had said was my hard line on the budget, but with their Garage Journal discount, it got closer. And he said if I'd write up a review he'd cover shipping. So full disclosure on that, but it was only about a $30 discount on a $640 order. So not a lot, and I'm not going to write up a fluff piece for that kind of money. I'f I'm a ho, I'm a least not a cheap ho! But I did want to disclose that. Anyhoo.....on to a before shot:
So in the other thread, I mentioned I had a really dirty garage floor. Oil had been sitting for years, had been cleaning. I used 1.25 gallons of CHomp, as well as some Grease Lightning (Home Depot stuff). I had thought the Grease Lightning worked better, but doing the two on the same stain on another part of the house showed that was not the case. The Chomp is very thick, so it is hard to get it to lay out over a whole stain, whereas the Grease Lightning is very thin, so it spreads out well. So superficial stains, Grease Lightning. Stuff that's been there seeping for a while.....Chomp. Should be a picture there.
Okay, garage. I used a diamond grit wheel on a floor buffer/polisher/maintainer thing I rented from Home Depot. The diamond bit wheel was $99, the machine was $54 for 4 hours. I think the wheel was dull, as it didn't seem to be cutting as well as I would have thought. To be safe, and since I had time, I etched teh floor after. Let it dry for a week or so. I also had read a note on here at some point to score the floor at the cut line to the garage door to prevent a huge build up of epoxy from tape. WHoever said that at whatever point - very good call. WIsh I would have seen that on my first floor. I did score the driveway to get a good solid line. Don't have a shot of that, as I am limited to the attachments. Myabe I'll reply with a shot.
On to the coating. Okay, so like I said, I went with the IntegraCoat stuff. 600SF, I bought 6 gallons. Projected thickness is about 16 mils. This is 100% solids. Had looked at both water based epxoy and single stage "polycuramine" from Rust Oleum as my alternatives. Water based was 2.8 gallons, and was NOT 100% solids and cost was $314. Polycuramine was also NOT 100% solids, only 2.1 gallons, and $500.
Alright, so the goods and the bads. The goods, this appears to be a great value. 100% solids, and a nice thick coating. It has a pretty short work time, only 20 minutes, but that's pretty standard with epoxies from what I have done before. It was actually a little less viscous than the other stuff I ahve done, so it rolled out much more evenly, though it wasn't perfect. So pretty good for beginners, but not foolproof. One REALLY big thing that I think they should be touting more is the the smell, specifically, the lack thereof. The other epoxy I did on my workshop had a really strong smell that lasted for days, and stunk up the whole house. This stuff had no real detectible smell at all.
I was advised that the coating would have some really small bubbles, and after the first coating, I could knock them down wtih a drywall screen. 1/16 to 1/8 in size. They were more widespread than I expected, but I did knock them down between coats.
The bad is that the mixing method requires more than one would think. I read the instructions, got my stuff together, and still managed to miss a step. That came back to bite me in the end. So basically you mix the tint with the epoxy, and mix really well. Mix the hardender. Then you mix the quantities in a 2:1 ratio - although adding the tint sort of threw off that mix ratio a little. You CAN mix up the whole thing, but then you've got 20 minutes to get 600SF covered. In a flat, open area, especially with a reliable helper (and due to reading another's experience on here with his son helping, I didn't think that 67Prince and his ADHD squared would be reliable), that is probably reasonable. However, I had to get around an air handler, a water heater, and some stairs. They provide a bucket large enough to mix together. But here is where MY ADHD screwed me up. After you mix the epoxy and hardener together, an mix with a paddle (low speed to prevent air bubbles), then you transfer it to ANOTHER bucket, and mix again briefly. I did not do that. Furthermore, I screwed up again by using that bucket after I poured out that mix onto the floor and rolled it out to brush in around the water heater and HVAC. That wasn't good. I'm guessing that the epoxy just likes to stick to the plastic bucket, and it can't really get pulled off enough to get much hardener to it. That's a guess based on what I see, not what I've been told. If I'm right, it might help if the instructions stated why they tell you to add another bucket/step that doesnt' seem intuitve, it might help - hey, look, squirrel! - folks like me remember everything. So the result is that I have some sections that are going to take a long time to cure. The good news though is that those sections are in nearly zero traffic areas.
The other bad is that I got more of those small bubbles in the final coat. So I wasn't able to get a perfectly smooth floor. Maybe FJ can elaborate more on that. This would actually have worked out REALLY well with flakes and a third coat of clear. And for a floor in a house I'd keep, that might be the ticket - with the caveat that I don't like the flakes in a workspace because I drop stuff more often than the average reader here, and expecially M2 bolts from the bikes, they are impossible to find. But maybe if I installed a few of these, I'd figure out how to get that super mirror finish across the board. If you want perfection, have it done. If you want protection, this is a great DIY setup.
Overall, I'm very happy with it. Wish I would have read directions a bit more thoroughly, but I was a bit concerned with getting things done, and was in too much of a hurry to read, re-read, re-read, and re-read, again. It was twice as much as the water based Rust Oleum, but I'm sure about 10 times better. It was about 30% more than the Rust Oleum version of polyurea or whatevver single stage stuff was. But this stuff is AT LEAST 3 times the thickness, and epoxy is harder, so I imagine it will be a very solid floor.
Anyway, @FJ4FUN popped in and mentioned this stuff Alpha Garage is selling that is made by Wolverine. It seemed to check all the boxes. A little above what I had said was my hard line on the budget, but with their Garage Journal discount, it got closer. And he said if I'd write up a review he'd cover shipping. So full disclosure on that, but it was only about a $30 discount on a $640 order. So not a lot, and I'm not going to write up a fluff piece for that kind of money. I'f I'm a ho, I'm a least not a cheap ho! But I did want to disclose that. Anyhoo.....on to a before shot:
So in the other thread, I mentioned I had a really dirty garage floor. Oil had been sitting for years, had been cleaning. I used 1.25 gallons of CHomp, as well as some Grease Lightning (Home Depot stuff). I had thought the Grease Lightning worked better, but doing the two on the same stain on another part of the house showed that was not the case. The Chomp is very thick, so it is hard to get it to lay out over a whole stain, whereas the Grease Lightning is very thin, so it spreads out well. So superficial stains, Grease Lightning. Stuff that's been there seeping for a while.....Chomp. Should be a picture there.
Okay, garage. I used a diamond grit wheel on a floor buffer/polisher/maintainer thing I rented from Home Depot. The diamond bit wheel was $99, the machine was $54 for 4 hours. I think the wheel was dull, as it didn't seem to be cutting as well as I would have thought. To be safe, and since I had time, I etched teh floor after. Let it dry for a week or so. I also had read a note on here at some point to score the floor at the cut line to the garage door to prevent a huge build up of epoxy from tape. WHoever said that at whatever point - very good call. WIsh I would have seen that on my first floor. I did score the driveway to get a good solid line. Don't have a shot of that, as I am limited to the attachments. Myabe I'll reply with a shot.
On to the coating. Okay, so like I said, I went with the IntegraCoat stuff. 600SF, I bought 6 gallons. Projected thickness is about 16 mils. This is 100% solids. Had looked at both water based epxoy and single stage "polycuramine" from Rust Oleum as my alternatives. Water based was 2.8 gallons, and was NOT 100% solids and cost was $314. Polycuramine was also NOT 100% solids, only 2.1 gallons, and $500.
Alright, so the goods and the bads. The goods, this appears to be a great value. 100% solids, and a nice thick coating. It has a pretty short work time, only 20 minutes, but that's pretty standard with epoxies from what I have done before. It was actually a little less viscous than the other stuff I ahve done, so it rolled out much more evenly, though it wasn't perfect. So pretty good for beginners, but not foolproof. One REALLY big thing that I think they should be touting more is the the smell, specifically, the lack thereof. The other epoxy I did on my workshop had a really strong smell that lasted for days, and stunk up the whole house. This stuff had no real detectible smell at all.
I was advised that the coating would have some really small bubbles, and after the first coating, I could knock them down wtih a drywall screen. 1/16 to 1/8 in size. They were more widespread than I expected, but I did knock them down between coats.
The bad is that the mixing method requires more than one would think. I read the instructions, got my stuff together, and still managed to miss a step. That came back to bite me in the end. So basically you mix the tint with the epoxy, and mix really well. Mix the hardender. Then you mix the quantities in a 2:1 ratio - although adding the tint sort of threw off that mix ratio a little. You CAN mix up the whole thing, but then you've got 20 minutes to get 600SF covered. In a flat, open area, especially with a reliable helper (and due to reading another's experience on here with his son helping, I didn't think that 67Prince and his ADHD squared would be reliable), that is probably reasonable. However, I had to get around an air handler, a water heater, and some stairs. They provide a bucket large enough to mix together. But here is where MY ADHD screwed me up. After you mix the epoxy and hardener together, an mix with a paddle (low speed to prevent air bubbles), then you transfer it to ANOTHER bucket, and mix again briefly. I did not do that. Furthermore, I screwed up again by using that bucket after I poured out that mix onto the floor and rolled it out to brush in around the water heater and HVAC. That wasn't good. I'm guessing that the epoxy just likes to stick to the plastic bucket, and it can't really get pulled off enough to get much hardener to it. That's a guess based on what I see, not what I've been told. If I'm right, it might help if the instructions stated why they tell you to add another bucket/step that doesnt' seem intuitve, it might help - hey, look, squirrel! - folks like me remember everything. So the result is that I have some sections that are going to take a long time to cure. The good news though is that those sections are in nearly zero traffic areas.
The other bad is that I got more of those small bubbles in the final coat. So I wasn't able to get a perfectly smooth floor. Maybe FJ can elaborate more on that. This would actually have worked out REALLY well with flakes and a third coat of clear. And for a floor in a house I'd keep, that might be the ticket - with the caveat that I don't like the flakes in a workspace because I drop stuff more often than the average reader here, and expecially M2 bolts from the bikes, they are impossible to find. But maybe if I installed a few of these, I'd figure out how to get that super mirror finish across the board. If you want perfection, have it done. If you want protection, this is a great DIY setup.
Overall, I'm very happy with it. Wish I would have read directions a bit more thoroughly, but I was a bit concerned with getting things done, and was in too much of a hurry to read, re-read, re-read, and re-read, again. It was twice as much as the water based Rust Oleum, but I'm sure about 10 times better. It was about 30% more than the Rust Oleum version of polyurea or whatevver single stage stuff was. But this stuff is AT LEAST 3 times the thickness, and epoxy is harder, so I imagine it will be a very solid floor.