drinkmoresake
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2012
- Messages
- 66
So, it has been about 13 months since I applied the Rustoleum Professional Epoxy Shield (solvent based, not the water based junk) and Premium Clear. Thought it was a good time to provide an update and let everyone know how it has held up.
Information on how I preppped / applied is posted in this thread http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2353733#post2353733
First, what this review is not. I am not trying to say that one product is better than another or that one way of prep or application is better than another. Just sharing information, not looking to get into any debates about product “A” vs. product “B”. I am not a pro installer and I have never played one on TV. As a matter of fact, I have done exactly one garage floor in my life
What this review is, just me sharing my experience with the specific products that I used and how it has performed in “my environment”.
While not a professional shop my garage sees a fair amount of auto repair work. Lots of brake jobs, suspension work, oil changes, etc. on my own cars as well as family, friends, and occasional strangers. I work cheap…for beer.
So, let’s get right to it. I rated the performance of the floor on a scale of 1~10 for each of the following characteristics. Rating of 1 is bad, 10 is great.
Resistance to Stains – 9, I’ve managed to spill just about everything on this floor in the last year (brake fluid, oil, coolant, ATF, and even beer - unfortunately) and nothing has left a stain yet. Also, not a single stain from the road salt over the winter.
Cleanability – 7, For the most part the floor is pretty easy to keep clean. It gets the worst during the winter as snow and road salt / grime melt off the car. Since the epoxy prevents the water from being absorbed into the concrete it just sits on top, which makes it quite difficult / messy to sweep out the garage. I found the easiest way to deal with this during the winter is just use a floor squeegee, works great. I sweep up after every time I work in the garage, mop if I made a bit more of a mess and scrub the floor down with Simple Green about every 3 months. The Simple Green scrub down really makes it look about as good as new. I think the floor would be even easier to clean if I did not use “anti-slip” additive, which due to its “tooth” does hold the dirt somewhat (especially grease / grime) and requires a fair amount of scrubbing to fully remove. Still, I do not regret the decision to use “anti-slip” in the final clear coat.
Scratch Resistance -6, While the coating resists “heavy” scratches pretty well it gets light surface scratches easier that I would like. For example, if a pebble gets stuck under the wheel of my creeper it will scratch the surface. But I am a very OCD person who notices every little scratch. Most people don't even see the scratches unless I point them out. Also, I am only talking about surface scratches on the clear coat. I don't have any scratches that cut through the epoxy. I just make sure to use common sense when moving a heavy object around the floor (I would not recommend dragging a transmission from one end of the shop to the other). While I am confident the epoxy would “hold” I know it would leave some nasty scratches.
Several light scrathes like this:
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This is the worst scratch I have:
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Hot Tire Pick-up – 10!, not a single occurrence of Hot Tire Pick-up, lifting, flaking, etc.. From everything I’ve read it seems this has as much to do with the prep work as the quality of the epoxy. As I mention in my original thread I used the Surface Gel Tek product to etch my floor. I really believe this produced a great profile to help ensure the epoxy bonded / adhered properly. Either way I could not be happier about this. It was one of my biggest worries about doing this job myself.
Chip Resistance – 9, In the last year I have dropped tools many times. So far I have seen two chips, each smaller in diameter than a popcorn kernel. And at least one of these actually was because the concrete itself chipped, not the epoxy.
Anti-slip – 10, As mentioned above I used the “Shark Grip” anti-slip additive (1/2 the amount recommended by the directions) and it works great! You could not slip on this floor no matter how hard you try, even during the winter when it is covered with melting snow. Without some type of anti-slip additive I think it would be a slippery as ice, especially since I applied the clear coat over the epoxy. Based on my observation the only downside to using the anti-slip is reduces the gloss a little bit and makes it a little more difficult to clean, especially for grease / grime. Still, I would not hesitate to add some type of anti-slip product again.
This shows the "Shark-Grip" pretty well:
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UV – N/A, not rating this since my floor really does not get much sun exposure.
Gloss – 8, after one year the floor still has most of its original gloss. The amount of gloss that remains is directly related to the amount of work and subsequent cleaning that was done on a section of floor. For example, the middle part of the floor (where most work is usually done) has lost about 10% of its original gloss, but other areas look the same as the day the clear was applied. Overall the floor still has a good amount of gloss.
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Overall rating – 8.4
So, overall I am very happy with how the Rustoleum Professional Epoxy Shield has held up. If I had it to do over again the only thing I would consider changing is the clear that I used. It would be nice to have something with a stronger scratch resistance, but at the time I wanted to stick with a single manufacturer to avoid any possible chemical interactions between the different products. One of these days I might consider scuffing the surface and applying a “stronger” clear (although I’m not sure what that would be). I figure at this point it is highly unlikely there would be any potential of a negative reaction, and I know that I have a good / properly adhered base coat of epoxy. Otherwise, I am very happy with my garage floor.
Hope this review is helpful. Feedback is welcomed.
Information on how I preppped / applied is posted in this thread http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2353733#post2353733
First, what this review is not. I am not trying to say that one product is better than another or that one way of prep or application is better than another. Just sharing information, not looking to get into any debates about product “A” vs. product “B”. I am not a pro installer and I have never played one on TV. As a matter of fact, I have done exactly one garage floor in my life
What this review is, just me sharing my experience with the specific products that I used and how it has performed in “my environment”.
While not a professional shop my garage sees a fair amount of auto repair work. Lots of brake jobs, suspension work, oil changes, etc. on my own cars as well as family, friends, and occasional strangers. I work cheap…for beer.
So, let’s get right to it. I rated the performance of the floor on a scale of 1~10 for each of the following characteristics. Rating of 1 is bad, 10 is great.
Resistance to Stains – 9, I’ve managed to spill just about everything on this floor in the last year (brake fluid, oil, coolant, ATF, and even beer - unfortunately) and nothing has left a stain yet. Also, not a single stain from the road salt over the winter.
Cleanability – 7, For the most part the floor is pretty easy to keep clean. It gets the worst during the winter as snow and road salt / grime melt off the car. Since the epoxy prevents the water from being absorbed into the concrete it just sits on top, which makes it quite difficult / messy to sweep out the garage. I found the easiest way to deal with this during the winter is just use a floor squeegee, works great. I sweep up after every time I work in the garage, mop if I made a bit more of a mess and scrub the floor down with Simple Green about every 3 months. The Simple Green scrub down really makes it look about as good as new. I think the floor would be even easier to clean if I did not use “anti-slip” additive, which due to its “tooth” does hold the dirt somewhat (especially grease / grime) and requires a fair amount of scrubbing to fully remove. Still, I do not regret the decision to use “anti-slip” in the final clear coat.
Scratch Resistance -6, While the coating resists “heavy” scratches pretty well it gets light surface scratches easier that I would like. For example, if a pebble gets stuck under the wheel of my creeper it will scratch the surface. But I am a very OCD person who notices every little scratch. Most people don't even see the scratches unless I point them out. Also, I am only talking about surface scratches on the clear coat. I don't have any scratches that cut through the epoxy. I just make sure to use common sense when moving a heavy object around the floor (I would not recommend dragging a transmission from one end of the shop to the other). While I am confident the epoxy would “hold” I know it would leave some nasty scratches.
Several light scrathes like this:
This is the worst scratch I have:
Hot Tire Pick-up – 10!, not a single occurrence of Hot Tire Pick-up, lifting, flaking, etc.. From everything I’ve read it seems this has as much to do with the prep work as the quality of the epoxy. As I mention in my original thread I used the Surface Gel Tek product to etch my floor. I really believe this produced a great profile to help ensure the epoxy bonded / adhered properly. Either way I could not be happier about this. It was one of my biggest worries about doing this job myself.
Chip Resistance – 9, In the last year I have dropped tools many times. So far I have seen two chips, each smaller in diameter than a popcorn kernel. And at least one of these actually was because the concrete itself chipped, not the epoxy.
Anti-slip – 10, As mentioned above I used the “Shark Grip” anti-slip additive (1/2 the amount recommended by the directions) and it works great! You could not slip on this floor no matter how hard you try, even during the winter when it is covered with melting snow. Without some type of anti-slip additive I think it would be a slippery as ice, especially since I applied the clear coat over the epoxy. Based on my observation the only downside to using the anti-slip is reduces the gloss a little bit and makes it a little more difficult to clean, especially for grease / grime. Still, I would not hesitate to add some type of anti-slip product again.
This shows the "Shark-Grip" pretty well:
UV – N/A, not rating this since my floor really does not get much sun exposure.
Gloss – 8, after one year the floor still has most of its original gloss. The amount of gloss that remains is directly related to the amount of work and subsequent cleaning that was done on a section of floor. For example, the middle part of the floor (where most work is usually done) has lost about 10% of its original gloss, but other areas look the same as the day the clear was applied. Overall the floor still has a good amount of gloss.
Overall rating – 8.4
So, overall I am very happy with how the Rustoleum Professional Epoxy Shield has held up. If I had it to do over again the only thing I would consider changing is the clear that I used. It would be nice to have something with a stronger scratch resistance, but at the time I wanted to stick with a single manufacturer to avoid any possible chemical interactions between the different products. One of these days I might consider scuffing the surface and applying a “stronger” clear (although I’m not sure what that would be). I figure at this point it is highly unlikely there would be any potential of a negative reaction, and I know that I have a good / properly adhered base coat of epoxy. Otherwise, I am very happy with my garage floor.
Hope this review is helpful. Feedback is welcomed.