What to do with expansion joint around perimeter?

2 part question:

(1) I have expansion joint around the perimeter of my floor. I'm getting ready to epoxy my floor and my block walls. The question is, what do I do to the expansion joint?

- Do I leave it as is and not paint it?
- Do I caulk the joint (where possible) with an elastometic caulk once I'm done epoxying?
- Do I caulk before epoxying and epoxy over it when doing the floor/walls?


(2) On each side of the garage doors, the expansion material sticks out of the slab (see pict). I was thinking of cutting it off flush with the floor. Should I do this? Can you think of any reason why I should not do this?

Interesting situation. Though this isn't a high traffic area, the expansion material seems to wear no matter where it is located. My gut feeling is that if you were to paint it, as the material breaks down (natural wear) I think the paint would start to flake and it might end up in a situation where it begins to flake the floor as well as the joint. I think I might be tempted to just leave it alone and paint around it.

It would be a ton of work but I guess you could cut/dig the expansion material down lower than the cement height and do a heavy caulk job with a product like sikaflex over the expansion joint. Then you could probably coat it with the floor epoxy. It would still likely end up with hairline cracks down the edge but it's another option none the less.

As that material is placed to allow movement between the two surfaces (it will likely move) I think the first option might be best.

A long time lurker comes out of the woodwork to put in my two cent's worth. I think I would cut the expansion joint out about 3/8 - 1/2" below the floor level, clean it up REAL good, paint the floor and then caulk with some good elastic caulking of the appropriate color.

There was a similar question a while back, there might be some good info there:

http://www.garagejunkies.net/showthread.php?t=500

Here's what I did:

http://www.garagejunkies.net/showpost.php?p=2166&postcount=22

Good luck,

Jim

I would use a good 20 year silicone caulk and to dress it up either use bathroom splash guard on the walls or some 5/4 by 4" wood base as molding to cover it. You could caulk that when you put it down also to keep any spills from running under there and screwing up the sheetrock.

ju539 said:

A long time lurker comes out of the woodwork to put in my two cent's worth. I think I would cut the expansion joint out about 3/8 - 1/2" below the floor level, clean it up REAL good, paint the floor and then caulk with some good elastic caulking of the appropriate color.

Click to expand...

Bingo! That is what I'd do!