Epoxy-Coat & Legacy Industrial Garage

So I wanted to post my experience with epoxy-ing my garage floor. There are quite a few other write-ups on this so some of this might be repeat, but I will be specific in areas where I didn’t find a lot of information to help others, who like me…had some unanswered questions. So, here’s what I’m working with


Garage:
Floor Material: Concrete
Age: 2 months (new construction)
Dimensions: Approximately 20’wide x 19.5’ deep
Previous sealer: None – no prior treatment


Cleaner/Degreaser:


Muriatic Acid:
Brand: Crown
Vendor: Lowes
Link: http://www.lowes.com/pd_425003-3422...pl=1&currentURL=?Ntt=muriatic+asid&facetInfo=


Crack Filler:
Brand: Epoxy-Sheild
Vendor: Home Depot
Link: Discontinued at Home Depot but found same Product on Walmarts website https://www.walmart.com/ip/Rust-Oleum-Concrete-Patch-Repair/55358029?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=2083&adid=22222222227066388414&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=170986645893&wl4=pla-278208385583&wl5=9022932&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=113509876&wl11=online&wl12=55358029&wl13=&veh=sem

Epoxy Primer: Brand: Legacy Industrial
Vendor: Legacy Industrials website
Type: Standard Primer
Color: Light Gray
Quantity: 2 gallons/sets (only used one though)
Link: http://legacyindustrial.net/cart/standard-epoxy-coatingprimer-p-103.html


Epoxy-Coat Kit:
Brand: Epoxy-Coat
Vendor: Lowes website
Type: Full Kit – Base coat + clear coat (500 sqr ft)
Base Color: Dark Gray
Top Coat Color: Clear
Kit Flake Color: Gray Blend
Kit Flake Size: Standard
Kit Flake Qty: 10lbs
Link: http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay...ber=546015-21374-ECP-E-1401&storeId=10151&N=0


Additional Paint Flakes:
Brand: Epoxy-Coat
Vendor: Epoxy-Coat website
Flake Color: Gray Blend
Flake Size: Standard
Flake Qty: 10 lbs
Link: http://www.epoxy-coat.com/flake-chips-gray-blend.html

Anti-Slip Additive:
Brand: Shark Grip
Vendor: Sherwin Williams
Quantity: Two 3.2 oz bottles
Link: https://www.sherwin-williams.com/painting-contractors/products/hc-sharkgrip-slip-resistant-addtive

Additional Supplies that I used:
8 – 5 Quart painters buckets: http://www.lowes.com/pd_206701-842...pl=1&currentURL=?Ntt=paint+buckets&facetInfo=
8 – 2.5 Quart painters buckets: http://www.lowes.com/pd_40009-8424...pl=1&currentURL=?Ntt=paint+buckets&facetInfo=
4 – 1 Quart painters buckets: http://www.lowes.com/pd_40008-8424...pl=1&currentURL=?Ntt=paint+buckets&facetInfo=
1 - 16” Squeegee: http://www.lowes.com/pd_278379-131...ueege&pl=1&currentURL=?Ntt=squeege&facetInfo=
1 – 9” Epoxy Roller Cover: http://www.lowes.com/pd_41873-159-...earch=wooster+mohair&productId=3200943&rpp=32
1 – 3” Pack Trim Roller Covers: http://www.lowes.com/pd_305802-159...rrentURL=?Ntt=wooster+trim+rollers&facetInfo=
1 – Deck Brush (firm brissles)
1 – Shop Vac
2 – long extension handles
1 – Garden sprayer
1 – Leaf blower
2 – 4lb boxes of baking soda
1 – Roll of masking tape
1 – Circular saw & diamond blade
1 – Chalk line
1 – 2” putty knife
1 – 4” putty knife


Schedule:
Monday 4pm – 7pm: Clean & Degrease
Tuesday 5pm – 7:30pm: Acid etch
Wednesday: Let dry
Thursday 7pm – 8:20pm: Fill hairline cracks
Friday 1pm – 3:30pm Epoxy Primer (Legacy Industrials)
Saturday 10:45am – 1:00pm Base Coat (Epoxy-coat)
Sunday 5:30am – 9:30am Clear Coat (Epoxy-coat)

The Help:
My wife and brother in-law

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*****************FOLLOW-UP:****************************************
3/25/2015 - Nearly a year after installing this floor myself I can say that I am still extremely satisfied with both how it is standing up to the abuse of every day life and also how it retains its looks. With the normal wear of cars being pulled in and out, a heavy 2 ton steel jack being rolled around regularly, cars on jack stands, tools being dropped, mud, chemicals, etc I anticipated some visible wear. I'm very pleased to say that I can't say that I see any. Both the quality of product and the amount of flake I added contribute to this. One thing that has and will continue to be something I would do differently is the amount of shark grip I used. If I had to do it over again, or if I apply another layer of clear, I will most certainly use much more shark grip; perhaps double or triple what I used. The floor is not slippery when dry, but if you have hard sole shoes on when its wet you do have to make a conscious effort to watch your step or you will slide/slip. If it is snowing out and you track snow into the garage on the bottom of your shoes it becomes very slippery. By no means would it deter me from doing it all over again, but it is most certainly one thing I learned and am glad to pass on to you all!

In any event, I am a very happy customer and will continue to post updates as the years pass. Thanks Epoxy-Coat and Industrial Coatings!


**************3-Year Follow-up*******************************************
2/13/2017 – It has been almost 3 years since I undertook this project and wanted to follow-up for the benefit of all the good folks here. Overall I remain extremely happy with how the floor is holding up. I haven’t been easy on the floor by any means. Continued regular work on cars and other projects in the garage have had minimal impact on the floor. If you get down on your hands and knees with a shop light you can see minor scratches in the clear epoxy (undoubtedly from a 2 ton jack being dragged across the floor time and time again) but otherwise you would have no idea how much abuse the floor has taken. I’m still amazed at the quality of the products and have no doubt that my 5 year review will yield the same durability endorsement. The one thing I will note since my last review is, as I anticipated, there is some minor yellowing near the garage door entrance due to the UV exposure. In retrospect I am extremely glad that I did not extend the epoxy to the edge of the concrete apron and instead only extended it to the garage door. At this point, any epoxy past the exterior edge of garage door would undoubtedly be a more stark yellow and an unavoidable and regretful eye sore. Other than that all I can advise, as stated in my last update, is……Please add more shark grip than I did!!! The sucker gets slick after rain and exceedingly so after snow.

I will add some pics in the next day or two. Hope this helps folks!

Monday (4pm – 7pm): Clean & Degrease

Being new construction my concrete didn’t have any grease to clean but there was quite a bit of remnant dirt from construction. This step is pretty straight forward, sweep and blow all loose dirt & dust up and out. Then I shop vac’d the entire garage. Then mix degreaser, apply, and scrub scrub scrub. I was pretty surprised at how quick the liquid was absorbed into the concrete and had to re-wet with the hose. Scrub scrub scrub, then wash entire garage out with a hose. Rinse and repeat…I degreased & cleaned twice.


Tuesday (5pm – 7:30pm): Acid Etch

Pretty straight forward if you just go for it. Diluted muriatic acid per the instructions inside a gardens sprayer, and sprayed onto concrete. Again, the concrete absorbed the liquid very quickly so I did mist over sections with a garden hose to re-moisten while waiting. After 10 minutes I spread 1 box of baking soda over the whole floor, distributed with deck brush, and sprayed entire garage out with hose. I repeated this process with a second round of acid, wait, baking soda, and rinse. Finally, I degreased/ cleaned using the degrease, deck brush, and hose.

Wednesday: Let Dry

I started planning Friday - Sunday so that there would be approximately 18 hours in between priming and the base coat, and then approximately 18 hours in between the base coat and the clear coat. Also, it was suppose to rain Sunday afternoon so I wanted to ensure it both got done and had a few hours to set prior to the higher humidity

Thursday (7:00pm – 8:20pm): Fill Hairline Cracks

There were 2 perpendicular hairline cracks that evenly divide the garage into 4 sections. These were normal and directly above the thin expansion material the builder placed inside the concrete. The cracks were around 1/16th of an inch wide. I used a couple of putty knifes to fill these with the epoxy-shield crack filler and scrape off any excess…like taping & mudding drywall.

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Friday (1pm – 3:30pm): Primer
So, I spent hours going back and forth on where I wanted my epoxy to end…either under or before the garage door…or extend it out to the end of the apron (approximately 5 inches). I opted for stopping it under the garage door and set out to scribe a 1/16” deep “key”/line using a circular saw and a diamond blade. I snapped a chalk line and what I thought would be a straight forward cut ended up not being. In hind sight I should have setup a guide because the saw ended up jumping & wiggling around a bit and the scribe was not even close to straight and/or even. Also, because it was a circular saw I had to end the cut about 5 inches prior to the edge of the garage door…which was ok in my opinion. In the end, I was pretty disappointed with how the line turned out but hoped that the epoxy would help mask my mistake (and it did for the most part).

(Thanks Nitro shark for the diagram of the scribe line)
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Following the scribe line I started by shop vac’ing entire garage followed by the leaf blower. I then also cleaned the scribed line area with rubbing alcohol to clean up any extra dust (I really should have scribed my line prior to step 1 on Monday). Then using masking tape I masked off the steps, and the side footer boards, and the not-so-straight key at the garage door entrance. I then set the garage door to close about 4 inches above the floor. I was ready for the primer

Priming was very simple, vigorously mix the legacy industrial part A and B, pour some into a paint pan, then apply with a roller attached to a handle and use a brush to edge in corners. I had anticipated using both gallons but only needed one…it really was the perfect amount. It took me about 45 minutes from the time I mixed to the time I ended and by that time the primer was getting to the end of spread-ability. While wearing the spiked shoes I removed the masked tape and then closed the garage door (with a 4” opening). Finally I leaned 2 strips of peg-board on the garage door from the outside to keep the critters out at night.


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Video:


Saturday (10:45am – 1:00pm): Base Coat
Woke up, the primed floor looked great no bubbles or blemishes and it looked like it took really well to the etched concrete. Then, using masking tape I masked off the steps, and the side footer boards, and garage door entrance and prepared the mixing area.
We washed all of the painters buckets and my wife split up the 20lbs of paint flakes into 4 equal buckets. I mixed the base coat part A for 3 minutes with the drill and then split it up into four 5-quart painters buckets ( 2 quarts a piece). I then divided part B, the activator, into four 2.5-quart painters buckets. I anticipated part B would divide into four 1-quart batches, but there wasn’t enough and it ended up being four batches of .75 quarts. We began to apply (and I was nervous at first), my wife was tasked with mixing and time keeping. She mixed part A alone while in the painters bucket for 2 minutes, then poured part B in and mixed both together for another 2 minutes. She then poured the mix onto the concrete in the 1st “quadrant” of the garage about 8" away from the side ledge. My brother in law was tasked with using the supplied brush to brush the epoxy up and onto the concrete ledge on the sides of the floor and I followed behind him and spread the remained onto the floor. At first I was trying to get it spread out perfectly with the squeegee and was distressed when it wouldn’t…..Don’t worry about being perfect while spreading with the squeegee….the back rolling will smooth everything out. So, the 3 of us figured out our system and kept time for all 4 sections…spread, back roll, then flake. I was really happy with the coverage of the flake. From the Lowes description of the kit I couldn’t tell exactly how many lbs of paint flakes came with the kit. The kit I received came with approximately 10 lbs. This in addition to the 10 lbs I purchased made for nearly100% coverage and achieved the look I was going for. Spreading the chips was fun…but getting them evenly onto the vertical surface of the side ledge was pretty much impossible….in any event it looked much better than the prior rough concrete ledge. Really what I learned is that applying epoxy-coat isn’t hard at all and I went from being stressed out about potentially screwing up to finding that it was pretty damn fun. I had 2 other people helping out so I’m sure that really helped the process out tremendously since there is a lot of time keeping, mixing, spreading, and some urgency.

After applying, while wearing the spike shoes, I removed the masked tape, closed the garage door to 4” above the surface and place my peg-board on the outside.

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Video:


Saturday (5:30am – 9:30am): Clear Coat
Woke up early and found the floor cured nicely. There were no bubbles, blemishes, or un-cured spots. I attached a 4” putty knife to a broom handle and scrapped the entire garage to remove excess & loose flakes. I continued by shop-vacing the entire garage and finally used the leaf blower to get out any remaining flakes and dust. As in the prior days I then masked off everything with mask tape and prepared the mixing area. As with the previous days I mixed part A of the clear epoxy for 2 minutes and divided it into four 2-quart batches followed by splitting part B into four .75 quart batches. I debated on how much Shark Grip to add and settled on 4.5 tablespoons per quadrant for a total of 18 tablespoons or about 4 ounces of Shark Grip total. I split it up into its own painters bucket for ease of mixing. The process was the same as the day before except with the addition of mixing in the Shark Grip. My wife mixed, my brother in law brushed the ledge, and I spread, back-rolled and removed the masking tape. Because it was supposed to rain in addition to leaning the peg-board up against the garage I also covered it with plastic and tapped along the edges to protect against rain seeping in.


When all was said and done I am very happy with the way the floor turned out. One thing I did discover is that the flakes do still cause the clear coat to be textured. I had thought that it might be a bit smoother than it is and I might have dialed back the Shark Grip just a little……. but am still a very satisfied customer. After going through the process I was glad I did the amount of research I did but was even happier to find that after preparing & planning, it was a very enjoyable process.

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Awesome Job! Great input and pictures. I will be using Epoxy-Coat once I close on my house May 23rd. I cant wait to do my garage. Thinking about adding some blue flakes to the Gray blend to give it some color.
Hope mine turns out as good as yours!

Your floor looks great and thanks for the detailed write-up! I will say, if doing a complete flake coverage, it may take a bit more scraping or a bit more clear to get the floor perfectly smooth. Again, outstanding job!

Nice job and great write-up. I really like the idea of scribing a hard line for the end-point. Where did you buy the mixing/measuring buckets from?

Hi,

I was curious why you did not chose a Legacy epoxy to go along with the primer you used?

lhopkins04 said:

Awesome Job! Great input and pictures. I will be using Epoxy-Coat once I close on my house May 23rd. I cant wait to do my garage. Thinking about adding some blue flakes to the Gray blend to give it some color.
Hope mine turns out as good as yours!

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lhopkins04 I hope you are as happy with yours as well!

RuralCRNA said:

Nice job and great write-up. I really like the idea of scribing a hard line for the end-point. Where did you buy the mixing/measuring buckets from?

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I bought the buckets from Lowes in the paint isle with the 5 gallon buckets. They helped keep the job organized, accurate, and easy...but they did add a little $$ to the bottom line

Hogan646 said:

Hi,

I was curious why you did not chose a Legacy epoxy to go along with the primer you used?

Click to expand...

From the research I did I think Legacy Industrial has great products and I am very happy with their primer, so I don't want to take anything away from them. I chose Epoxy-coat simply because I read a substantial amount of great reviews, I thought their all-inclusive "kit" with all the tools helped make the job straight forward (even though I did supplement them with more I purchased), and also I had a 10% off coupon and several gift cards to Lowes from our wedding a couple months ago...so that was a big benefit.

Bravo! Glad to be a part of your successful project!


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lunaman63303 - nice looking floor! Are you sure you didn't hire a pro? <wink> <wink>

DoItMyselfToo said:

lunaman63303 - nice looking floor! Are you sure you didn't hire a pro? <wink> <wink>

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Thanks DoItMyself

....... shh, our little secret..... I paid my "professionals" with beer and appreciation

lunaman63303 said:

Thanks DoItMyself

....... shh, our little secret..... I paid my "professionals" with beer and appreciation

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You made me laugh with that come back. Quick question: how did the Legacy primer go down? Did it soak in a bit? I think you said that you used half of the primer. In retrospect, could you have put it all down? Or what are your thoughts about that?

DoItMyselfToo said:

You made me laugh with that come back. Quick question: how did the Legacy primer go down? Did it soak in a bit? I think you said that you used half of the primer. In retrospect, could you have put it all down? Or what are your thoughts about that?

Click to expand...

The legacy primer went down very easily with a paint pan & roller. It had the conisistency at the beginning of a heavy paint and near the end of the 45 minutes it took to apply it was quite a bit thicker and tackier.

After curing/drying it did appear to have been absorbed into the concrete a bit on the floor, and substantially on the ledges. Yes, I only used one out of 2 gallons, and I contemplated putting a second coat of primer down. However that would have thrown off my timng on the base and clear coat and would have put me potentially trying to appy the clear coat when rain was forecasted. Seeing as this would have complicated how/where the mixing station was setup and also would have us installing in higher humidity I opted to only go with the single coat. In reality, in my instance, I do feel that the single coat of primer was sufficent even on the ledges. I didn't get any out-gassing in my base or clear coats and I'm happy with the adhesion between the coats.....but only time will truely tell.

LegacyIndustrial said:

Bravo! Glad to be a part of your successful project!


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Thank you sir!

rugerlady said:

Your floor looks great and thanks for the detailed write-up! I will say, if doing a complete flake coverage, it may take a bit more scraping or a bit more clear to get the floor perfectly smooth. Again, outstanding job!

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Thank you madam!

Great write-up on the Epoxy-Coat. I have read a few of them but this one is one of the best and most detailed.

I too have a new construction 20x19.5' garage floor that I plan to epoxy. Did you fill the expansion gaps for aesthetic reasons?

What made you decide to use the primer rather than jumping right to the epoxy base coat? Did the fact that it was newer concrete influence that decision?

With the amount of cleaning and prepping the bare concrete floor, why was it necessary to use primer at all? I thought the epoxy-coat would be able to grip the prepped floor?

I do bodywork and paint cars and I have to use primer because the surface are smoothed at 600grits. Prepped concrete is rough - PRIMER NECESSARY?

Trey:

Dull spots
Outgassing
Delamination

All potential issues that a primer helps to eliminate.
Concrete is much more dynamic than steel.

Scotty, When I hired a "pro" to apply my epoxy, full chip, epoxy clear, polyurethane clear
floor, I was unhappy with the "pro's" inability to squeegee the material to a consistent
mil thickness....................meaning that my finished floor is fairly smooth in one area
and fairly rough (from chips) in another.

Yes we did the 1400 sq feet in sections, mixed batches of material, squeegeed and back rolled and my overall project looks good..............

Just asking how does one pull the wet material with a squeegee so as to get uniform
material spread ?????????????

Notched squeegee and a wet mils gauge.


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If EVER a next time Ill have to learn more
about your two suggestions
Can I realistically add more urethane mil
now.....after misc permanent racking, shelves
are installed and move as much as I can
outside in good weather ?????

Urethane should not be used to add mils.

Think of it as an armor glaze.
It likes to be thin.

Use epoxy for mils.

Always better to clear the floor for coating, less obstructions and BS.


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great post, about to do an epoxy-coat project like this in my 10 yr old 650 sqft 3-car garage, house we just bought. no bad spots or oil, just some tire spots. planning to grind everything and patch some seams.

will I regret the lack of a primer? its not too late, need a little more input, great forum! Longtime lurker, finally joined.

If anybody read my gibrish before I fixed it...lol,,,I was sedated after surgery yesterday....

I am not sure about putting primer or not also? I get different suggestions from different vendors so I am more and more confused now...mine will be brand new concrete, now not sure to tell him to power float or just hand trowel?

I think a lot of people, including me, did NOT quite understand the function of primer or primer/sealer does.

those so-called "primer" does two things:

1. seal the porous concrete material
2. priming the surface for best adhesion of base coat

If you don't seal your floor, you will have to use more base coat to provide the thickness desired. Adhesion is not a problem when it's properly prepped but you're going to spend more money and time to get the desire thickness; that's when it becomes not economical

jason952 said:

great post, about to do an epoxy-coat project like this in my 10 yr old 650 sqft 3-car garage, house we just bought. no bad spots or oil, just some tire spots. planning to grind everything and patch some seams.

will I regret the lack of a primer? its not too late, need a little more input, great forum! Longtime lurker, finally joined.

Click to expand...

Primer?

Helps to eliminate out-gassing (tiny volcanoes in your coating)
Penetrates the slab (much better than thick 100% solids coating)
Helps to create uniform base for coat # 2, especillay over porous slab
Aids in adhesion to the substrate

There are other reasons but these are your main concerns when installing a DIY epoxy kit.

I'm looking into Primer as well. Anyone have any experience with the Behr Primer offered by Home Depot? It seems to get good reviews, and is priced very well!

Do not use any Behr product on your floor, you are only asking for failure.

^care to explain why?

I plan to do mechanical profile (aka diamond grind), 1 coat of water-base primer (Behr or Sealkrete), 100% solids Epoxy-Coat basecoat(s), and clear coat.

I agree with the expected failure with Behr as a primer. I had my garage professionally done (acid wash, Behr primer and top coat). Looked great for a few months and started to peel up wherever there were any pressure points on the floor (tire pickup, even light dragging, etc.). Wound up grinding it all off and doing epoxy all the way. Still looks great, no signs of adhesion problems. I have a thread with some pics from this past fall. If you go to all the work and expense of grinding and epoxy, you don't want a failure layer between the good stuff.

So it sounds like the Behr stuff is water based while something like Legacy's us full epoxy based? Is my understanding correct?

Trey T,

There is a reason those Behr products like something like $29.00 per gallon.. Yes they're very affordable, but not very reliable. It may be good for a few months or a year, maybe 2 if you're lucky and baby it but eventually it will deteriorate, quickly. They use cheap solids, fillers and their solids are low. I would guess somewhere between 30-40% BUT They don't even list the solids percentage on their product data sheets, that's a red flag right there. You don't even know what you're applying to your floor. I am going to actually give them a call.

There are many manufacturers out there that have great products, that are not sold at Home Depot or Lowe's.

After speaking with Emmanuel with Behr technical services (12 minute phone call) he confirmed that the solids by volume in their 2 part epoxy is 30-32%...

Its not the percent of solids that is concening. Its the track record.

Customers have used our primer beneath many epoxy coatings without issue, for years and years.

It penetrates well and is so tough it makes a great coating all on its own.


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I was so conflicted with using PRIMER or not. I called Sherwin-Williams and asked for recommendation and the tech said since it's 100% solid, it's not necessary to prime. I asked for their primer recommendation anyways and they said to use their ArmorSeal 1000. Well, that cost as much as the base coat.

The S-W seller I called said to never mix brand (S-W primer & E-C coating system) bc you're asking for trouble.

I went back at Epoxy-Coat website and I'm gonna stick w/ their recommendation.

Diamond grind>basecoat(s)>clear coat

DONE!!!

Unfortunately, the previous post is a good example of "what not to do".
It is important to mention this as other folks looking for the correct method may read this and go down the wrong road.

Here is the correct method used by pro-installers and well educated/researched DIY throughout the world.
Diamond Grind>Penetrating Primer>BaseCoat>Clear Coat- with skid resistance mixed in or broadcasted and back-rolled.

^are you saying the Epoxy-Coat's method is the wrong method?

Again my workflow includes grinding the floor and that was discussed with Tech from S-W.

LegacyIndustrial said:

Unfortunately, the previous post is a good example of "what not to do".
It is important to mention this as other folks looking for the correct method may read this and go down the wrong road.

Here is the correct method used by pro-installers and well educated/researched DIY throughout the world.
Diamond Grind>Penetrating Primer>BaseCoat>Clear Coat- with skid resistance mixed in or broadcasted and back-rolled.

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Agree 100%

Meatstick62 said:

Great write-up on the Epoxy-Coat. I have read a few of them but this one is one of the best and most detailed.

I too have a new construction 20x19.5' garage floor that I plan to epoxy. Did you fill the expansion gaps for aesthetic reasons?

What made you decide to use the primer rather than jumping right to the epoxy base coat? Did the fact that it was newer concrete influence that decision?

Click to expand...

Yep, filled the gaps to ensure it looked smooth & pretty. I had read some posts saying that even 100% solids wouldn't necessarily fill hairline cracks. So, I did it just to be sure. As with many DIYers I read countless & confusing posts where some did and other didn't. In the end, I was fairly confident in the ability of epoxy-coat to grip the prepped concrete, but I really wanted to do as much as I could to ensure there wasn't any out-gassing bubbles in the base coat....so, for me, I made the decision to spend the extra $$

jason952 said:

great post, about to do an epoxy-coat project like this in my 10 yr old 650 sqft 3-car garage, house we just bought. no bad spots or oil, just some tire spots. planning to grind everything and patch some seams.

will I regret the lack of a primer? its not too late, need a little more input, great forum! Longtime lurker, finally joined.

Click to expand...

I know the feeling you are talking about...soooo many posts...with so many different views & circumstances. I'll be honest, but its just my opinion, if I had to do it all over again I would put primer down again. It may not have been critical or necessary, but for me this was something I wanted to have the piece of mind that I did what I could to make it look good, that it will last, and that I won't have to spend even more $$ on it.