Epoxy-Coat Light gray on two car

I posted this in my gallery thread as well, but figure I would post it here as well on a flooring thread:

I ordered a full kit from Epoxy-Coat.com. Light gray with clear coat and white, blue and whisper gray flake mix.

Grinding:
I wanted to grind instead of etch as it seems to be the preferred method. Ordered a grinder and wheel from HF / Amazon for the edges. Unfortunately, the dust shield I got was too big (I probably ordered the wrong grinder). It turns out that wasn't too bad as it allowed me to see what I was doing a little better, but HOLY SH!T what a lot of dust. Luckily I had a respirator. I highly recommend ear protection and eye protection and gloves. When I was a younger man, I probably would've said forget it, but as I age, I need my body to last. Also got knee pads which were kind of uncomfortable, but saved my knees. The following day I went to HD and got a floor polisher and diamond grinding wheel. I used the water method as I didn't want to deal with the dust. That worked well, but made a nasty sludge. After the first rinse, I noticed a couple sections that needed to be re-done...no big deal. I triple rinsed, then let it mostly dry and went over it with a stiff bristle brush. Then vacuumed and mopped with denatured alcohol. Finally, vacuumed again this morning before starting the epoxy. And it took about 24 hours to dry completely. Is that normal? THe Epoxy-Coat.com DVD says it needs to dry 6 hours. Not sure if that is only if you etch, but mine was WAY longer in 90 degree heat (but with fairly high humidity). As far as the actually grinding, I have to say I'm a little proud. When I returned the grinder, the guy at Home Depot said it was just under 3 hours. With the 15 minute drive each way, that means I grinded it in about 2.5 hours. Note to anyone, lower the handle if you can to just a hair under waist high. I had it too vertical at first and it was nearly impossible to manage.

Mixing Epoxy:
I took the advice and taped down a tarp as a mixing area:

I had ordered a few extra buckets and also went and got a few extra squeegees and rollers, along with an extendable pole-handle. I am glad I did. The kit from epoxy-coat.com came with a single bucket for mixing the base and one for the clear. Since I was doing sections, I'm glad I had the extra mixing buckets. So I mixed the smaller batches to do the floor in four sections.

Putting it down:
A buddy was supposed to come and help, but he's kinda flaky, so I'm glad I didn't wait until dark. I was a little nervous, but decided to go for it. Once I started mixing part a and part b, there was no turning back. I roughly marked out quarter sections of the garage. Once the first batch was mixed, I poured it kind of close to the edge and started the cut in. Another note on the kit - it only comes with one cut-in brush for base and one for clear. NOT enough as it starts to harden after the first batch. I am glad I got a few extra. So once I figured out how to cut-in (as this stuff is pretty thick and I've never used it before), I got it edges and on the vertical base below the baseboard and moved on to squeegeeing. I made myself MAJORLY nervous. I didn't know the proper pressure for the squeegee, so getting it pulled across was tough. Not tough like physically hard, but tough to figure out how much to squeegee out. Turns out, it wasn't as big of a deal. Once I started the backroll, it put me a little more at ease. Backrolling from the edge where I poured it out pulled the epoxy across and it started to get a little even. I backrolled each section like 6 times. Did a couple more sections and got a LITTLE nervous on the last batch. I was a little short and didn't cover QUITE as much as a I wanted, but I think it's OK for my first job. And I still have a clear to put on.

Flake:
The amount of flake they send is WAAAAAAY too much for me. I wanted light flake. My guess is that they send enough for full broadcast. I tossed the flake as high as I could and am satisfied with the flake amount.

Pictures:
No pictures before or during as I was on a limited time table and was doing it myself.
Flake:

More Flake:

From the outside:

Semi Close Up:

Coverage and Flake:


On to clear tomorrow...

Looks good

Good write-up.

Looks great man!

Looks really nice. Kind of swaying me toward the epoxy route now.

Thank you guys. Just finished the clear coat. I'll do a write up and pictures on that in a little bit once it gets more dry.

Looks great. Makes me want to get started on mine. Looking forward to more pictures and write up.

Thanks for the compliments all. Here goes the continued write up after the clear yesterday, as well as some mental notes:

Prep - None. As long as you put the clear on 10-24 hours after basecoat, no prep needed

Mixing - Same mixing station as basecoat, but needed to get more buckets as I was doing this in small batches again

Putting it down - With the clear coat, I had a more reliable buddy come by so he could help me. Unfortunately, I was unable to locate another set of shoe spikes, but figured it would be OK as the base was dry enough to walk on and he would be doing cut-in only. I strapped on the shoe spikes and we mixed the first batch. I poured it out and he came on to do the edging. The clear seemed to spread a little easier than the basecoat. My guess is because it was going on the base and not over raw concrete. Although it did lay out easier, it was WAY more difficult to see due to it being...well...clear. I squeegeed it out and started rolling. Since it was tough to see, I had to take several steps back and look at different angles to get it right. But all in all, a pretty easy process. After backrolling the first batch like 5 times, there was a section by the wall that looked a little odd. It had some darker spots. Then it dawned on me. Oh ****, dirt from my buddies shoes got tracked when he was edging as he didn't have spiked shoes. Oh well, it's under the clear now. Although it is a little bothersome, it was not too terrible and if you're not looking for it you might not notice. Hopefully it doesn't break up the adhesion. Don't think it will as it's pretty minimal. So on to the next batch. I guess no help in edging as I don't want brown footprints all over. No big deal as I did the base myself and this goes on easier. My buddy was relegated to doing the mixing and handing me to tools. The rest went on pretty smooth except that it flowed so well and was so hard to see that it ended up heavy in a few places before backrolling. All in all a good process and I am happy with the result.

Non-skid - Aluminum Oxide provided in kit. Needed to use it as there will be spills and don't want an ice skating rink. I sprinkled it on like I did with the flake. However, it is IMPOSSIBLE to see how much you put on, so the coverage is a little off. Some places have too much.

A couple notes and issues:
1st note to self - Make sure to remove the masking of the baseboards BEFORE the epoxy hardens as it will be nearly next to impossible to remove after. This is NOT like masking for paint.
2nd note to self - If you chose to ignore the first note, please know that you will be using a large razor knife to remove the masking.
3rd note to self - Whilst using said large knife, the epoxy will be hard and you will be applying a lot of pressure.
4th note to self - You are clumsy and forgetful. You will forget to put on gloves whilst using said large knife. Said knife will inevitably slip due to high amounts of pressure and slice your other hand cutting off the tip of your finger. (Yeah, that happened)
5th note to self - surprisingly, dark red blood looks kind of pretty on newly installed light gray epoxy.
6th and final note - There is a reason you didn't go into the NBA. When tossing the non-skid into the air, you will at least once throw it directly over your head and take an Aluminum Oxide shower

Pictures for your perusal. No pictures of cut finger as I am home alone this week and needed to bandage it as soon as I could before getting pictures. I'll see if I can get some once I take the first bandage off.
From outside (note I stopped as garage edge. Some clear flowed down):

Another (next time I build a garage, I will have them do a long drain at the end of the garage instead of in the middle. Due to regulations, they couldn't slope the garage to the drain, so it's pretty useless unless I have a 1/2" of water in there. oh well):

There was some outgassing in the base coat as I didn't use a primer (bummer). But it's ok as this will be a working garage and not a show piece. It appears a little containment got in the clear here as well. Not sure what it is unless I dripped sweat or lacquer thinner:

Close up:

Hey overall for your first time I'd say your floor looks great! You learn a little each time you do one so don't be too hard on yourself. As for dirt contamination from your helper's shows, I ALWAYS wear these whether I am wearing spikes or not. Just kick the dirt off your show put boot on and step immediately onto clean floor, do the same for the other foot. If you have to step off, change boot covers. There are a few ways to prevent bubbles or out-gassing... If using an electric mixer or Jiffy Blade, keep it under the mixing surface. Also, the less you work the floor, the less air that gets trapped.

Anyway, good job hope you enjoy your floor for years to come.

Thanks Benwah. Next time... I didn't even think about it.

Looks great! Great write-up! Sorry about your finger :-/
Thanks for sharing.