My Wolverine Project

Another satisfied customer:

Products $875.00:

Integraflex 1921 - 1 gal
Bondtite 1101 - 3 gal
Liquatile 1184 - 3 gal / 3 qt Silver-Gray
Decoflakes - 12 lbs, dark blue, charcoal and white

Supplies $628:

Bosch 1773AK concrete grinder (for sale if anyone is interested)
Exntension pole, 18" rollers and frame, ShopVac filter and filter bag, foam backer rod, mixers, measuring containers, notched squeegee, spiked shoes, etc....

Time:

25 hrs, 20 of which was spent grinding, pressure washing and cleaning.


Excellent customer service from Fred. The most difficult part of laying down this epoxy was the prep work. Grinding took a toll on my body, and if I had to do it again, would probably pay the $500 it cost to have a professional dome in and prep the slab.

The one thing I wish I would have done differently was taken more care in laying down the Integraflex and cleaning up around the edges. As you can see in one of the pics, it was pretty sloppy. The Liquatile didn't do much to cover it up. The flakes helped, but I would have liked to have a do over on that part.

Enjoy the pictures.

Pictures of the garage after it was cleared:


Pictures of the garage after 20 hrs grinding 400 sq ft of concrete with a handheld grinder. Pressured washed the slab twice and also mopped it to ensure no concrete dust was leftover:


Close-up:


Integraflex laid down in the expansion joint. It was difficult to lay it down perfectly flush with the rest of the slab:


Close-up:


Bondtite laid down as a primer. I used a 5 mil notched squeegee to spread it around. After just moving the squeegee around, I was worried I would not have enough material, but after back-rolling, everything was fine. I divided the Bondtite into 4 parts. 2/4 will be used for the top-coat, the other two were divided up so that I could do the garage in two halves. I think spiked shoes are a must for this type of project:


Liquatile laid down. Color is Silver Gray. Again, I split the liquatile into two batches and did one half of the garage, spread the decoflakes and than did the other half. As you can see in the close-up later, I personally could have done with just 3 lbs of flakes, but since I bought 12 lbs, I used every single one of it. Spreading the flakes was not that difficult. I have a couple of clumpy areas, one of which can be blamed on my neighbor interrupting as I was beginning a toss. I divided the flakes into bags of four and did each quadrant with a bag:


Close-up:


I finished up tonight by putting the top coat on. Gonna let it dry for the week and start moving back boxes. Cars will get back in shortly thereafter .

Overall, it was a very demanding project. But once I had the liquatile down and started throwing the flakes, it felt really, really, really good. I spent just as much as it would have cost me to have a professional come in and lay down a water-based epoxy. Instead I did it myself and ended up with a higher quality product and Bosch 1773ak grinder for that same price.

Enjoy the pics. Comments and criticisms are welcome. If anyone in the San Diego area wants to come by and check it out, just let me know. Next up will be to bring home the table saw and start building some cabinets.

One last thing. Epoxy coating a garage definitely makes it look nice, but the true test of the product is it's ability to last over time. Two of my neighbors garage floors look like sh!t. It looks like their homes had the contractor who built them use a cheaper epoxy because it is peeling. I hope I can come back in 4-5 yrs and say it looks just as nice as it did today.

Wow....That looks great. I think the extra flakes really makes it look good. Great Job!!!!!!!!

What does the epoxy cover up as far as imperfection in the concrete??
I'm hopefully going to be putting mine on this weekend.
Since it is self leveling, wouldn't it fill in smal cracks or divots?? If some parts of my floor are smoother and some rougher, will that show through?? I also caulked my control joints. They have a slightly concave finish to them. When I put down the epoxy will it lecel out over the joint making it invisible or will the epoxy settle into the concave joint making it visible??

Looks great, nice job!

jmh - the epoxy does self level, but it tends to self level to an even flat surface, think of a bowl with marbles on the bottom filled with water. If you have patches that are rough you can flood them with a bit more epoxy to smooth out the spot.

Smaller low spots, dings and voids usually aren't a problem, ridges and point that stick up are, so try remove or grind them down during prep. Also the thicker the coating, the more it covers up contour problems.

The flakes also do a great job of masking imperfection. Even a small amount of flakes will help most floors, clearly if the floor is extremely rough using more epoxy and/or more flakes will help a lot.

if your expansion joint has a concave finish to them after you caulked them, I would have to say the epoxy won't do much to level it out.

now of course it depends on how much lower it is than the actual floor, but I know mine did not (even though I crossed my finger and toes).

for those who read this in the future, anyone have any tips on how to control the flow of integraflex at the expansion joint where it meets the street? there is a slope where the integraflex flowed out. Maybe some silicone that's caulked down prior to the Integraflex application?

IntegraFlex can be handled in a few different ways. If you have a tilted or uneven area you can allow it to cure a bit before removing it from the mixing container. At some point it has the consistency of putty and it can be worked into areas. Or you can pour it into an crack or void, allow it to cure a bit, then use more IntegraFlex that you've allowed to harden to the putty state and top off the crack.

At that point you can also fill the spot a bit above grade, then come back in a few minutes and use a putty knife to cut off the excess to match grade.

Work with small amounts to find the consistency that works for the task at hand.

Epoxy and silicon do not mix, don't use IntegraFlex over a silicon based caulk.

Wow. One thing I have learned from this flooring forum is how fortunate I was when I did my floor about 10 years ago. I got the stuff from the vendor that did all our commercial floors for us. I bought about 200,000 sq ft of floor from him so he asked me my address so his guys could come by and do my garage. Too bad my residence was out of his territory. Any way he gave me the stuff he called primer and then the color coat. I washed and etched the floor, no grinding. The floor was about 20 years old at the time and aside from gouges, divots, paint and grease, it was fine. The washing and spot cleaning took care of a lot of the grease and pressure washing took care of the paint... the floor had not actually been painted but instead was covered with spatters and overspray from many projects. I applied the 2 part primers and then the 2 part, gray finish after the primer was set up. Once I was done, since the floor has no flakes, some of the road rash on the floor showed through but in the ten years since, the floor has held up perfectly, no lifting or peeling and no problems other than where I have since beat it up.