Hey guys,
The floor is now complete!!
The second coat went on at 2am, the third went on at 8am and the 4th went on about noon.
Things I learned/Tips:
- 5 lbs of flake on a 400 sq foot garage is a lot of flake.
- don't put more flake on then you actually want, you'll only "vacuum up" about 10%, most of it sticks.
- a leaf blower will remove more flake than a vacuum if you want to remove some.
- the clear is really thin and impossible to see under my 6500k garage lights, turning off the lights in the garage allowed for easy seeing of the clear during application.
- as you'll see I left the edge in my garage flake free. I perfer that look.
Thoughts:
- if I was to do t again I would use less flake I figured half of what I put in would come up with the vacuum but it didn't. I love the outcome of my floor but if I ever did it again I would use alittle less flake. Maybe 2lbs instead of 5.
- I'm honestly not sure if I could of got it roller mark free with simply leaving it gray. Maybe it's possible for some but wasn't for me. The metallic in the paint caused lights and darks and it was hard to eliminate all of the roller marks while maintaining a uniform color.
- this was a 3 day project and did cost about $2 a square after it was said and done.
- having two people greatly helps and speeds up the process
- following the recoat times is difficult when you need to apply 4 coats. With the humidity levels during the summer time anywhere east or south east it would be impossible to stay under 70% humidity. Apparently last night peaked somewhere around 90%.
Overall I'm very pleased with my flooring and I appreciate Justin from Garage Flooring LLC for answering all of my questions. I plan to take a night picture because they seem to look the best but here's a few pictures from during the day after it was finished.
First and foremost the floor looks awesome. You did a really really nice job.
If you have time, I would love to go through some of this with you here, because I think it will help people looking at the product in the future and also, I may need to cover some this stuff better in our instructions -- which goes way more in depth than what is on the cans.
Flake: Our suggestion is 1#/100 Sq. Ft for a good heavy broadcast and no more unless you are doing a full broadcast. Obviously some people prefer less.
Clear: "- the clear is really thin and impossible to see under my 6500k garage lights, turning off the lights in the garage allowed for easy seeing of the clear during application." Your film thickness on the clear and coverage should have been about the same as the gray with some minor differences in dry film thickness based on solvents and anti-slip. So what I am thinking you are saying is that the gray, obviously has color and is easy to see when you are installing it but because the clear is clear it is really hard to keep track of what you have coated?
If that is what you are saying, I would tend to agree. Not only with RB clear but most clears and even second coats. For the installs we did, when the garage door was open we could see the clear. You may have had the opposite problems we had. Our lighting was not enough and I am wondering if yours bleached it out?
Roller Marks: We have had almost no (maybe even no) reports of roller marks in a fully cured floor with the new formulation and the correct roller covers. When grinding or etching, that third coat that you did is very necessary. Do you feel that with a grind a 4th coat was necessary for best aesthetics if you are not doing flake and clear?
Project Length 4 Coats w/ grind You mentioned that this was a three day project and costs were at about $2.00/ Sq. Ft. Is that including a day for cleaning and grinding and costs of grinder rental and sundries?
2 people Personally, I think two people are required on a flake floor.
Re coat times / humidity You are 100% correct. When humidity comes into play and decreases your recoat window it can be problematic, especially when doing 4 coats. We have noticed that the gray is way more forgiving than the clear. We would tend to do two coats of gray the night before, a third coat first thing (although I have to admit my first thing is later than yours
) and then clear ASAP.
One last note about humidity
I am a HUGE fan of having a humidity meter in the area where the application is being done. We have them and you can get them off amazon for about $20. The nicer ones show you max and min as well.
