24 hour rule

[woodee]

So I was able to prime and epoxy yesterday and had planned on putting my clear topcoat on tonight. I'm at 22 hours now and one half of the garage is dry and the other half is still tacky.

Am I ok going over the 24 hour topcoat rule? Should I clear one half and hope the other side will be tack free in the morning to coat it???

 

[Lassen Forge]

If it's still tacky 24+hours after app, something went way wrong. DON'T push it... you may need to strip and redo, but DO NOT put anything on top of a questionably failed base.

 

[woodee]

Hmm. Well only part of it is sticky, the area closest to the window I had open is completely dry. I just assumed airflow made the difference since it all came from the same batch.

 

[bigjon]

What’s the label, PDS, etc. state for your product? All the products I’ve used have a time period based on temp. Tacky after 22 hours doesn’t always signify a failure.

 

[woodee]

It does state 24 hours for light foot traffic. Just checked it again (it's been 30 hours) and it is good almost every where but there are still just a few 2" spots in one area that still are slightly tacky. Do I wait those out to apply the urethane?

 

[woodee]

Thinking about this, the area where these spots are are is the same area I really started sweating and I know some perspiration drops landed on the floor. Is it possible the moisture trapped between the primer and epoxy is causing this? If so, will it still eventually dry out? I'm at a loss because 99% of the floor is dry and ready for clear, but these few spots are tacky and or wet.

 

[rlitman]

Thinking about this, the area where these spots are are is the same area I really started sweating and I know some perspiration drops landed on the floor. Is it possible the moisture trapped between the primer and epoxy is causing this? If so, will it still eventually dry out? I'm at a loss because 99% of the floor is dry and ready for clear, but these few spots are tacky and or wet.

Maybe. But the definite answer will come from the manufacturer. Call the 800 number on the label and tell us what they say. They're in the best position to know the most about the particular product you applied.

 

[woodee]

Tried...no answer on a weekend. I'm going to give it a little longer and hope they cure. Crossing my fingers.

 

[woodee]

Well I guess I'm getting to the point of having to degloss and wipe when those spots finally dry Do I need to wait a week to do that??

 

[bigjon]

Are you still within your recoat window? If it was me I’d sand and solvent wipe the tacky areas, that’s if they’re as small as you imply, and apply my urethane top coat.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

If that material is more than tacky it will wrinkle the clear. It’s a gamble.


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[woodee]

It's still tacky in those spots so I'm assuming something has gone wrong there now that its 48 hours. I know its not the prep or it would be all over, so I think something happened with the hardener in a couple of the batches. I've got a message in to the vendor.

 

[Jazz1]

Can humidity affect cure time? I would leave it till dry otherwise you risk having to buy both topcoat and base all over again

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Can humidity affect cure time? I would leave it till dry otherwise you risk having to buy both topcoat and base all over again

It can when you are using moisture cured products.
No moisture (humidity) and it may never cure!!

(2) part epoxies are held hostage by temp. Too cold and the cure takes forever, too hot and it's a tiger by the tail.

 

[woodee]

Temps have been lows of 60's overnight to low 80's during the day. Humidity has been 50-60% and no rain. Which is why I thought things were aligning perfectly to get this done. Given how sporadic these wet spots are (and they are still tacky), I'm kind of resigned to the fact I'll have to apply a new coat. Fortunately I never applied my clear coat.

My question is how do I deal with the wet spots? If I sand them it'll probably gum up the sanding medium. Is there a solvent I should use first?? Also, how aggressive should I be with sanding the rest of the floor? 80, 100, 120 grit? After sanding can I just do a wipe with denatured alcohol and start the new topcoat?

 

[Armorpoxy]

Any tacky areas should be removed and replaced. What most likely happened and this is not uncommon, is that you had some unmixed material from the bottom or sides of the pail that wasn't fully mixed A and B. If 95% of the floor has hardened then that is most likely the issue.

Wet spots scrape with hand scraper/putty knife, sand to remove excess, and recoat.

 

[woodee]

This is what I get for trying to be careful and avoid creating bubbles in my mix!

I'm getting ready to use xylol to scrape the spoft spots and sand them. I plan to do a full wipe down with denatured alcohol and recoat the entire thing. Are the black 3M scrubbing pads ok for my deglossing instead of using a sanding screen???

 

[woodee]

Ugh. Just finished scraping one section. It's like trying to remove sticky wet gum, and each spot is bigger than it initially appeared.

 

[FJ4FUN]

Sanding screens get the job done right every time and get it done quick. As has already been noted, soft spots are almost always a result of incomplete mix. We've adjusted our instructions to recommending a double bucket mix to eliminate the potential for this.

 

[woodee]

Since there is a depression now in the original coating, should I try and skim coat it with epoxy filler to level it out???

 

[woodee]

By double bucket do you mean pour all of the resins in one bucket and mix for color continuity. Pour one batch of hardener in a separate bucket and add appropriate resin amount. Mix then pour the mixture into a 3rd bucket before pouring onto the floor?

 

[benwah]

Double bucket method.. Mix batch in one bucket. Transfer entire contents of batch into second bucket, mix again. Pour on floor.

Can you post pics? Is this a single color pigmented floor? How large is the area of uncured material?

You're more than likely going to want to recoat the bad area, maybe the entire floor depending on how bad it is or how **** you are.

Since you're more than likely past the recoat window you'll want to degloss the floor and solvent wipe before recoating.

How many sq/ft are you working with?

 

[woodee]

Apparently I cant get pics to attach, even though they're in my album.

It's almost 700 sqft, with gray pigment and medium flake. I'm almost done scraping and found using the xylol softens up the area for better cleanout, but it leaves the surrounding material tacky. So after scraping, I follow it with denatured alcohol to dry out the remaining residue.

I plan to sand the whole floor, followed by a denatured alcohol wipe, then reapply across the whole space. Most of the spots seem to be shallow but there a couple deep ones that hopefully won't show too badly.