Long-time lurker, first time poster. This is a about a 600 sq. ft. tandem garage.
I'm doing medium Gray epoxy with #5 chips (Black, White, Grey)
After all said and done, I'll be into the project for about 1600 bucks, and I'm guessing close to 24 hrs. labor total, and with little to no help in prep.
For several reasons I didn't do an epoxy floor at another house I no longer own, but this one is just under 3 yrs old, I'm going to be here for a bit, so I took the plunge. Apparently concrete grinders have become more readily available for rent. Here are some things I learned along the way, and I decided to go with Legacy some time ago.
- A local (Denver) company wanted to charge me about 2500 dollars JUST to prep the concrete for me to lay down the material myself. F that! I rented a diamond grinder and vacuum from Herc rentals for 260 for the day. I figured that was what they would have done, so I just did it myself. Yes, you're grinding down your house, but it's not really that big a deal, and grinders aren't that aggressive.
- Extreme set 100 is really cool stuff. The most violent chemical reaction I think I have ever seen. I filled the cracks, but didn't level the joints completely in case they cracked again. Not the most seamless look, but I'm fine with it. You can see the bead of it running right up the middle.
- The work is backbreaking, but probably not too bad if you have help (which I did not), and a smaller area to do. Like any big machine you rent like a tiller, trencher, mini-skid, you ride it while it beats the **** out of you. Grind, vacuum, inspect, grind again, vacuum, use blower, repeat. Find more divots and small cracks, fill, grind, recelan, etc. etc. The reps at Herc said these tools don't get rented often, and I can see why. This was an 10" 11 HP Edco, the gas one, with their matching double HEPA vacuum. If you don't have the stem walls to do, you will save yourself a lot of time.
- The stems/walls will/are getting coated. They weren't tool finished (only formed), and fairly rough, so a light hand-grinding and crack/divot fill was all I did. Cheap Ryobi grinder with a Milwaukee 4.5" diamond chewed them right down.
- I used the rust-oleum 2 part crack filler for the small/tiny cracks and big divots in the vertical surfaces.
- Even after using the big vacuum I rinsed, scrubbed, and squeegeed getting what I believe to be significant amount of slurry out of the garage. I've seen video after video of people who don't rinse after grinding. I'm glad I did it, and the floor is super clean.
- After using the floor grinder, I had many low-spots in the concrete I had to go back and get by hand, what a PITA! The grinder gets the high spots, but once it has smoothed the high spots it couldn't get the low spots.
- The coatings showed up today, and the garage is covered in plastic so I can drive on it in the meantime.
- I'll put it down this weekend and post my experiences then. And since I have motorcycles I don't want to keep outside, I will finish it in 2 parts followed by 1 part.
- Overall, I can't wait, now that the hard part is done. Seriously, it is more prep than you might think, depending on the size and condition of your slab, and Legacy got me what I wanted very timely and without hassle.
I'm doing medium Gray epoxy with #5 chips (Black, White, Grey)
After all said and done, I'll be into the project for about 1600 bucks, and I'm guessing close to 24 hrs. labor total, and with little to no help in prep.
For several reasons I didn't do an epoxy floor at another house I no longer own, but this one is just under 3 yrs old, I'm going to be here for a bit, so I took the plunge. Apparently concrete grinders have become more readily available for rent. Here are some things I learned along the way, and I decided to go with Legacy some time ago.
- A local (Denver) company wanted to charge me about 2500 dollars JUST to prep the concrete for me to lay down the material myself. F that! I rented a diamond grinder and vacuum from Herc rentals for 260 for the day. I figured that was what they would have done, so I just did it myself. Yes, you're grinding down your house, but it's not really that big a deal, and grinders aren't that aggressive.
- Extreme set 100 is really cool stuff. The most violent chemical reaction I think I have ever seen. I filled the cracks, but didn't level the joints completely in case they cracked again. Not the most seamless look, but I'm fine with it. You can see the bead of it running right up the middle.
- The work is backbreaking, but probably not too bad if you have help (which I did not), and a smaller area to do. Like any big machine you rent like a tiller, trencher, mini-skid, you ride it while it beats the **** out of you. Grind, vacuum, inspect, grind again, vacuum, use blower, repeat. Find more divots and small cracks, fill, grind, recelan, etc. etc. The reps at Herc said these tools don't get rented often, and I can see why. This was an 10" 11 HP Edco, the gas one, with their matching double HEPA vacuum. If you don't have the stem walls to do, you will save yourself a lot of time.
- The stems/walls will/are getting coated. They weren't tool finished (only formed), and fairly rough, so a light hand-grinding and crack/divot fill was all I did. Cheap Ryobi grinder with a Milwaukee 4.5" diamond chewed them right down.
- I used the rust-oleum 2 part crack filler for the small/tiny cracks and big divots in the vertical surfaces.
- Even after using the big vacuum I rinsed, scrubbed, and squeegeed getting what I believe to be significant amount of slurry out of the garage. I've seen video after video of people who don't rinse after grinding. I'm glad I did it, and the floor is super clean.
- After using the floor grinder, I had many low-spots in the concrete I had to go back and get by hand, what a PITA! The grinder gets the high spots, but once it has smoothed the high spots it couldn't get the low spots.
- The coatings showed up today, and the garage is covered in plastic so I can drive on it in the meantime.
- I'll put it down this weekend and post my experiences then. And since I have motorcycles I don't want to keep outside, I will finish it in 2 parts followed by 1 part.
- Overall, I can't wait, now that the hard part is done. Seriously, it is more prep than you might think, depending on the size and condition of your slab, and Legacy got me what I wanted very timely and without hassle.
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