Armorepoxy topcoat disaster...need advice

[bholton]

Hey all,

I am doing my garage with armorpoxy metallic and the epoxy part looked amazing.. looked like glass... 22 hours after we put down the epoxy, we put on the one part military top coat. We followed exactly the video and instructions using the roller provided and air conditioning in the garage around 80°. The top coat never leveled. Every roller mark is exactly where it was when the roller put it down. it's like we were spreading out glue instead of the top coat poly. We are now trying to sand it down in vain, we've been through 220, 120, and now 80 grit several passes and it's still not really level. It's all pitted...trying to figure out how to get the floor back to looking like glass. I need some sort of a top coat that will self-level to level the texture from the failed top coat. Armorpoxy is shipping me a 2 part military grade topcoat to try. Any advice? Thanks

 

[Shea]

Hey all,

I am doing my garage with armorpoxy metallic and the epoxy part looked amazing.. looked like glass... 22 hours after we put down the epoxy, we put on the one part military top coat. We followed exactly the video and instructions using the roller provided and air conditioning in the garage around 80°. The top coat never leveled. Every roller mark is exactly where it was when the roller put it down. it's like we were spreading out glue instead of the top coat poly. We are now trying to sand it down in vain, we've been through 220, 120, and now 80 grit several passes and it's still not really level. It's all pitted...trying to figure out how to get the floor back to looking like glass. I need some sort of a top coat that will self-level to level the texture from the failed top coat. Armorpoxy is shipping me a 2 part military grade topcoat to try. Any advice? Thanks

Was air from the air conditioning blowing across the surface at all? Also, what was the humidity in the space? High humidity and/or air blowing across the surface will cause the problem you encountered. Polyurethane lies very flat when the proper conditions exist for application. I would recommend contacting ArmorPoxy to discuss your options.

 

[bholton]

Thanks for the note. The AC units are mini splits and put the air up towards the ceiling. The humidity wasn't anything out of the usual in the space. I reached out to armorpoxy and they said they've never seen that happen before. They suggested sanding it down and applying a new top coat but I'm concerned it won't level. I'm leaning towards a fresh layer of epoxy followed by clear coat at this point to ensure self-leveling. After sanding for 5 hours, the orange peel texture is still very obvious.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Do you know how hot the floor was? Did you store your top coat in a hot car or place before you used it? If the coatings was stored inside of a hot space before use, it won’t bond or level properly and it would speed up the curing process.

 

[thammel]

Sorry to see this. I used the 2 part military clear coat and it worked out very well.

 

[bholton]

Do you know how hot the floor was? Did you store your top coat in a hot car or place before you used it? If the coatings was stored inside of a hot space before use, it won’t bond or level properly and it would speed up the curing process.

Thanks for the reply. The top coat was stored in a garage closet area about 78° maybe prior to being installed. The floor itself was also around 78°.

The only thing I can think of is that we had little blemishes here and there with pieces of dust or dirt that settled and made little raised marks so we sanded those with 320 sandpaper on a palm sander before doing the top coat. We wiped all that up and then used a wet swifter over the entire garage floor. We followed that with a dry mop. We waited 2 hours and then did the top coat. Maybe moisture was somehow left over from the wet swifter that caused this. But the thing that doesn't make sense with that is that the bad coat is entirely uniform ... the product was bad everywhere not just in spots that got sanded....

I've told the armorpoxy VP of sales to ship me five kits of the metallic so we can repour the entire floor and then topcoat with the two part military.

 

[BillK]

then used a wet swifter over the entire garage floor.

Did the Swifter have anything other than plain water in it ? They have some type of fluid that comes with them and every we use it on our ceramic tile it leaves a film of some sort

 

[FJ4FUN]

It looks and sounds like some sort of surface contamination existed prior to clear coat application. We recommend wiping floor down with Denatured Alcohol, or MEK only (isopropyl in a pinch but its more expensive) using a NEW microfiber mop or plain white paper towels. Do NOT use old cloth rags as they may have surfactants (detergents) in them that can adversely affect subsequent coatings applications. The orange peel / fish eye appearance leads me to believe that the Swifter cleaning agent contaminated your floor. I would recommend diamond grinding down to the epoxy base coat, wiping down with DA before applying the next coat of epoxy or clear.

 

[MOS3522]

Well early kudos to Armorcoat for being on top of this with you. I hope you can get it fixed.

 

[Shea]

Did the Swifter have anything other than plain water in it ? They have some type of fluid that comes with them and every we use it on our ceramic tile it leaves a film of some sort

Ahh... I bet that was the issue. As Alpha Garage said, use denatured alcohol or an equivalent on a microfiber mop pad for a wipe down. It evaporates fairly quickly, removes tiny dust particles, and any other contaminants that may be on the surface.

 

[Andy Smith Jr.]

That is odd, but it looks like there was some contamination between coats. BillK’s comments makes sense. Both the 1 part military grade and 2 part military grade from Armorpoxy are excellent products.