My new Armorclad flooring is done! What a great feeling to finally be at this point in my garage build. I can now start using my garage for fun and not just sink time into the build, although that was fun at times as well. One of the last major things that I wanted to complete before I start moving into the garage was the floor. Primarily this space will be used for hobby endurance race car prep.
I knew if I didn't knock out the floor before I started using the garage it would never get done to my satisfaction. It took a bit of self discipline to not just jump into a project when the lift went in a few weeks back but time to start using it! Like many of the people that use this board I am no pro flooring installer or contractor. I poured over many threads here and other web resources before deciding on what I wanted to install. In the end I decided that the Armorclad epoxy system (primer/epoxy/mil grade top coat) was the way to go. I also wanted to have a floor that looked a bit different and visually bold so this checked the box. Now for some pics.
So my wants for this floor:
-Stand up to car chemicals.
-Keep a decent appearance over time.
-Protect the concrete underneath.
-Visually interesting.
Floor before:
Lots of MD clay tracked in from the build, very smooth surface from bull floats and power trowel.
Did a pretty intense etch process. 1)Pressure wash at 3800 PSI 2)Etch 3)pressure wash 4)Etch 5)Wash 6) Etch 7) Wash 8)Let dry for 4 days with several fans running.
The process really opened up the floor I think and gave me a great surface for the primer:
Then it was primer time:
I actually like the look of this primer quite a bit. I considered going with a high polish white epoxy floor. Seeing this confirmed to me that I would have liked that as well.
Epoxy prep. I picked up some of the containers from HD to measure out 2:1 ratios on the part A and part B. I also mixed together my 27 pounds of flakes and sorted those into bags. I basically created 6 mini kits so I didn't have to rush as much when applying.
And this is what it looks like with a heavy broadcast of red/white/blue flake on light gray epoxy:
And of course I screwed up a few spots. I had a bit of part a, part b still in the containers they shipped in (not the 6 that I sorted into). I mixed together those 2 parts and ended up with a couple of soft spots. It was probably a bit light on the part b and I may have rushed a bit. So I had a few spots on the very last section that didn't harden up. I went back and fixed those up.
I did a sweep and vac to get up all the loose chips. And the final result with the mil grade top coat on (man was this stuff strong smelling. Thank goodness I had a really good respirator).
After the repaired area drys up I will take some more pictures of the floor.
Overall I am pretty happy with the floor as it stands. I will have to see how it holds up to the various chemicals that barf out of parts cars that get stripped. The product itself seems fantastic and I thank the Armorpoxy team for their help in this process and being responsive to my many emails. The only problems that I have had so far have been of my own doing. Make sure to keep mixing if you have some sitting for a bit, make sure you mix it well, careful on getting the last drop out of a pail in case it wasn't mixed well/correct ratios. I think possibly some of those soft spots were off the sides of the pail that didn't have part B and that slid to the bottom, of which I probably rolled on.
I knew if I didn't knock out the floor before I started using the garage it would never get done to my satisfaction. It took a bit of self discipline to not just jump into a project when the lift went in a few weeks back but time to start using it! Like many of the people that use this board I am no pro flooring installer or contractor. I poured over many threads here and other web resources before deciding on what I wanted to install. In the end I decided that the Armorclad epoxy system (primer/epoxy/mil grade top coat) was the way to go. I also wanted to have a floor that looked a bit different and visually bold so this checked the box. Now for some pics.
So my wants for this floor:
-Stand up to car chemicals.
-Keep a decent appearance over time.
-Protect the concrete underneath.
-Visually interesting.
Floor before:
Lots of MD clay tracked in from the build, very smooth surface from bull floats and power trowel.
Did a pretty intense etch process. 1)Pressure wash at 3800 PSI 2)Etch 3)pressure wash 4)Etch 5)Wash 6) Etch 7) Wash 8)Let dry for 4 days with several fans running.
The process really opened up the floor I think and gave me a great surface for the primer:
Then it was primer time:
I actually like the look of this primer quite a bit. I considered going with a high polish white epoxy floor. Seeing this confirmed to me that I would have liked that as well.
Epoxy prep. I picked up some of the containers from HD to measure out 2:1 ratios on the part A and part B. I also mixed together my 27 pounds of flakes and sorted those into bags. I basically created 6 mini kits so I didn't have to rush as much when applying.
And this is what it looks like with a heavy broadcast of red/white/blue flake on light gray epoxy:
And of course I screwed up a few spots. I had a bit of part a, part b still in the containers they shipped in (not the 6 that I sorted into). I mixed together those 2 parts and ended up with a couple of soft spots. It was probably a bit light on the part b and I may have rushed a bit. So I had a few spots on the very last section that didn't harden up. I went back and fixed those up.
I did a sweep and vac to get up all the loose chips. And the final result with the mil grade top coat on (man was this stuff strong smelling. Thank goodness I had a really good respirator).
After the repaired area drys up I will take some more pictures of the floor.
Overall I am pretty happy with the floor as it stands. I will have to see how it holds up to the various chemicals that barf out of parts cars that get stripped. The product itself seems fantastic and I thank the Armorpoxy team for their help in this process and being responsive to my many emails. The only problems that I have had so far have been of my own doing. Make sure to keep mixing if you have some sitting for a bit, make sure you mix it well, careful on getting the last drop out of a pail in case it wasn't mixed well/correct ratios. I think possibly some of those soft spots were off the sides of the pail that didn't have part B and that slid to the bottom, of which I probably rolled on.