Bubbles in Clearcoat

[Philly]

The saga of our garage floor install continues. We got past the epoxy issues and clear coat was applied yesterday. I just went out to check on it and noticed bubbles in the clear coat.

Does anyone know why this occurs and what to do about it? Some info I read said to remove the clear coat and start over.

 

[AlphaGarage]

One of the benefits of hiring a pro is that you shouldn't need to concern yourself with these things.

What type of material did they use?

Were the bubbles noticeable right away, or did they form later?

Is the clear coat hardened.

But most important - what does your contractor say is going on?

 

[bcbrownie]

Bubbles in the coating are almost always caused by a contimaninant or an environmental issue. Could there have been a contaminant (including dust or water, or solvent) on the epoxy coating that you had? Also, excessive himidity can often cause this problem. Lastly 100% solids coatings often have bubbles form after applied and can be fixed by backrolling or spike rolling the coating inside its potlife.

What products did you use?

 

[Philly]

Thanks for the replies. The contractor used Rustoleum Epoxy Shield Ultra products. So, I assume they used the Rustoleum clear coat. The bubbles appeared afterward and the clear coat is now mostly hardened.

Yes, there could be dirt or water on the newly epoxied floor. I had noticed some dust on one part of it and asked the contractor to clean it before clear coating. Sigh, he didn't. So we now have an area that has dirt trapped beneath it. Overall, not a show stopper. I am more concerned about the bubbles and their impact on the longevity of the clear coat.

We see lots of roller stroke lines and also a line of discoloration. I would have thought a pro could apply clear coat so that it didn't leave "brush marks" so to speak. Do I have my sights set too high? The pictures on this forum show floors that look almost smooth as glass.

 

[Jaguar Fan]

Pics???

 

[bcbrownie]

The Rustoleum system is waterbased. Most likely causes of this bubbling of clearcoat is outgassing. Could be caused from clearcoat being put on too soon after epoxy application, or epoxy being put on too thick (thus greatly increasing recoat time). Water is gassing out of the coating and into the clear coat. Just a guess. Pics would help

 

[AlphaGarage]

No - I don't think your sights are set too high. You mentioned you've seen pics on this forum showing great member floors, now keeping in mind that most of those pictures are from DIY projects, it's certainly reasonable to expect at least that level of quality from a contractor who's getting 3x or more the $$$.

Sorry, I'm not familiar with the specific product used on your floor, don't even know if that clear is a urethane or epoxy, but can say that I'm not aware of many contractors who use that brand.

Sometimes bubbles are caused while mixing, other times by concrete out gassing (although that's usually for the initial coat only), sometimes by chemical reaction while curing. But whatever the cause, generally bubbles can be mitigated by taking the appropriate actions early on.

The contractor not cleaning up that trash when you pointed it out, and then coating over it, is amazingly irresponsible. It's time to have a heart to heart with him.

 

[Philly]

Pictures of floor. Agree pics I have seen on this site look much better than our floor at this point.

 

[bcbrownie]

Wow! you have several things going on here. Bottom line is that you have severe fisheying all over the entire floor, and you have uneven film build evident by the flashing all over the place. There are dozens of reasons why this may have occurred but the only way to fix this will be to grind it down and start over.

If I had one shot at why all of this happened, I would guess that the first coat was still outgassing when the clear was applied due to environmental conditions (or your contractor trying to get things done too fast before proper recoat time was achieved). This would explain the bubbles, the fisheyes, and the flashing could be a result of uneven drying of topcoat due to moisture underneath in your epoxy coat.

No shortcuts now. Time to start over

 

[chevelle67]

One saving grace would be not giving him his final payment until it is fixed. That is unless he required 100% up front which is generally the time I would tell them thanks but no thanks. Hope it work out for you, keep the board posted.

 

[Jaguar Fan]

In the first of the 3 pics, there is one very large bubble, and dozens (hundred?) of small bumps; I can't tell from the picture, but are those bumps also bubbles? or are they some additive for texture/grip?

 

[thegarageguy]

First off, just because the contractor charged for this disaster doesn't mean he's a professional.

A case could be made that the client did not do his due diligence and not only see some of his previous work but call his references. Maybe he was blinded by the cheap price?

Obviously its now coated so its hard to tell but to me it looks like the slab was in poor condition to begin with. Maybe epoxy wasn't the right formula to resurface this slab.

Usually when a slab is heavily deteriorated and or has far too many inconsistencies, we specify it for a 1/4 inch self leveling overlay. Sure it brings the cost up but not as much as having to grinding off and starting over.

Its gonna be hard finding someone to step on someone else's mess. I wouldn't touch that unless I can completely remove it and asses the condition of your concrete.

Any pics of the slab before the coating would be really helpful.

 

[SUPERCOAT]

The first pic shows one bubble and what looks like a non-slip additive... Is that correct? The second picture looks like the applicator didn't know what he was doing. I'm not sure what you're pointing out in the third picture. It says discoloration, but it's hard to tell from this angle.

This really looks like a DIY job - Inexperienced applicator using a sub-par product.

 

[Hammerdown]

That close up picture (#1) shows a great bubble-Most commonly caused by an outgassing of the concrete through the coating. The Rustoleum is a water based and lets the vapor pass through the coating- not so with the clear coat. It was probably partially cured so the vapor had no where to go and it bubbled. Was the humidity high or had it previously rained prior to application? The roller marks are from strtching the product to far and thin, not allowing it to "self-level". It should want to stick to itself and level itself out if there were enough clear applied. A quick fix would be to sand the clear coat and remove the bubbles and dimples and creat a texture in it and apply another coat of the clear- preferably on a mild sunny day. Just my 2 cents, hope any of it helps.