Clear coat problem; turned back to white!

[BMEdoc]

So, after almost a month of prep, I epoxied the floor in my garage 2 weekends ago. Thanks to the help on this site and advice on prep, everything went smoothly and turned out beautiful. Thanks to all of you for the wealth of information.

I used the Quikrete brand epoxy from Lowes (epoxy coat isn't sold locally to me), grey base coat with a heavy application of their blue flake mix. 3 days later I put on the clear coat. It went on white (as it is supposed to), and took about 18-24 hours to dry completely clear. When it did so, it looked fantastic with excellent shine, no bubbles or missed spots, etc.

About a week after I put it on, about 85% of the surface area of the clear coat turned back white again. It did this overnight, not gradually. It is milky, and looks just as it did when I applied it. It isn't tacky at all, and is seemingly fully cured. I can't chip it if I try to.

Any ideas? Will this resolve over time? Has anyone seen this before?

 

[tomd]

to clarify: is this the water based Quikrete?

 

[BMEdoc]

Sorry, I forgot to mention that. Yes, this is the water based epoxy kit sold at Lowes. I used three kits of the Base color with flakes, and 2 kits of the matching clear coat.

As I said before, it looked phenomenal for about a week, and then the clear coat turned back to white. I'm perplexed as to why it did so, and was hoping for some answers, advice, or similarly puzzled looks.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Pics??

 

[BMEdoc]

I'll try and grab some pics tonight when I get home.

One other thing I forgot to mention. 3 days after I put the clear coat on (it had fully cured at this point and was totally clear), we had a cold night, and there was a substantial amount of dew on the ground the next morning. Could condensation cause this, even after it has cured? I'm grabbing at anything I can think of right now...

 

[AlphaGarage]

Is the hazing on the surface, that is can it be buffed off, or does it run down through the coating?

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Tough to evaluate without pics. However, I think Fred is probably on the right track, hazing caused by humidity. That is why we always advise to wait when rain/high humidity is in the forecast.

 

[BMEdoc]

Here are a few pics I took this evening. Sorry about the crummy cell phone shots.

It does not appear to be anything that can be buffed off... You can clearly see the white-ness of it in the first photo. In the other 2 photos, you can see a distinct line of where the clear is still clear, and where it turned back to white.

Over the past three days, it does seem as if it is turning clear again, albeit very slowly. The parts that are turning clear first seem to be the low lying area (that would have pooled water), and that dried first during the initial cure.

As another note, the humidity was quite low when I did the floor, and the day after. ~4 days after the coat went on the temp dropped at night and we had significant dew on the ground... but the humidity was low every day.

Any other ideas? Thanks for the help.

 

[p_mori7]

Try gently heating it with a heat gun. I would sometimes see a similar condition in automotive clear coats. We would gently heat the area with a heat gun, and it would cure it.

 

[BMEdoc]

Ding ding ding!!! We have a winner! p_mori7 is right on the money. I don't have a heat gun (yet...) but I used my roommate's hair dryer, and it cleared up all of the milky-ness perfectly.

A few questions remain; mainly, if I go through the process of heating the entire floor, will it remain clear? Is there any reason to believe that it will go back to white? Is there any damage to the epoxy in doing so? As in, will it be more prone to chip, peel, etc?

Finally, is there any faster way of doing this? Using a hair dryer, it took me about 20 minutes to clear a single square foot. My garage is 26'x30'. What about one of those propane flame guns? Too much heat? Or should I **** it up, buy two heat guns, a case of beer, and go to town?

Thanks to all of you for your help, especially p_mori7! I was getting really worried that I ruined the floor...

 

[dcs Inc]

Use a weed burner (propane flame guns) but be very careful not to over heat the topping. Keep it moving and don't turn it up to where it sounds like a jet engine. You've trapped moisture or applied too thick. In any case a little heat helps. gene ec-Indy

 

[studiovette]

So, after almost a month of prep, I epoxied the floor in my garage 2 weekends ago. Thanks to the help on this site and advice on prep, everything went smoothly and turned out beautiful. Thanks to all of you for the wealth of information.

I used the Quikrete brand epoxy from Lowes (epoxy coat isn't sold locally to me), grey base coat with a heavy application of their blue flake mix. 3 days later I put on the clear coat. It went on white (as it is supposed to), and took about 18-24 hours to dry completely clear. When it did so, it looked fantastic with excellent shine, no bubbles or missed spots, etc.

About a week after I put it on, about 85% of the surface area of the clear coat turned back white again. It did this overnight, not gradually. It is milky, and looks just as it did when I applied it. It isn't tacky at all, and is seemingly fully cured. I can't chip it if I try to.

Any ideas? Will this resolve over time? Has anyone seen this before?

I just used the HD version (BEHR) I did 2 coats today. Looks like the same color as you. I was also thinking of clear coating it for extra protection and more shine. Did your kit come with the clear or did you buy it?
Thanks
Pete

 

[p_mori7]

Use a heat gun, nothing stronger! and keep it moving....it will get the job done A LOT faster than a hair dryer. Humidity got trapped in the clear coat before it was fully cured. It should remain clear afterwards. If you don't overheat it, you will not damage it.

You're very welcome, glad to help.

 

[Edger]

Go for 2 heat guns, forget the beer, everything looks deceptively good after a few cans, but those images are never the same in the morning !