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Coating options for a new workshop/garage floor in two sections

Octal

Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2022
Messages
7
New (Nov '22) floor 14 x 18 with hand-troweled contraction joints, plus an old adjoining section that is 14 x 8.

Q1: How to handle the hand-troweled contraction joints? From what I can read (here), the advice is to *not* fill them beforehand. But how do I keep the coating from puddling in the joints during application? Or is that not an issue typically? They are v-grooves 0.7in wide by 0.6in deep. If I could, I'd really like a smooth surface over these [eventually] so debris doesn't accumulate, fluids don't puddle in them, and floor clean-up is easier.

Q2: I need to do the new concrete (14x18, 252sf) section first (now), and then months later will do the old concrete (14x8, 112sf) section. The second piece isn't very large, but it seems like I might have to buy a kit sized for something much larger. Any suggestions how to handle this if I need to do them in two separate sessions space out by [six?] months?


I want a uniform light-colored surface, something akin to what you'd see in aircraft hangers. No flecks as this is a working space where small parts will be dropped and want to be found.

I don't need the uber-perfect-showroom floor. I need a surface that is easy to clean up, and nice to work on. Vehicle traffic will be intermittent, not daily. Mostly workshop foot traffic. Vehicles when they need service.

First option appears to be the Rocksolid gray kit for 2.5 car (500sf, #293513) for the first part, and buy another kit later (1 car, 250sf, #60003) for the second section. That's about $300 + $200 for the project, and I'd have enough for roughly double the recommended thickness in each area.

Other options y'all would recommend?
 
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FJ4FUN

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 28, 2014
Messages
626
Location
NorCal
Q1: Filling hand trowelled joints before, or after coating, is somewhat dependent on the use that the floor will see. If you have heavy castered carts / tool boxes / vehicles that will be wheeled around all the time then fill after coating. The heavy cart concentrates a lot of weight on the small caster wheels and when that wheel transits over the relatively wide gap the underlying flexible joint filler (in our case, Wolverine Coatings IntegraFlex 1921) will compress which can potentially lead to the surface coating to crack along the joint seams. In this situation it is preferred that you fill control joints after coating. But, if you don't anticipate vehicle or heavy cart traffic feel free to fill prior to coating. For saw cut joints this is not an issue. Good news is that if you take your time and do a clean job of filling the joints after coating it can look very cool especially with a solid color floor like our two layer CFLC System. For a light gray floor like our CFLC in Silver Gray GY1D go with our IntegraFlex 1921 tinted dark gray/black! Coating prior to filling will allow for primer and epoxy to get into the joints but this can be largely controlled when distributing the materials during coating application.

We typically advise against coating two adjoining areas at separate times for two reasons, it is almost certain that you will not be able to get the colors to match perfectly and, it is no longer a truly seamless floor... The color matching issue can be managed somewhat by filling joints post coating if you separate the two sections at a joint. The seamless consideration is more for industrial chemical containment concerns which I hope you are not concerned with anyway.... ;-)

Q2: Handling the two separate sized areas is very straight forward using our quoting system. The main concern here is that you DO NOT split kits! i.e. take a 1gallon kit of some epoxy product, pour out say, 3/4 of the resin and hardener and the reseal the remaining 1/4 resin, hardener, for later use. Instead simply go to our CFLC System configurator and plug in the square footage for the 1st portion (252sf) you will note that the results come back way over the individual components minimum recommended thicknesses (we're working on correcting this... it's a bug in our system when dealing with smaller areas..) the good news is that all of these quantities can be manually adjusted up, or down, by you. For the 252sf area based on our recommended minimum of 10mils BondTite primer, adjust the BondTite qty from (x1) 3gal kit to (x2) 3 quart kits and for the recommended 20mils minimum of the LiquaTile 1143 adjust the 4.5gal quantity down to (x1) 3 gal kit. You'll end up with a theoretical coverage of 28.64mils. Then do the same for the 112sf area. You should end up with (x1) 3qt kit of BondTite 1101 + (x2) 3qt kits of LiquaTile 1143 for a final coverage of 32.22mils. FYI, the recommended minimums for any of the individual layers can be found by clicking any of the (i) in the stack-up illustration.

I know you mentioned that you don't need an "uber-perfect-showroom floor" but... would you turn one down? (y) ;) (y)
 
OP
O

Octal

Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2022
Messages
7
Thanks. I've adjusted my plan to be:
1) Fill the troweled grooves with ElastiPoxy Concrete Joint & Crack Filler after etching the new concrete, and sand joints smooth. I'll put a bead of clean sand in the bottom as numerous folks recommend.
2) Apply Rust-Oleum® EPOXYSHIELD® Professional Floor Coating to the main (new) section, with a likely top coat
3) I'll come back later in the future to do the other section, and accept that there may be a clear color line where they meet up.

Trouble is, I just need to wait until the slab warms up to >60degF to begin the project as things are still cool here in the SF Bay area.

I understand there's some epoxy cracking risk in the future, but it's worth it for the smooth finish.
 

Sumboodie

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Joined
Mar 20, 2021
Messages
10,735
Location
AK
I did the epoxy in my garage. Lasted 12 years without much issue. Didn't hold up well to welding or hot metal, my only complaint.
 
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Armorpoxy

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Joined
Aug 18, 2013
Messages
3,735
Location
NJ
Generally GJ members don't use home center products as they are all much lower quality than is sold by supporting vendors on the like ourselves, and others who sell excellent products.

We would recommend for a 'hangar' look our www.armorcladepoxy.com 100% solids system with primer and Military Grade topcoat. Without the proper topcoat you are wasting your money, plus this type of floor will be much thicker than a home center grade floor which are lower solids. For the joints, we sell a flexible joint filler if you want to fill them, but if/when your slabs move, any coating you apply over a filled joint can crack, hence why we usually don't recommend filling joints, as they are there for a reason. If you want to fill the joints, best to fill them after with a color-match Polyurea caulk since these stay flexible.
 

sjvicker

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 9, 2014
Messages
605
Location
SW Washington
Octal, I've been following threads like these for a few years and while I dont have any experience with the 3 other manufactures/suppliers that posted here (I will in the future for sure) I do have experience with the box store Rustoleum kit.

The Rustoleum kit was nice because I could buy it locally and it was priced right for a last minute Covid furlough project. I dont have any vehicle traffic to speak of in my garage due to a project vehicle that never seems to get done but I have subjected the floor to a lot of grinder dust, dirt, dropped metal parts and the like. What I can tell you from my experience is that I'd never use Rustoleum again. It adhered well in my application but it is scratched and dull looking after only 3 years. It's one step above paint and I've learned that in the future with how much prep it takes to do epoxy right I am not going to cheap out on a Rustoleum kit.
 
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Octal

Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2022
Messages
7
sjvicker, which Rust-Oleum product did you use? There are several options and I'm only considering the solvent-based option.
 
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