I hope this helps someone else who is researching flooring options and can learn from my mistakes when applying epoxy: I'll post these in sections to make it easier to read.
I purchased my home with a 680 sq ft garage a few months ago and one of the first things I did was buy epoxy from Daich Coatings (a Canadian company). I had purchased direct from Daich because I used their Rollerock product on my outdoor patio at the previous home and was very impressed with it and I was already aware of the poor reputation of big box store products. The Daich Daihard 100 (also called Beauti-Tone 100 in Canada) is a 100% solids kit and is very reasonably priced. Each kit comes with an etching powder, 2 part product mix for up to 250 sq ft, flakes, and paint stick. I ordered 4 kits since I planned on doing my stem walls and garage steps.
While waiting for the weather to change, I began researching how best to apply epoxy and came across this site. Had I known then what I know now I probably would have just bought a full inclusive kit from one of the vendors here given the known reputations and the follow up support of the products.
I did learn however the importance of grinding over etching, use of a primer, and why it’s a good idea to use a UV topcoat. Daich did not recommend a primer as they state their product is self-priming and said a topcoat was unnecessary for most residential uses. Still I ended up ordering Devoe WB primer and the Norkan HPU 747 urethane topcoat. Yes…I mixed manufacturers. After all this, I later found out Daich does make a water based primer, urethane coating, polyaspartic coating, and even has some optional colors and chips. You just have to go to the commercial version of the website and select heavy duty use. https://www.daichcoatings.com/industrial-floor-coatings.html
I knew I wanted some flake on the floor, but I didn’t like the blue/black/white flake that came with my kits, so I ordered 10 lbs. of 1/8” gray/white flakes. I wanted to make sure I spread out the flakes as equally as possible for uniformity so I assigned each square on the slab with a number with painters tape on the wall, marked the flake buckets with their corresponding number, and divided the flakes based on the percentage of square footage.
I purchased my home with a 680 sq ft garage a few months ago and one of the first things I did was buy epoxy from Daich Coatings (a Canadian company). I had purchased direct from Daich because I used their Rollerock product on my outdoor patio at the previous home and was very impressed with it and I was already aware of the poor reputation of big box store products. The Daich Daihard 100 (also called Beauti-Tone 100 in Canada) is a 100% solids kit and is very reasonably priced. Each kit comes with an etching powder, 2 part product mix for up to 250 sq ft, flakes, and paint stick. I ordered 4 kits since I planned on doing my stem walls and garage steps.
While waiting for the weather to change, I began researching how best to apply epoxy and came across this site. Had I known then what I know now I probably would have just bought a full inclusive kit from one of the vendors here given the known reputations and the follow up support of the products.
I did learn however the importance of grinding over etching, use of a primer, and why it’s a good idea to use a UV topcoat. Daich did not recommend a primer as they state their product is self-priming and said a topcoat was unnecessary for most residential uses. Still I ended up ordering Devoe WB primer and the Norkan HPU 747 urethane topcoat. Yes…I mixed manufacturers. After all this, I later found out Daich does make a water based primer, urethane coating, polyaspartic coating, and even has some optional colors and chips. You just have to go to the commercial version of the website and select heavy duty use. https://www.daichcoatings.com/industrial-floor-coatings.html
I knew I wanted some flake on the floor, but I didn’t like the blue/black/white flake that came with my kits, so I ordered 10 lbs. of 1/8” gray/white flakes. I wanted to make sure I spread out the flakes as equally as possible for uniformity so I assigned each square on the slab with a number with painters tape on the wall, marked the flake buckets with their corresponding number, and divided the flakes based on the percentage of square footage.
