This is the age old question isn't it? Do I REALLY have to do all of that work to have a structure that lasts? I think it's like anything else in life... the more effort you put into the foundation (substrate prep) the longer the structure is likely to last.
We've never tested any product that had a higher bondstrength than our BondTite 1101. But, adhesion and general longevity of a coating system has more variables then just adhesion. Will BondTite 1101 stick to an unprepared floor? Well, we know it has. So then, why wouldn't we just tell everyone they don't have to prepare the surface for coating? I mean, holy smokes... if you cut out all of that work why would ANYONE buy anything else? We'd have the market cornered. In fact, why hasn't anyone else thought of this?
Understanding the answers to those questions starts with an understanding of concrete. For starters... Concrete isn't always concrete. In other words, not all concrete is the same formulation or chemistry. And, you never know what you are going to deal with. Was there a 'job site chemist' playing with Calcium in the mix? Did they install a vapor barrier? What ratio of water was used? What is the hydration ratio? There are a ton of variables.
Then, we would need to have a good understanding of laitenance. I'm not going to go into great detail here because this is longer than I'd like already. Maybe someone else will step in for that part. Anyway, it's basically the hard layer of minerals, salts, and sulfates at the surface of the concrete that you remove before coating. So, since that is on the top, that is what you would be trying to stick to. Unfortunately, just because something has good surface hardness doesn't mean it has good cohesive strength with itself. So, while a coating could have good adhesion to the laitenance layer of the concrete, that layer could begin to come off underneath the coating and make it look like the coating delaminated.
Recently, we had an applicator call me and say, "Eric, I've finally found something that BondTite 1101 won't stick to." First, I called him a liar, said some things about his mom, and told him that he would probably be struck by lightning any moment... lol. He said that BondTite 1101 would not stick to fresh hard troweled concrete. Of course, I said... "Are you sure?". To make a long story short, he said he was able to scrape a spill off of an adjacent new (unpreped) section of floor with a shovel. So, I asked him to go look at the back of the BondTite 1101 that came up. Guess What? It had concrete on the entire back side! So, while it had good adhesion to the concrete laitenance layer... that layer did not have good cohesive strength.
I guess what it all boils down to is... who are you? I'm the kind of guy who wants to do a job once and never again. It's not worth it to me to save a little work now that could cost me BIG TIME in the future. The other consideration is what is your expectation of the coating life? Lower end products require less prep than higher end products because they aren't going to last that long anyway. In other words, house trailers require less of a foundation because their life expectancy is short. In contrast, a skyscraper that is expected to last for a really really long time has a foundation that is dug into the ground several floors.
I think that there are alot better ways to save time than skimping on the preparation of concrete for coating. For instance, you could have saved 5 minutes if you avoided reading this post!
