DIY Floroquartz Floor - Helpful hints

[innate123]

DIY Floroquartz Floor - 2nd Broadcast finished - touch up questions in latest post

Hi all:

Stumbled across this forum after choosing to put floroquartz (www.florock.net) on our new garage floor. We are also going to use it over our radiant floor in the basement of the house.

Has anyone ever used it? I am not a mechanic or anything like that so it will get normal garage use. We plan to use the garage as our 3 season room.

Any tips to avoid us from making mistakes. The painting company that I'm buying the floroquartz from made it very clear that we beware of the pot time. He is also letting us use his concrete grinder for a nominal $25 fee so it will be grinded, acid etched, and neutralized.

I think I'll have about $1800 in product for 2500 sq. feet total space.

Garage 32 x 50 Basement floor 960 sq. feet.

I think he said it would be about $8500 for him to do the job. I asked him "why so much?" and his reply was, "you'll find out how time intensive it is."

He did ensure me that if we take our time and practice broadcasting the quartz, it can be easily done.

Thanks again for any tips or advice. If it works out, I'll try to post some before and after pictures. This floroquartz stuff sure looks nice though when looking at the samples.

I figured as the garage is brand new, this would be the best time for a DIY job.

Tim

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Tim:

Couple things I would be careful with.
1. Quartz systems generally take some experience to perfect, not doubting your ability, just stating fact.
2. I would never recommend that anyone uses heavy epoxy coatings and quartz in a basement without a major check to see if you have any hydrostatic pressure. You could be creating a darn nightmare for yourself, not even joking. I have a huge basement and epoxy costs me nothing (own the company), my basement is NOT coated, never will be and it's bone dry.

Think about staining the basement or a thin-mil waterborne product.
Maybe look into an epoxy flake system for the garage.

Talk to some of the vendors on this forum, they are very good.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Tim:

Couple things I would be careful with.
1. Quartz systems generally take some experience to perfect, not doubting your ability, just stating fact.
2. I would never recommend that anyone uses heavy epoxy coatings and quartz in a basement without a major check to see if you have any hydrostatic pressure. You could be creating a darn nightmare for yourself, not even joking. I have a huge basement and epoxy costs me nothing (own the company), my basement is NOT coated, never will be and it's bone dry.

Think about staining the basement or a thin-mil waterborne product.
Maybe look into an epoxy flake system for the garage.

Talk to some of the vendors on this forum, they are very good.

 

[innate123]

Scotty:

Thanks for the reply. How would one check for hydrostatic pressure, or, what conditions would be likely for hydrostatic pressure to occur. We are building on sandy soil.

My wife is pretty set on the quartz since she has seen it at least in the garage. She's pretty particular about doing things and will likely be the "broadcaster" on this job. I think the painting company supplying me is willing to come out and show us how to do the first batch.

After seeing the quartz, i don't think she'll go back to a flake garage - just guessing.

Tim

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

In several places...

Place a 2' x 2' piece of clear visqueen plastic (home depot, paint aisle), on the floor. Tape it down, all four sides, with duct tape, very tight.

Wait 48 Hours. If you see condensation, DO NOT PUT DOWN EPOXY.

It's that easy.

 

[innate123]

Thanks Scotty - I'll hopefully try that out this week.

Tim

 

[SUPERCOAT]

Some epoxies, such as SUPERCOAT, allow up to 9psi of moisture pass through without affecting the adhesion. If you want to test the floor and know exactly how much moisture is coming through, you need a moisture vapor test kit like this:

http://www.polymax-us.com/pc-1244-604-moisture-vapor-test-kit.aspx

 

[Cruzin90]

A polyaspartic (instead of epoxy) with quartz works just fine. Regarding moisture (with a polyaspartic): Rent a Tramex Concrete Encounter Moisture Meter model # CME 4 or equivalent. Acceptable readings are less than 2% and the maximum relative humidity should be below 80%.

 

[tncatadjuster]

A polyaspartic (instead of epoxy) with quartz works just fine. Regarding moisture (with a polyaspartic): Rent a Tramex Concrete Encounter Moisture Meter model # CME 4 or equivalent. Acceptable readings are less than 2% and the maximum relative humidity should be below 80%.

Clear the house and read about such, in another thread on this board. I think it lasted for a few days. Good Luck

 

[innate123]

Thanks all. So far so good. The duct tape plastic showed no signs of moisture which I assume is at least a good start. We are going to drywall and paint everything first as the drywaller decided to come two weeks earlier than he said he could (that is a good thing to complain about).

I'll post pics as the project goes forward.

Tim

 

[bazzateer]

Thanks all. So far so good. The duct tape plastic showed no signs of moisture which I assume is at least a good start. We are going to drywall and paint everything first as the drywaller decided to come two weeks earlier than he said he could (that is a good thing to complain about).

I'll post pics as the project goes forward.

Tim

Got to be better to do the floor after all other painting is finished

 

[innate123]

Baz:

Yep. We are just down to crunch time and can't afford to waste any weekends doing nothing. If he wasn't able to come early, I would have had to start proceeding with the floor in order to stay on our Oct. 1 move in deadline. The original deadline was Aug 1. and then Sept. 1 - lol. Our short term rental is definitely up Oct 1. so it is crunch time.

T

 

[thegarageguy]

Quartz floors are a bit more work than a chip floor. First the broadcasting part, chips softly fall on the floor, quartz is heavier and improperly broadcasted can cause the epoxy to be pushed, causing mini waves. Also, the quartz usually doesn't cover as well as chips. With only one broadcast, It's normal to see the base or concrete peeking through. Usually a second broadcast smooth everything out and looks much better. Typically on an average 2 car garage we use 2 guys but if its a quartz floor we use 3 to 4 guys on the job. Def not a one or two man show.
BTW, you can mimmick the look of quartz by using 1/8 to 1/16 inch chips. Much easier and cheaper. Put a quartz and mini chip side by side and one can barely tell the difference. Save yourself the time and money. Good luck

 

[thegarageguy]

Here you go.....find me the flake floor sample

How bout now......

OK, now it's gotta be obvious....

Hope I saved you time and money. Good luck!

 

[rugerlady]

Quartz floors can be tricky for the first timer as seen stated here already. If you absolutely have to have quartz, I would suggest doing a practice run first (if you have extra material) you really do need to practice with the materials. Are you doing a single or double broadcast?

 

[innate123]

Thanks again all. We are doing a double broadcast application. Garage guy, I think what we like about the quartz, is the "texture" part of it with the clear.

We plan on broadcasting fairly heavy and sanding any uneven spots that we may cause. We are going to try to do it with two of us, possibly a third.

We got the garage primed and will finish painting it today. We will use 20grit tomorrow and acid etch and then put our first application on Monday and hopefully finish up on Tues.

Yes, wish us luck - lol. The money savings of DIY are worth the risk. Usually, we have done pretty well with projects, although we are not so naive to know that this one may be difficult.

Tim

 

[innate123]

Well, used the floor sander with 20 grit for quite some time yesterday, then acid etched, and neutralized it with ammonia.

Worked on it today with 3 of us - thanks for the advice that 2 people would be a bit tough - lol. Got the 33 x 32 section of the garage done with the first broadcast. I think it went well.

We will sand out any bumps tomorrow and apply the 2nd broadcast in the afternoon. I am taking pics, but can't upload them on to this computer - but I will post them when we are done.

Tim

 

[Chatam/Garage]

Pic's, we all want to see some pic's!

 

[innate123]

Well, we did the 2nd broadcast today and I will have to say it was a lot more work laying the epoxy over the 1st sand coat. Not only do you have a lot less coverage, it is harder to see where you are broadcasting the sand.

We did have some ridges and a few clumps to sand after the first coat, but they seemed to come up fine. We hope we figured out how to eliminate the "ridges" between pours with the 2nd broadcast. I guess we will find out tomorrow.

We will likely try to lay the clear epoxy tomorrow and depending on how rough the surface is, decide whether or not to lay a 2nd coat of clear on Thursday. I'll try to get pics up soon.

Tim

 

[innate123]

We applied the clear with the 2nd quartz broadcast yesterday. Everything looks good with the exception of about three 1" x 4" inch "divots" for lack of a better term. It seems as if some small areas didn't get the epoxy during the roll out phase of putting the clear down.

Overall not a big deal, but the best way to describe it is that it looks like it needs a coat of sand over the top of it.

Can we dab on the clear over these small divots and apply sand? Then, wait a day and clear the whole thing at one time? I will have pics up for sure today some time.

Thanks,

Tim