Epoxy-Coat What to do????

[Iseman]

I put down my Epoxy-Coat Thursday morning (over VCT). Looks good but I have several small areas that won't dry. Small being several softball sized areas and one area the size of 2 tiles all in the last batch of mix. All just inside the garage door. No pictures of the bad areas yet. It may be my fault, I used lacquer thinner to clean some drops of epoxy on the tiles. The epoxy coat instuctions said you could use Xylene thinner to clean up. Do you think this may be the culprit, I thought the Lacquer thinner would evaporate faster and leave no residue. Can I sand these areas out and apply another coat without it looking like ****? I will call Epoxy-Coat on Monday but would like your guys advice. Your help is appreciated

 

[dcs Inc]

Improper mixing. Did you turn over the bucket on the floor to let all of it drain out?

 

[rugerlady]

Did you scrape the sides of the bucket? This usually only happens with improperly mixed epoxy. If it is still tacky on Monday call and ask for Jenny, I will be out of the office next week.

 

[Iseman]

After each mix I scraped the bucket with a spatula to clean out bucket. What confuses me is why only the last batch. We were very dilligent about mixing for 3 minutes. In fact it cost me a new I-Phone, by happenstance my wife was using the stopwatch function of the phone and a single drop shot out and went directly into the ear speaker rendering it useless. My big question is can I fix this by sanding these areas and applying another coat over the area without looking like ****. Thanks again for the help.

 

[dandan111]

I would let it dry for a week before getting to crazy.

 

[dandan111]

Did that floor dry for you?

 

[mayday0017]

Your iphone can be fixed as well...

 

[AETD]

1 The phone can be fixed.
2 When did you put the coat on? Or how long did you let it dry, before you started to panic?
3 I think your best source of advice in this, would be rugerlady or someone else from epoxy-coat. I'm sure you'r not the first with this problem.

Even for sanding (what i don't recommend), you would have to wait for it to dry.
Before you would think on removing it, i would look if you can get a infrared heater like bodyshops use for hardening bondo and paint.

 

[HoustonGarageFloors]

That's the problem... Never dip out of or scrape out of your "mixing bucket." After you mix epoxy you always have to pour it into a new clean bucket before applying the coating. This is because the sidewalls of the mixing bucket are contaminated with your Part A or Part B (whichever one you poured into the mixing bucket first.) When you scrapped the sidewalls clean and painted the floor you basically spread around small amounts of unmixed epoxy (either the Part A or Part B.) These areas will never dry properly. You need to wipe up any gooey areas with MEK or Xylene, and then aggressively sand the contaminated areas out, and re-coat. The patches will be visible when looking at the floor from certain angles because of lighting. To avoid having patch marks you can sand the entire floor and re-top coat.

In regards to the Lacquer Thinner... If there were spots of the floor still wet with Lacquer Thinner (oily slippery residue) and the epoxy was applied directly over the wet surface, yes, this could cause problems; but I don't see it causing the mixed epoxy not to harden.

 

[Iseman]

Wednesday will be 7 days and it's still not dry. The top of some of these areas have a wrinkle finish. There is some sort of contamination that has caused the problem, I just don't know what it was/is. All the lacquer thinner was wiped and dryed before application. I talked to Epoxy-coat on Monday and even they were a bit confused. Normally if improperly mixed the sticky areas don't wrinkle. I'm pretty sure the mixing buckets were not part of the problem. We used multiple spatulas and buckets and were very dilagent about mixing thoroughly. My plan is to clean with Xylene, sand and recoat the area. Has anybody done this with any luck. Thanks again for the help.

PS: had to replace I phone, more to fix than upgrade.

 

[Iseman]

Haven't really got any pointers on how to fix the problem, just a few opinions on what I did wrong. Now that I've waited several more weeks do you feel I still mixed it wrong or that maybe something else is to blame. Look at the pictures I've attached and you can see the epoxy is yellowing and is still not drying. Something is wrong and I will need to fix before I continue with my project. I've contacted Epoxy coat and they are looking at my pictures now. Origanily I thought it could have been the lacquer thinner but now I know better, the yellowing and wrinkles are not all in the same area that was cleaned, and besides I only cleaned up several drops that I spilled, this area is now around 100 sq ft. Something I didn't mention before was that the touchup kit part B was very orange, so I mixed it with the other part B to ensure the same coloring. Could the hardner have been bad and settled to the bottom.
My big issue is somebody has fixed this kind of problem before and if they could give me some pointers I'd sure appreciate it. I'm thinking I need to strip all the epoxy and surrounding area, resand with 80 grit, patch the bad spots and then put a light coat over the entire floor. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Did you read what Houston garage floors posted?
Scrape, solvent wipe, sand, solvent wipe and recoat the bad areas. They will not blend in. You will need to recoat the entire floor for continuity.

 

[deosola]

That's the problem... Never dip out of or scrape out of your "mixing bucket." After you mix epoxy you always have to pour it into a new clean bucket before applying the coating. This is because the sidewalls of the mixing bucket are contaminated with your Part A or Part B (whichever one you poured into the mixing bucket first.) When you scrapped the sidewalls clean and painted the floor you basically spread around small amounts of unmixed epoxy (either the Part A or Part B.) These areas will never dry properly.

If the sidewalls have unmixed product of either Part A or B, how do you work in small batches?

Say I wanted to only work mixing small batches at a time? Do I need a new bucket for each batch?

 

[richtersrodz]

Well.. besides your little spots, which I'm sure are driving you crazy, the floor looks really sharp in the first pictures. I like the colors you chose.. Nice.

 

[Iseman]

LegacyIndustrial: Thanks for the reply, yes I read HoustonGarageFloor, I was hoping for more than one idea and maybe more in depth. What grit would you use, how far to feather back or should I just strip the entire area. What thickness would you use for a entire recoat. Thanks again.

deosolaI was really cautious about mixing mine and I used several different buckets, but I did scrape off any epoxy that was left in the bucket before mixing another batch. I no longer believe the mixing was my problem. Because of the yellowing, I now think something has contaminated the epoxy.

richtersrodzThanks, Someday if I can get this finished I'll post some pictures and a little history.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

80-100 grit, patch the individual areas and then screen the entire floor removing the gloss , solvent wipe and coat similar to the first time.

 

[rugerlady]

When scraping the bucket, you were putting unmixed part A and B on the floor. This is why you have areas not curing. I'm not sure why it is yellowing so fast. I would like to talk to you more about this. Please give me a call.