As some of you have read, I botched an epoxy job on a large portion of my shop floor (link here: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=296309). Now, two weeks later, I've got the the floor almost all re-prepped, have ordered new primer and epoxy, and I'm in the process of cleaning up the dust.
Yesterday, when I walked into the shop, I noticed that the smell of epoxy was almost gone. I realized that what I had been smelling was likely uncured epoxy. It appears that when I cleaned out the expansion joints, I removed the majority of uncured epoxy reducing the scent. Since I could still smell some residual epoxy, I reasoned that there must be some uncured epoxy left in the joints. I was right.
When I cleaned (or cleared) the joints I used a Skillsaw (circular saw) with a masonry blade. The blade fit nicely into the joint with just a few thousands left on each side. I set the saw to almost the full depth of the expansion joint. Where the epoxy was hard, removal was dusty but not to tough to do. Where the epoxy wasn't cured, it was extremely difficult to move forward.
I stuck a screwdriver down into one of the cracks and found some very uncured epoxy at the bottom. The depth of the expansion joints is roughly 1 1/2". I set the saw to about 1 1/8". Even if the saw was set to full depth, the blade does not clean the gummy stuff completely. My questions are:
1) Do I need to remove this or will the new primer and epoxy harden over it?
2) If I need to remove it, any idea on how?
The width of the expansion joint is approximately 5/32". I can't think of any tool that I could get down in there to either remove the balance of the epoxy or scrub with xylene once balance of the gummy stuff is cleaned out.
Thoughts are ideas are appreciated.
Thanks,
Reflex
Yesterday, when I walked into the shop, I noticed that the smell of epoxy was almost gone. I realized that what I had been smelling was likely uncured epoxy. It appears that when I cleaned out the expansion joints, I removed the majority of uncured epoxy reducing the scent. Since I could still smell some residual epoxy, I reasoned that there must be some uncured epoxy left in the joints. I was right.
When I cleaned (or cleared) the joints I used a Skillsaw (circular saw) with a masonry blade. The blade fit nicely into the joint with just a few thousands left on each side. I set the saw to almost the full depth of the expansion joint. Where the epoxy was hard, removal was dusty but not to tough to do. Where the epoxy wasn't cured, it was extremely difficult to move forward.
I stuck a screwdriver down into one of the cracks and found some very uncured epoxy at the bottom. The depth of the expansion joints is roughly 1 1/2". I set the saw to about 1 1/8". Even if the saw was set to full depth, the blade does not clean the gummy stuff completely. My questions are:
1) Do I need to remove this or will the new primer and epoxy harden over it?
2) If I need to remove it, any idea on how?
The width of the expansion joint is approximately 5/32". I can't think of any tool that I could get down in there to either remove the balance of the epoxy or scrub with xylene once balance of the gummy stuff is cleaned out.
Thoughts are ideas are appreciated.
Thanks,
Reflex
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