Epoxy on grooved floor...

[Terrapin]

I'm planning on putting epoxy down on my new 3 car garage but I'm in CO where expansive soil is the norm. Thus the garage floor has strain relief grooves in it (like on a sidewalk). I did a quick search and didn't find anything specific on the topic. Is there anything I need to look out for? The floor currently has some kind of sealer on it. Here is my plan

Grind with home depot's Diamabrush to remove sealer
Patch all holes and cracks
Coat with some solids based epoxy/color/anti-slip kit
Prevent everything from pooling in the grooves somehow??

Should/could I fill the grooves with caulk to get a uniform floor? Any comments are much appreciated. Here is what I hope to end up with...

 

[Flexia]

Are they saw cuts or do they have a material in them so the pad can expand?

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[54FordPanel]

You should post a picture of what you're 'grooves' look like. Are they troweled in, or saw cut?

There are more expensive concrete specific fillers out there, but I used 20 tubes of regular latex caulk to fill my troweled expansion joints. They say epoxy is self leveling, but that is way overstated. It will not flow out enough to fill the joints.

I would put down masking tape and fill the joints with latex caulk. Whatever smooth and level surface you have before you put down the epoxy is what you will end up with. I didn't fill mine completely level, and wish I had.

Some people put filler rope or foam down, then caulk over that so you don't use as much caulk. I wouldn't use foam, you want it stiff and firm so it can't sink or rise and crack the epoxy.

 

[Terrapin]

Thanks for the replies and yes I should have put a useful picture in the first post...

The keys are there for scale. I'm pretty sure they are troweled in. They are a little less than an inch wide and separate the floor into about 7'x10' blocks.

I like the idea of putting rope down since it would be a huge volume to fill with caulk. I think it would be best to epoxy first then caulk with a similar color since there will still be a lot of flex and rolling the jack over top of it would probably crack the epoxy if its all one layer. Another problem is one of the "blocks" has raised about 1/4". I think I'll just have to live with that since grinding/mud jacking to get it level seems like over kill.

 

[54FordPanel]

I guess it depends on how closely you can match the caulk to the epoxy. Myself, I wouldn't like that look of caulk over epoxy. I think it would highlight the joints too much.

I've got my epoxy over the caulk, and roll jacks around, and have never noticed the epoxy cracking because of softer caulk underneath. I don't think it's an issue, but you may.

#1 thing is to level your caulk to the height of the floor. The epoxy will not fill the gap. Good luck.

 

[Shea]

What you have in your floor are contraction joints. Most concrete slabs in a garage will have these regardless of the weather for the area. They play an integral part in keeping cracks from running across the slab by creating a weak line for cracks to seek out.

It looks like your joints are partially filled with some kind of material already. Despite what some people may suggest, latex caulk is not a recommended filler for these joints. One of the main reasons is that it will shrink over time leading to depressions in the coating later on. It's also relatively soft and can lead to cracking of the coating if you roll something heavy over a wide joint like that such as a tool box. You can read an article here about filling contraction joints. There are quite a few good products that you could use for this, some of which may be recommended by some of the vendors here.

 

[54FordPanel]

What you have in your floor are contraction joints. Most concrete slabs in a garage will have these regardless of the weather for the area. They play an integral part in keeping cracks from running across the slab by creating a weak line for cracks to seek out.

It looks like your joints are partially filled with some kind of material already. Despite what some people may suggest, latex caulk is not a recommended filler for these joints. One of the main reasons is that it will shrink over time leading to depressions in the coating later on. It's also relatively soft and can lead to cracking of the coating if you roll something heavy over a wide joint like that such as a tool box. You can read an article here about filling contraction joints. There are quite a few good products that you could use for this, some of which may be recommended by some of the vendors here.

I used latex caulk because that's what EpoxyCoat recommended I use.

From the Epoxy-Coat website:

25. Should I patch cracks/holes/mortar joints prior to coating. How would I do this?
Epoxy-Coat® recommends patching all cracks prior to coating. Due to the fact that mortar joints/saw cuts are engineered for movement Epoxy-Coat® does not recommend patching them prior to coating. All holes larger than 1/2" should be patched prior to coating. All cracks can be patched (12 hours prior to coating) with a flexible, adhesive (paintable) acrylic caulk. Epoxy-Coat® sells this product or you can purchase it at your local hardware store. Simply caulk the cracks and remove the excess with a tape blade. Holes larger than 1/2" can be patched by Epoxy-Coat®.

Epoxy-Coat® is 4x stronger than concrete so it is perfect for patching. You can patch holes or rough concrete in 2Apply Epoxy-Coat® in a normal application. Do not back-roll in the rough/hole areas. This will only work on rough areas or holes which are not throughout the concrete (so the coating will not sink through the concrete when patched).

Mix Epoxy-Coat® with a fumed silica (available through Epoxy-Coat®), this will give a thicker viscosity and can be used to patch any and all rough areas/holes/joints at any thickness or size. Epoxy-Coat® will have to be applied after this patch work is complete.
different ways:

I used caulk, it worked fine. I think it works better than a hardened product because it does allow for movement. I have not noticed any cracking on the epoxy over the caulk.

 

[Terrapin]

It looks like your joints are partially filled with some kind of material already.

Yeah I think the industry term for what's in there now is "dirt". But yeah thanks for the ideas everyone. I'm stains to get a plan together on how to tackle this.

 

[Average_Joe]

With grooves as large as yours, I would just paint them like the rest of the floor. I don't think you would have a problem with pooling, but I'm not an expert.

 

[SteveCh]

Keep in mind that these expansive soils will probably be moving off and on. You could epoxy each section of the concrete, as an individual pad, which they are, and forget the caulked areas or decorate them with something if the bare look of them bothers you, knowing you'll have to re-treat now and then as the soil expands and contracts. You are probably aware that basement floors around these areas are poured separate and unconnected to basement walls so they can rise and drop now and then...finishing a basement has to take into consideration that the floor will do that--rise and fall--when doing the drywall and etc. Same deal in your garage, of course. Those pads will move.