Epoxy on Wood?

[Winmon]

I just bought an enclosed trailer and want to put something down on the wood deck. On my last trailer I used a deck type paint and it would peel up under the tires when I had a car parked on it. I have an extra kit of Rustoleum Epoxysheild Professional epoxy and am wondering how well it would adhere to the wood floor and was thinking maybe that would work better, if it will work on wood.

Has anyone used epoxy on wood?

 

[boiler7904]

My first concern would be making sure that the wood is completely clean and free of dust and other dirt. Next problem would be chemical compatibility between the wood if it is treated and the epoxy. Call tech support and see what they say. What's the worst that could happen if it doesn't completely stick?

 

[KELLHAMMER]

Real epoxy (two part=hardener+resin) has been used on wooden boats for 40 or 50 years. Check out the West system by the Gougeon Brothers. They are the one of the best epoxy companies in
the world. You can tint the resin and add silica for slip resistance when used on a floor. Garage floor "epoxy" is not the same thing. Real epoxy has a hardener, is flexible and is a superior adhesive. And will bond to wood better than anything. Add a layer of fiberglass cloth and it only gets stronger.

 

[Floorguy]

I just bought an enclosed trailer and want to put something down on the wood deck. On my last trailer I used a deck type paint and it would peel up under the tires when I had a car parked on it. I have an extra kit of Rustoleum Epoxysheild Professional epoxy and am wondering how well it would adhere to the wood floor and was thinking maybe that would work better, if it will work on wood.

Has anyone used epoxy on wood?

Real epoxy will stick to clean wood for sure. The thing to watch for is that the floor is sturdy enough that it does not flex too much. If it flexes too much it could crack the coating and then problems could start with water getting under the coating. I would also suggest undercoating from the bottom side to help reduce water getting in from the bottom side.

 

[Winmon]

Thanks guys..Maybe I will just stick with a deck type paint. I think this time I will try the oil based type (I used the water based latex on the last trailer).

I would also suggest undercoating from the bottom side to help reduce water getting in from the bottom side.

That is a great idea. I will have to do that.

 

[Hammerdown]

I have not used Rustoleum on wood before, but it sounds like it should work. I have use UCoat Its' epoxy on the same application as you- an enclosed trailer. I have two, one for equiptment and one for hauling materials/debris to and from the construction site. The 18ft trailer had a raw wood deck, and the 16ft had a treated lumber- On the raw deck they had me moisten the wood prior to putting it on, so the material would soak into the wood as it dries. On the treated lumber I sanded it with some 80 grit screens to rough up the surface before I rolled it down. What ever you use- make sure to use enough non-slip sand to make the ramps walk-able! Good Luck.

 

[Winmon]

Thanks Hammer! I figured someone had to have tried it.

 

[Winmon]

Well, I went ahead and put down the Rustoleum Epoxyshield on my enclosed trailer floor. Worked great. I gave it a couple weeks to dry and trailered my car in it with the epoxy down for the first time this past weekend. Looks great and best of all, no tire peel up! Plus, it now matches my garage
Here are a couple pics..

 

[Jason B]

Did you have to do anything to prep the wood? I'd like to do the same thing.

 

[comp]

great

 

[vc-onthepc]

How is the floor holding up ? im about to do something with a shed flor and am curious about durability of the rustoleum product

 

[plym49]

Almost anything will bubble up under the tires and it is not really the epoxies fault. If there is any moisture in the subsurface, the pressure of the tires can squeeze it out. Doen't take much! THis is exacerbated if the tires are warm. A little moisture bubble - even vapro - and the coating peels. This phenomenon is worse on concrete. The solution is sometimes as simple as putting something over the coating. Drive up onto carpet, or better yet, some plywood scraps.

 

[Winmon]

Update!

I just got a PM asking me how well the Rustoleum is holding up on my wooden trailer floor. Well it has been almost 3 years now and it still looks like new! It is holding up great. Glad I did it. The only drawback is it does get a bit slippery when wet. Probably should have used the anti slip..

Sorry I missed the questions that were asked after my last post..

Did you have to do anything to prep the wood? I'd like to do the same thing.

All I did to prep was a through sweep job...

 

[Jason B]

Very cool.

 

[OldCarGuy]

Epoxy coating works great on wood. I used Sherwin William’s ArmorSeal 1000HS on my 42" wide stairway steps to the second floor of my garage workshop.

Plus the steps to the balcony in another garage. Both are holding up very well...

And on the floor of my old 22' enclosed car hauler...

 

[Ruddy]

I just know the left-on-the-roller clear epoxy makes plywood look purdy!
http://pics.ww.com/v/ruddy/MyCars/garage/HPIM4553.jpg

 

[AlphaGarage]

Almost all wood boats have some epoxy on them somewhere, and most of them are still floating (unlike some oil drilling platforms).

 

[DonkeyDon]

Thanks for the updates! I think I'm gonna try this Epoxy over plywood myself after hearing multiple good results.

 

[psalonis]

Great timing for this thread to pick up again!

I have a 12X20 shed being delivered on Tues. and I was on the fence about Epoxy for the floor. Now I'm convinced. It's just a shed so I'm OK with using Rustoleum professional or Quikcrete professional (from Lowe's).

Question is those "single garage kits" are good for 250 sq. ft. and my wood floor shed is 240 sq. feet. ......am I good with 1 kit or should I have 2 on hand just in case?

I've never applied epoxy before so I'm nervous about laying it down too thick and running out before I'm finished.

Thanks!

 

[Robertkanuth]

I coated a shed (3/4 plywood flooring) with Rustoleum Epoxy. Looks great and holds up fine.

 

[DonkeyDon]

I just did my garage this weekend. I used the Rustoleum 2.5 car garage kit from Home Depot for $104. I think its just two "gallons" in one box. My garage is 20x21 T+G Plywood(so just over 400Sq ft. of basically brand new untreated plywood subflooring)

I bought a separate "single gallon" kit, just in case, but didn't end up using it. It took almost all of the 2 gallons in the double kit. There was a little left in the paint tray, but the bucket was empty. I wish I had used all of it up, because the grain of the plywood shows through in spots with the one coat. But my girlfriend was putting chips out at a fast pace, so by the time i saw that the plywood could have used the extra paint, it was chipped over, and well out of reach. It's all grey, but glossy in the denser grain, and flat(lustreless) in the open pored grain. We also added Behr's anti skid additive, which may have contributed to the flatness.

So if you want to do 250sq ft of plywood with one gallon, it might be stretching it depending on how good you want to look. I'd also recommend planning the time of day for your install carefully. The working window of the epoxy can be cut down to like 30 minutes if the temperatures are wrong by 15 degrees F or so. And the rollers got really sticky at the end, which may have reduced covereage in our case.

And don't be a dummy like me, and leave the kits in the trunk of the car. We had to wait for the kits to cool back down to ambient temps

 

[texasrenegade]

I used Original Color Chips floor coating to do my trailer, below are some pictures.

 

[erth64net]

Its been 7 years since the original posting, and a good 3-4 since others...

How is this strategy holding up for everyone?

 

[Jason B]

Yes, and update would be nice

 

[Dave88LX]

Yeah, an update would be nice!

 

[DonkeyDon]

Yeah, an update would be nice!

Apologies for the long silence. I didn't see this notification, until today, for some reason,even though im subscribed. Anyway, better late than never.
I cant provide endurance data unfortunately because I changed jobs and had to move, but...


I really liked the epoxy on 3/4" T+G subfloor plywood for my garage, so much so, that I repeated the installation when I moved to a new home in 2013. Main difference in new house was I did sleepers on wider 24" centers, so the floor would be more compliant(I have back issues). The exception was in the tire tracks, where I added a extra sleeper for 12" support under truck tires for pulling vehicles in occasionally(my garage is primarily a woodshop). If I have to move again, I will probably change the spacing up again, because 3/4" on 24" is too bouncy when rolling several hundred pounds machines across it. Possibly 1 1/4" subfloor over 24" sleepers. Or 2x6 sleepers to reduce the free span.

I was more cautious about application temperature when doing this floor, bringing epoxy cans inside the house AC the night before, and starting very early in the day to extend the working time of the epoxy. And so it went down much smoother, and with less stress. I used the silica additive and flakes for traction, again.

I also used many fewer screws , with smaller trim heads, because on 2010 floor, the casters on.my bandsaw/jointer/ tablesaw would drop into the 1/4" holes left by overdriving #8 deck screws with an impact driver, and then 800lbs of cast iron would crush the pine edges of the hole, making a formed cradle for that wheel. The toll would then be semi-stuck just on one caster wheel, which the toll woukd just swivel around on. Very annoying.... So learning from that experience, i also made a conscious effort to not overdrive the screws deep below the surface, so the epoxy could fill the heads in to keep the floor smooth. And rollable.

That 2013 floor's got 3+ years of light hobby use with no complaints. (Admittedly, The area near my welder pedal has a few burns in it from some drips of molten metal , but less damage than you'd expect for that kind of abuse)




Difference in screws sizes. There are three screws in this pic. Can you spot the torx head filled with sawdust in the epoxy?


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk