Epoxy over rock salt finish?

[rmiller4292]

Hello...I am a new user to the forum, and would greatly appreciate some advice. I am wanting to put an epoxy floor coating in my garage. The question I have is this: the builder put a "Rock Salt" finish in the garage. This is the same type of finish around lots of swimming pools. there are numerous little pits in the concrete. If I put a few coats down, will this still look ok, or is it not even worth trying?

Thanks

Ryan Miller
Georgetown, TX.

 

[boiler7904]

Welcome to the forum Ryan.

You'll have some prep work to do with that type of floor finish before applying the epoxy. The big problem that you'll have is cleaning all of the dirt, grease, and other **** out of the little pits in the surface. If you can't get the pits clean, the filler isn't going to bond to the concrete. Step 2 is going to be filling each pit with a patch filling compound that is compatible with the epoxy that you select. Most, if not all manufacturers sell a patch so it should be too hard to find and select the right product. Call the epoxy company if you have questions.

Simply applying your epoxy by squeegee might be an option depending on the product. It would essentially use the epoxy as a filler. Your coverage rates will be much lower than advertised but it might save some time and work. Cure time of the thicker material will also vary greatly from what they publish. Again, that's a question for the manufacturer.

 

[SC-Eric]

Hi Ryan,

Boiler is right... however, the biggest problem isn't the dirt... it's the salt! You've got to do a good job of preparing that surface and making sure that you get all of the salt out! You can used additives like Chlor Rid with a pressure washer. http://www.chlor-rid.com/

You can also get good results with hot water.

As long as you are going to use a 100% solids system, you will probably only add one step to the process by adding a squeege coat after the prime coat to fill all of the voids. When contractors run into that situation they typically add some fine sand into our LiquaTile 1184 and use a flat squeege to apply it. Doing this over the primer makes it easier to move the squeege and make it look good.

It's not that hard...

 

[rmiller4292]

Thanks for the responses guys...I was hoping it wouldn't be a deal breaker...I don't mind the extra work...especially on a nice weekend...I planned on cleaning with muriatic acid, and then pressure washing, but I might have to look into the chlor-rid...I'll definitely post pictures of before and after when I get going....Thanks again!

Ryan