epoxy question

[livwell]

I plan on epoxying my garage floor next month ,my question is why dont people epoxy all the way out to the driveway? In alot of pics on here people stop at the inside of the garage door.I think it would look more uniformed to go all the way out to the driveway instead of leaving a 6in. gap there.can anyone explain why this is done?Thanks in advance.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

(2) reasons...
1. Epoxy is not UV Stable and will likely amber under the UV pressure of the sun.
No, a clear coat will not protect it. It acts like a window, allowing the epoxy to amber.
Certain box store epoxies are really acrylic and not epoxy, they may do better in the sun but may not last as long due to wear and tear from vehicle traffic.

2. Epoxy has a tight molecular structure. It will not let moisture pass through. Water is likely to develop under the front lip and could act as a bond-breaker as it collects between the epoxy and the concrete. This is not spring water, it is full of mineral salts from the slab, these salts collect with the water under the epoxy disbonding it.

You can roll the dice but I would stop at the door for a stress free application.

 

[Garage Flooring]

(2) reasons...
1. Epoxy is not UV Stable and will likely amber under the UV pressure of the sun.
No, a clear coat will not protect it. It acts like a window, allowing the epoxy to amber.
Certain box store epoxies are really acrylic and not epoxy, they may do better in the sun but may not last as long due to wear and tear from vehicle traffic.

2. Epoxy has a tight molecular structure. It will not let moisture pass through. Water is likely to develop under the front lip and could act as a bond-breaker as it collects between the epoxy and the concrete. This is not spring water, it is full of mineral salts from the slab, these salts collect with the water under the epoxy disbonding it.

You can roll the dice but I would stop at the door for a stress free application.

Wise words!

 

[Eslader]

The outfit coating my floor this week says they have a new "poly hybrid" method which allows them to coat all the way to the edge of the slab without debonding or UV issues, and they back it with a lifetime warranty so I figured I'd let them try. If I were doing it myself with ordinary coatings, I'd stop it at the door for the reasons listed above.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

It would have to be a breathable acrylic product.
Our install team will, in some cases, carry to the edge in that manner.

 

[OJ Bartley]

This was always one of my problems with epoxy. I don't want to have a 99% great looking floor inside, then have 8 inches of transition concrete right beside it.

 

[Shea]

This was always one of my problems with epoxy. I don't want to have a 99% great looking floor inside, then have 8 inches of transition concrete right beside it.

It's not as big an issue as it might seem. Sometimes the color of the epoxy or color flakes that stick out past the door looks odd when looking from the outside when the door is down.

One option that tends to work well is to just have some regular latex acrylic concrete paint color matched to the epoxy and paint the outside strip with it. It won't yellow in the sun and it usually holds up well since you are just driving over a short strip and not parking on it.

 

[OJ Bartley]

It's not as big an issue as it might seem. Sometimes the color of the epoxy or color flakes that stick out past the door looks odd when looking from the outside when the door is down.

One option that tends to work well is to just have some regular latex acrylic concrete paint color matched to the epoxy and paint the outside strip with it. It won't yellow in the sun and it usually holds up well since you are just driving over a short strip and not parking on it.

I'm sure it works for some people, it just seems like a lot of extra work to me. I really like the look of nice full broadcast epoxy and flakes. If it could stand up to the sun and elements better I probably would have gone that way instead of tile. I know some of the non-epoxy roll ons like polyaspartic (?) claim better uv tolerance, but might not have as high adherence or durability iirc. I'd love to see an all encompassing roll on solution one day.

Sent from my LG-H812 using Tapatalk

 

[Eslader]

I'll report back with how my floor holds up. I probably have the details wrong but it's something like an epoxy base with a double coat of poly on top. I dunno - I work on cars, not floors.

They did the diamond grinding today and it already looks 100% better just getting the crappy oil stains off the floor.

 

[Armorpoxy]

We recommend not painting past the door for the reasons above. When we do have a client that really wants to, we get them a small polyaspartic kit for the apron. Not ideal, and may not last nearly as long as the garage, but it is doable.