Epoxy questions

[Atamido]

I have a few questions about doing an epoxy floor for my garage, but let me give a little background first. Skip down to the questions if the background is too wordy.


Background:

I’m moving into a brand new house in a couple of weeks, but before I move anything into the garage I’d like to epoxy the floor to make it look nicer and easier to clean. The garage is 3-car taking 608sqft, with a ~4” lip along the sides, and with a raised area along the back ~4” high and 2-3’ deep. There is a 1” lip at the garage door going down to the level of the driveway. The slab was poured >60 days ago. Hopefully I’ll be able to make sense of this description with some pictures.

I’ve decided to go with a non-water based epoxy coating as cars are going to be parked on it, and it appears that’s the only way to avoid hot tire pickup of the paint. I’m on a very limited budget, and every dollar I spend on this is a dollar I can’t spend on something else for the house. (I wouldn’t even do it now, but I know I’ll never be able to justify moving everything from the garage to do it later.) I will be using the 3rd car area as a workshop, mostly woodworking, and other odds and ends.

My top two options are Epoxy-Coat from Lowes, and Rust-Oleum Epoxy Shield Professional from HD. The first is a 100% solids, so will go on a lot thicker. I’d prefer to put something thinner down as a primer to ensure it seeps fully into all pits in the concrete, and to ensure full coverage, but I’m wary about any unexpected side effect from mixing epoxy types. The Rust-Oleum is a 1:1 mixture, which I like because it’s much harder to screw up the ratios.

I would like to put down 2 coats, some chips, and then a clear coat over the top. It might end up being just one coat instead of two if it takes too much to cover the floor the first time. I figure after the first coat has been soaked up by the concrete, the second coat would probably require 30-50% less to cover the same area. (I realize this is less mils, but I’ve found that with resins “more thin coats are usually better than one thicker coat.”) The top coat can apparently be either epoxy or polyurethane, but I’m not clear on why one would pick one or the other. The chips will most likely be what comes in the kits, but the wife has expressed interest in the Color Flakes C9110 Blue Glow-in-the-dark, Color Flakes C9120 Green Glow-in-the-dark, and the Color Chips Neon Blue blacklight sensitive chips. (It would be pretty awesome handing out Halloween candy from there.) The glowing ones are off-white in regular light while the “Neon” one is a bright blue.


Questions:

1. What are your thoughts on using two thinner coats of Rust-Oleum versus one thicker coat of Epoxy-Coat?
2. How much epoxy am I likely to need to cover 608sqft, plus the lip around the sides?
3. Where should I stop painting at the garage door? At the lip, or at the break to the driveway?
4. Which top coat is preferred for something that will likely see some sun from open garage doors, and parked cars? Are either UV protected top coat, and what brand?
5. What are spiked shoes (golf shoes), and where would one rent or cheaply buy them?
6. Are spiked shoes really necessary?
7. Are there any caveats with glow chips?
8. With the irregularities of the flakes, are the non-slip additives still important to keep people from killing themselves from a wet spot on the floor?

Pictures of garage features:

Raised area at the back of the garage.

Lip at the front of the garage.

 

[dandan111]

What's up with the raised and drop off areas at the front and back?

1 nice coat of rustoleum pro will be enough. Recoat it in 5 years if you want but keep the money in your pocket for now! As far as keeping the floor clean,yes it is more clean however I see the dirt way more than the bare concrete. Every few weeks I wash the dirty spots with a scrub brush and car wash soap.

 

[dandan111]

Also no you don't need spike shoes unless you need to walk across it. Plan it out and you will be fine,my wife keeped me company and helped some. You need a set of extra hands when you start painting and throwing the flakes.
I did not do clear coat for fear of making a slick floor(my concrete was slick).
My floor has some dull spots when the sun hits it but really for the money it can't be beat.
And epoxy out to the drive!

 

[regguy1]

I did my garage epoxy over 2 years ago, I used a lower priced product called Supercoat. It has held up well and no hot tire pickup problem at all. I think the prep is the key there, and will be true with any product.

You can see videos / photos and a thread about the floor installation here:
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=140674

 

[dandan111]

Nice garage regguy.

 

[drinkmoresake]

I used the Rustoleum Pro on my floor about 4 months ago and I am really happy with it. So far, not a single occurrence if hot tire p/u.


1) After etching, washing, etc I let the floor dry for 4 days to be 100% sure it was dry.

2) I applied 2 coats of the epoxy shield color about 24 hrs apart. Don't try to be cheap and do just 1 coat of the epoxy. You won't be happy with the results. My garage is 440 sq ft. I talked with Rustoleum and the tech said even through they kit says it will cover 500 sq ft in reality the Professional Epoxy kit covers about 350~400 sq ft. So i purchased 4 kits, total of 8 gallons of material. And I am glad I did. No way that 1 kit would have been enough for each coat. Applied the 1st coat "medium" and went very heavy on the 2nd coat. I did not follow the suggestion from Rustoleum to paint in 4x4 sections. I just painted from side to side front to back and made sure to keep a wet edge. I used about 1 1/2 kits per coat. For your garage (600 sq ft) I would think you will need 2 kits per coat. I did a medium broadcast of the color chips on top of the 2nd coat. I made a pair of "spike" shoes using two pieces of 1"x4" board about 8" long and drove drywall screws through it. Then I used duct tape to attach them to a cheap pair of shoes. Worked like a charm and allowed me to easily walk across the wet epoxy to broadcast the chips.

3) After 48 hrs I applied 1st coat of the Premium Clear. Stuff goes on very thin and like others have said you have to use a bright light sitting at floor level in order to be able to see where you have painted. I actually found it was best to shut the garage door and just use the floor light

4) Applied a 2nd coat of clear after 24 hrs. For this final coat I mixed in the Shark-Grip anit-slip additive. Without it the floor would have been an ice rink! The directions on the Shark Grip say to use the entire 3 oz bottle to 1 gallon of clear but I cut this back to about 1/2 and ended up with a good compromise between floor gloss, clean ability and anti-slip. You couldn't slip on this floor if your tried.

Take your time on the prep and it will turn out great!

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Do it many times with the lesser product or do it once with the better product.
Your labor will be the same either way.

Make sure you include a primer with either option and if you are flaking including a clear urethane or poly-aspartic topcoat.

Wife or kids walking across this floor? Wet shoes? Don't forget the skid resistance.

 

[dandan111]

I only did 1 coat with rustoleum pro and it's fine.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Some folks use latex deck paint and they are happy as clams.
However, I never met one, that was happy, as a clam.

 

[dandan111]

I do agree with Scott,if you are going to apply multiple coats maybe you should check some other options. I disagree that rustoleum pro is implied to be latex paint? It's a great product for home garage and should not be bashed by guys trying to sell Cadillac floor coatings.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Dan, I wasn't referring to Rustoleum, just saying...

 

[Atamido]

@dandan111:
The lip at the front of the garage is to keep water from coming into the garage under the door, such as in the case of a heavy rainstorm. I'm not sure about the area at the back of the garage, but I'd guess something similar. If the rest of the house's slab is higher than the garage then you can spray it out with water and not worry about leaking water into the house, although that doesn't explain why you'd have a shelf along the entire back of the garage.

Thanks, I will paint the driveway. I suppose that couple of inches between the garage door and the driveway will be fine. I've already enlisted the help of my wife, and I'm pretty sure it won't be hard to not paint myself into a corner, although there will be parts that will be essentially impossible to paint two different directions without standing on a painted section.

I will be doing a clear coat for both the extra shine, and to protect the flakes. Slippage is definitely a concern though.


@regguy1:
Thanks, I will read through all of that. I've been reading a lot over the past few days, but I feel like I still need to know so much more.


@drinkmoresake:
1) I'm planning on 24 hours to dry after the etching. I just don't have the time before we move in, and my wife's patience will only go so far. After a summer of drought, we've been caught in rain for the past week, and it doesn't show signs of letting up yet. If it doesn't stop, I may be forced to cancel altogether and live with a disappointing concrete floor forever.

2) Sounds like 4-5 kits will do it then if I go with a two coat Rust-Oleum. That is pretty clever with the shoes. I may investigate that myself if I need.

3) Did you just get one kit of the Rust-Oleum Epoxy Shield Premium Clear?

4) Why did you get the Shark-Grip instead of using the included anti-skid stuff?


@LegacyIndustrial:
Is there any particular line of coating you would suggest? If I had the money, I would apply higher end coatings (or probably pay a professional that probably won't screw up), but as I mentioned I'm on a serious budget. Maybe in a another decade I'll make enough to do more.

Funny anecdote about cheap paint: When I was young, and had just moved out of my parent's house, I moved into the basement of a house. It just had concrete floors, so I went to HD and bought some paint. The only prep I did was washing the floor with dish soap. I totally misjudged the color I was intending to get, and ended up painting the basement floor yellow using generic wall paint. I moved out a year and a half later, and none of it had ever peeled, scraped, or worn off. I'd certainly never recommend it, but it's amazing how well paints can stick and work under the right conditions. (I always wondered if the guys renting got their deposit back when the landlords found out about the basement painting when they eventually moved out years later.)

 

[Familyof8kids]

I do agree with Scott,if you are going to apply multiple coats maybe you should check some other options. I disagree that rustoleum pro is implied to be latex paint? It's a great product for home garage and should not be bashed by guys trying to sell Cadillac floor coatings.

So are you suggesting another member of this site to install a non Cadillac floor? I am not selling anything and cannot tell another person to purchase something that is only 70% of what they are paying. If you install Rustoleum Professional it is only 70% solids so that means 30% of your money evaporates into the air.

Will you send me $100 and I will mail you back $70?

Cadillac floors are for anyone that wants a 100% solids floor. Hers is a question for ya why does Rustoleum not have a rep on here to guide people toward pre and post purchases?

 

[dandan111]

What ever dude.

 

[Atamido]

@Familyof8kids:
I enjoyed your very detailed experience that you posted doing your own garage. I really did learn a lot from it. I really hope to be able to take some good pictures too so that maybe others are also helped by what I do.

Saying that you're throwing away $30 to evaporation isn't really fair. For $300 I can get 6 gallons of the Rust-Oleum, which is 70% solids by volume. That comes out to $72/gal of solids. The Epoxy-Coat is $250 for 3 gallons of 100% solids, which comes out to $84/gal of solids. So even though you're getting less solids per gallon purchased, you're still getting more solids.

What really interests me in the Rus-Oleum is that because it's only 70% solids, it should flow more easily and so should be easier to apply. That would remove any needs for a primer coat. You, on the other hand, simply purchased another product with a lower percentage of solids to use as a primer that would flow easily into and fill the concrete before you applied the thicker Epoxy-Coat. My problem with that is I am extremely wary of mixing two types of epoxy in an untested manner as there could be any sort of unknown side effects. (I realize the chances are low, but the effects could be big.)

I would guess that for a company the size Rust-Oleum they depend on mass and inertia to carry them through with lower profit margins, rather than providing personalized service like a forum rep. Paying someone to post in forums and increase sales by 200 units a year when there's only a $10 profit margin doesn't make immediate financial sense. (Of course long term goodwill can count for quite a bit more, but just try to convince the bean counters of that.) That is generally the case for companies over a certain size. It's one of the reasons that going with a smaller company can be such a good thing.

 

[Familyof8kids]

Thanks for the kind feedback on my floor journey.

Not to high jack this posting and I cannot reflect on Rust in the professional version but can compare it to my Primer coat I did last week using PPG 53% solids epoxy and I cannot even begin to explain the big difference in installation or finish quality. I would never do multiple coats of my primer epoxy and then say it was better than one coat of 100% solids I did. If you have never used 100% epoxy then no way can you compare numbers or hear say. I have applied both a Cadillac 100% floor and non Cadillac 50% floor and these % numbers are not real in the real world.

I am glad you had a positive outcome with your floor as many have done the same with Rust Pro.

 

[drinkmoresake]

Atimado,

I am not a pro installer but I would say that you need to make sure the floor is 100% dry if you are only able to wait 24 hrs after the final rinsing. Perhaps you could increase the wife’s patience with flowers?

For the clear, I used 1 kit (which yields 1 gal of mixed material) for each coat. So I think you should be able to get by with 1 ½ kits per coat. The stuff is pretty thin and it goes a long way.

After doing some research on anti-slip options I decided the Shark Grip was best for me. Based on what I read I was a little concerned about the potential downside (rough on the skin, hard to clean, etc) of other anti-slip additives. The Shark Grip does not feel hard on the skin, it is easy to clean, and I could not slip on my floor if I tried. I am sure there are MANY different opinions about which anti-slip is best, but this is what worked for me.

 

[Jim B]

+1 for more dry time. I finished an epoxy job on my 750 sqft garage 2 weeks ago. I acid etched AND pressure washed and 24 hours after the final wash the humidity in the closed garage had to be nearly 100% (30% outside). That slab was really wet. I let it dry 2 weeks in 90 deg, low humidity weather and applied a primer under the epoxy and a polyurethane top coat.

You need the spiked shoes for broadcasting the chips as you should throw the chips straight up in the air and let them float down on the floor.

For what it's worth I used products from Legacy Industial and was pleased with the results.

 

[Garage Flooring]

+1 for more dry time. I finished an epoxy job on my 750 sqft garage 2 weeks ago. I acid etched AND pressure washed and 24 hours after the final wash the humidity in the closed garage had to be nearly 100% (30% outside). That slab was really wet. I let it dry 2 weeks in 90 deg, low humidity weather and applied a primer under the epoxy and a polyurethane top coat.

You need the spiked shoes for broadcasting the chips as you should throw the chips straight up in the air and let them float down on the floor.

For what it's worth I used products from Legacy Industial and was pleased with the results.

I honestly do not think I have ever seen a post from a customer of Scotty that was not happy.

 

[Jim B]

I honestly do not think I have ever seen a post from a customer of Scotty that was not happy.

Great products! Great customer service! Go figure.

 

[Garage Flooring]

Great products! Great customer service! Go figure.

Agreed!

 

[Atamido]

@Jim B:
What brand of epoxy and polyurethane did you use?

 

[Garage Flooring]

I believe the quote below answers your question about what Jim B used. Legacy Industrial products http://legacyindustrial.net/cart/

+1 for more dry time. I finished an epoxy job on my 750 sqft garage 2 weeks ago. I acid etched AND pressure washed and 24 hours after the final wash the humidity in the closed garage had to be nearly 100% (30% outside). That slab was really wet. I let it dry 2 weeks in 90 deg, low humidity weather and applied a primer under the epoxy and a polyurethane top coat.

You need the spiked shoes for broadcasting the chips as you should throw the chips straight up in the air and let them float down on the floor.

For what it's worth I used products from Legacy Industial and was pleased with the results.

 

[Atamido]

I believe the quote below answers your question about what Jim B used. Legacy Industrial products http://legacyindustrial.net/cart/

Sorry, I meant what model, not what brand.

 

[Atamido]

Found this comment about where to stop at the lip of the garage. I'd seen the same advice elsewhere, but this explains it better.

I recently applied epoxy on my garage floor and my lip (outside of my overhead garage door and to the end of my slab) of my garage turned yellow; what happened and what can I do to fix it?

The outside lip of the garage floor turned yellow because epoxy is not UV resistant. Direct sunlight will yellow or discolor an epoxy over time. By using a UV resistant coating such as a urethane, it will hold up longer to the elements of sunlight. Even a urethane will yellow in certain parts of the country. The photo below is from a home in Florida that had used a urethane clear topcoat. We do not recommend using an epoxy on any exterior surface.
...
Tape where the garage door comes down so the coating/flakes aren’t visible on the outside while the garage door is closed. It’s recommended to do this not only because the colors may not match the outside of the house but because the UV-Rays of the sun tend to discolor the coating. The urethane clearcoat will help keep it from discoloring from the UV rays and the elements, but only to a certain extent. The thin coat of protective urethane will not prevent the colored basecoat epoxy from discoloring, it will only slow the process down. After you tape a line from where the garage door comes down, apply your primer coat (peel tape off when wet) then once dry reapply your tape. Apply your basecoat and color chips (peel tape off when wet) and allow to dry. Do not tape off again, instead when you apply your clearcoat to the entire floor, extending beyond the area where you have taped off. This will seal the edge of the coating in and give the lip of the garage a wet look.

I'm in Texas, and the garage faces West so it's likely to get some pretty harsh sun. I think I'll follow this advice and epoxy to the door, and clear coat the last little bit to the driveway.

 

[Roger555]

^^^

I havent dont my epoxy yet, hopefully this weekend if the weather holds out. However from all i've read yes definitely do not extend the epoxy out past the garage door but why even extend the clear risking premature failure? I cut a line in the floor right before the door seal inside the garage. The epoxy can be applied right up to and sightly inside the cut, this eliminates any weak "edge" you might get from taping.

 

[2001RedCoupeBandit]

I am getting this done with Rustoleum in a few days (660 sq ft, 3 car garage). Just posted a thread in this section. What color are you using?

Tan or Gray and why?

I am nto sure what to pick myself. I am paying $865 for the job, and $1,000 to put double thick polyurathane top coat on day 2.

Good Luck!

 

[Atamido]

@Roger555:
In my head I'm imagining that the seal between the garage door and painted surface will be much better than the garage door and concrete. That should hopefully reduce any chance of leakage underneath, but I don't know that it matters. At least if it yellows at all over concrete, it won't be that noticeable. I do like the groove, but I'd have to go out and rent the tools to do that, and that'd just be one more dent in the budget.


@2001RedCoupeBandit:
I didn't pick tan or red because my wife insisted that it not stand out so much. She liked the light gray because it looked like regular concrete, but preferred the look of the dark gray. I also preferred the darker gray, so I think that is what we will go with given the two options. (Left to my own devices I would be tempted to go with the red.)

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

^^^

I havent dont my epoxy yet, hopefully this weekend if the weather holds out. However from all i've read yes definitely do not extend the epoxy out past the garage door but why even extend the clear risking premature failure? I cut a line in the floor right before the door seal inside the garage. The epoxy can be applied right up to and sightly inside the cut, this eliminates any weak "edge" you might get from taping.

]

Way to do it right!!

 

[rugerlady]

@Familyof8kids:
Saying that you're throwing away $30 to evaporation isn't really fair. For $300 I can get 6 gallons of the Rust-Oleum, which is 70% solids by volume. That comes out to $72/gal of solids. The Epoxy-Coat is $250 for 3 gallons of 100% solids, which comes out to $84/gal of solids. So even though you're getting less solids per gallon purchased, you're still getting more solids.

What really interests me in the Rus-Oleum is that because it's only 70% solids, it should flow more easily and so should be easier to apply. That would remove any needs for a primer coat. You, on the other hand, simply purchased another product with a lower percentage of solids to use as a primer that would flow easily into and fill the concrete before you applied the thicker Epoxy-Coat. My problem with that is I am extremely wary of mixing two types of epoxy in an untested manner as there could be any sort of unknown side effects. (I realize the chances are low, but the effects could be big.)

You should also look at the data sheet. The strength of our product and its durability cannot be compared to the water based types.

 

[Jim B]

@Jim B:
What brand of epoxy and polyurethane did you use?

All the products I used where from Legacy Industrial. I figured that way I knew they were compatible. I started with HD-821 Gel Crack Sealant to seal the joints. Next I applied their Pigmented Primer. I used Med. Grey to contrast against the light grey color coat so I could see where I was applying the color coat. Still got one holiday about an inch square. Next was their HD Garage System epoxy in light grey with system #2 chips. I used the chips in two 300 sq foot kits plus most of another 2 pounds. And finally covered the whole thing with HD-356VOC Urethane Clearcoat.

If I were to do it again I would hire someone to grind or shot blast the floor just because of the amount of effort involved in trying to get a good profile. That's the whole thing. Applying the epoxy is easy.

 

[Roger555]

that's what I thought too but i also thought overtime the door seal might mark up the epoxy so I decided to put this down

www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00008WFT7/ref=redir_mdp_mobile?redirect=true&ref_=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

@Roger555:
In my head I'm imagining that the seal between the garage door and painted surface will be much better than the garage door and concrete. That should hopefully reduce any chance of leakage underneath, but I don't know that it matters. At least if it yellows at all over concrete, it won't be that noticeable. I do like the groove, but I'd have to go out and rent the tools to do that, and that'd just be one more dent in the budget.


@2001RedCoupeBandit:
I didn't pick tan or red because my wife insisted that it not stand out so much. She liked the light gray because it looked like regular concrete, but preferred the look of the dark gray. I also preferred the darker gray, so I think that is what we will go with given the two options. (Left to my own devices I would be tempted to go with the red.)

 

[Atamido]

You should also look at the data sheet. The strength of our product and its durability cannot be compared to the water based types.

Agreed. Although in this case the Rust-Oleum Epoxy Shield Professional is solvent based, not water based. I was just making the point that solely using a % solids statistic was not a basis for declaring an epoxy better/worse in comparisons of cost (or performance).

Epoxy-Coat may be a far better product in every way, I don't know. But if there are any studies that have been performed, I would love to see them.

 

[dmeadow]

All the products I used where from Legacy Industrial. I figured that way I knew they were compatible. I started with HD-821 Gel Crack Sealant to seal the joints. Next I applied their Pigmented Primer. I used Med. Grey to contrast against the light grey color coat so I could see where I was applying the color coat. Still got one holiday about an inch square. Next was their HD Garage System epoxy in light grey with system #2 chips. I used the chips in two 300 sq foot kits plus most of another 2 pounds. And finally covered the whole thing with HD-356VOC Urethane Clearcoat.

If I were to do it again I would hire someone to grind or shot blast the floor just because of the amount of effort involved in trying to get a good profile. That's the whole thing. Applying the epoxy is easy.

Jim, this is pretty much exactly what I'm planning to do. Do you have pics or a thread somewhere that shows your process and/or results? Thanks!

 

[Atamido]

I started with HD-821 Gel Crack Sealant to seal the joints.

I hadn't seen this mentioned before, and hadn't thought about it. Is it necessary to seal any joints in the concrete before applying epoxy?

 

[Atamido]

They put up the sheetrock and painted in the garage, and I have a few concerns.

1. You can see some paint splattered on the edges of the concrete. It doesn't completely cover the concrete and the edge isn't going to be seeing much stress. Should I be worried about cleaning it off before I epoxy?

2. It's difficult to see in the picture, but the sheetrock hangs out over the concrete a little. There's also almost an inch between the bottom of the sheetrock and the top of the concrete. If it were recessed a little then I could put of edging there and call it a day. But as it is, I'm not really sure what to do to make it look nice. Ideas?

 

[rklindb]

All my ideas and thoughts at once -

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=151298

 

[Atamido]

It's been 1 year and 8 months since I've done my garage floor with epoxy

I really wish I had taken the time to respond before now when everything was fresh in my mind. I also wish I'd taken some pictures, but I was in a hurry. We moved in, and I think I etched the first night, waited a day or two to dry, and then started epoxy. Between work, school, and trying to move, it was a rush. But here it is, broken into parts:


What I bought:

I went with the Rust-Oleum Epoxy Shield product, and largely followed the same path as drinkmoresake. I purchased 5 kits of "Epoxy Shield Professional Semi-gloss Dark Gray Floor Coating Kit" online from HD. All of the boxes arrived damaged with most of them leaking epoxy from one part or another. By mixing/matching kits I was able to get 3 complete kits, and exchange the other two at the store. Each kit was rated for 300-400sqft or 250sqft. The HD website was inconsistent in this. It was a $100 kit, so I think was supposed to be 1gal to cover 250sqft.

For the top coat, I used Rust-Oleum EPOXYSHIELD Premium Clear Coating. I don't recall exactly how much clear coat I used as I just purchased it in the store, but I would guess two kits.

For anti-slip I purchased the H&C Sharkgrip. I was going to order it online, but was walking through Lowes and spotted it in a 16oz container for $6.

Flakes... I had notes and stuff, and now most of it's been lost. We wanted glow in the dark flakes because we thought it would be fun and useful (when the light turns off). It turns out that actually tracking down glow in the dark flakes is a PITA because places that used to sell them no longer do. We ended up getting a pound of glow in the dark, and another of UV reflective that would light up under a blacklight. The place I purchased the glow in the dark doesn't appear to sell them anymore, and I can't track down an email receipt for the UV reflective. But it was $35 shipped for a pound of glow. The glow flakes were listed as "1LB Pack Glow in the Dark Blue 1/16". As it turns out, 1/16th is code for "dust".

 

[Atamido]

Steps to complete:

1. Washed the floor with a hose and broom, and tried to use a scraper to get any globs of dripped paint

2. I etched using acid I purchased at Home Depot. Muriatic acid, I believe. I've used it before, but forgot just how dangerous the fumes were. It was a 3 car garage with two doors, and even with both doors open it was essentially run in and out while holding my breath. Hold breath, run in, poor some acid, swish it around on the floor with a broom, run out, and breath.

3. Washed out the floor again to remove the grit left over from etching.

4. Waited maybe a day for the floor? Maybe more? My memory is terrible. I filled several minor imperfection holes in the concrete with Quikrete Concrete Repair of some type that came in a squeeze tube, like a small think of caulking. It was gritty, and dried just a little rubbery. I didn't realize how it dried until later, and I was worried the flexibility of it would result in epoxy cracking, but I've had zero issues.

5. Waited a day (or so). I applied 3 kits worth of epoxy for the first coat, using the large extra thick roller. I believe it was an 18"x3/4" purple roller from HD. The handle for it was a heavy duty extendable metal handle that I was very pleased with. I taped off the edges of the walls/door and at the bottom of the lip at the entrance to the garage. My brother and wife used brushes to paint into the corners along the walls where the roller wouldn't reach, while I rolled.

6. Waited a day. The two remaining kits were applied for the second coat. The bare concrete definitely soaked up more epoxy on the first coat, so the second coat when much further and seemed to go on thicker, despite using less epoxy. While I was applying second, the wife walked around on some similarly homemade spike shoes throwing flakes up into the air on areas I'd just completed. That way she could decide how thickly she wanted it applied. There is definitely a technique to throwing it, and it took her about a third of the way before she really had it down. The flakes were mixed by just mixing all of our flakes into a bucket, and then separating it into smaller ziplock bags so that the ratios would be similar.

7. Waited a day. Used a broom to sweep off any loose flakes. Discovered that I'd misses ~2sqft section of second coat, so the flakes were just sitting there and were swept right off. That spot looked really funny at that point. Mixed in a small amount of the Sharkgrip into the clear coat. Spread the clear coat on nice and quick. The clear coat was much thinner and applied much easier. It was trickiest to make sure it was evenly applied everywhere. On the bare spot I went over it real quick with some clear coat, spread some flakes onto it, went on to other areas, and then went back over the flakes. At this point I can't identify exactly where that was, so yay.

8. Waited 2 weeks before starting to park on it.

 

[Atamido]

What I would have done differently:

1. I should have just purchased a decent breathing mask to apply the etching acid. I risked damaging my breathway and it took much longer.

2. I liked that the 18" roller covered more area with each stroke, but with how sticky the epoxy was it took a lot of effort to move it back and forth. A normal 9" roller may be a better choice for some (maybe for me). Also I'm not sure that the thicker 3/4" fuzz was useful as the epoxy was probably too think to absorb into the roller much usefully. And the longer fuzz make more area to stick to when rolling.

3. It was difficult for me to estimate just how much epoxy I needed to pour on each area (I'm a terrible estimator). I'm not sure how to fix this or do this differently, but I feel like I should mention that I wasn't really certain it was a completely even coating.

4. I just used flip flops, but I accidentally stepped onto the epoxy a few times and got epoxy on my flipflops. The flip flops started to stick too much, so I went barefoot, and then some epoxy got on my feet. I wish I'd started off with spike shoes because then I got some little bits of epoxy on the driveway when trying to get away from the garage. That stuff does not come off your driveway... (even tried epoxy removed from Rust-Oleum)

5. Mixing the flakes should have gone differently. We had no idea how many flakes we'd need, but the flakes that came with the kits were ~10x too much. Because we divided up the glow in the dark stuff evenly with those flakes, there isn't nearly as much on the garage floor as we'd like. If I could do it over again, I'd leave out most of the kit flakes, and mix a small portion to see how it looked first. We could have spread it onto the dry first coat, and swept it up afterwards once we knew what we liked and knew how much we'd need. I still have a ton of these flakes left over that I don't know what to do with. Anyone want to buy mixed bags of regular/UV/glow flakes?

6. Should have started throwing flakes in the corner of the garage I knew would be covered in shelves and such. Then by the point she got to where we'd be walking all of the time it'd be more even.

7. I should have ordered the smaller size of Sharkgrip online because I couldn't figure out a good way to measure out the much smaller amount that I needed at the time. I think that I totally under used it, and there could definitely be more grip when wet.

8. At one point right where we walk, there is a pool of clear coat. It's not super obvious unless you're at a place where the light is reflecting off of it. In my attempts to make sure the vertical part of the ledge to the raised back area was properly covered, I put too much clear coat on the vertical part. I didn't look at it again, but the clear coat ran down and pooled in one spot. Even though it isn't visible all of the time, it's deep enough that the chips don't reach through at all so it's perfectly smooth. If it gets wet, it's dangerous.

9. The clear coat leaked under the tape at the front of the garage. The epoxy was fine, but the clear coat appeared to have wicked itself underneath the blue painters tape I used. I should have been more careful to make sure the tape was as sealed as possible, and then probably sealed the edge with the thicker gray epoxy when painting so that the clear coat couldn't have gotten through.