Garage Flooring
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Unfortunately I can't yet share job pics or specifics here... This is one of those things as a distributor you think is clear and you think people understand and then you have it come up on a project and you find yourself explaining it all over again.
When you have a look at thickness specifications for standard flake, such as Torginol, you are dealing with a piece of material that is 4-5 Mils (4-5/1000ths) thick. http://www.torginol.com/pdf/cf_pds.pdf
Next You have a look at the urethane that is being applied over top of the flake. Look at the mil thickness of the urethane and look at how it varies with how far you spread it. Obviously DFT is going to be different on every urethane depending on the percentage of solids, coverage, etc. This is just an example.
Now, when you do a GOOD job broadcasting flake, you do not go too heavy, you get them to set in wet epoxy and you use a reasonable method to scuff up flake that has not adhered or is at a bad angle.... You are going to end up with a decent floor, decent texture, and relative uniformity -- assuming you do not spread the urethane to thin.
Now take this same project, broadcast the flake to heavy, into semi-cured base coat, and don't remove flakes that are top of each other and at weird angles. Not stuck to the base coat, there simply is not enough thickness in the urethane to compensate. You end up with a rough texture and the floor looks dull in some areas and not others. In extreme cases, the urethane has so much more surface area to cover that it gets spread to thin and you can have abnormalities in how it looks. Full broadcast floor.... Multiple coats of urethane every time.
To some extent flakes effect the total area you are covering.... It was very easy to explain back when I was in the roof coatings industry and I think that example will help. Lets say you have a corrugated metal roof. if you measure the front of it lets say its 10' and lets say the side is 20'. You order enough to cover 200 square feet. You will run short each and every time. Now you take a string and run it over the pattern of the roof panel and you realize that with all the ups and downs it takes 13' of string to go across that 10' roof. so you order 260 Sq. Ft. worth of material and you are dead on.
To a lesser extent this is true with flake. It changes the total surface area and you have to account for that.
When you have a look at thickness specifications for standard flake, such as Torginol, you are dealing with a piece of material that is 4-5 Mils (4-5/1000ths) thick. http://www.torginol.com/pdf/cf_pds.pdf
Next You have a look at the urethane that is being applied over top of the flake. Look at the mil thickness of the urethane and look at how it varies with how far you spread it. Obviously DFT is going to be different on every urethane depending on the percentage of solids, coverage, etc. This is just an example.
Now, when you do a GOOD job broadcasting flake, you do not go too heavy, you get them to set in wet epoxy and you use a reasonable method to scuff up flake that has not adhered or is at a bad angle.... You are going to end up with a decent floor, decent texture, and relative uniformity -- assuming you do not spread the urethane to thin.
Now take this same project, broadcast the flake to heavy, into semi-cured base coat, and don't remove flakes that are top of each other and at weird angles. Not stuck to the base coat, there simply is not enough thickness in the urethane to compensate. You end up with a rough texture and the floor looks dull in some areas and not others. In extreme cases, the urethane has so much more surface area to cover that it gets spread to thin and you can have abnormalities in how it looks. Full broadcast floor.... Multiple coats of urethane every time.
To some extent flakes effect the total area you are covering.... It was very easy to explain back when I was in the roof coatings industry and I think that example will help. Lets say you have a corrugated metal roof. if you measure the front of it lets say its 10' and lets say the side is 20'. You order enough to cover 200 square feet. You will run short each and every time. Now you take a string and run it over the pattern of the roof panel and you realize that with all the ups and downs it takes 13' of string to go across that 10' roof. so you order 260 Sq. Ft. worth of material and you are dead on.
To a lesser extent this is true with flake. It changes the total surface area and you have to account for that.
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