Floor Epoxy job didn't go so well...

[Chris Adams]

Put in a Costco epoxy floor. The 240 buck stuff from their website.
Not happy with it, but I don't ‘blame the maker.

Because of circumstances beyond my control I had to jam this through on one Sunday morning. The floor had been prepped already, but with three days left before I HAD to use the shop for emergency storage (this was during the California wild fires and I had family evacuating to my location.
I was forced to put the two kits down at one time.
Problem one; The DVD suggested that you ‘fix’ the cuts in the concrete before putting it down. I had intended to put it down, then put something along the lines of caulk (the DAP concrete caulk) after the epoxy. The DVD says no, so I put the DAP in on Saturday morning.
I HATE that stuff. It had NO self-leveling characteristics at ALL. You could sculpt the statue of liberty out of it, with the torch held high, no problem. It sticks to itself, so it gets everywhere.
Again, NO SELF LEVELING. Regular cheap (1.78 a tube) caulk self levels, this stuff doesn’t. I used 8 tubes to poorly fill 75 feet of cut. I also filled 50 feet with nylon rope in lieu of backer rod , something you can’t get locally in anything but tiny quantities and at higher cost than the filler.
So since I had zero time left, Sunday morning I was out there at 5 AM to beat the heat. Day was forecast at 106 (never broke 104, but that was the smoke helping keep the sun at bay).
The floor temperature was 65 degrees, the air 78, and climbing like a rocket so I had to move way too fast. It may not be cooler for 60 days, or it may cool down next week, but no help with the time constraint.
My help didn't materialize.
My backup help didn't materialize, but since they were evacuating, that was sort of expected.
OK, it's only 660 square feet of concrete and heck, I have more than an hour…
Problem two; When the stuff poured it was like water. Which means it ran down and into the cuts, under the wood, past the tape (I stupidly used the tape they recommended, the blue). Never again. The blue *****.
So the stuff is running like water, no way to properly cut it in. I should have mixed a smaller amount but the time was disappearing like you wouldn't believe.
Problem three; My homemade spike shoe breaks right then. Tape broke, gorilla tape, didn't expect that.
I didn't build them, my sister and wife made them the night before while I attended to another job. The bottoms worked great, OSB cut to shoe shape, with about fifty nails in each shoe, but the tape was shoddy.
So I'm hurrying like crazy, taping the shoe with epoxy on my hand, no time to clean it up. Bad error.
Problem four; once you get epoxy on your hand (don't bother asking about the shredding gloves included…) you can NOT handle the long pole for the squeegee or the paint roller without making a worse mess. So why worry about a little epoxy on your hands? Because you CAN'T scatter the flakes or the aluminum oxide with epoxy on your hands. Here is where the ‘seed spreader’ would be nice. It failed, right on the first application. Thanks Home Depot.
Now no spreader, sticky hands and the stuff is hardening so fast it doesn’t want to roll.
Now I was forced to use a 12 inch head with an 9 inch roller. Why forced? Because in a city of 1.2 million you can't buy a 12 inch roller short nape. You can buy an 18 inch roller short nape, you just can't buy an 18 inch wide roller head of any sort.
Sherwin Williams had the coarse nape, with no idea where to buy an 18 inch anything.
HD and Lowes both had 18 inch short nape rollers but no idea where to get an 18 inch wide head, or anything like it.
Everyone was sure you could get it at the next place. My wife called twenty one places, up to 50 mile away. Two could order it, but no place would guarantee it within two weeks…
This was three days out. Who knew an 18 inch roller was almost impossible to buy? I didn't, so I didn't order one weeks earlier.
So with the short nape sliding back and forth on the long head, well, rolling wasn't fun, neat or effective.
I used pliers to bend the metal tongs to hold it better, but it worked about as poorly as you would expect.
So the flakes made a mess, the aluminum oxide is ‘poorly distributed which means lumps and missed areas.
The second batch went down after it was too hot.
Started putting it down at 7 am.
If I could have stopped at the first it would have been OK, but it wasn't really an option by then.
Second batch was starting to harden as I spread it. Air temperature in the mid 80’s, floor up to the mid 70’s. Too hot.
Way too hot, I don't care what the instructions say.
It was cooking off as I dumped it from the bucket. Spreading it was harder than the first batch. Rolling it didn't work. It would harden between quick strokes. Finished by 7:30.
So net result, 700 bucks down for a floor that is too slippery in areas, and not cosmetic at all. That is, there are about five really bad patches of too many flakes. Some areas are not rolled worth a darn as the stuff hardened with grooves from the squeegee in the epoxy.
And a big patch of aluminum oxide where the seed spreader dumped it.
Worked perfectly in the test, then the little plastic doohickey inside stuck and it dumped the stuff on the ground, about a third of a patch in about ten square inches. HD took it back, ‘gee, sorry about that’…

It went on too thick in places, especially over the cuts in the floor. I expected to be able to paint it on. It was more like pouring honey or molasses down. You don’t ‘paint’ molasses.
I was able to not touch it for two days, at which time the epoxy was still soft in places. Notice, it hardened to not movable in minutes, but didn’t reach full strength in two days of triple digit heat.
Third day I had to fill it with evacuated household items.
If I had it to do over, I would have bought the cheaper stuff from HD, the solvent based. It paints on, so you can control it, you can do sections at a time. The 100% stuff is way too thick, and has way too little pot life. It is runny when you pour it, but then hard to move when it is down for a few seconds. I think if the floor and air temps had been much lower, say 52 and 65, it would have worked better. The breaking shoe was devastating as it broke exactly at the wrong time, and the breaking seed spreader was beyond awful .

 

[drsifu]

sounds like time to re-do the floor.

if you need to get supplies, flooramerica has everything you need.

website is not that great, but you can look for what you need and than call them up.

great group of people out there.

 

[chevelle67]

Sounds like its time to make a form around the perimeter and have the redimix truck come with enough to make the floor 2" thicker!

 

[Jaguar Fan]

Wow. There are times when *everything* goes wrong (although I only thought that type of bad luck happens to me). Look, no one died, so it was just a bad day.

You can't change the past, but could you have put down big tarps to protect the floor & let your family move their stuff in on top of the tarp -- and epoxy sometime in the future?

 

[Chris Adams]

This post was from weeks ago. Some reason it didn't propagate through the system. I reposted it, mostly as a warning of what can and will go wrong while doing these jobs.

Usually the posts are about when everything went right, or almost right.

When it doesn't go right, most the guys stay mum, leaving people reading the threads with the impression that it works for everyone.

Or someone posts saying they had problems, two years ago, and doesn't get specific.

On specifics;
The job had to be done then, it was done, and I have to live with the consequences of the problems.
The problems boil down to cosmetics. I certainly won't waste money fixing stripping the floor, then re-coating it.
I did consider putting a top coating on it, to cover the patches of too much flake and too much aluminum oxide, but frankly, I have better things to do with my time and resources than throw good money after bad.

On the plus side, I do have the floor coated, and with a thick layer of epoxy. It is easy to sweep, warmer on bare feet and less prone to divots.
Liquid spills clean right up, a real improvement.

 

[Treeman]

"The job had to be done then"

Why? I have delayed similar jobs for a year or more (and it was misery), but when completed, I then enjoyed them for the next dozens of years.

Thanks for your honesty and sharing how not to do a floor.....really.....we all learn from each other.

 

[AlphaGarage]

Thanks for sharing your experiences - the good, bad, and ugly.

A lot of the issues seem to be a result of rushing the process, something I'm also familiar with. I've had my share of projects where looking back I wish I had taken a few minutes to double check something. Here it sounds like there were factors that didn't allow for a lot of time, In my case I'm just impatient. With a product like an epoxy coating you pretty much get one shot at it - so allow time to make that shot a good one.


It's also important to realize that epoxies are not like paint, when paint transitions from a liquid to that nice color coating on the wall, there's not much going on there - basically just a liquid evaporating. When epoxies components are combined, and as they cure, there is a lot of stuff happening. Chemical reactions that have a wide range of variance, not just for different products, but even for the same product. Ambient temperature, mix speed and duration, underlying substrate, etc. That makes it difficult, impossible, to know up front exactly how the process will unfold. An epoxy may take just 4 hours to become tack free one day, but 6 hours the next. So you should leave yourself enough time to account for the unexpected.

Although 2 days for that epoxy to harden is too long, thankfully it sounds like it eventually did cure.

That also means you can't assume that just because epoxy brand A is difficult to spread, epoxy brand B will be equally difficult. Different manufacturers add different materials into the mix, sometimes because of costs, sometimes because of know-how, and sometime because of technical limitations.

 

[Chris Adams]

"The job had to be done then"

Why? I have delayed similar jobs for a year or more (and it was misery), but when completed, I then enjoyed them for the next dozens of years.

Thanks for your honesty and sharing how not to do a floor.....really.....we all learn from each other.

Made it clearer in my first post, which vanished into post limbo...


In real life you sometimes have deadlines.
Guys posting on the Internet can easily scoff at why someone has to get something done in a certain time frame but often you don't get to set your schedule according to the way you want to do it.
Which is why it often doesn't pay to post about anything that doesn't work perfectly, as you will be attacked by guys who 'know it all' and NEVER have anything go wrong.
At least, in their Internet persona...


Circumstances forced my hand that week.

If I had delayed I would have had to cancel the job.

I could have received a refund on the materials and returned the tools but I took a shot at it rather than give up.

The floor is actually very functional, but I doubt it will last many years. The cosmetic problems are just that, cosmetic.

 

[Chris Adams]

Thanks for sharing your experiences - the good, bad, and ugly.

A lot of the issues seem to be a result of rushing the process, something I'm also familiar with. I've had my share of projects where looking back I wish I had taken a few minutes to double check something. Here it sounds like there were factors that didn't allow for a lot of time, In my case I'm just impatient. With a product like an epoxy coating you pretty much get one shot at it - so allow time to make that shot a good one.


It's also important to realize that epoxies are not like paint, when paint transitions from a liquid to that nice color coating you wall, there's not much going on there - basically just a liquid evaporating. When epoxies components are combined, and as they cure, there is a lot of stuff happening. Chemical reactions that have a wide range of variance, not just for different products, but even for the same product. Ambient temperature, mix speed and duration, underlying substrate, etc. That makes it difficult, impossible, to know up front exactly how the process will unfold. An epoxy may take just 4 hours to become tack free one day, but 6 hours the next. So you should leave yourself enough time to account for the unexpected.

Although 2 days for that epoxy to harden is too long, thankfully it sounds like it eventually did cure.

That also means you can't assume that just because epoxy brand A is difficult to spread, epoxy brand B will be equally difficult. Different manufacturers add different materials into the mix, sometimes because of costs, sometimes because of know-how, and sometime because of technical limitations.

Something that struck both me and my wife was the way the second batch of epoxy 'cooked' so fast compared to the first.

The first one we had plenty of time.

The second, mixed less than an hour later, mixed the same way with the same tools, cooked twice as fast.

My first thoughts were ' well, it was hotter then' which it was, but not that much. I wonder if I would have had less problems if I had done the two buckets in reverse order?

Seriously, I wonder if the batches were that much different?

They had very different codes on them. The color match seems OK, you can't see a difference where I started to use the second batch.

I don't think more time or care would have prevented the seed spreader from coming apart on the second batch. I had tested it twice.
The tape failing did take me by surprise. I should have tested the shoes the night before but frankly I was too dang busy to get to it.
And the patch job with the tape held perfectly, from the same role of tape. Why did one wrap just plain come off, the next, from the same role held till we tossed the shoes...

Faulty equipment can screw up any job, but I do think that if I hadn't been under such time constraints that it would have ended better.
Time to test the shoes.
Would not have thought to test the rubber gloves, which just plain shredded. These came with the kit. I have lots of other gloves, but with epoxy on my hands I couldn't put them on, even if I had had time to find them (everything was in boxes, etc).

So comedy of errors, but what the heck, the floor is covered, and it works.

Love sweeping up or wiping up messes on the epoxy.
Also cool when you have to sit your **** on the floor. Much nicer than concrete for scooting around on while working on something.

 

[Treeman]

My apologies Chris. It was not my intention to come across as a scoffing, attacking, perfect know it all. And certainly not to be judgemental.

I have enough "learning experiences" to fill a book. And don't let the professionals say they don't have boo boos either. Most recently I had to paint a truck hood three times and late last fall (winter approaching), my last chance deck staining gamble on a 40% chance of rain day.....well, I was 60% wrong.

Over my many years of diy, I have concluded that if you "do" stuff, sometimes it's not perfect.

I thought the previous tarp suggestion was good and I didn't comprehend that your time constraints were not negotiable (you left us hanging there...and it's not any of our business anyway).

Again, I reemphasize that your post is about us sharing and learning. And, I am going to stick my neck out here and say that rescheduling a job is not the same as giving up, and is sometimes the wise thing to do IF THAT IS FEASIBLE....in your case, not.

I have felt the pain of projects gone awry many times. Best Regards.

 

[AlphaGarage]

Murphy's law knows no bounds. Even with the best of plans things can, and will, go wrong.

Quite a few of the members here have posted complete and helpful threads reviewing step by step how they coated their floors, and almost every one has an unexpected hiccup or two.

The key to a successful recovery is being as well prepared as possible.

A few pointers that can help deal with unforeseen "issues"...

First, of course, is to minimize the possibility of them happening. Review and familiarize yourself with all instructions, if something is unclear, ask for help. I think our instructions are good, but it's simply impossible to predict every situation, that's why I think it's extremely helpful to read this forum, especially the threads of those members who have shared thorough details (FFPL, Roger55 come to mind).

Be sure to have plenty of the right materials on hand. Not just the product (epoxies, flakes etc.) but also the sundry items, brushes, rags, mixing containers, gloves etc. During pretty much any home improvement project you don't want to be forced to go to the hardware store in the middle of the project, you especially don't want to go multiple times, and that is even more the case when you're dealing with time sensitive products, like epoxies. And you must, must, have clean up materials available in case of a spill.

Use the right tools for the right jobs. If you need an extra mixing container, have a good one made for mixing, it will have proper quanity amounts indicated on the sides, it will be sturdy, it material should be compatible with the coating products. For example one person used Styrofoam cups to premeasure one component. It wasn't till they went to combine the second small batch that they found out one of the coating components dissolved the bottom of the cup. Not a good discovery on a weekend in the middle of the job.

Likewise those freebie wooden paint mixing sticks simply are not up to the task of mixing thick 2 component coatings.

If you going to use flakes, get some spike shoes. Even with no flakes spikes are a good idea.

Organize your work area. When you mix there's always the chance that there will be some splatter, or worse a spill. Epoxy is tough stuff, and you don't need any landing where you don't want it, so mix on something that you don't mind being epoxied. A drop cloth is nice, but some liquids will seep through them. Use a large piece of thick cardboard, an old sheet of plywood, a big oil drip pan (nice because they have turned up edges). Place the mixing area close to the coating area and out of direct sunlight.

Just put out the materials for the immediate job. If you're going to do the prime coat, only have the BondTite containers in the mixing area. You don't want to accidentally mix the BondTite resin with the LiquaTile hardener.

Do any math before hand - double, triple check. Many time people want to use less than a full kit, sometimes it's unavoidable, not a big deal, but... You want to sit down and carefully map out amounts before hand when things are calm and there's no pressure. If there's more than one component to be combined, make sure you have the correct ratios. Make sure you have an accurate way to measure out the ingredients. Also work out the material per square feet, and pre-mark those areas if needed.

After you've done any math, put it aside. Then check it later with a fresh set of eyes.

When I have some time I'll put together a post of jobs we've had that have gone "south". We've been able to salvage them for the most part, but clearly it would have been far better for all concerned had they stayed on track to begin with.

Again, Murphy will try thwart us all, but knowing where he lurks will help us complete our projects successfully despite his attacks.

 

[floorman007]

Wow you really messed this one up. Sometimes, you have to serve as a warning to others.

Since your garage floor now looks like hell, I wonder if a shot blaster would remove the epoxy?

 

[Tibbo03]

A shot blaster will remove any coating on your floor.

 

[thegarageguy]

A shot blaster will remove any coating on your floor.

Shot blaster don't do so well on existing coatings. A walk behind diamond grinder with PCD's are what is preferred.

 

[nate379]

I'm not really sure I understand the purpose of your post. Are you looking for a hug and pat on the ****?

Sounds like you knew right from the get go you were destined for failure.

I mean thinking about it... garbage in... garbage out. Rush on the prep and application and it's not going to look nice, there isn't any secret there!

I understand time is a luxury that most of us don't have extra. I often wish there were 30 hrs in a day, I didn't need to sleep or I could clone myself.

Understand you only have so much time and other stuff can be more important, but something involved/permanent like doing an epoxy job isn't something I'd want to rush and 1/2 ***.

 

[Chris Adams]

I'm not really sure I understand the purpose of your post. Are you looking for a hug and pat on the ****?

Sounds like you knew right from the get go you were destined for failure.

I mean thinking about it... garbage in... garbage out. Rush on the prep and application and it's not going to look nice, there isn't any secret there!

I understand time is a luxury that most of us don't have extra. I often wish there were 30 hrs in a day, I didn't need to sleep or I could clone myself.

Understand you only have so much time and other stuff can be more important, but something involved/permanent like doing an epoxy job isn't something I'd want to rush and 1/2 ***.

I was posting showing others weak points in the process. As I said...
In the real world sometimes we don't get to pick our times.

One problem with forums like these is nobody posts the problems. Which gives very, VERY false impressions to people reading them.

Like the home improvement shows. They show everything going perfectly, or even if they show problem, Gee, it only takes two minutes to solve it.
Then cut to showing perfectly finished work.

Total BS. Those shows have cost millions of people a LOT of money. I know, I was in 100's of houses where the people were trying to 'Sweat Equity, 'Flip their Houses' and lost their asses.

There is a show 'Renovation Realities' that shows what actually, and usually happens in these jobs.
It serves a needed purpose. While the guys watching can laugh and brag about how they would never make that mistake, in reality they learn more from watching the mistakes than watching the polished phony 'success' stories.

Of course the reason nobody posts when things go wrong is everyone, who of course, NEVER had anything go wrong... posts and digs at them, thus discouraging honest posts.


A little more honest posting about problems and a littles less snide remarks would really improve the forum.

But heck, where would the trolling criticizers go for their ego boost?

 

[rieferman]

I think it's cool Chris - I've admired some of your knowledgable posts on other subjects along the way (I think I even took the time to comment in those threads saying as much) so it's cool to see that someone even with your base of skills makes errors.

The other night I had a fight with a toggle bolt and really butchered some drywall. Successfully got 'er done in the end, and hid the issue, but just between you and me, it was a teense embarassing to eff up something that easy.

 

[sigtauenus]

I was posting showing others weak points in the process. As I said...
In the real world sometimes we don't get to pick our times.

One problem with forums like these is nobody posts the problems. Which gives very, VERY false impressions to people reading them.

Like the home improvement shows. They show everything going perfectly, or even if they show problem, Gee, it only takes two minutes to solve it.
Then cut to showing perfectly finished work.

Total BS. Those shows have cost millions of people a LOT of money. I know, I was in 100's of houses where the people were trying to 'Sweat Equity, 'Flip their Houses' and lost their asses.

There is a show 'Renovation Realities' that shows what actually, and usually happens in these jobs.
It serves a needed purpose. While the guys watching can laugh and brag about how they would never make that mistake, in reality they learn more from watching the mistakes than watching the polished phony 'success' stories.

Of course the reason nobody posts when things go wrong is everyone, who of course, NEVER had anything go wrong... posts and digs at them, thus discouraging honest posts.


A little more honest posting about problems and a littles less snide remarks would really improve the forum.

But heck, where would the trolling criticizers go for their ego boost?

I appreciate your post. I know lots of guys successfully DIY epoxy floors, but I just don't have the time to do it, nor do I want to put in the effort required to make sure it is done right the first time. Actually I do have the time, but I choose to use that time on other endeavors. Your post helped push me in the direction of going a route like racedeck instead for my floor.

 

[thammel]

I like your origianl post also. I'm preparing to epoxy my floor and it's good to hear about potential problems so I can be extra prepared and extra cautious.

One show that was REALLY good about DIY and even "pro" screwups was Holmes on Homes. It's not on anymore here in MD, but I loved Mike Holmes. For those who have seen it, he was the guy we'd all like to come in and do everything right, the first time.

Tom

 

[Chris Adams]

Thanks for all the kind words.

You know, we really do learn more from our mistakes, and honestly, the mistakes of others.

 

[thundercow]

I get to say my line!

"Congratulations, you saved $1500 dollars." Now look where you are.

 

[Shocker]

Thanks for the info Chris.

Lots of A-holes in this thread.

 

[nate379]

Oh yeah... lots of "assholes"

Maybe you live in a different world than I do, but mine isn't all sunshine and rainbows...

 

[floorman007]

Any pictures of the screwed up floor? Maybe its not as bad as you think. I made a few mistakes on my floor and posted a thread of all the problems hopefully to save someone elses ***, but the funny thing is that neighbors look at the floor and think its a perfect & great job -- of course I know where look for the problems. So maybe yours is OK.

 

[Shocker]

Well Nate, I make my own sunshine. I just don't like hearing people telling the OP that he got what he deserved and such. Especially from pro floor installers.

And you do live in Alaska, so the sun just doesn't shine as much part of the year. I live in WA where it rains 9 months out of the year, so, I make my own. You can make your own too!

Or go gay and make rainbows...

 

[Dragster Racer]

Well Nate, I make my own sunshine. I just don't like hearing people telling the OP that he got what he deserved and such. Especially from pro floor installers.


I agree. I don't know what the world not being all sunshine has to do with a few wanting to say "I told you so." I don't know how rubbing the op's nose in it can be at all productive or helpful.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Posts like this are what make this forum useful.

I congratulate the OP on taking the time to make his post.

I've put down epoxy myself, a long time ago, and it's not an easy thing to do.

Phil

 

[nate379]

I missed the part about the Kali wildfires thing, so makes more sense to me now... my apologies on that.

If you can paint a wall you can put down epoxy, though it does take time and I'm sure the more floors you do, the better and faster you are at it, though that pretty much applies to anything done by a pro vs a first time DIYer.

I priced out a pro job and they wanted something around $6.25 a sq ft if I remember right, which was somewhere around $4000 for my garage. Completely out of my budget. I did it myself for about $400 all said and done.

I sent pictures to my folks who live in Maine and my Dad liked it enough that he did one if his garages about a month ago.

 

[thegarageguy]

If you can paint a wall you can put down epoxy

I beg to differ. Our business is much more complicated than just rolling on some cheap paint

I priced out a pro job and they wanted something around $6.25 a sq ft, which was somewhere around $4000 for my garage. I did it myself for about $400 all said and done.

Your $400 dollar job can't compare with a $4g job or at least something like I do for 4 grand. I understand that $400 makes sense for you but don't compare the two. NO offense, but Its like comparing Mercedes Benz and a Yugo. The 2 may have 4 wheels, guzzle gas and get you from point A to point B, but there are clear differences in the 2.

 

[Chris Adams]

If it had been 4000 I wouldn't have done it, not a chance. That is for guys who want to show off their floor.
I don't.
I just wanted a better, cleaner, work surface.

Spending 4k for that would have been stupid in the extreme for me and my use. I work on cars for fun, not profit.
I tinker in the shop, no back end at all.


That's like comparing a big SnapOn chest vs. a Craftsman homeowner box.
You don't 'make the choice' the choices are obvious.

10 times the cost means different target customers, as any business man should understand.

To make it more 'lopsided' I looked at a dozen or more pro-installed epoxy floors, pricing between 5-15 bucks a square foot. None of them looked particularly better than the 25 to 50 cent per square foot homeowners jobs I also looked at.

This is not a reflection on the pros posting here.
They don't live on my block.
Or in my town.
Or in my state.
So they may do a fabulous job for a great price.
So what?

The locals here employ illegals who do a piss poor job.
They charge much higher than the prices I see mentioned here in the forum.
The materials they use are VERY regulated, and come at higher costs.

That is the real situation.

Nate in Alaska knows that the prices quoted in this forum don't apply to him.

Doesn't apply to my location either.

Those who live in places like Kansas, Washington State, Kentucky, etc. are not on the same page on any of the service work or prices those of us in remote places or foreign countries (California is only sorta in the US) where the laws are psychotic, the locals don't speak English and corruption is the name of the game.

 

[Chris Adams]

Any pictures of the screwed up floor? Maybe its not as bad as you think. I made a few mistakes on my floor and posted a thread of all the problems hopefully to save someone elses ***, but the funny thing is that neighbors look at the floor and think its a perfect & great job -- of course I know where look for the problems. So maybe yours is OK.

If the spots were in the corners, or where I could put machinery over them it wouldn't be so bad. Of course, it always happens in the middle of the floor...


This is where the spreader broke;

Near the first spot, this is where the aluminum oxide got spilled from the spreader while I was discovering you can't do much with epoxy on your hands...

Other problem. This is where something (haven't a clue what) chipped the epoxy. Comes up like an eggshell.

 

[checkthisout]

**** happens.

I am glad you shared your mistakes with the rest of us because even though I should use your hardship as a learning experience, I won't and will thus make my own mistake. And knowing that you have also made a mistake, possibly an even a bigger one than what I will make, that I will have your mistake to look at and it will make me feel better about my own mistake.

Now, take a picture of your whole floor so we can laugh at it and feel better about the mistakes we have made.

The trick is to maybe have your buddy do a burnout or two on the floor with some studded tires. I can promise you that after that you won't even notice the flaws that you were responsible for.

Another trick would be to get something like maybe a 4 X 8 x 1/2 thick piece of steel, put it on some sawhorses over your floor and proceed to whack it up into about a million pieces with a cutting torch. That should give the flecking a more even appearance.

 

[nate379]

You take it like it's a personal attack against you or your company (whatever that might me... I'm guessing floor epoxy). Oh heaven forbid I don't drink your kool-aid! Ahahahahaha! Your "holier than thou" elitest attitude on this board is quite annoying and I know others have commented about that exact thing in other posts as well.

No doubt the stuff you panhandle is better than Lowe's and maybe it will last longer as well.
Myself, as many others on here can't afford gold Rolex wrist watches and 50" LED TVs for the garage. $4000 for a floor coating was just completely out of the picture for me. No way at all!

My garage is FAR from a show garage. As many other folks on here, my garage is used for working on cars.

I put the coatinng down to keep oil and other stuff from soaking into the slab and keeping it looking fairly decent. If I had spent $4000 on a floor coating, I'd be darn near afraid to WALK on it with boots on, never mind pulling a car in to work on it!!! I think I'd have a stroke if I dropped a wrench or drug a jack stand on it!

Many people have used the Lowe's stuff and posted on here and seem to be happy with the product. Nissan Crawler has had the coating for 6-7 years if I remember correctly and the pics he posted looked great still.

The stuff I put down was fairly simple and not much different than painting a wall. Sure there's a little bit of a learning curve, but it doesn't take a college degree... or hell a high school degree for that matter, to figure it out!

Your $400 dollar job can't compare with a $4g job or at least something like I do for 4 grand. I understand that $400 makes sense for you but don't compare the two. NO offense, but Its like comparing Mercedes Benz and a Yugo. The 2 may have 4 wheels, guzzle gas and get you from point A to point B, but there are clear differences in the 2.

 

[thegarageguy]

Hey Nate, no need to get personal. I never belittled you or what you did. I just pointed out that there is a difference. It seems to me that you have some insecurity issues to work out. If you don't like my posts, then don't read them.

My posts come from my real world experience throughout my 7 years of business. I post on here not to help educate people who may not know, need more information or a professional perspective without anything to gain.

I never solicited anyone on here and never will. I do not even sell products on here. Did you know we are distributors of Race Deck, Gladiator, Miracote and National Polymers, to name a few and manufacturers of garage cabinets? Of course not, because I never mentioned it until now.

So next time you or anyone else rants about my opinions or suggestions, ask yourself If I have anything to gain by my recommendations as apposed to others on this site.

 

[nate379]

Sure there is a difference, about $3600

The way you posted made it seem to me that my $400 "paint" job with Lowe's epoxy wasn't worthy of being epoxy and I shouldn't have questioned a $4000 pro job is all.

 

[marty_p]

Chris:

I feel your pain on that one; we've all had 'those kind of days.'

We moved three months ago into a house w/o the 3-bay i had my heart set on, and all the while spent way too much for storage, a new washer, new furniture, etc., etc., etc...

Life can sometimes **** that way.

 

[checkthisout]

The thing with big projects like that is you really only get 1 chance. You have never done it before and think you know enough to do it. Then you do it and most of the time things go fairly well but sometimes you just screw up, screw up and screw up some more.

And by the time you are done you know exactly how you will do it next time so that it's perfect but how many times in your life are you going to expoxy a floor, build a garage or remodel a kitchen or something like that?

That will probably be the first and last time you ever do something like that which is annoying as hell when you're walking around with 20-20 hindsight looking at your botched handiwork.

 

[Falcon67]

Seems like you could do a little touchup on those spots - if you can get some small amount of the epoxy. Should be able to scuff the area and apply more and it should stick. Not sure about that chip - something got under there maybe? Maybe an air bubble or some such.

FWIW - My $160 floor job is still fine after 12 years, except for the slab cracks.

That will probably be the first and last time you ever do something like that which is annoying as hell when you're walking around with 20-20 hindsight looking at your botched handiwork.

X2 - BUT, you do get over it LOL. When I get those things that don't turn out quite as expected, I remind me that you'll never get 'r done if you stand around fussing about how it might end up. You take your best shot. You still save a bunch of $$$ with the DIY, so it's not all bad.

 

[AmericanEpoxyFloors]

Thanks for sharing Chris - I can sympathize. When stuff starts going poorly it can really happen fast. At least you are at peace with the outcome.

Regarding the second mix cooking off quicker, do you recall if you might have left it sitting in the sun while you were dealing with the first mix? Aside from the batch differences you already mentioned, that is another reason it might have gone off quicker. Sunlight can really heat up your materials quickly if you are not careful.

 

[BSmith]

If you don't tell anyone, most people won't even notice. Blame it on the previous homeowner. Damn guy thought he was Bob Villa.

I know what it's like to screw up. Thanks for the thread, I'm now officially really scared of attempting a job like this. Your luck looks great compared to mine.