Floor is almost ready for ArmorPoxy

[IMWalt]

Redoing a garage floor is a LOT of work! Last weekend, I moved my 2-stage, 60-gallon compressor and a bunch of other stuff out. I had a couple low spots in the corners that collected water, so I took my 4.5 inch grinder and diamond cup wheel and took off the old epoxy. Leveled the spots out with a polymer product called Planitop XS, from Mapei. My local masonry supplier recommended it. I have used Mapei products in the past with success. I didn't get it as smooth as I hoped, but I'll go over it all with the commercial diamond grinder this weekend.

Last night I used the 4.5 to get the edges where I figure the big one won't reach. I also have to move out some cabinets and my big tool box before the weekend.

Should I wash the floor before grinding? There's not a lot of oil and grease, but hey, there's been a lot of oil changes, brake jobs, etc. one on the existing epoxy.

There are a lot of small pits in my floor. I hope between grinding and the ArmorPoxy high solids epoxy they will be gone.

Thanks to Chris at ArmorPoxy for helping me with my order, and giving me the 15% discount for being a member here. My product was supposed to arrive by last Friday, so hopefully it will show up in the next day or 2.

Can't wait to get this project done, and garage put back together.

Walt

 

[Shea]

If it's an older epoxy coating that you are removing there is no need to wash the floor. The epoxy should have prevented any petroleum or contaminants from reaching the bare concrete to begin with. If you have any bare areas where such contaminants reached the concrete, then you may want to just degrease those spots.

The Mapei Planitop XS is interesting. It states it is for vertical and overhead surfaces. However, it has good compressive strength once cured and it didn't state not to use it as a wear surface.

You will have to post pics when you are done

 

[IMWalt]

Here's one of the corners I raised a bit. My masonry guy swears by the Planitop. He says all of the local contractors use it. The pic shows the ugly color I have. I don't know what I was thinking 10 years ago. Going with Light Gray this time. The car is one of my street rods, a '39 Chevy sedan I built 30 years ago.

 

[IMWalt]

Can anyone make a suggestion on how much ArmorPoxy primer and epoxy to mix at a time? I'll be doing the work myself, and have no idea how much I can do in 1/2 hour, the recommended time. I'm thinking I'll mix up a gallon or so of the primer and see how long that takes, and then figure the epoxy will take longer, since I have to squeegee it first and then roll.

Any advice from experience?

 

[Shea]

Do not mix more than one kit together. A kit consists of one can part A and one Part B. You should be able to easily get the primer down with time left over if you work smoothly without taking your time.

Same thing with the 100% solids epoxy. Don't go further than coverage rates dictate. You should have marked off somewhere how far each kit will go. Don't go further. One tip is to have each kit and mixing bucket pre-staged for mixing if you are doing this alone. You do not want to waste time and let your wet edge start to set up. The most time spent will be cutting in the edges.

 

[CJseven]

I mixed up my armorpoxy at 300 sqft at a time. My area was 30 x 40 in a pole barn so I was able to use the poles that were set on 10 ft centers as markers, 4 10x30 areas. I wouldn’t want to do anymore area at a time by myself. As stated above, have EVERYTHING laid out and READY on a mixing table before you start. I just used a 8 ft folding table covered in plastic , set all my stuff out in order on one end and mixed on the other.

 

[Armorpoxy]

Hi,
Our instructions clearly spell out how to mix and avoid pre-hardening, and if followed there should never be a problem.

Thank you!

 

[IMWalt]

Floor is done, time for some pics

I'm way overdue for posting this, but life gets in the way sometimes. The good news is, my floor is done and I love it. It's fantastic. So much easier to clean, brightened up my garage and it plain looks great.

I started on a Saturday morning, renting a commercial diamond grinder. It was a lot of work, very similar to the many hours I spent running a buffer in the Air Force. I spent about 6 hours grinding. I took a lot of material off, as I wanted to get rid of most of the small pits in the floor. I guess I had about 200 pounds of concrete dust to get rid of.

Once that was done, I spent a lot of time getting the remaining dust off the floor. One of the guys at Armor Poxy recommended using Swiffer pads, so I bought a box of 40 or so and used them all. I had already used my Dust Deputy on my shop vac after sweeping with a find broom, and I was shocked how much dust still came up on the Swiffer pads.

Then it was time for the primer coat. That was a piece of cake, went very quickly. I did that late on the Saturday. Sunday was the day for the main epoxy coat. It went on just like the directions said. The special squeegee worked great. Be careful, until you put the top coat on this floor will be VERY slippery

The next day was the top coat. This is the only place where the kit was not spot-on. I barely has enough to cover the floor, and there is actually a small spot where i'm sure did not get covered. My wife and son think the floor is too slippery, so I may just put another top coat on the entire floor.

I waited 5 days before putting anything back in the garage, and about 10 days before pulling my car in. It's now been 5 months, and it looks as good as the day I did. it. Couldn't be happier. The guys at ArmorPoxy were great to work with. I highly recommend them. I had a quote of 5 grand for a local company to do my floor, which did not include the leveling work I did. I did the entire job for about $1400, including the grinder rental and all supplies.

Here's a couple things I learned on this job;

1. Grinding will take longer than you think. Allow plenty of time
   Clean your garage doors completely before starting. You don't want a bunch of dirt balls falling on your newly painted floor when you put the doors up or down
   Get a good broom. I had a push broom with fine bristles, and it really helped cleaning up the concrete dust
   Don't cut in the top coat. You can get within an inch or so with the roller, and nobody will notice that inch, and the only things that will care if it is slippery there are the spiders.
   Go to HD or Lowes and buy a bunch of buckets and measuring cups of various sizes. They came in very handy.
   Keep a box of nitrile gloves close by. The epoxy stuff is tough to get off your hands.

 

[Shea]

Good job! The floor looks great.