Yesterday I finally completed the floor in my shop. In the end it is coated with:
1 coat of primer
1 coat of epoxy
1 coat of urethane
1 coat of urethane with fine grit
For clarity, a total of four coats were applied.
This job took significantly longer to complete than most due to my incompetence as in installer. To briefly recap, the prep was done properly, the shop floor was primed, but the epoxy was not adequately mixed which forced me to grind off roughly 1300 square feet and reapply the primer and the epoxy and feather the old batch into the new batch. That is entirely on me. Link to what happened here: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=296309&highlight=Reflex
After many hours of work getting the floor back to “ready” for the final two coats of urethane, they were added yesterday. I must say that putting on the urethane was nearly effortless. It has a long pot life, spreads easily, and it’s easy to see where you’ve been. Unfortunately, there must be a trick to putting it on that has escaped me.
The first batch of urethane (3 gallons) was mixed for four minutes. This may sound like a long time given the viscosity of the solution, but with its long pot life and my experience with the epoxy, I wasn’t taking any chances. The first coat went on, looked good, cured to the point of re-coating in the published time.
While preparing the final batch, I became aware of a possible issue with the soft grip. The containers I had specifically said, “Stir entire 8 oz. Container into 2.5 gallons of coating.” The container didn’t look or feel like 8 oz. so I consulted the web site which says, “Use approx. 3-4 ounces per gallon of material”. As a result, I weighed each container (full) and found them to be 6 oz., 5.9 oz., 6 oz. and 6.1 oz. I then emptied the contents of a container and weighed the container itself. I found the container itself to be 1.05 oz. (yes I have the equipment to do that). The pictures on the web site show only 16 oz. containers.
As a result, I decided to use 10 ounces (two bottles) of grit in my 3 gallon batches. This gave me 3.3 oz. per gallon.
Again, the urethane was mixed for 4 minutes. However this time, at the end the first minute, I began adding the grit. The grit was added slowly over a 1 minute period while mixing the urethane. The entire batch was then mixed for an additional 2 minutes.
It was obvious with the first roll that the grit was in this batch. The entire floor was cut-in and rolled on without issue. The floor was worked with long strokes and overlapped slightly. The batch was stirred occasionally to insure the grit was not settling. After about 15 hours has passed I went out to take a look. The floor had cured properly, no finger printing, and I could walk on it.
From an ascetic standpoint, I’m not very excited. I have two disappointments.
1) Any place the roller overlapped (even though I/we kept a very wet edge), it’s very obvious. I’m hoping this will cure out, but I don’t think so. The floor is "striped" (pictures attached).
2) The grit is not uniform. Even though the grit was kept in suspension, the grit doesn’t have that “random” look.
I also have a couple of concerns. These may be unfounded, but are worth considering.
1) The grit is big or sharp enough that a squeegee may be a problem (fine was used).
2) The grit may actually grab dirt.
3) I wonder if, in time, the surface will wear and release the grit making the floor tough to keep clean.
While here the roller overlapped, it doesn’t look good as the stripes created by the overlap are very obvious.
In the end, I must say that the floor will probably do what it was designed to do and last like was intended to last. But it may not perform to my expectations from a cleaning and ascetic standpoint.
If I were to do the whole thing again, here’s what I would do.
1) Do more research on what I really want and expect out of the floor
2) Try and find or use products with very (or more) specific instructions on how to properly prep, prepare, and apply. I had no problem with the prep, but preparing the coatings for use is where I screwed up. Based on the look of the grit and overlapped urethane, I must have screwed up there as well. I’m not blaming the manufacturer, I just should have pressed for very specific instructions.
3) I would try to find somebody that had used the same basic components for the finish coat (grit & urethane) and “picked their brain”.
In the end, I’m finished. It’s been a long task, but one that I might do again someday. At this point I’ve learned a ton and I’m sure I could do the same job in a fraction of the time. However, without some training or instruction, I’m not sure I could make it look any better.
One final thought, I must say that the grit hides a multitude of “sins”.
Pictures below:
Stripes are significantly more obvious in person. In fact, they're the first thing you notice. Note not only the strip in the center of the picture, but those at the side (6' away).
This picture shows the overlap stripes and a bit of the way that the grit takes away from the gloss. This is no big deal, much of the gloss is still there. If the grit were uniform, it would look great.
Comments?
Reflex
1 coat of primer
1 coat of epoxy
1 coat of urethane
1 coat of urethane with fine grit
For clarity, a total of four coats were applied.
This job took significantly longer to complete than most due to my incompetence as in installer. To briefly recap, the prep was done properly, the shop floor was primed, but the epoxy was not adequately mixed which forced me to grind off roughly 1300 square feet and reapply the primer and the epoxy and feather the old batch into the new batch. That is entirely on me. Link to what happened here: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=296309&highlight=Reflex
After many hours of work getting the floor back to “ready” for the final two coats of urethane, they were added yesterday. I must say that putting on the urethane was nearly effortless. It has a long pot life, spreads easily, and it’s easy to see where you’ve been. Unfortunately, there must be a trick to putting it on that has escaped me.
The first batch of urethane (3 gallons) was mixed for four minutes. This may sound like a long time given the viscosity of the solution, but with its long pot life and my experience with the epoxy, I wasn’t taking any chances. The first coat went on, looked good, cured to the point of re-coating in the published time.
While preparing the final batch, I became aware of a possible issue with the soft grip. The containers I had specifically said, “Stir entire 8 oz. Container into 2.5 gallons of coating.” The container didn’t look or feel like 8 oz. so I consulted the web site which says, “Use approx. 3-4 ounces per gallon of material”. As a result, I weighed each container (full) and found them to be 6 oz., 5.9 oz., 6 oz. and 6.1 oz. I then emptied the contents of a container and weighed the container itself. I found the container itself to be 1.05 oz. (yes I have the equipment to do that). The pictures on the web site show only 16 oz. containers.
As a result, I decided to use 10 ounces (two bottles) of grit in my 3 gallon batches. This gave me 3.3 oz. per gallon.
Again, the urethane was mixed for 4 minutes. However this time, at the end the first minute, I began adding the grit. The grit was added slowly over a 1 minute period while mixing the urethane. The entire batch was then mixed for an additional 2 minutes.
It was obvious with the first roll that the grit was in this batch. The entire floor was cut-in and rolled on without issue. The floor was worked with long strokes and overlapped slightly. The batch was stirred occasionally to insure the grit was not settling. After about 15 hours has passed I went out to take a look. The floor had cured properly, no finger printing, and I could walk on it.
From an ascetic standpoint, I’m not very excited. I have two disappointments.
1) Any place the roller overlapped (even though I/we kept a very wet edge), it’s very obvious. I’m hoping this will cure out, but I don’t think so. The floor is "striped" (pictures attached).
2) The grit is not uniform. Even though the grit was kept in suspension, the grit doesn’t have that “random” look.
I also have a couple of concerns. These may be unfounded, but are worth considering.
1) The grit is big or sharp enough that a squeegee may be a problem (fine was used).
2) The grit may actually grab dirt.
3) I wonder if, in time, the surface will wear and release the grit making the floor tough to keep clean.
While here the roller overlapped, it doesn’t look good as the stripes created by the overlap are very obvious.
In the end, I must say that the floor will probably do what it was designed to do and last like was intended to last. But it may not perform to my expectations from a cleaning and ascetic standpoint.
If I were to do the whole thing again, here’s what I would do.
1) Do more research on what I really want and expect out of the floor
2) Try and find or use products with very (or more) specific instructions on how to properly prep, prepare, and apply. I had no problem with the prep, but preparing the coatings for use is where I screwed up. Based on the look of the grit and overlapped urethane, I must have screwed up there as well. I’m not blaming the manufacturer, I just should have pressed for very specific instructions.
3) I would try to find somebody that had used the same basic components for the finish coat (grit & urethane) and “picked their brain”.
In the end, I’m finished. It’s been a long task, but one that I might do again someday. At this point I’ve learned a ton and I’m sure I could do the same job in a fraction of the time. However, without some training or instruction, I’m not sure I could make it look any better.
One final thought, I must say that the grit hides a multitude of “sins”.
Pictures below:
Stripes are significantly more obvious in person. In fact, they're the first thing you notice. Note not only the strip in the center of the picture, but those at the side (6' away).
This picture shows the overlap stripes and a bit of the way that the grit takes away from the gloss. This is no big deal, much of the gloss is still there. If the grit were uniform, it would look great.
Comments?
Reflex