Floor prep

[Td_20]

Hi,
Long time reader looking for advise from some of supplier on the forum.

Looking to epoxy my garage floor, 6 months old with in floor heating.

I don't want the cracks in the floor to show through the epoxy so what would be the best way prep the floor to prevent this.

The garage has not been parked in but has paint on floor, what would be the best cleaner to get the floor ready for coating?

I live in northern canada with temps that get to -40 with fall & spring freeze thaw.

What would be best to protect the driveway and prevent rock with high iron content from popping leaving holes?

What should i fill the hole i currently have to keep them from getting bigger?


Thank you
Mike

 

[dcs Inc]

Keeping a good seal coat on the the exposed driveway will prevent water from saturating the surface and causing the blow outs. Is your garage heated? If so, these are shrinkage cracks and can be treated. You need to crack chase them and pour epoxy down into the crack. Grind smooth and then apply your epoxy top coat.

If your garage is not heated then these could become active with the freeze thaw cycles. Concrete needs to have room to expand and contract during temp changes. If there isn't room for this then the slab will make room. You can treat the slab as mentioned above but you then need to saw cut another relief line into the slab. You're basically "re-controlling' the crack. gene Elite Crete of Indiana

 

[shurik06_83]

THE CRACKS are going to be a pain what type of epoxy system u going to use ? most systems will also offer a caulking tube just for this purpose u use a grinder with a diamond cutting wheel to make the cracks bigger and cleaner fill with the material they provide u use a putty knife to level and work the material into the cracks the material has to be flexible if u fill the cracks with grout they will come back in a yr and the material has to be compatible with the epoxy ur using

the 2 delams u have their i would go to lows and buy sika lv40 its a bag of cement with really small aggregate clean the holes out mix up a big cup of this stuff really wet like a slurry grab a junk brush and slap the slurry into the holes mix up another batch that has the consistency of yogurt the slurry will chemically bond the thinker material to the the old slab and u want the fill to be thicker mix because if its wet all the aggregate will drop to the bottom and the patch will have no compressive strength and will get tons of tiny cracks
the aggregate acts like a reenforcement

as for cleaning the slab i would rent a big compressor and a sand pot and a hood and blast the whole slab with black shot this might be pricy but u will be left with a 100% clean surface as the blast will blow away any imperfections in the concrete this is how all under ground parking decks are done and and 99% of coating manufactures call for blasting as it leaves a perfect surface with just the right amount of roughnesses for the epoxy to get that deep bond that will make it last and not pop up after a few yrs

u can try calling a few restoration companies in Alberta i am in Ontario i would blast a 20x20 slab for 400$ all in

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Everyone has their cure, here is ours.
Use an epoxy gel crack filler for the cracks and the small pockets.
Grind smooth the next day.
Anything less visous will settle out and you will have to go over multiple times.

Gene's directions are on point for everything else.
Prep it correctly, use a quality product and you will do well.