Afternoon All-
I've sent the better part of 2 months trying to apply an epoxy floor. It is in my new house and never did it in the last house because of time and room. The garage is my outdoor hobby room. Work on some cars, clean some guns, do a little reloading, you know just normal get out of the house guy stuff. It isn't for a showroom floor or anything. Have I had a lesson.
My mistakes have been:
1) Buying the Quikcrete stuff from Lowes
2) Trying to hurry up, you can do it in a day right?
3) Not using common sense when I should
I applied 3 gallons of the inferior product up above. I waited to give it some cure time before I applied the clear but then, it delaminated and I chalked it up to bad prep, not engough prep, or other it's my fault stuff.
So I bought a big grinder, diamond tip blade, and proceeded to clean everything off. About 1/4" of concrete in the end. I then cleaned the floor, degreased everything, cleaned and degreased again.
After I felt it was clean I applied a Foxfire P1007 concrete sealer that soaked in to provide a good moisture barrier and let that dry for 3 days.
I acid etched the floor with the 1 to 3 mixture, and let dry again for like 3 days to be sure. I made sure the concrete had the correct pH and all as well.
I then mixed up 2 more can of the inferior product, let it sit the requisite 30 minutes, and re-applied. All looked well.
3 days later I applied the clear. This was 1 week ago today.
All this past week, the clear never properly dried. I called the above company and they said, sometimes it takes longer than 72 hours to dry. Call us back in a couple of days. The color of the clear, when applied was white in color, has literally changed daily. It can go white and then look like clear, and then back to a white.
This morning, to my disgust, I found patches where the clear appears to have completely delaminated the base coat and now I have concrete spots on my floor again. Needless to say, I'm not going to get more of the above stuff. They need to refund me some money. Close to $600 dollars. This doesn't cover the cost of the equipment I rented to level the floor and clean it all up.
More than likely, before I can put anything else on, I'm going to have to strip this junk off again. I want a nice floor that I can work on. Prep isn't a problem. Time is now a problem. I have my other house rented, want to get the rest of my stuff out of my old garage, and work 60 hours a week.
Questions:
How can I determine if it needs to be completely stripped out before re-applying?
What is a good product, given the proper prep, will do what it says, and will the company stand behind it?
Any other good steps or pointers anyone might have?
All opinions appreciated, and sales welcome too.
I've sent the better part of 2 months trying to apply an epoxy floor. It is in my new house and never did it in the last house because of time and room. The garage is my outdoor hobby room. Work on some cars, clean some guns, do a little reloading, you know just normal get out of the house guy stuff. It isn't for a showroom floor or anything. Have I had a lesson.
My mistakes have been:
1) Buying the Quikcrete stuff from Lowes
2) Trying to hurry up, you can do it in a day right?
3) Not using common sense when I should
I applied 3 gallons of the inferior product up above. I waited to give it some cure time before I applied the clear but then, it delaminated and I chalked it up to bad prep, not engough prep, or other it's my fault stuff.
So I bought a big grinder, diamond tip blade, and proceeded to clean everything off. About 1/4" of concrete in the end. I then cleaned the floor, degreased everything, cleaned and degreased again.
After I felt it was clean I applied a Foxfire P1007 concrete sealer that soaked in to provide a good moisture barrier and let that dry for 3 days.
I acid etched the floor with the 1 to 3 mixture, and let dry again for like 3 days to be sure. I made sure the concrete had the correct pH and all as well.
I then mixed up 2 more can of the inferior product, let it sit the requisite 30 minutes, and re-applied. All looked well.
3 days later I applied the clear. This was 1 week ago today.
All this past week, the clear never properly dried. I called the above company and they said, sometimes it takes longer than 72 hours to dry. Call us back in a couple of days. The color of the clear, when applied was white in color, has literally changed daily. It can go white and then look like clear, and then back to a white.
This morning, to my disgust, I found patches where the clear appears to have completely delaminated the base coat and now I have concrete spots on my floor again. Needless to say, I'm not going to get more of the above stuff. They need to refund me some money. Close to $600 dollars. This doesn't cover the cost of the equipment I rented to level the floor and clean it all up.
More than likely, before I can put anything else on, I'm going to have to strip this junk off again. I want a nice floor that I can work on. Prep isn't a problem. Time is now a problem. I have my other house rented, want to get the rest of my stuff out of my old garage, and work 60 hours a week.
Questions:
How can I determine if it needs to be completely stripped out before re-applying?
What is a good product, given the proper prep, will do what it says, and will the company stand behind it?
Any other good steps or pointers anyone might have?
All opinions appreciated, and sales welcome too.
