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Fun with flakes

AlphaGarage

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Sometimes there are high traffic areas that are rougher than the rest of the floor, and you don't want to spend the time, or expend the resources, to fully smooth it out. One easy way to deal with that is to broadcast a high density of flakes over the area. As has been noted by many folks, flakes can hide a host of sins.

But flakes also bring their own baggage, for one thing they're sold by the pound, and too many of them can bust a budget.

Well, here you can have your cake and eat it too. Because who says that the whole floor must have the same density of flakes?

Manny was doing a floor, and there was a riser that was just rough and nasty, his quick, easy, and low cost solution was to tape off that area and give it an extra dose of heavy density DecoFlakes.

You can also use varying densities to mark off borders, highlight traffic paths, equipment and hazard zones, even embed simple designs. This is a real easy way to give your floor a real custom look and even more pop.

Manny did the floor except the heavy flake area, then when that was tack free he went back, put down LiquaTile and the heavy DecoFlakes in the rough area only.

mannystepwide.jpg


mannystepcu.jpg


Manny used more DecoFlakes, plus added an additional color flake (black). You can also use completely different colors. Using your favorite team's colors, have the predominate color for most of the floor, and the border their trim color.

Most orders with multiple colors of DecoFlakes have them blended together, consider ordering them separate, and then vary the ratio or use them completely separately. This is one area where you you can achieve a special look for very little extra work.
 
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BL50

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Good idea!

Question ... How do you get the flakes so evenly disbursed on the verticle surface of the curb?
 
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AlphaGarage

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They just tossed small amounts by hand. The key is tossing very small amounts, but more of them. You can always toss on more flakes, but you can't take them off if there are too many.

stemwall.jpg
 

tatra

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??? all i can see is the first pic?????????

never mind, they finally loaded.........

looks good...........any more helpful hints?.........like doing geometric designs and such?.........herring bone?..........
 
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tatra

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what good would those do in most shops?..........no one can see the floor with the lights on with all the **** we have..........:lol_hitti
 

CreteCoater

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good point lol. I did a black epoxy floor in a lazer tag arena once with black light activated chips. Pretty wild looking to say the least.
 
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CreteCoater

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It's your floor, do what you like! Your not limited to what the distributors carry. If you goto www.torginol.com you can order chips in bulk. All sizes from 1/32" to 1". Striped, metallic, glow in the dark, whatever. Lowes will charge you almost 10 bucks for a little jar of chips! I use torginol for the majority of my projects although there are a few other suppliers like Estes who also sell colored quartz instead of vinyl chips which also makes a killer floor!
 

CreteCoater

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Typically between $2.35 - $2.75 per pound. It all depends on how much you order. Smaller orders under 50lbs run 3$ - 4$ per pound and run in 5 pound increments. I generally do full coverage floors at 1 pound per 10 square feet and light/medium coverage can be 50 - 100 square feet per pound.
 

CreteCoater

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Yes, I think this is the best looking floor in my personal opinion. If you look at my "random floors" thread the brown floor with the Corvette chairs is a broadcast to rejection.

You still need a pigmented basecoat however, I have tried them before using clear and its really a PITA. If you have a pigmented basecoat that is one of the chip colors it blends in if you miss a spot.

The biggest thing to remember is the better you scrape the floor before the seal coat the nicer the floor will be. I use a wide floor scraper and really push down on it, scraping left to right, right to left, etc. to make sure they are all flat. Then I broom or use a leaf blower to blow the loose chips into a corner. You will recover quite a bit but you could always use them for a workbench or if a buddy is doing a floor.
 

CreteCoater

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There are really only a handful of manufacturers that actually MAKE the chips. Most distributors are just resellers. Some of the generic chips aren't UV stable (along with most cheap epoxy) Torginol is what I use mostly however I have used chips from Chips Unlimited and Estes as well with good results.
 

texas-saluki

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Guys I am trying to understand the difference between the types of flakes. It seems there are vinyl, quartz and metallic. Am I missing some?

what is the difference between some of these for durability (if any) I would think quartz would be the best if there is a durability improvement but it is not clear to me if it is just a cosmetic improvement.
 
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