jr_runnfool
New member
- Joined
- May 21, 2012
- Messages
- 2
hi all,
In 2006 I bought this house with a 30 year old 600 ft2 garage slab. Wow did it show its age! A lot of small pits in the dark concrete. A contractor buddy -- not flooring, but generally smart guy -- recommended I just do a quickcrete skim coat and broom finish it to hide the mess. This turned out fairly decent, and provided some nice non-slip texture. I applied rustoleum 2 part epoxy (one coat, no clear) and it was beautiful. For a year or two, anyway.
Now fast forward. The skim coat (not the epoxy) was coming up in chunks. I talked to three pros... one suggested just sand it what's left and coat over it. The other two felt pretty strongly that I needed to **** it up and grind it off. So after trying a floor belt sander that barely dented the epoxy and skim coat, I rented a 2 headed Edco for the weekend. WOW is this nice! I wish it got closer to the edges and the expansion joints but I'm really happy with the results.
So then the research continued on which floor to put down. Like many here I wrestled with tile, epoxy, and even the new polyurea flooring. Finally pulled the trigger on Armorcote since they have a kit for 600 feet. Epoxy-coat looked good but only covers 500 square feet. Same with rocksolid floors - would have been 3 kits of 250 feet. With the polyurea, the speed sounded good but kind of scared me too. Tempting tho!
Armorcote sounds like it goes down thick and has a clear coat. I'm also planning to use more chips.
So... questions:
1) how important is the moisture test? I don't see any evidence that i have moisture issues but I want this new floor to last a loooong time.
2) finishing edges, cracks, and small issues. I have a cup diamond grinder for my angle grinder but it is awfully aggressive. How do I strip -- or do I need to strip -- the rest of the old **** from the edges? The grinder did a great job but still shows some of the smaller pits. I think I've read enough on here that suggests I do need to repair the old small pits instead of filling them with epoxy as I go. How do I repair this without making it worse with the grinder? I can patch but it seems like I'd have to go rent the edco again after - and that won't help me with the edges again.
3) I assume I do not need (or want, from reading) to acid etch on an older surface freshly ground.
4) why is everyone not switching to this polyurea? It sounds incredible, and they list a bunch of advantages over epoxy.
4)
I know I'll have more questions but wanted to get the conversation started. I'll post pictures tonight... I'm sure that will help y'all "see" what I'm up against.
What a great forum! Thanks in advance for your counsel.
JR
In 2006 I bought this house with a 30 year old 600 ft2 garage slab. Wow did it show its age! A lot of small pits in the dark concrete. A contractor buddy -- not flooring, but generally smart guy -- recommended I just do a quickcrete skim coat and broom finish it to hide the mess. This turned out fairly decent, and provided some nice non-slip texture. I applied rustoleum 2 part epoxy (one coat, no clear) and it was beautiful. For a year or two, anyway.
Now fast forward. The skim coat (not the epoxy) was coming up in chunks. I talked to three pros... one suggested just sand it what's left and coat over it. The other two felt pretty strongly that I needed to **** it up and grind it off. So after trying a floor belt sander that barely dented the epoxy and skim coat, I rented a 2 headed Edco for the weekend. WOW is this nice! I wish it got closer to the edges and the expansion joints but I'm really happy with the results.
So then the research continued on which floor to put down. Like many here I wrestled with tile, epoxy, and even the new polyurea flooring. Finally pulled the trigger on Armorcote since they have a kit for 600 feet. Epoxy-coat looked good but only covers 500 square feet. Same with rocksolid floors - would have been 3 kits of 250 feet. With the polyurea, the speed sounded good but kind of scared me too. Tempting tho!
Armorcote sounds like it goes down thick and has a clear coat. I'm also planning to use more chips.
So... questions:
1) how important is the moisture test? I don't see any evidence that i have moisture issues but I want this new floor to last a loooong time.
2) finishing edges, cracks, and small issues. I have a cup diamond grinder for my angle grinder but it is awfully aggressive. How do I strip -- or do I need to strip -- the rest of the old **** from the edges? The grinder did a great job but still shows some of the smaller pits. I think I've read enough on here that suggests I do need to repair the old small pits instead of filling them with epoxy as I go. How do I repair this without making it worse with the grinder? I can patch but it seems like I'd have to go rent the edco again after - and that won't help me with the edges again.
3) I assume I do not need (or want, from reading) to acid etch on an older surface freshly ground.
4) why is everyone not switching to this polyurea? It sounds incredible, and they list a bunch of advantages over epoxy.
4)
I know I'll have more questions but wanted to get the conversation started. I'll post pictures tonight... I'm sure that will help y'all "see" what I'm up against.
What a great forum! Thanks in advance for your counsel.
JR