Getting ready to epoxy my grage floor.

[HOYTBOY]

Hi everyone,
I am new to this site back in March of this year and have been watching ever since trying to pick a epoxy company based off all of your discussions and discoveries.

May 28th of 2009 we started our garage addition to our home. The garage level is 23'x49' inside dimesions. So approx. 1125 squrae feet. Now I didn't get all of this space to myself, my wife wanted to bring the laundry room up from the basement and make a laundry room adjacent to the kitchen off the garage. The laundry is 16'x8' and then I decided to move the mechanical room out there as well. Much easier to work on the water heater and furnace's. That room is 10'x8' approx with at set of steps up in to the house that is 4' wide. So all in all I ended up with a 3 car garage with a 8 foot ceiling in the front half and a 13.5 foot ceiling in the back half. Thinking car lift someday. Oh by the way when we did this we demo'd the old 2 car garage and droped the original driveway down 60" thus the steps now up into the house from inside the garage. That gave me a 50" high storage room under her new laundry room. So all in all I ended up with approx 1000 sq ft of usable space to epoxy. Here is what my plans are for this weekend.

Prep my garage floor for an epoxy covering.
When it was poured over a year ago I put a broom finish in the slab with the intent of putting epoxy down. I did not have it power trowled, just wanted it to be sidewalk finished so the epoxy would have more to bite into. We have not parked on it at all. So the slab is good and cured. I plan on powerwashing the slab and get the drywall mud off. The next step am planning on doing is acid washing the slab and then going over with baking soda to neutralize any residual acids. I do have saw cuts in the slab that are 7 foot on center, they are 1/8" wide. Will the expoxy fill them or should I fill them first? Also the slab was poured with fibermesh, so I plan on buring off the tops of any hairs sticking out of the slab and rewashing. I haven't put epoxy down before, but seems simple. Can one person do this or is the pot life to short? Maybe one person mixing and the other spreading? Any comments on prep would be helpful.

I am thinking about using armorgarge's Armor Chip. It looks like a great product has anyone used their epoxy. Goods and Bads please?

Thanks
Dale

 

[melisssaparker46]

Well, your house is now ready for epoxy. Good luck and I know it will turn out great.

 

[HOYTBOY]

Well
After months of waiting researching I finally pulled the plug and purchased my epoxy from ArmorGarage. I am putting down the Armor Chip. the color combination is Blue, White and Black with a medium grey base coat. It seems to be very popular combination here on the journal. Can't wait to get started this weekend. Even thinking of taking tommorrow off to start preping and to put expoxy down next weekend. I want it to dry out really good before putting anything down. Hopefully taking my time will make this floor look and last a long time to come.

 

[haugy]

Dude, wow!!! Talking about bringing a house back to life. Not only the garage but the whole house redo looks amazing. I really like the whole layout. That's awesome!!!

Good luck with your floor, and take pics!!

 

[Beaner242]

Dude, wow!!! Talking about bringing a house back to life. Not only the garage but the whole house redo looks amazing. I really like the whole layout. That's awesome!!!

Good luck with your floor, and take pics!!

Agree! That is an amazing makeover. Make sure you let us know the outcome of your project.

 

[noslo04]

Hard to believe those two pictures are of the same house. Huge improvement.

I installed Armorchip one year ago. It has held up well and still looks great. The forklift-duty clearcoat had strong fumes during application causing me to see a few brain cell ghosts. Recommend using a respirator for the clearcoat.

 

[graffix000]

Wow, what a transformation there! It doesn't even look like the same house anymore! It looks great!

 

[HOYTBOY]

Thanks, all for the great comments. It has been a labor of love and alot of sweat! I just hope that everything goes well. After reading lots of posts here I have decided to go with someone in the middle. They are not the cheapest, but they are not the most expensive either. It was kind of funny because with all my research here on this forum, I really had few questions for ArmorGarage and their product. Talking with them I feel assured that the product and customer service will be great. I hope all goes well. Thanks again for all the comments and I will send pics when it gets done.

 

[HOYTBOY]

Well the prep is done and it really looks good the way it is. I tell you the muriatic acid sure does the trick. I was going to put baking soda down or tsp and had some concerns with left over residue on the slab. I asked the guy at Menards where I purchased the acid from and he told me yeh you can put that down after you acid, but your going to have to rinse the hell out of it anyway so why don't you just rinse the hell out of it in the first place? So that is what I did. I rinsed the **** out of it. Three times over the whole slab to be exact! My back hurts and arms today, what a workout! The funny thing is when the muriatic goes down you get the foaming or fissing and then it stops after a few minutes. Did the acid just neutralize itself with the concrete?
When you rinse the first time after the acid the water looks really dirty. The the second rinsing the water looks better and the finial rinse it looks clear. This is what makes me think I have a neutral slab.

Can't wait to see my water bill. The trench drain in the garage is an awesome add. I didn't want the acid going over the new concrete driveway and onto the new sod and killing it along the way to the street. I just ran a lot of water down the drain to make sure the cast iron pipes in the ground wouldn't get eaten up from the acid.

What do you guys think. Am I stupid for not using baking soda or tsp? I triple rinsed everything. Is there a way to tell if there is still any acid left on the slab?

I was going to put epoxy down next weekend, but forgot that we have a scout campout on Saturday so it will have to be the following weekend. Hope the weather holds out. We have had two great weeks in the mid 70's to 80's and no rain. I have been think of taking Friday off and put it down then, but would like to have a full weekend to do it. I will post some more pictures when it gets put down.
Thanks

 

[7speed]

Hey make sure that you put down a nice base coat before you epoxy, it will really help a lot.

 

[HOYTBOY]

Jim with ArmorGarage said that it is a one step coating. This product has a notched squeegee to apply the product and it goes on pretty thick. Then backroll once and then flake. Next day put the clear on. I am concerned about bubbles. The concrete surface is rough and air getting entrained below the epoxy. I will just have to have the leaf blower ready! This stuff has a 40 minute pot life so a little more time to work with it. Will just have to wait and see what happens.

 

[pima67]

When I did the two steps in my garage, I didn't neutralize with baking soda. When the acid stops reacting with the concrete it is gone. The acid will keep reacting with the concrete until there is no more acid to left to react. As you did, one must rinse well to remove any residue from the chemical reaction of the concrete and acid. If running you fingers/hand over the concrete surface results in powder residue on them, more rinsing is needed.

 

[HOYTBOY]

I got my 2 1/2 kits of ArmorGarage epoxy yesterday. Have a couple of questions to anyone that has used these guys.
It says on the can to use a primer on the floor before epoxy, but the website don't say that anywhere. This stuf is made or distributed through armorpoxy, maybe I need to look at their website. Just wondering because I have a broom finish on the concrete and still wondering abought bubbles and how many of them I will have? I have to believe that the epoxy would adhere well to my concrete, but maybe the primer would help the bubbles by somewhat smoothing the concrete out a bit before it goes down allowing the air not to be entrained as you squeegee it on the slab. That brings up the next question if i need a primer what type of primer do you use? Any help or expert advise here would be helpful!

 

[HOYTBOY]

Ok, just talked to Jim from ArmorGarage and they do sell a primer especially for rough concrete. He said that a good primer down will help the expoxy going down and help with the bubbles that i am thinking might happen.
I love this forum all you guys out there who post here have really helped me out and potentially stopped a huge mistake.
So primer is on its way today and Jim said it is a 1 to 1 mix, its thin and goes down to fill all the nocks and crannies, let dry 4 to 5 hours and then put the epoxy down. Hope it is that easy, and hope all goes well.

 

[HOYTBOY]

Ok, after a long wait the time has come and primer came today so tomorrow is D-day, and my anniversary which my wife has agreed to help me put primer and epoxy down. 15 years of bliss! I told her that if she helps me do this I would take here out on the town for the weekend. The house will probably stink to much anyway from the clear coat anyway? I hope all this is worth it and that the floor turns out as good as I hope.

 

[HOYTBOY]

well the floor is down and couldn't be more happy. Next is the forklift duty clear coat. I am planning on waiting a extra day to make sure the epoxy is dry in the cracks. I will post some pics after I take some.

 

[HOYTBOY]

Here are some pictures of the floor this weekend. ArmorGarage stuff was awesome to work with. Not a problem at all. I think primer was the key. No bubble problems at all. Put the anti slip on yesterday. It made the house stink, but the windows open it was ok. Might have lost a few brain cells, but nothing like when I dink a bunch. lol . Anyway have to move all my stuff this week to the finished side and do my wifes spot next weekend. Lots of extra work doing it like this, but have no choice, otherwise the stuff would have to sit outside and don't want to do that.
Here's a couple of the pictures