I just filled my control cuts with this stuff.

[AMCguy]

I did my control cuts the day after I poured my shop floor. The space is 32'x32'. I made two cuts dividing the floor into 16'x16' quadrants. They immediately did their job. In fact while I was cutting them a crack formed from where the saw stopped and continued to the wall.

When I was finishing the floor, I used an edging trowel around the perimeter. I wanted a tool finished look right up to the wall and I wanted to be able to eventually fill any gap that opened up. As it turns out the floor pulled away from the walls about 1/16''-1/8''. The radius that the edging trowel left gave a place for the sealant to flow into. The control cuts in the floor itself have opened up about 1/8'' and haven't moved in about six years.

In all that time it has never been completely fun working in there. I was always stepping over the cuts and sweeping dirt away from them because I didn't want **** and grit getting in. I hated it. It felt like I had four little spaces to work in with a deep crevasse separating them.

So I finally did a little research on products to fill them with and came up with Sikaflex SL concrete sealant. It is made specifically for this purpose. The SL stands for self leveling. It comes out of the tube with a creamy consistency but it immediately begins to flow until it flattens out. It has surface tension so if you dispense a little too much it doesn't overflow it just forms a little mound. It is a very good product. I highly recommend it. I payed $8.43 per 300 ml tube. The whole job took 16 tubes. I used a little more than I needed to in some spots near the beginning but I soon got the hang of it. Any excess can be shaved of with a razor knife after its fully cured. I used a foam backer beneath it set to a depth of 3/8''.

Here is a picture of the product in place.

 

[Boyd]

Very cool. Does it come in a choice of colors?

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Good stuff. This is what we recommend to folks who don't want to fill (joints) prior to coating.


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[ADSR]

I've used this product as well. It works like it should!

 

[rancherbill]

In fact while I was cutting them a crack formed from where the saw stopped and continued to the wall.

Wow, it's settling and cracking that quick.

In my garage they used 'T' strips. They were about a 1/4" on the top and 1 1/4" on the vertical part. they put then in while they werre doing the basic troweling and the removed then prior to the final troweling. My garage is is 302x26 and one area on the end is 34x 12. I have three of these expansion joints. Two you can not see unless you really look and the third one is about 1/32" open.

That Sika product looks really good in the joints.

 

[AMCguy]

Very cool. Does it come in a choice of colors?

I think it also comes in a couple of other colours. Check with your supplier. Grey is the only colour the Home Depot near me carried. But that's what I wanted.

 

[bazzateer]

Most Sikaflex products are very good.

 

[Punchwood]

Good stuff. This is what we recommend to folks who don't want to fill (joints) prior to coating.


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Hi Scotty. So what happens when you epoxy over this product? Does the epoxy move with it if there's expansion and contraction?

Thanks.

 

[NUTTSGT]

So I finally did a little research on products to fill them with and came up with Sikaflex SL concrete sealant. It is made specifically for this purpose. The SL stands for self leveling. It comes out of the tube with a creamy consistency but it immediately begins to flow until it flattens out. It has surface tension so if you dispense a little too much it doesn't overflow it just forms a little mound. It is a very good product. I highly recommend it. I payed $8.43 per 300 ml tube. The whole job took 16 tubes. I used a little more than I needed to in some spots near the beginning but I soon got the hang of it. Any excess can be shaved of with a razor knife after its fully cured. I used a foam backer beneath it set to a depth of 3/8''.

How hard was the stuff to get out of the tube ? I used their "concrete fix" product and the stuff was stiff coming out of the tube. It was literally a work out when I did mine.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Hi Scotty. So what happens when you epoxy over this product? Does the epoxy move with it if there's expansion and contraction?

Thanks.

It has give to it. Therefore, if weight is placed above it, it could crack the coating.
Epoxy does not move, it only elongates so far and then cracks.



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[AMCguy]

How hard was the stuff to get out of the tube ? I used their "concrete fix" product and the stuff was stiff coming out of the tube. It was literally a work out when I did mine.

I cut the nozzle off squarely leaving about a 3/16'' opening. It literally flows out. The majority of the effort required is to overcome the friction of the plunger in the tube. I don't think the size of the opening would have any effect on the effort required. If you squeeze hard enough, you could actually squirt it out.

I played around a little when I was taking a break. I cut off a nozzle flush with the tube and held it over the garbage can. The little bit of product that remained in the nozzle just ran out.

 

[ScaldedDog]

Yeah, this stuff is wonderful. I filled my control joints with it five years ago, and it's held up fine. I used it in a couple of other ways, too:

The old slab had some chunks out of it where it joins the driveway, and they were up to the size of your hand, and at least 3/4" of an inch deep. I filled them with SikaFlex, and five years later, it still looks great:

The garage does face north, so these never see the sun, and I suspect that matters.

Around my new heated slab, I put 2" of the blue Dow foam for insulation. I didn't have enough sense to cut the top at a 45* angle and concrete right over them, so they ended up flat on top, and just below or level with the slab. I didn't want the exposed foam collecting dirt and bugs, so I put SikaFlex on top of them. Again, that was five years ago and there's not a mark on them, anywhere:

I'm planning to tile over this, though the only reason I think I can get away with it is that the drywall sticks out an inch over the SikaFlex covered foam, so there's almost no way to cause the foam to have to bear any weight.

The downside to this stuff is the mess. If it touches anything, it's there forever. I still have some of it on the leather coat and jeans I had on when I was working with this stuff years ago.

Mark

 

[Dick in Wisconsin]

I have fairly wide grooves in the garage for expansion. Probably 3/8" to 1/2". I presume I put some kind of filler rod in first, then this SikaFlex on top of the filler rod. Right?

When it fully cures, dries, and sets up ... is it hard enough for the creeper wheels to ride over it with them sinking in?

 

[ScaldedDog]

Probably, but it's not any harder than the material below it. I think you'd occasionally catch a wheel doing it the way you're thinking.

Are your expansion joints real expansion joints, like the kind you see between slabs, or are they control joints cut or troweled into a single slab? If the former, those are usually filled with material specific for that purpose, whose name escapes me right now. I have put SikaFlex over that stuff, but it doesn't work that great. That stuff tends to get flakey, so it flakes off after a time. You can actually see that in the grainy pic I posted above.

If, on the other hand, you're talking about a wide trowled in control joint in a single slab, I'd just bypass the backer rod and fill it with SikaFlex. If you get it level with top, a creeper will go across it just fine. I did this in the joint you see below:

I hope this helps.

Mark

 

[Leevon]

Nice work, one of those jobs you probably wish you'd done long ago : ) Sikaflex is one of the top 5 spec'd commercial products, have seen it used and abused in 100,000+ square foot exposed floor control joints. You chose well.

To the other poster asking about color, yes it comes in an array. 2 or 3 grays, brown, black, white, etc. but those aren't going to be stocked at a retailer, will have to come from a commercial supplier by the case.

My personal favorite is Sonneborn Sonolastic NP1, it's the #1 spec'd self-leving caulk at least in this region and if you ever get some on your hands or clothes you will know why : )

 

[burleyfarm]

I have fairly wide grooves in the garage for expansion. Probably 3/8" to 1/2". I presume I put some kind of filler rod in first, then this SikaFlex on top of the filler rod. Right?

When it fully cures, dries, and sets up ... is it hard enough for the creeper wheels to ride over it with them sinking in?

Yes and yes. You can use the backer rod or sand. I've used the backer rod for the wider joints and sand for regular sawed joints. The sand works just fine as long as it settles into the crack or expansion/control joint. If you don't fill the joint well, the Sikaflex will run to the bottom of the joint and waste product. I left about 1/4 inch for the Sikaflex. I run creeper wheels and jack wheels over it all the time.

Epoxy is going to crack if placed over the Sikaflex. You can also get the Sikaflex in a non-leveling formula. I used both for my sloping driveway. Only problem I've had is that when the concrete expands, it has a tendency to push the Sikaflex up creating a short hump.

 

[pauls_workshop]

Your floor edges look just like mine with the Sikaflex there but mine has epoxy all over it first! Sikaflex on the edges *after* epoxy is what I recommend. Looks nice with medium gray epoxy. - Paul

 

[NUTTSGT]

I cut the nozzle off squarely leaving about a 3/16'' opening. It literally flows out. The majority of the effort required is to overcome the friction of the plunger in the tube. I don't think the size of the opening would have any effect on the effort required. If you squeeze hard enough, you could actually squirt it out.

I played around a little when I was taking a break. I cut off a nozzle flush with the tube and held it over the garbage can. The little bit of product that remained in the nozzle just ran out.

That stuff was a lot softer than the stuff that I used on mine.