Viper98912
Well-known member
Update to my story:
I couldn't decide between Racedeck and Epoxy for my 480 sq ft 2 car garage 3 bedroom home. All the usual reasons as normally stated on the forum.
Because of the fact that I don't have confidence epoxy will stick well regardless of how much prep I do, I went with a more budget friendly approach and went with the rustoleum professional solvent kit. The first kit was banged around by UPS (ordered from Summit) and never made it to my doorstep. Mind you I'm in the same state it shipped from. The second kit made it, although also banged up and leaking. Because the kit states 300-400 sqft, I figured I'd hopefully be able to stretch it. The part where my new cabinets will be going will be Racedeck (remember I couldn't decide between one or the other so I figured I'd do both) and about 90 sq of my 480 sqft garage would go uncoated.
Although it's winter, the high today was supposed to be 65-70, calm winds, perfect day for laying the epoxy. Used the R-O degreaser (Thursday night prep) and their concrete etch today. The etch says covers 250 sqft, and this is true. It fizzed on the concrete supposedly doing it's thing, even though my concrete didn't really turn white after (although you could see some slight difference in sheen). Definitely needed 2 of these (which I bought 1) and you could see where it didn't take, oh well. I scrubbed it a few times as well as pressure washing, so it was "good enough". I debated the diamond grinding, but this wasn't worth the cost and effort to me for this specific application.
I taped off the floor so I wouldn't waste epoxy and went to town. When you start laying this stuff down you don't really know how much you're going to end up with and if you're going to have the horror of falling short. When it was all done, I had a LOT left over. So then came the benny hill episode where I now had to drag all of my garage stuff that I stuffed in the corners of the garage through the man door through my kitchen to my living room (quickly) so I could use some of my leftover instead of trashing it. By this time it had started to rain by the way.
Got that laid down, and while rolling the unplanned area I noticed that my glossy epoxy that I had already laid before was drying somewhat matte, uneven where you could see the rolling marks, and reading through previous oil and sharpie marks I had on the floor.
Being that I STILL had some leftover, I took the chance and went for a second coat. It was still somewhat tacky, so as I walked across my shoes got stuck and stuck. It started to pull up slightly, which I guess is a good thing that it didn't pull up completely. The second coat definitely went on nice and thick (the pot life on this stuff is great, it says 3-5 hours and that is accurate) and I covered up all the read through as well all the areas my shoes took away material. Definitely worth the risk. Now it's back to glossy and looks good so far. I still had a tiny bit leftover. Perhaps my initial 45 minute wait time (instructions say 30-60 minutes after mixing) wasn't enough and it hadn't started to harden yet.
All said and done, it looks great so far. Tomorrow I'll be clearcoating to hopefully give it some extra toughness and look nice. I wasn't a fan of the flake so if anyone wants a couple of small bags of white/blue/gray just let me know. I was wearing a mask and overall this stuff isn't too bad. It did creep into the house though so now I've got the doors open to get some airflow. I opened the rustoleum premium clear and it's definitely some strong stuff for those of you who are thinking of using it. Mask and shutoff open flames required.
Hopefully this stuff doesn't peel up or chip too bad. Will update with more pix with the Racedeck (black friday special) and new crown molding and wall paint when completed. 10 LED 6" cans had been put in a few weeks ago. Already updated my electrical by adding three new outlets around the garage this past Tuesday and Wednesday night so I have plenty of access now. Why they build homes nowadays with ONE single outlet in a garage is beyond me. The temps are going back down tonight which will slow down the curing process, so hopefully this stuff will be dry by tomorrow afternoon so I can lay the clear.
Thanks for reading my story!
I couldn't decide between Racedeck and Epoxy for my 480 sq ft 2 car garage 3 bedroom home. All the usual reasons as normally stated on the forum.
Because of the fact that I don't have confidence epoxy will stick well regardless of how much prep I do, I went with a more budget friendly approach and went with the rustoleum professional solvent kit. The first kit was banged around by UPS (ordered from Summit) and never made it to my doorstep. Mind you I'm in the same state it shipped from. The second kit made it, although also banged up and leaking. Because the kit states 300-400 sqft, I figured I'd hopefully be able to stretch it. The part where my new cabinets will be going will be Racedeck (remember I couldn't decide between one or the other so I figured I'd do both) and about 90 sq of my 480 sqft garage would go uncoated.
Although it's winter, the high today was supposed to be 65-70, calm winds, perfect day for laying the epoxy. Used the R-O degreaser (Thursday night prep) and their concrete etch today. The etch says covers 250 sqft, and this is true. It fizzed on the concrete supposedly doing it's thing, even though my concrete didn't really turn white after (although you could see some slight difference in sheen). Definitely needed 2 of these (which I bought 1) and you could see where it didn't take, oh well. I scrubbed it a few times as well as pressure washing, so it was "good enough". I debated the diamond grinding, but this wasn't worth the cost and effort to me for this specific application.
I taped off the floor so I wouldn't waste epoxy and went to town. When you start laying this stuff down you don't really know how much you're going to end up with and if you're going to have the horror of falling short. When it was all done, I had a LOT left over. So then came the benny hill episode where I now had to drag all of my garage stuff that I stuffed in the corners of the garage through the man door through my kitchen to my living room (quickly) so I could use some of my leftover instead of trashing it. By this time it had started to rain by the way.
Got that laid down, and while rolling the unplanned area I noticed that my glossy epoxy that I had already laid before was drying somewhat matte, uneven where you could see the rolling marks, and reading through previous oil and sharpie marks I had on the floor.
Being that I STILL had some leftover, I took the chance and went for a second coat. It was still somewhat tacky, so as I walked across my shoes got stuck and stuck. It started to pull up slightly, which I guess is a good thing that it didn't pull up completely. The second coat definitely went on nice and thick (the pot life on this stuff is great, it says 3-5 hours and that is accurate) and I covered up all the read through as well all the areas my shoes took away material. Definitely worth the risk. Now it's back to glossy and looks good so far. I still had a tiny bit leftover. Perhaps my initial 45 minute wait time (instructions say 30-60 minutes after mixing) wasn't enough and it hadn't started to harden yet.
All said and done, it looks great so far. Tomorrow I'll be clearcoating to hopefully give it some extra toughness and look nice. I wasn't a fan of the flake so if anyone wants a couple of small bags of white/blue/gray just let me know. I was wearing a mask and overall this stuff isn't too bad. It did creep into the house though so now I've got the doors open to get some airflow. I opened the rustoleum premium clear and it's definitely some strong stuff for those of you who are thinking of using it. Mask and shutoff open flames required.
Hopefully this stuff doesn't peel up or chip too bad. Will update with more pix with the Racedeck (black friday special) and new crown molding and wall paint when completed. 10 LED 6" cans had been put in a few weeks ago. Already updated my electrical by adding three new outlets around the garage this past Tuesday and Wednesday night so I have plenty of access now. Why they build homes nowadays with ONE single outlet in a garage is beyond me. The temps are going back down tonight which will slow down the curing process, so hopefully this stuff will be dry by tomorrow afternoon so I can lay the clear.
Thanks for reading my story!