I've learned to hate epoxy coating!

[V-10 Killer]

I drove down and picked up 2 1/2 kits of Epoxy-Coat last fall.
Then, I acid wash the concrete. Still not satisfied with the profile (mainly, some random power trowel marks), I rent a sander and a bunch of rough rough sandpaper. Still not satisfied, I proceed to rent an Edco grinder for the day.
By the time I get all this done, It's mid November and the garage gets too cold to epoxy, so I wait... I put the epoxy under the air hockey table in the house to keep the cold from damaging it.
Spring rolls around, and the garage gets put behind vacations and overtime for work. The beginning of last week I get everything swept up and get the lines taped on the floor. Mother nature responds by giving us thunderstorms every day mixed in with mid 90's weather!
Today, I finally said "screw it, I want my garage", and went out to put it down. I open the lid and start to mix the part A, just to find that the bottom 2/3 of the can feels like it's granualized. I call up Epoxy-Coat's 1-800 number and the lady proceeds to tell me that Epoxy-Coat only has a 3 month shelf life, and that I can't use that stuff now
I never asked, but have read that unmixed epoxies typically have about a 1 year shelf life. At this point, I honestly don't know if it's worth the continued headaches or if I should just cut and run!
What a bunch of B.S.

I think I'm gonna go drink some sorrows away now...

 

[OldCarGuy]

Wow! That’s nice to know that epoxy has a shelve life. Rather than returning two gallons of Sherwin William’s 1000H epoxy, I saved it for touchups. I guess that I can write that off too.

By all means purchase a new batch of epoxy and finish what you have started. There’s nothing like an epoxy coated garage floor.

 

[AlphaGarage]

Just a quick note - Wolverine Coatings BondTite 1101 & their LiquaTile 1184 both have shelf lives of 12 months, stored 40f - 100f.

 

[thegarageguy]

Most industrial material's shelf life is 12 months. I think that your case is that your material was a low solids and a heavy sovent based product. It seems the solvents evaporated, Just a guess. This should serve as a lesson on box store or DIY products.

 

[V-10 Killer]

I contacted Epoxy-Coat's customer service about it, and they're sending me a replacement pail of the part A. They admit it's not documented, and that they've asked the owner to include that information, but it hasn't been done yet. It might just be something with the blue pigment versus the gray pigment, I dunno, but anyways... I guess I'll try getting it done here in 3-5 days.

 

[Jaguar Fan]

I contacted Epoxy-Coat's customer service about it, and they're sending me a replacement pail of the part A. They admit it's not documented, and that they've asked the owner to include that information, but it hasn't been done yet. It might just be something with the blue pigment versus the gray pigment, I dunno, but anyways... I guess I'll try getting it done here in 3-5 days.

That's good customer service. They bought themselves a ton of goodwill by doing it.

Good luck -- and post some pics!

 

[Vicegrip]

Most industrial material's shelf life is 12 months. I think that your case is that your material was a low solids and a heavy sovent based product. It seems the solvents evaporated, Just a guess. This should serve as a lesson on box store or DIY products.

I gave a leftover and almost 4 year old Rustolium kit to a friend with the warning that it was old and that he should test a small amount in a corner. We opened the cans to see if the contents had visibly gone bad and both parts looked OK. All we noted was that the citric acid powder for etching had gotten clumpy. The dummy mixed it all up and laid it down without testing.


It worked just fine. Go figure.

 

[KnightFire]

I gave a leftover and almost 4 year old Rustolium kit to a friend with the warning that it was old and that he should test a small amount in a corner. We opened the cans to see if the contents had visibly gone bad and both parts looked OK. All we noted was that the citric acid powder for etching had gotten clumpy. The dummy mixed it all up and laid it down without testing.


It worked just fine. Go figure.

Same here, I just used an old Rustoleum garage floor kit I had laying around for 3 or so years. I put it down in my shed...worked like a champ. I never would have guessed other products have a shelf life of only a few months....