Re: My Wolverine Epoxy floor Nightmare
Hi All,
We’ve been working with Haugy in private to help him with his floor. Fred, myself, and Haugy shared a phone call about two weeks ago and laid out plans to help him regardless of the outcome of the investigation. We have been taking action and have been in regular communication with him to get it resolved. We've also had one company to visit the site and another one is scheduled to evaluate it tomorrow. We don't intend to tell you guys what we are doing because frankly we want you to have a little fear before starting your project so that you read the instructions BEFORE something goes wrong!
Any sort of bad result like this is cause for major concern from us. We want EVERY customer to do a good job and get the kind of floor that they hope for. Fred has helped over 300 customers to install their garage floors with great results.
What Happened?
We don't have any question about what happened here. It's not like it's a 'close call' or a 'maybe'. Scientifically... there are only two possibilities based on the evidence. One of those possibilities was that Haugy accidentally mismatched one or more kits of Primer Hardener with Basecoat Hardener. We've been told that there was no possibility of a mix up. So... that leaves only one other possibility.
Now, this thread is filled with possibilities from posters about what they think may have happened here. But, the pictures and the science are all that is needed. Based on Haugy’s excellent pictures, this is the classic case of what happens when a polymer coating is applied over another polymer coating that is not cured. The problem is improper mixing of some of the basecoat kits. When you have an uncured epoxy that has been poorly mixed and it never gets hard the next coat of urethane has nothing to stick to.
You can clearly see
wet (not tacky but
wet) gray LiquaTile 1184 (basecoat) under the EnduraShield 2254 (clear urethane) in the pictures. Mixing Mixing Mixing...
What is the evidence that this is an application failure as opposed to a product failure? First, we make batches in large quantities (most were in the 300-1000 gallon range). There is no such thing as one kit of a batch being bad and all the rest being good. Either a batch is good or a batch is bad. If we were to have a product failure there would be failure all over the country... not on just parts of one garage floor. Second, the entire floor (100%) would fail. Here, part of the floor is good and part failed... And that's because some of the kits were mixed properly and some were not.
Now, I understand that there are many companies that just don't take responsibility for their actions. I'll thank the poster who earlier pointed out that we made a mistake on his order and then took responsibility for our mistake. I signed the expensive FedEx bill today... DOH! Anyway, if I were a skeptic on the other end of this thread I would ask the question, "Is there any other complaint like this regarding these batches?"
I'm not going to mince any words here. I will categorically say that
NO other problem exists from any of the batches in question. Period. That means... there is no other complaint like this NOR is there any other complaint PERIOD! But, let me go a step further... The lab not only reviewed the quality control records of every batch but also pulled every batch retain... rechecked every one... and then applied the products on a test tile. Every batch rechecked passed every quality control test and the test tile was beautiful.
This isn't a concrete age problem; or a vapor barrier problem; or a moisture problem. The pictures show the problem is poor mixing of the LiquaTile 1184 (gray) NOT poor mixing of the EnduraShield 2254. If you apply a urethane over an improperly mixed epoxy the Isocyanate (urethane hardener) will react with the amine (epoxy hardener) to form polyurea molecules. This reaction is very fast... much faster than either the proper reaction of either the epoxy or the urethane system. So, you get surface curing of the urethane that is not stuck to a solid surface.
We stress the importance of mixing in the instructions. The problem is that when an epoxy hardener is not properly mixed throughout the epoxy resin then it wants to migrate towards the surface (in general). While it's possible that the migration could yield a tack free layer on top it is extremely unlikely. I would be surprised if that were the case here based on how wet the LiquaTile 1184 layer is in the pictures.
Thanks to everyone who contributed their ideas and expertise on this one! If anyone has a direct question in regards to ideas or information that has been posted here I'll try to respond when I can. Please understand that currently we're extremely busy, and we will get back to you, but responses may be a bit slow.
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