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New Epoxymaster floor down

nip_tuck123

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Sep 22, 2010
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18
Just wanted to share some of my experiences with laying down some 2 part epoxy on a garage floor. After spending many hours on here reviewing others experiences, I decided to try it myself.

Prepping the concrete was by far the hardest part. My son and I spent approximately 14 hours grinding our 660 sq. ft. 3-car garage with an Edco dual disc grinder. The guy at the rental yard swore that the standard medium grit sanding stones were the way to go for a rough finish. Wrong. After spending several hours with the standard stones that worked very slowly and left a smooth finish, I went back and got the dyma-serts and found them to work much faster and left a rough finish like needed for an epoxy coating.

If you're considering doing this, be ready to spend alot of time grinding. It's a VERY SLOW process and if it weren't for my son helping, I don't know that I would've finished. Even though the dyma-serts were faster, it's still a very time-consuming job.

After the grinding was finished, we spent approximately 2 hours sweeping, vacuuming and blowing out the garage. I chose not to get the floor wet, so we didn't rinse or pressure wash the floor. It was my understanding that moisture in the concrete is not a good thing, so I didn't want to risk it.

Laying down the epoxy itself was pretty easy, even though we were fighting wind and a slight drizzle. We left the garage doors open but covered the opening with plastic sheeting to keep debris and rain out. We mixed a smaller batch and did the edges first. My son and I both had spiked shoes on, I squeegeed and he rolled. After the grinding part this seemed like a walk in the park. We put down the flake but no anti-skid.

The results were amazing. I'm very pleased with the floor and it seems nice, thick and hard as nails. We had no issues with drying. 24 hours after laying it down it was dry. We waited 48 hours before bringing anything in, and 72 hours before parking a car on it. It's been down one week so far and honestly this stuff looks like it'll last for many, many years.
 

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nip_tuck123

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Still learning how to post pics....:beer:
 

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nip_tuck123

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Sep 22, 2010
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Thanks for all the knowledge on this board, it helped me out immensely. Now I'm a little nervous about bringing in the next project car...a 1967 chevy II Nova 2 door hardtop. :3gears: Been pretty **** about keeping the floor nice lol. A few more pics...made sure we took plenty. The grinding dust was EVERYWHERE!
 

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nip_tuck123

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Sep 22, 2010
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Thanks...the joints don't have much epoxy in some areas, for some reason it's more noticeable in pictures than in person. When we started cutting in the edges, I did one joint but soon realized it was taking too long and my expansion joints are pretty big. I think it looks fine as is and chose not to fill the expansion joints. Materials were about $550. Edco machine was $80 and the dyma-serts were $120.
 

Track t-4

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Dec 18, 2008
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Why did you have to grind the surface? Was it an older, previously-used garage and/or was grinding required for the product?
 

Cabby89

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Nov 18, 2009
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That is an awful long time to be grinding. From doing my research on grinders, including the smaller Edco unit. The single disc unit grinds around 200sq ft/hour and the bigger unit is around 400sq ft/hour. You must have really ground a lot more than you needed off. Also did they forget to give you the weights for the unit and that's why your helper is standing on the machine?

Good tip is to sweep the majority of the dust out. Then what I like to do is come through with a microfiber mop and wipe the entire floor using denatured alcohol.

Floor looks really great and with the amount of time you spent on prep you should not have a problem down the road.
 

Jeremy W

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Aug 27, 2010
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I ground mine for 16 + hours but I had a gummy sealer I was grinding off before I hit concrete. Nice looking floor by the way.
 
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nip_tuck123

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Sep 22, 2010
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Why did you have to grind the surface? Was it an older, previously-used garage and/or was grinding required for the product?

The house is about a year and a half old with no oil stains or cracks. I didn't have to grind it but from everything I've read, and per Tony at epoxymaster, grinding is superior to acid etching and I want the coating to last a very long time.
 
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nip_tuck123

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Sep 22, 2010
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That is an awful long time to be grinding. From doing my research on grinders, including the smaller Edco unit. The single disc unit grinds around 200sq ft/hour and the bigger unit is around 400sq ft/hour. You must have really ground a lot more than you needed off. Also did they forget to give you the weights for the unit and that's why your helper is standing on the machine?

Good tip is to sweep the majority of the dust out. Then what I like to do is come through with a microfiber mop and wipe the entire floor using denatured alcohol.

Floor looks really great and with the amount of time you spent on prep you should not have a problem down the road.

Thank you. I researched grinding too and found a few different opinions as to the time involved in grinding. I was hoping to finish the grinding in one day, but had to finish on the second day. This is the first time I've ever done a project like this so quite possibly someone more familiar with the machine could make it work faster, I don't know. I didn't get any weights with the machine but quickly realized it works better with some added weight. I'm very pleased with the product and results!
 
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nip_tuck123

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Sep 22, 2010
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I ground mine for 16 + hours but I had a gummy sealer I was grinding off before I hit concrete. Nice looking floor by the way.

Thanks...Yeah I saw your post on that and thought, "heck, mine can't possibly take that long then" lol...I simply ground until the concrete was lighter gray and rough to the touch. It worked fast in some areas, slower in others. I'm thinking maybe the areas that ground slowly were lower than the areas that went fast, but the floor looked level to the naked eye. I didn't check it with a level or anything.
 

tc2000

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May 21, 2010
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Bump. Interesting notes re. surface roughness with different equip.
 
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nip_tuck123

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Sep 22, 2010
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Just wanted to post a follow-up. Hard to believe it's been over 4 years since we put down our epoxy floor! It is holding up amazingly well. I sweep and mop it about 3 or 4 times a year, more if I'm doing more work in the garage and it still has its shine except for a few places that I accidentally got brake cleaner on from a brake job. Absolutely no lifting or peeling and it hasn't chipped or flaked from some pretty nasty blows to the floor with jacks and jack-stands. I do work on my car regularly and I love how easily any type of spill cleans up with only a towel. I highly recommend Epoxymaster to anyone thinking of coating their garage floor.
 

RedDirtRoad

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Feb 7, 2010
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Floor looks great but I like to see pics of the cars!
Do you have a Nova?
I am a muscle car freak
 
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nip_tuck123

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Sep 22, 2010
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I have a 1967 Chevelle and a 1967 Nova. I will snap a couple pics of the cars for you that will also show what the floor looks like now. I'll try to post them up later today.
 
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nip_tuck123

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Sep 22, 2010
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The Chevelle has been freshly painted original Marina blue. It has a 427 big block, upgraded turbo 350, 12 bolt posi with 4.11 gears, all new bushings (suspension and body), new brake and fuel lines and Baer brakes with 18" Budnik's. The Nova you can see in the background is waiting patiently until I finish the Chevelle. It will get an LS swap with a T-56 transmission and TCI pro-touring front clip and rear suspension with mini-tubs.
 

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