New House Garage Issues

[Swegner99]

Afternoon all, I closed on a house about 10 days ago. When we did our walk through I didn't pay attention to the damage to the existing "Epoxy" floor that was put down. Its coming up in big chunks, obviously the result of poor prep work. It appears as though a self leveling concrete was skim coated on the whole floor and the epoxy was put over that.

The pieces scraped up already have revealed a cement base that was damaged to begin with. My brother in law came and looked and said my best bet is to saw cut the whole garage floor and chip it out and re-pour, he is a concrete foreman by trade, so may be a little biased.

I've included a couple pictures, hopefully someone here can chime in with other ideas or options. Thanks guys.

ETA: Pictures incoming, they are too big to direct upload here.

 

[Fueler]

I don't suppose the brother volunteered to jump right on that issue did he?

 

[Swegner99]

 

[Swegner99]

Updated pictures. Scraped a bit more of the "Epoxy" up last night, its going to be a long process but I think I'm going to scrape as much as I can and expose the original concrete floor, so I will know how to proceed after that.

 

[jkeyser14]

You may just be able to grind it back to a flat/even surface. The self leveling layer looks to be very thin.

 

[James-W]

If it were mine, I would rent the equipment and I would grind the floor and get it down to the bare concrete again. Then, depending on how the floor looks at that time, epoxy may (or may not) be a good idea. If the floor still had issues, then I would put down plastic floor tiles. I don't think I would want to tear out the old concrete floor and pour a new one.

 

[Swegner99]

If it were mine, I would rent the equipment and I would grind the floor and get it down to the bare concrete again. Then, depending on how the floor looks at that time, epoxy may (or may not) be a good idea. If the floor still had issues, then I would put down plastic floor tiles. I don't think I would want to tear out the old concrete floor and pour a new one.

I tend to be in this camp, not sure i want to undertake the expense of new concrete. I'm going to scrape up as much as I can, then look into a grinder for the stubborn portions and high spots. Then I will re-visit.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Our install company tackled one similar to this recently. Need to manually scrape whatever has a loose edge and grind the rest.

Smaller and faster will eat through this better than larger and slower.

Once ground be sure to prime before the next step.

Good luck.


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[Manganos]

I'd put down racedeck and call it a day.

 

[Swegner99]

Smaller and faster will eat through this better than larger and slower.

What does this mean? Handheld grinder vs renting a large floor grinder?

 

[Swegner99]

I'd put down racedeck and call it a day.

I would love to, but saving for flooring since we just came out of pocket for the down payment and all the moving expenses. I want it to be as usable as possible in the meantime.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

What does this mean? Handheld grinder vs renting a large floor grinder?

Look for an Edco turbo grinder, ask for the most aggressive diamonds they have. Ask for "dots". Rental house


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[Swegner99]

Look for an Edco turbo grinder, ask for the most aggressive diamonds they have. Ask for "dots". Rental house


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This is the one my local home depot has for rent, same brand.

http://www.homedepot.com/tool-truck-rental/Concrete-Grinder-10/50200-HD/index.html

 

[Antoddio]

One you grind it you should be good. Not much more expensive than a normal epoxy job. Re pour the concrete...right. Lol.


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[Swegner99]

Thank you to everyone for the advice and help, going to get out there this weekend in the heat and scrape everything that will come up. Estimating that 65-75% of the floor will come up with a 4" scraper. Will post update pictures on Monday.

 

[nh_yota]

They must not have used a bonding agent on the old concrete.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Typically this type of failure is caused by a weak sandy cap. If it had been properly diamond ground this would not have happened.


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