Options for broomed finish concrete floor

[Kevro]

Hello all,

I found this site a couple weeks ago, and have been addicted ever since. I'll be starting on my 22'x22' garage soon (finally!), and am researching flooring options.

My floor is almost 50 years old, and has a broomed finish, but otherwise is in decent shape. It's a pain to sweep sawdust and such out, so I'd like something that's easier to keep clean (and nicer looking). I'd love to do VCT, but I understand that would require skim coating the floor to get it smooth. Am I correct in assuming the same for epoxy? How smooth does the concrete have to be for epoxy?

TIA

 

[AlphaGarage]

Hello all,
I'd love to do VCT, but I understand that would require skim coating the floor to get it smooth. Am I correct in assuming the same for epoxy? How smooth does the concrete have to be for epoxy?

TIA

VCT will eventually "telegraph" underlying irregularities to the surface, plus it the concrete is very rough it can affect VCT adhesion. Epoxy is fa more forgiving.

You can have the concrete be extremely rough, as long as it's prepped the epoxy will adhere fine, it may not look too smooth, but that can be fixed.

Epoxy is a self-leveling liquid, so to achieve a nice smooth finish you just need to apply enough so it covers the ridges. We actually spec "a light broom finish" for new concrete pours that are to be epoxied, in those cases 20 or so mils of coating usually is enough to "flood over" and result in a glass smooth finish.

With a rougher finish to start with it may take a bit more epoxy to achieve a final smooth coating. If your floor is currently extremely rough, you might want to smooth it out a bit with a grinder first, that way require as much epoxy.

If you can get the floor to have the texture of 60 - 80 grit sand paper we'd spec 3 gallons of our BondTite 1101 for the primer coat, followed by 4.5 gallons of LiquaTile 1184 as the pigmented body coat, topped with 1.25 gallons of EnduraShield 2254 as the clear coat. The system would be about 25.7 mils thick (that's with taking into account 10% waste), which is a fairly thick coating that would cover some pretty deep broom marks.

If I were doing the job I'd want to put down a good dose (25 or so pounds) of DecoFlakes, that way any areas with very aggressive broom grooves that weren't fully coated smooth would hopefully not be noticeable because the flakes do a great job of masking a host of substrate sins!

 

[Flathead Youngin']

what about that grinder that bmwpower rented....would it work, here?

 

[Kevro]

Thanks, AG. I took a close look at my floor last night, and found that it's rougher than 50-grit sandpaper. The "valleys" are maybe half a penny thickness deep, based on my unscientific measurements, which is close to 26 mils, if my calculations are correct. Is there a limit on how thick you can pour it on and still get good adhesion/curing/etc.?

Flathead, I searched for bmwpower's thread, and spent hours reading through it. Wow! I might be able to rent a grinder, but I'd like to save that as a last resort, if possible. Maybe I'll check out a diamond cup for my Makita angle grinder...

 

[IDASHO]

That surface doesnt look to terribly rough. I think a good epoxy coat would do you fine, provided you are not looking for a glass smooth finish. It would be textured, but very easy to sweep.

 

[AlphaGarage]

There are limits, but they depend on the specific products. Adhesion isn't the issue, but there are other factors, including quality of ingredients, that can limit thickness. We spec our LiquaTile 1184 up to 125 mil, or 1/8 inch. We also have products that can be used over 1/4 inch. On thicker coatings money comes into play, at some point it's cheaper to add aggregate than epoxy, but you need to make sure the filler and epoxy are compatible and don't weaken or effect durability. With enough epoxy you could easily smooth out your floor. Our typical system is about 22 mils thick, so it wouldn't take much extra epoxy to cover those ridges.

Don't discount using a grinder entirely. With the right set up you could prep your floor to an epoxy ready state in just a few hours.

Can you post any photos?

Thanks, AG. I took a close look at my floor last night, and found that it's rougher than 50-grit sandpaper. The "valleys" are maybe half a penny thickness deep, based on my unscientific measurements, which is close to 26 mils, if my calculations are correct. Is there a limit on how thick you can pour it on and still get good adhesion/curing/etc.?

Flathead, I searched for bmwpower's thread, and spent hours reading through it. Wow! I might be able to rent a grinder, but I'd like to save that as a last resort, if possible. Maybe I'll check out a diamond cup for my Makita angle grinder...