Planning Epoxy Project for New Garage

[What?]

Hi All! Finally registered after reading these forums for a while. It's been a lot of help so far.

Here is my situation: closing on a new house in a week, so the garage floor is nice bare concrete. I watched how the slab was prepared as the place was built, and it was done well - so I am not concerned about moisture. I did a test just to be sure and the area was dry. The slab was poured July 30, so it's good and cured by now. It's a 3-car garage in an L-shape, with 2 cars in the main part and a third car area attached. About 850 square feet, give or take.

There are two large windows on one wall, a half-light service door on another wall, and both garage doors have a portion which is glass. So, plenty of natural light. Due to the house's orientation, there won't be much direct sunlight coming in these windows, so I am not too concerned about yellowing.

So far I have ordered four kits of the Quickrete 2-Part Epoxy Garage Floor Coating. The kit contains acid etching solution, flakes, and tan color epoxy.

After reading a lot here and elsewhere, I decided the kits would not give me what I was looking for, but they are a good start. So, I have also obtained the following:

• - A huge additional quantity (15 lbs) of the same color flakes as in the kit "Autumn Brown" mix. Chip Size - Standard chips 1/4".
• - Three High Performance Urethane Clearcoat kit (500+ sq/ft) 1.5 gal
• - One gallon Devoe Preprime 167 - Penetrating Epoxy Sealer (500 sq/ft)
• - A pair of plastic spiked gardening sandals, which strap onto shoes with velcro.

Here is what I plan to do, in order:

• - Patch all cracks with Rust-oleum EpoxyShield 2-part concrete patch & repair kit
  (Home Depot $21.84) - there are not many cracks to patch at this point.
• - Rent a pressure washer and get the floor as clean as possible. It's already been washed out by the builder but it could be cleaner. Never had a car on it yet.
• - Apply the acid etching solution with a plastic watering container. Let it sit till it stops foaming.
• - Neutralize the acid with an ammonia solution, applied from the same plastic watering container.
• - Mop up the spent, neutralized solution
• - Pressure-wash the floor to get residue out of newly etched pores
• - At this point, the floor should be porous enough, but if not, I will buy more acid solution, rinse and repeat.
• - Let area dry thoroughly
• - Apply with a paint sprayer the gallon of Preprime 167. I am counting on one gallon to cover the whole area, since with the paint sprayer I should get a really thin coat.
• - When the preprime has dried to tacky, apply the tan epoxy with a roller.
• - Thickly broadcast the color chips. I read somewhere that a leaf blower can be hlepful to get good distribution.
• - Let dry for 24 hours
• - Sweep up excess color chips, and scrape down the remaining ones.
• - Apply a liberal covering of polyurethane - I have almost double the amount needed so I plan to put it on thick.
• - Let dry about three days before use.

If you have read this far, THANK YOU! If you have done a project like this, I would be very grateful for any feedback you may have. It is still not too late to change my plans if I am doing anything wrong.

 

[TEX1]

Sounds like a good plan, I did my floor over the Memorial day weekend, 2012. Started Sat A.M. removing everything off the floor, scraped and rinsed it all out, followed the directions and the DVD video that came with the product (I used the Quikcrete from LOWES) and by Monday afternoon I was moving back in (less the car, that was end of day Wednesday) and it still looks as great as when it was completed. I am very pleased with it and I get a ton of compliments on it. I'm planning on doing our back patio in the Spring.

 

[luke-44]

My first post on this board, but industrial flooring is my business so I feel somewhat qualified to comment:

You are on course especially with the surface prep. acid wash twice not once. I used TSP to neutralize - tri sodium phosphate.

I would suggest you reconsider is the spraying of the primer - for 850 sf I would roll it.

Check the primer mfg'r and epoxy topcoat directions. I would allow primer to dry to touch and topcoat next day, not apply while primer is tacky.

You may want to forget the chips. I really think you will prefer long term the clean look of plain color, especially with the urethane top coat.

Good luck, I hope this posting did not reach you too late.

 

[bernialisha]

Well, you have shared very nice and new ideas over here, i want to say thanks for your post. In my opinion epoxy is the best choice for constructing any type of architecture.

 

[pima67]

When I did mine I found that the sprinkler can method produced spotty results. I switched to a poly sprayer which applied the acid more uniformly. I didn't neutralize because the calcium in the concrete does that for you (assuming the concentration is too high). But I did wash it a couple of times using the sprayer. I was doing the 4 ft wide "step" on two sides of the garage, so I used my wet vac to **** up the wash water. After drying check to see if more washing is required by wiping your hand across the surface and see if it picks up dust. I felt the vac worked better that trying to wash the residue out the doors.