Polyaspartic top coating peeling

[smaggs]

Hi folks,

I found this forum while trying to do some research on similar issues to what I'm having and it looks like lots of knowledgeable people here so hopefully I can find some help.

I had a local company put down a polyaspartic coating on my new build garage floor a couple of years ago (Feb 2021) and it was great to start off with, however a year later in spring 2022 the top coat started to peel off in flakes which got progressively worse to the point that it was getting all over my driveway and making a huge mess any time I rinsed or swept out the garage. I spoke with the installer and he said he hadn't seen this issue before and was able to to come during summer 2022 to grind down the top coat and put a new layer on top with hopes that this layer will be better.

Now 7-8 months later, I'm starting to see a couple of spots where this is starting to happen again (see photos). I'm planning on giving the installer a call this week to figure out next steps but looking for any additional input anyone might have as I really don't want to deal with this every year and would like to ensure that when this is fixed, that it's fixed properly. Thanks in advance!

I've done some searching online and on this site and found a few threads around the whole coating peeling up which seemed to be due to bad prep, but couldn't find anything on just the top coat peeling. Possibly due to improperly mixed components or improper waiting periods between coats?

Some additional information that may/may not be relevant:

• Areas where it's peeling are primarily under where my wifes car is parked so there's no aggressive behavior happening against the floor. It does have water/snow (probably some salt mixed in there) sitting on it for a few weeks when we go through that weather and hose bibs are off but I can't imagine that would cause it to peel.
• I squeegee out the garage regularly when it's rainy season and puddles form.
• The first summer I had the coating, I used my (low-power electric) pressure washer to spray out the garage. To avoid any contribution this may have to the issue, since the new top-layer has been put on I've only used the regular hose to spray it down and a broom brush to scrub and clean the floor.
• There's some areas near the back that peeled due to masking tape on the floor from when a plastic partition went up to replace a window and drywall there. This is a low traffic area and towards the back so I would be fine living with just this section but I'm not sure if just masking tape on the floor should be pulling up the top coat.

Happy to layer in any more info that might help get some input, just let me know. Thanks again!

 

[smaggs]

Ran into some issues uploading the pics but hopefully this works:

Area where the top coat peeled from masking tape:


One of the areas under wifes car that's peeling:


One of the flakes that came from one of the peeling areas:

 

[benwah]

If I were the installer in this case I would come in, run a light grind with 80 grit metals over the flake, being sure not to cut through the flake coat. Rebroadcast flake into 8-10 mil of epoxy, scrape, topcoat with polyaspartic @ 20 mils DFT.

 

[smaggs]

If I were the installer in this case I would come in, run a light grind with 80 grit metals over the flake, being sure not to cut through the flake coat. Rebroadcast flake into 8-10 mil of epoxy, scrape, topcoat with polyaspartic @ 20 mils DFT.

Thanks for the response, I'll mention this to them. I chatted with him today and he said that he can come and grind back down to the bare concrete and do it all over again (all covered under warranty thankfully). Would you say that there's any advantage to doing either that or what you suggested? The biggest thing for me is moving everything out of the garage again which I will have to do for either option.

 

[Imatk]

Honestly... if he's willing to go back down to concrete without any cost to you... DO IT.

It's hard to say what's happening, but that flaking (like you suspected) usually happens because there is some kind of prep issue.
On my old floor that I had someone put it (I did my new floor specifically BECAUSE I had someone put it in and they did a piss poor job) the top coat started flaking but that was because they didn't put enough clear down in the first place.


So they had to come back out and put down more clear. But they obviously didn't bother to even clean the floor before the new clear because I had areas where you could easily see OIL from my car underneath the new clear.

The company sucked and I could never get them to come back out and do the job right.

So if it was me I'd definitely have him go down to the concrete again if it's no cost to you.

 

[smaggs]

Honestly... if he's willing to go back down to concrete without any cost to you... DO IT.

It's hard to say what's happening, but that flaking (like you suspected) usually happens because there is some kind of prep issue.
On my old floor that I had someone put it (I did my new floor specifically BECAUSE I had someone put it in and they did a piss poor job) the top coat started flaking but that was because they didn't put enough clear down in the first place.


So they had to come back out and put down more clear. But they obviously didn't bother to even clean the floor before the new clear because I had areas where you could easily see OIL from my car underneath the new clear.

The company sucked and I could never get them to come back out and do the job right.

So if it was me I'd definitely have him go down to the concrete again if it's no cost to you.

Great, thanks for the feedback. It'll be nice to have a brand new product. Like my wife said earlier "hey, we get a brand new floor at no cost? I'm good with that".....she's not the one that's moving all the stuff out of the garage, LOL.

 

[benwah]

Thanks for the response, I'll mention this to them. I chatted with him today and he said that he can come and grind back down to the bare concrete and do it all over again (all covered under warranty thankfully). Would you say that there's any advantage to doing either that or what you suggested? The biggest thing for me is moving everything out of the garage again which I will have to do for either option.

If your prime coat is in good shape and not delaminating, I personally wouldn’t go to bare concrete. This is what I would suggest…Run some 80 metals on it, until completely deglossed. At that point take a razor knife and poke around a bit, if the coating is sound, adhered, and cured, just go with a re-flake. This seems to be a topcoat issue, not an epoxy body-coat issue. But grinding the flake down will let you know immediately. If you spot any issues in the flake body-coat, soft spots, holidays, etc. Go for an entirely new floor.

I had to re-do one in a similar situation recently. I got some ******** covid-era raw materials in my polyaspartic that made it bubble like crazy after I applied it. I did the method mentioned above to fix it. Came out flawless. Double broadcast flake floor, bomber.

This will cut down immensely on the time needed to grind that off and go through the entire coatings process again. If you move your stuff out beforehand that would help expedite it even more.

Grind, vacuum, solvent wipe, broadcast flake Day 1.

Reclaim flake, topcoat Day 2.

 

[smaggs]

If your prime coat is in good shape and not delaminating, I personally wouldn’t go to bare concrete. This is what I would suggest…Run some 80 metals on it, until completely deglossed. At that point take a razor knife and poke around a bit, if the coating is sound, adhered, and cured, just go with a re-flake. This seems to be a topcoat issue, not an epoxy body-coat issue. But grinding the flake down will let you know immediately. If you spot any issues in the flake body-coat, soft spots, holidays, etc. Go for an entirely new floor.

I had to re-do one in a similar situation recently. I got some ******** covid-era raw materials in my polyaspartic that made it bubble like crazy after I applied it. I did the method mentioned above to fix it. Came out flawless. Double broadcast flake floor, bomber.

This will cut down immensely on the time needed to grind that off and go through the entire coatings process again. If you move your stuff out beforehand that would help expedite it even more.

Grind, vacuum, solvent wipe, broadcast flake Day 1.

Reclaim flake, topcoat Day 2.

Good to know. I'll pass that option onto the installer when i chat with him next too and see if that's an option he can or would prefer to do. Maybe this is a similar issue to the materials you got...