Hi. I am hoping someone can provide some help. I have a polished concrete garage floor and will be putting Rocksolid(dark grey)on it. I have watched so many videos that I almost talked myself out of doing this. I know prep is key. My original goal was to degrease, acid etch, patch in that order. I really want to stay away from grinding if possible. My main concern is that I don’t want any blemishes to show through and want to make the polycuramine adheres to the concrete really well. I noticed the Rustoleum Recoat primer that can be used for sealed surfaces before putting the polycuramine on. Would it be possible and would it work if I used it after I acid etched? I just want to make sure I that everything is uniform and any blemishes will not be seen or at least minimal. Will this still provide a good surface to apply polycuramine? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Polycuramine Floor
- Thread starter Brando394
- Start date
Garage Flooring
ALLIANCE MEMBER
It is hard to speak to someone else's product but I would highly suggest etching. Also read the tech specs as opposed to sales literature to make sure you have enough material before you start.
Use of a primer will greatly extend the coverage of a coating since primers prevent coatings from soaking in. Also the brand you mentioned you would like to use is well known for not giving enough material for a proper coat and often 2x or more needs to be purchased as that brand to our knowledge does not publish 'how much' you are getting in a package so best to check into what you are getting for your money as you may find that other suppliers can offer you for comparable money much more material to cover your floor which helps to reduce blemishes and adds life span.
I was looking at the label of the primer and it said “ not recommended on bare concrete”. Is there truth to this? Otherwise I guess what I was trying to accomplish will not work.
Another question. I have noticed a lot of people on YouTube do not fill in the saw cuts with latex caulk before putting the coat on. Any recommendations one way or another in regards to that? Thank you.
Another question. I have noticed a lot of people on YouTube do not fill in the saw cuts with latex caulk before putting the coat on. Any recommendations one way or another in regards to that? Thank you.
We can't comment on another company's products, so best you contact them for their recommendations as to what primer if any to use. Be aware though as stated previously that a bare concrete floor can be very porous and really **** up expensive material which could require much more than you had budgeted for or result in an uneven finish sheen. This fact coupled with you may not be getting as many ounces as you think vs other suppliers can result in significant shortages of material. Generally speaking any product purchased at a home center would not be the quality of products sold by the vendors that are active on Garage Journal, or other suppliers you may locate.
As to saw cuts we don't recommend filling them first and coating over them since when/if the slabs move cracks will result so best to just leave them be or fill them after with a joint filler. Metzger & Mcguire makes caulks (RS-88) in 100 colors to match virtually any surface if that is your goal.
As to saw cuts we don't recommend filling them first and coating over them since when/if the slabs move cracks will result so best to just leave them be or fill them after with a joint filler. Metzger & Mcguire makes caulks (RS-88) in 100 colors to match virtually any surface if that is your goal.
Shea
Well-known member
We actually wrote an article about the Rust-Oleum recoat primer when it first came out. They approached us and asked if we would be interested in doing so. As a result, we were able to ask a few questions about the product and what it is intended for. I have the article posted below.
The recoat primer is for use on previously coated/painted floors (adhered well and not peeling) or bare concrete that has previously been treated with a sealer. It is not for use on bare, unsealed concrete or used as a basic primer for other Rust-Oleum products. If you have blemishes on your floor that need repair, RockSolid is not the best product to use. As ArmorPoxy has stated, it's a thin coating and is known for having coverage issues. In addition, thin coatings do not hide repairs well.
If you have a polished surface I don't believe that the citric acid etch they provide in their kits is going to provide a porous enough profile. Make sure to test the surface for porosity first after it has dried before you apply the RockSolid. If the surface does not absorb water droplets well after etching, then the RockSolid will not obtain a very strong mechanical grip.
RockSolid does have a very gloss look and abrasion ratings comparable to high solids commercial rated epoxy. However, it's expensive and does have coverage issues that sometimes require two coats. Two coats of RockSolid are actually more expensive than one coat of better performing commercial quality single-part polyurea that would be the same thickness as two coats of RockSolid. Just something to consider as there are many more options for coatings other than what the DIY home improvement centers offer.
Rust-Oleum Concrete & Garage Primer makes Recoating Epoxy Easy
Rust-Oleum makes recoating older epoxy and applying garage floor coatings to sealed concrete easy. Learn how their new garage floor primer works.
allgaragefloors.com
I decided I am going to skip the primer. I am going to acid etch then test the surface. After that I will fill in any cracks on the floor, especially where the floor meets the wall. Just going to floor to the garage door and not outside, still wondering where that line should be, if the garage door should close on the new flooring or not. I was going to fill in the saw cuts, but after reading the replies I think I am just going to let the product go in it, so I can keep the nice saw cut look. Fingers crossed, doing this for my daughters graduation…. My wife is really nervous about it 
I used the rock solid polycuramine garage kit. I did some research and wanted to use what was available to me to pick up in my market. I was unsure if my 1 year old concrete was sealed because most of the water would bead up. My home builder told me that the concrete was not sealed. I did a moisture test in 2 spots in my garage with 20 x 20" sheets of poly masking taped down, after leaving overnight there was no moisture so there must have been some sort of cure in the concrete that did seal it. Rustoleum advised not to etch as it wouldnt take but to use their primer/sealer so I did. I let it dry for 2 days and the primer looked fine, no bubbles at all. I did their polycuramine coating as instructed, mixed part A into part B in the bag, poured into a pail and slowly stired in the anti skid additive. Put down the product, rolled it out and it looked great, at first. I then started to see some bubbles forming, rolled most out I could reach and it looked fine. As it cured more bubbles showed up, 4 hours later had bubbles all over. I used the google machine and thought it was outgassing, called Rustoleum and they said it was not outgassing because my primer coat had no bubbles. They told me I probably stired to quickly in the pail and oxygen got into the mix. They also told me they tought that I put down too much product as I used 2 of their 2.5 stall kits on my 600 sq ft garage, many reviews said to cover my sq ft buy 2 kits, and I did not want to run out 1/2 way through. They opened a ticket and asked me to send pics. They told me that I may get a refund or they may send me 2 new kits. At this time I would prefer my $$ back and let it ride the winter and then grind down next year and do it another way. I'll update as I hear back from Rustoleum. Just my experience thus far, as Im sure others have had great luck with it, and have read a few reviews of it not working so well. I'll update when I hear back.
benwah
Well-known member
The coating should continue to the end of the slab or next available control joint unless you introduce an anchor cut. That would be a 1/8" wide by 3/8" deep saw cut into the slab that you terminate your coating system. I would not recommend anything less. If you decide to terminate your coating under the door with a piece of tape it will most definitely, without a doubt, begin to fail prematurely.I decided I am going to skip the primer. I am going to acid etch then test the surface. After that I will fill in any cracks on the floor, especially where the floor meets the wall. Just going to floor to the garage door and not outside, still wondering where that line should be, if the garage door should close on the new flooring or not. I was going to fill in the saw cuts, but after reading the replies I think I am just going to let the product go in it, so I can keep the nice saw cut look. Fingers crossed, doing this for my daughters graduation…. My wife is really nervous about it
For an anchor, snap a straight line with blue chalk directly underneath the middle of your garage door. Then, using a Skillsaw worm drive (or equivalent) and a 7" masonry diamond blade with a dust extraction system, cut that as straight as you possibly can. If you use a 4.5" hand grinder it will more than likely not be straight.
If you don't want to go this route I'd suggest continuing the coating to the end of the slab and wrapping it down the bull-nose of the concrete. Epoxy requires a polyurethane top-coat, that is necessary for UV stability, so I hope you are planning for that as well! any questions just ask.
benwah
Well-known member
This is why you never, ever, use Rustoleum. In my personal opinion of course. There are great vendors here with good products that have great support and actually care.
4xdog
Well-known member
"Polycuramine"! What marketing BS. It's perfectly reasonable bisphenol-A epoxy chemistry.
It's perfectly reasonable bisphenol-A epoxy chemistry.benwah
Well-known member
did we just become best friends?"Polycuramine"! What marketing BS.
This right here is what separates a professional application from all the rest. While 99% of the DIYrs never do this, and we have not experienced a delamination failure because they didn't, it is THE way to go for an open floor termination and will give you a super clean finished edge. Relying on masking tape is a **** shoot at best as the coatings materials will almost always bleed under the tape and will leave you a ragged, ugly edge. Our BondTite 1101 primer is super slippery (for lack of a better description... ;-) on purpose as it is intended to soak deep into the porous concrete. If the floor is prepped correctly it will very likely soak under a taped edge. It can be a little frustrating given this is the 1st thing you see when entering a garage.
BTW, the drawing above is really for high-build epoxy and overlay applications. The saw cut that Benwah described is the way to go i.e. no chiselling needed... ;-)
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Just updating may last post. Rustoleum is refunding my $$ for the 2 Rock Solid kits and primer I had purchased. At this point going to let the coating ride until next spring...then decide what I want to do. Appreciate all the info on here. Looking for the right DIY ideas for my next coating after grinding this one off next spring.
Would you have some pictures of this bubbling failure? Reason I ask is we did my son’s garage in rock solid last spring and it was a NASTY 20 year old garage floor with a lot of cracking which we sealed up using the Rustoleum crack filler epoxy and we pressure washed the garage with the floor disc (2600psi, 11” disk) and throughly cleaned the floor to the best of our ability. Then we followed the exact instructions using the etching powder in the kit. We used 2 x 2.5 car kits. But instead of mixing in the pouches, we went to the dollar store and bought several small plastic containers and first mixed all of part A in one big container to mix it all to get a uniform color. Then we separated into 4 small equal parts and as we applied added the part b (clear hardener) to give us more working time. The end result was not necessarily flawless but very good in our opinion and we saw very little bubbling if you can even count that but the flakes hid any blemishes we had. We did have 2 small issues. 1. For some odd reason, we had 2 small areas where we had tire peel, very odd because it was only in the one section (we called Rustoleum and the sent a patch kit) and it’s not expanded or peeled anywhere else. We think the floor may just have had something on it there that we didn’t get cleaned properly. 2. We didn’t do a cut line under the garage door so the exposed floor outside the garage faded in the GA sun. But reading other comments I’m glad we didn’t tape it off.
All said and done, we’re pretty happy with the outcome as in the past year the garage has had some heavy “working shop” type of usage, rolling heavy floor hacks, jack stands, multi month project cars with all the chemicals leaking, and yet a quick rinse and squeegee makes it look like new! The concrete was not silky smooth to start with and adding the flakes made it skid resistant so no issues there yet it cleans up very easily with a double foam squeegee when floor is wet. I’m planning to do this in our new garage build unless otherwise motivated to do the polyaspardic. Which seems to cost at least double and I’m looking to do about 1300s/f. From what I read, rock solid can be re-coated as well if needed in the future using the primer posted above. I may actually do that in my existing 18x18 garage first to see how that goes. It currently has Sherwin Williams epoxy about 15 years old and has held up well but has some tire peeling and floor hack scratches. Constructive advice is very welcome! If members can guide me to a better product within my budget I’ll absolutely consider! I believe my current plan cost will be around $1500-$2000 max.
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We can put a 100% solids 3-layer Armorclad system kit which would be much thicker than what you are currently using and with flecks kit together for you for this size space south of 2k. Please contact us directly at [email protected] for info, quote, etc. Please mention GJ Member to get the discount. Thanks.
That’s why I’m surprised here, we’re a year in with heavy usage and it’s held up amazingly well. I agree it’s probably not the norm. Maybe we got lucky but it’s held up very well! Looks like the day we rolled it out!