Poor Surface Finish

[GearBeer]

So dispite all my struggles I ended up with this.

I realize that the color differences between the different trowel swipes will fade, but the surface finish bothers me. My dad seems to think that the epoxy coating I'm planning on will smooth it out but I'm unconvinced.

What's your experience with epoxy, will it fill in those wavy imperfections or do I need to smear some hydraulic cement on top first?

 

[AlphaGarage]

Tough to see just from the pic. A thick epoxy coat will probably smooth it all out, but even if it doesn't smooth and level, it will mask the transitions to the point that unless they're pointed out no one will probably notice.

High build - some flakes - it's all good.

 

[GearBeer]

I'll try to take a better photo after work today. Basically it's a bumpy or wavy finish that could have benefited from another pass or two with the hand trowel.

 

[hidollartoys]

You could grind the surface.

 

[Kevin54]

I seen the concrete guy was hand troweling the floor while the others were still pouring. It looks to me like he cut some corners. All that I have had done, or seen done at other places, gets the floor poured, bullfloated, set for a little while, then power troweled. Did they not power trowel yours as I am assuming they did not due to the pattern. Anyways....you're getting there and will have interesting conversations about the build for years to come.

 

[GearBeer]

He was hand troweling the storage garage while they were pouring the apron. He was always one pad behind. I don't know if that accounts for enough time, but that's the way they did it.

No, they didn't use a power trowel. I don't think they had one, but I was expecting it (part of the reason I went with staples instead of ties for the tubing).

 

[kevbo]

You think thats bad....check this

 

[rsanter]

you can do a light grind and polish on the floor to knock the high spots down.
if you do that I might recomend that you do a concrete stain and skip the epoxy cost

bob

 

[tcianci]

I think you guys are expecting micro-finished concrete from a typical floor contractor. Any epoxy with flakes will bury that and even if you don't use the flakes, you could grind it or just **** it up and realize that it's just a floor and coat it.