Removing Silane Based Penetrating Sealer with Lye?

[Tom A]

Hi All,
I'm prepping a 1000sq-ft of garage floor for an epoxy coating and am having trouble. Here is the history:
-Sept 2014- The concrete was poured
-October 2015- Applied Sikagard 705L Silane based penetrating sealer
- May 2017 ~350sq-ft was replaced by the builder due to water ponding. This made my garage floor two tone and looks like **** so I decided on epoxy.
- Oct 2017- Rented an Edco dual head grinder and spent ~ 6 hours grinding and based on the specs, I took off ~1/16" off. Water was still beading so I tried etching. I did a couple of rounds of Muriatic acid etch. I was pretty aggressive and went through 6 gallons. The acid seemed to be reacting pretty well to the concrete and I thought I was good.

Now when I do a absorption test, water still beads up. (see photo)

Any ideas on how to proceed? Sikagard claims a 3/8" penetration depth and that a lot of additional grinding plus an extra $280 for the rental..

I can across this article on using Lye (Sodium Hydroxide) to remove the sealer. Anyone ever try using this? Basically, it say that a 20% solution of Lye will dissolve the Silane based penetrating sealer.

 

[Armorpoxy]

Wow, most definitely don't coat this floor yet. 3/8" (375mils) is just too much to grind off, its not feasible in our opinion.

Suggest you contact Sika, but if they don't have a solution we sell a special primer called Flash Bond that uses nanotechnology for bonding. You can purchase a quart from us and test it on a corner and see if it adheres, it most likely will just fine since this product will stick to glass. Our epoxy will stick to the Flash Bond and you won't need an epoxy primer if you use the Flash Bond.

Alternately just tile over it with interlocking tiles sold by various vendors here, or our brand, www.supratile.com.

 

[Tom A]

Thanks Armopoxy,
I talked to tech services at Sika today and they don't know of a chemical solution, only mechanical.

Tiles are not an option in my case since I have a passenger door that only has 1/4" of clearance between the door sweep and floor. I'll give you a call tomorrow and learn about your epoxy products.