Rock Solid Polycuramine turned out a bit splotchy

[cash68]

Hey,

I have had my floor diamond ground, shotblast, skim coated, reground, all cracks ground out and epoxy filled, etc. Prepped. I then put on 3 gallons of moisture stop, flushed, dried, scrubbed with vinegar and water, flushed again, and put down the polycuarmine.

It's 450 sq ft; 15x30', and a 2.5 car garage kit said it would cover up to 450 sq ft. I read that the coverage was very 'optimisitic', so I purchased TWO 2.5 car kits, for a total of 900 sq ft.

Well, upon installation, I had to use 1.5 kits to even cover it with one coat, and some areas are very glossy and look perfect, others are slightly darker and look splotchy. I'm guessing it was the polycuramine soaking into different areas of the concrete at different rates.

What to do now?

I could try putting on clearcoat, or more coats of the polycuramine. I have half a kit left, but I think I would need at least one more single car kit to get good coverage.

Ideas?

 

[SunsetsAndFriends]

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[Garage Flooring]

Hey,

I have had my floor diamond ground, shotblast, skim coated, reground, all cracks ground out and epoxy filled, etc. Prepped. I then put on 3 gallons of moisture stop, flushed, dried, scrubbed with vinegar and water, flushed again, and put down the polycuarmine.

It's 450 sq ft; 15x30', and a 2.5 car garage kit said it would cover up to 450 sq ft. I read that the coverage was very 'optimisitic', so I purchased TWO 2.5 car kits, for a total of 900 sq ft.

Well, upon installation, I had to use 1.5 kits to even cover it with one coat, and some areas are very glossy and look perfect, others are slightly darker and look splotchy. I'm guessing it was the polycuramine soaking into different areas of the concrete at different rates.

What to do now?

I could try putting on clearcoat, or more coats of the polycuramine. I have half a kit left, but I think I would need at least one more single car kit to get good coverage.

Ideas?

Tough to give advice without pics but TIME IS EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW. You have a limited period of time to do a recoat w/o having to sand and solvent wipe.

 

[cash68]

Understood. I guess I'll pick up more product on the way home. Here is a pic:

 

[Garage Flooring]

Understood. I guess I'll pick up more product on the way home. Here is a pic:

Yes. More product. Check reocoat time. If you exceeded recoat time follow their directions.... Typically sand and solvent wipe

 

[cash68]

Recoat said within 7 days, I did this on Saturday so I believe I'm all good.

 

[cash68]

Is the clearcoat helpful for anything besides aesthetics? I don't have windows in this garage so I doubt yellowing will be an issue. It will be a working garage with jacks and jackstands and whatnot, but if the clear scratches just like the base will I don't see the point.

 

[Armorpoxy]

This is the reason we always recommend a primer coat when applying a coating, especially highly pigmented bright colors and light colors. Varying absorption rates are eliminated by priming which prevents the epoxy layer from soaking in.

Uneven absorption is especially common with skim coats and overlays.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[cash68]

Wow. I'm kind of pissed off right now. I put down another coat 2 nights ago, and it looks terrible. This is a 450 sq ft garage, and at this point I have put down $500 worth of product (which supposedly covers 1150sq ft) and it looks like total ****.

For some reason, wherever I poured the second coat, I could not get it to flatten out. The slab was 50-60 degrees, and I would run my roller over the ribbon of coating to try to flatten it out, but you could always still see it. It's almost like the fresh coating was eating into the first topcoat? Here are pics of my ****** floor:

And on top of all that radness, the color didn't match from one kit to another:

 

[Shea]

Did you apply the second coat to the entire floor or just a few areas? When recoating, it's important to do the entire floor. Coatings do not blend like paint on a wall. If only part of a floor is coated you will always see where the additional coating terminates with the old.

It's hard to tell exactly what you have going on from the pics. It looks like a patched area of concrete telegraphing through, but that could just be from the glare playing tricks... I don't know. There may also be a reaction going on from the moisture stop or the vinegar scrubbing.

I suggest calling Rust-Oleum's customer service and talk with them. They are pretty good at helping customers out with issues.

 

[cash68]

I recoated the entire floor. The color difference is between two kits.

It's not the concrete showing through, that rounded area is literally where I first poured out the second coat, before rolling it smooth.

 

[Antoddio]

You just need a lot more product, including a primer coat if you are looking for a reasonable coating. Probably should sand and solvent wipe at this point and start with a primer.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

I can't see any of the pics.

 

[cash68]

What is everyone using for pics? Apparently you can't use imgur, so I put everythign on photobucket. Photobucket is freaking terrible with so many ads, and now half the people on this forum can't see anything.

 

[FJ4FUN]

What is everyone using for pics? Apparently you can't use imgur, so I put everythign on photobucket. Photobucket is freaking terrible with so many ads, and now half the people on this forum can't see anything.

I just put the photos onto my desktop then go to the Garage Journal's User CP and upload from my desktop into the Photos & Albums. Copy>paste the URL provided and wha-la.. I'm sure there is a better way but I'm a bit of a ludite and it works for me.






.

 

[SunsetsAndFriends]

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[Viper98912]

Stinks to see that you're having issues.

While I haven't used Rock Solid, I have used the Epoxyshield Pro (and I'm a fan, since I've three different garages with it). I definitely do two coats of the color base coat, since one coat is too thin and it's a little see through. Second coat of base, as well as the clear coat, makes it look top notch.

On the 3 car garage I did, I dumped two gallons of color into a 5 gallon bucket to blend the color (without the activator). Then put one of the gallons of color back into one of the original cans, and started with the activator mixing process, but for only 1 of the gallons.

For you, it stinks to have to do a third coat, but is it possible to buy one more gallon and do a thin coat all across the garage? It should give you a good color match.

 

[cash68]

Update: I contacted Rustoleum last week; a few things. First off, one of their 800 numbers on the rustoleum site was wrong, and sent me to some guy in India trying to tell me I won a $100 walmart gift card. I thought I was crazy so I hung up and tried again, same result. So then I contacted them at 866-765-4474 from the website http://www.rustoleum.com/stand-alone-contact-us/contact-us-rocksolid

I explained the situation, then sent them photos of the boxes, receipts, and how my floor turned out. They said they could either ship me out a new product, or cut me a check for another 2.5 car kit. Seeing as how I put the last coat down on Tuesday, I wanted to pick up a kit locally and reapply within the 7 day window to avoid having to sand/wipe down with solvents.

So Saturday, just FOUR days after the second coat, I laid down a third coat. I had my girlfriend trimming the edges while I rolled it out, everything looked great.

Woke up Sunday, went to check on the floor, and found this:

It looks like the third coat literally beaded up on the second coat; nothing is flat or smooth anymore, it's all mottled and strange looking. So frustrated. Really regretting going with RockSolid right now.

 

[SunsetsAndFriends]

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[cash68]

I emailed the customer service rep I was working with this morning, but have not heard back yet.

 

[SunsetsAndFriends]

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[Armorpoxy]

Sounds like time for a refund! You can cover over it with garage tiles and easily move on perhaps.

 

[Antoddio]

Most spec a 24 hour window. 7 days...I wonder who made that up at their company. You just didn't have enough product to start with, not for a surface that sounded like it was prepared correctly- which takes more product.

 

[Viper98912]

Wow.

Well, at least through all your frustration you haven't burned the house down or anything.

 

[COLOviaPA]

Not to make things worse, but if I read your first post correctly it looks like you used a moisture mitigation system OVER your skim? Whenever possible you want the moisture mitigation closest to the moisture (on the bare concrete). Unless you used a moisture proof skim (most are not) your skim will be subject to moisture break-down.

For coverages remember the 1604SF per gallon of liquid rule. Any liquid will cover 1604SF of a given substrate at 1mil (wet film) thickness. So if you're garage is 450SF, a gallon would cover it at ~3.5 mils thick. 3.5 mils is less than half the thickness of a sheet of copy paper and much too thin for a wear surface on any floor.

 

[cash68]

Most spec a 24 hour window. 7 days...I wonder who made that up at their company. You just didn't have enough product to start with, not for a surface that sounded like it was prepared correctly- which takes more product.

Yeah, this is what I am beginning to suspect as well.

They cut me a check due to the mismatched colors to pay for the third coat, which beaded up and looks really weird. They got back to me and told me they would again refund me for ANOTHER kit, but I would have to sand the current surface down and wipe with solvent. At this point I'm unsure what I'm going to do. Pretty disappointed.

 

[SunsetsAndFriends]

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[Antoddio]

I recommend you stop trying to use Rustoleum epoxy, it's **** product. I think I listed out the components of a good kit you could use in another thread. It will only last you a decade or two however.

 

[SunsetsAndFriends]

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[cash68]

How many kits will it really take to cover your floor adequately? And how many kits do you have down now?

I recommend at least getting Rustoleum to send you the number of kits you put down. Then you could sand your floor, vacuum, and solvent wipe. Then put down a quality primer coat before coating with the RickSolid product. The primer will build a little and even out texture, etc.


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I have 3 2.5 car kits and one single car kit down now, for a total of 3 coats.

A single 2.5 car kit covers adequately now, since it is no longer soaking into the floor.

So far, they have reimbursed me for one kit. I think they will be sending me another check for another 2.5 car kit, but they want me to sand the floor first.

 

[cash68]

I recommend you stop trying to use Rustoleum epoxy, it's **** product. I think I listed out the components of a good kit you could use in another thread. It will only last you a decade or two however.

This is not an epoxy kit.

 

[SunsetsAndFriends]

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[cash68]

In my opinion the recoat time was too long. The previous coat was too cured and glossy, so this third coat didn't have enough of a bond to the previous coats to stay down even, instead it beaded up as it dried. Hopefully sanding it will allow the coating to remain flat as it dries.

 

[SunsetsAndFriends]

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[Antoddio]

This is not an epoxy kit.

Well, you got me on a technicality. Whatever it is, it is not a good product to be using.

 

[SunsetsAndFriends]

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[cash68]

For what it's worth, the current coating seems to be VERY durable. I took a screwdriver to an area and tried to scratch it, and it's amazingly strong and barely leaves any marks whatsoever. Much more impressive than a typical big box epoxy product, which I have used in the past. So far, I have mixed feelings. I think the coating is a good product, I think the square footage on the box is misleading, and I feel they are flat out wrong when it comes to recoat times estimations. I would not wait longer than 3 days, in the future.

 

[SunsetsAndFriends]

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[Shea]

For what it's worth, the current coating seems to be VERY durable. I took a screwdriver to an area and tried to scratch it, and it's amazingly strong and barely leaves any marks whatsoever. Much more impressive than a typical big box epoxy product, which I have used in the past. So far, I have mixed feelings. I think the coating is a good product, I think the square footage on the box is misleading, and I feel they are flat out wrong when it comes to recoat times estimations. I would not wait longer than 3 days, in the future.

We get a lot of questions and comments about RockSolid on our website. Your statement about the coverage rate being misleading is spot on. Rocksolid is a blend of epoxy, polyurea, and polyurethane that has very good penetrating characteristics. It also goes on thin. The combination of the two reduces coverage rates unless applied to the ideal surface. Because it's more expensive than your typical home improvement epoxy kits, we feel Rust-Oleum has extended the coverage rates to try and compete with pricing. Unfortunately it has caused some problems.

They also have issues with color matching from kit to kit. Because they package their product in burst pouches, it makes it difficult to mix the colored resin of two kits together. It would basically require cutting the corners of the bags and draining the product out into separate containers and then measure and mix from there.

Regarding the 7 day recoat window we were skeptical ourselves, but have found that the recoat window they state is legit under most circumstances. Many have reported putting down a coat on their garage floor during a weekend only to be unhappy with the blotchy inconsistent look of the color. They then have applied a second coat the following weekend and have enjoyed good results.

Our feelings about RockSolid is that it's a good home improvement, non commercial quality garage floor coating kit for those with newer concrete that does not require repairs or grinding. It does not provide good coverage or coating abilities over surfaces that requires more than that.

 

[cash68]

Regarding the 7 day recoat window we were skeptical ourselves, but have found that the recoat window they state is legit under most circumstances. Many have reported putting down a coat on their garage floor during a weekend only to be unhappy with the blotchy inconsistent look of the color. They then have applied a second coat the following weekend and have enjoyed good results.

What do you think happened to my floor then? When I laid it down, it was smooth, consistent, and gorgeous. When I came back the next morning, it had 'shrunk up' or 'beaded up' on the previously coated surface.