Rollers for epoxy

[markvfr]

Hey everyone,

Whats everyone using for rollers for epoxy application? I'm about to do my Wolverine floor (hopefully tonight) and got a bunch of 9" 3/8 lint free paint rollers but I hear the 18" are the way to go. However, its impossible to find those here in Calgary for some reason. On top of that there are special epoxy rollers... whats the difference between those and the lint free paint ones?

Thanks.

Mark

 

[AlphaGarage]

On a large floor 18" rollers can speed things up, but they do have potential drawbacks...

If the floor isn't flat and level, but rather has high spots and low spots, the wide roller can ride on the high spots and over the low spots, kind of bridging over the valleys. The result is too much material in the valleys, and not enough on the hills tops. A narrower brush can get into the valleys better.

Another issue is that a lot of the 18" frames you find in the big box stores aren't of the highest quality. That's okay if you're rolling out thin acrylic wall paint or a thin epoxy. But LiquaTile 1184 has a pretty heavy concentration of ceramic content, which makes LiquaTile quite thick, viscous enough that the 18" consumer frames have been known to break, which is not good when you're in the middle of the application. Usually the plastic end caps break, but we have hear of the plastic threads for the handle loosening or stripping.

But if you know the floor is flat & level, and if you use a quality commercial roller frame, then yes, an 18" set-up will go a lot quicker.

There are special epoxy rollers, but any quality roller that is truly lint & shed free will work. We like the Wooster Epoxyglide or their Mohair covers, both work well. But even with them I take a strip of duct tape, wrap it around my hand sticky side out, and pat down the roller to lift off any loose fibers before starting.

Usually one cover is good for 1,000 ft2, but always monitor the roller and if it looks like fibers are being pulled loose, dump it and put on a fresh cover.

 

[markvfr]

Great, thanks Fred.

Cheers,
M

 

[csp]

How many square feet are you covering?

My wife and I did 864 sq. ft. with a single 9" roller cover over the weekend and I never felt the need for a larger roller cover. Sure it would have rolled faster, but I wasn't pressed for time between batches (each batch was approx 108sq. ft) to get it rolled out before it started to set up.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Don't forget to wrap your roller with duct tape prior to coating and then rip off the tape.
This will grab any loose fibers.

 

[markvfr]

Don't forget to wrap your roller with duct tape prior to coating and then rip off the tape.
This will grab any loose fibers.

Great tip that Fred also suggested.

How many square feet are you covering?

My wife and I did 864 sq. ft. with a single 9" roller cover over the weekend and I never felt the need for a larger roller cover. Sure it would have rolled faster, but I wasn't pressed for time between batches (each batch was approx 108sq. ft) to get it rolled out before it started to set up.

I'm doing exact same size as yours. I might just do it with the 9" roller covers that I have. Why did you do it in such small batches? I'm thinking of splitting it in two or maybe three so 300-400. I think it'll go pretty fast as 300ft2 is not that big and the pot life in my temp range should be at least half hour to 45mins.

 

[csp]

No particular reason for the small batches. I had fill marks highlighted on my measuring buckets to make it easy on my wife prior to the first batch and we just stuck with what worked on the first batch. We might have saved 1/2 hour over the total time of the install going with bigger batches, but there wasn't any hurry.

 

[formek]

How many square feet are you covering?

My wife and I did 864 sq. ft. with a single 9" roller cover over the weekend and I never felt the need for a larger roller cover. Sure it would have rolled faster, but I wasn't pressed for time between batches (each batch was approx 108sq. ft) to get it rolled out before it started to set up.

We did 1200 Sq Feet on saurday we went therw 4 rollers per kit. It was so hot the roller were like rocks. We did doubl batch with 2 peopls rolling and by the time we did the next doubl batch they were rock hard. It had dryed so fast we did the clear coat the same day.