Rust Bullet Tire Lift

[ivan256]

I don't know if anybody will find this useful or not. I'm mostly just posting to vent some frustration.

I recently built a new home shop/garage. I must have read this entire forum 20 times agonizing over the right floor coating (and everything else in there). My priorites were (in order): Chemical resistance, being able to see stuff when I drop little parts, ease of repair when I scuff it up moving a machine or walking on chips, cost, appearance. So I ended up going with Rust Bullet.

The slab was poured in December. Bought the product from Garage Flooring LLC in April. I ended up waiting until July to apply it because it's a 6" slab and I was worried it wasn't dry enough. So I ran a dehumidifier in there for another 2.5 months. I hit it with 120 grit, swept, washed, dried, swept, and then painted. Except for a couple spots towards the end where I put the second coat on too thick, I was quite happy with it.

I waited another month before putting anything in there. But of course, I immediately screwed it up. I lifted the Bridgeport off-balance and dragged a corner for about 2 feet before I realized it was touching. It held up remarkably well, actually. There were two little spots where it scraped through down to the concrete, and the rest of the way you can barely tell it happened after wiping it with a rag. I'm not going to move my machines around all that often, so I can live with patching a spot due to a mistake like that. Whatever.

I've also spilled all sorts of stuff on it already. Way oil and cutting oil, engine degreaser, brake cleaner, brake fluid, etc. It wipes up great. The floor is easy to sweep. I've been super happy with the whole thing.

Then, last week, I had some stuff in the truck that I didn't want to unload yet, and it was going to rain. So I pulled the truck into the shop. Today, I back it out, and.... Tire lift where the rear driver side wheel was.

Now I have to worry about it every time I pull a vehicle in there.

 

[alberto]

What did you put as a first coat that is black?

 

[ivan256]

What did you put as a first coat that is black?

It's not actually black, it's just a quirk of the camera. The RustBullet is shiny-metallic, and it made the camera auto-adjust a little funny. When you look at it in person it's normal dull gray concrete color, and the paint is more "reflecty".

 

[bullnerd]

Bummer!

Sounds like you did the prep right.

Looking forward to hearing the answer to this.

Good luck dude, looks like a sweet shop.

 

[Garage Flooring]

I don't know if anybody will find this useful or not. I'm mostly just posting to vent some frustration.

I recently built a new home shop/garage. I must have read this entire forum 20 times agonizing over the right floor coating (and everything else in there). My priorites were (in order): Chemical resistance, being able to see stuff when I drop little parts, ease of repair when I scuff it up moving a machine or walking on chips, cost, appearance. So I ended up going with Rust Bullet.

The slab was poured in December. Bought the product from Garage Flooring LLC in April. I ended up waiting until July to apply it because it's a 6" slab and I was worried it wasn't dry enough. So I ran a dehumidifier in there for another 2.5 months. I hit it with 120 grit, swept, washed, dried, swept, and then painted. Except for a couple spots towards the end where I put the second coat on too thick, I was quite happy with it.

I waited another month before putting anything in there. But of course, I immediately screwed it up. I lifted the Bridgeport off-balance and dragged a corner for about 2 feet before I realized it was touching. It held up remarkably well, actually. There were two little spots where it scraped through down to the concrete, and the rest of the way you can barely tell it happened after wiping it with a rag. I'm not going to move my machines around all that often, so I can live with patching a spot due to a mistake like that. Whatever.

I've also spilled all sorts of stuff on it already. Way oil and cutting oil, engine degreaser, brake cleaner, brake fluid, etc. It wipes up great. The floor is easy to sweep. I've been super happy with the whole thing.

Then, last week, I had some stuff in the truck that I didn't want to unload yet, and it was going to rain. So I pulled the truck into the shop. Today, I back it out, and.... Tire lift where the rear driver side wheel was.

Now I have to worry about it every time I pull a vehicle in there.

First and foremost I am sorry to hear you are having an issue and we always appreciate the business and we are here to help. If you have already submitted a Rust Bullet claim form, if you could PM me the name it is under that would be great.

If you have not submitted a form, lets get together and get this done. At minimum, as you said on your post, the product is easy to repair and we can get you some material to do so.

I've been less than thrilled with how claims have been handled lately and I am sure if you have been going through the forum you have seen I have some hesitation of late in suggestion the product. But, as always, I am here to help and will fight that battle with the manufacturer.

It would be a good thing if we can get some good pictures that don't show dark spots. I can almost guarantee if we submitted those pictures it would come back rejected.

 

[LXCam]

Is there any chance this were oil drippings from when you constructed the shop? Or when the concrete was placed did they use any curing agents.

 

[02vito]

One reason I decided to try a penetrating sealer in my new shop is that I had tire-lift problems with the two-part-epoxy paint I used in my old shop. The problem was worse with R-compound race tires, but was there most times I let a vehicle sit.

 

[ivan256]

First and foremost I am sorry to hear you are having an issue and we always appreciate the business and we are here to help. If you have already submitted a Rust Bullet claim form, if you could PM me the name it is under that would be great.

If you have not submitted a form, lets get together and get this done. At minimum, as you said on your post, the product is easy to repair and we can get you some material to do so.

Thanks. I don't know if I'm going to bother with a claim at this point, because I still have 4 gallons left for the garage that I haven't applied yet. I was on the fence about even doing that section after this, but it's a different, older, rougher slab. I think it will be fine. Anyway, when I rent the machine for that section I'll sand these spots back down and re-coat them.

I've been stewing for a couple weeks and trying to figure out what happened. All the spots where I have lift are in a line under where I had stacked the pine shiplap that you can see on the walls in the picture. I'm thinking maybe there was some sap transfer?

Or when the concrete was placed did they use any curing agents.

It was ~10 degrees the week they poured, so I'm sure they put something in it. The slab was under plastic sheets, and panels of foam insulation for a week after the pour and at the end of the week it was still wet and 50 degrees on the surface even though the air temperatures were well below freezing...

 

[428PI]

I'm glad I'm not that ****.

 

[Mr. D]

Thanks for the Rust Bullet post, I have been looking at this product today and think this is the way I'm going to go for ease of application. I had been seriously considering to just go with bare concrete due to the cost of retail epoxy and the fact I tend to be very hard on my floors. Touch up here and there from time to time is of no issue to me.

 

[davidlee]

I have had Rust Bullet down in my shop for a few years now and I have not had ANY lifting at all. It is a general use shop and I keep my collector cars in it. I love the stuff.

 

[jeffberk]

My garage floor was spalling and I coated it with a concrete based material. I didn't like the look so I was considering Rust Bullet or other similar product. In the end, I was too worried that I'd have issues like what you are experiencing so I purchased a roll of textured garage floor vinyl and went that route 4 years ago. After spilling oil, brake fluid, and all sorts of solvents on it, it has become discolored in a few spots but is holding up really well. It sweeps clean easily and is non-slip. When it finally does fail, I can roll it up and lay down another roll.

Sorry you have been having this issue with your coating. If you get too frustrated, you can do what I did.

 

[Wook660]

I haven't been too happy with my results either. I bought some lawn fertilizer and set the unopened bags on the garage floor for 2 days not thinking it would matter and it "burned" about a 2x3 foot area where the bag made contact with the floor. It looks horrible. Its great with oil spills but I've found it is easily damaged if you drop a sharp object. It gauges right through the rust bullet. I did 5 coats. That wasn't the plan, I just ended up with a lot more than I needed.

 

[Garage Flooring]

Something is definitely not what it used to be with this product and we are being very cautious about suggesting it

 

[ivan256]

OK, I've stewed over this for almost a year, and procrastinated doing the rest of my floor, but now I want to put a lift in the other part of the shop that is still un-coated, so it's time.

I rented the diamabrush yesterday and went over the unfinished spot three times from three different directions to be extra sure I had a good profile. I also got the coating removal tool and hit the spots where I had tire lift and bubbling.

The area where I tried to remove the coating was interesting. Most of the coating is tenaciously stuck to the floor. I probably would have had to spend hours with the tool to get all the way to clean concrete. But in a bunch of splotchy areas it came off easy in big vacuum-cleaner clogging flakes.

Yesterday was one of the most humid days of the year here. Usually the shop is climate controlled, dehumidified, and dry as a bone. But I had all the doors and windows open for the grinding operation. In the areas of the floor where the rust bullet flaked off easily, I noticed the floor get dark. It also happened in several places on the un-finished section of floor. It made a pattern of little dark spots that look like a dried out lake bed. (I didn't get a picture, and it's all dried out now. Sorry)

I think what has happened is that whatever curing agent they put in/on the concrete to make it set in the negative temperatures is deliquescent. When hot tires park over one of these spots, the water must evaporate and cause the coating to come loose.

So now I have a dilemma. I still have four gallons of Rust Bullet, and I have 450sqft of uncoated slab and 200 sqft where I ground the coating off. Do I use it? And if so, what do I do to the floor beyond the diamabrush in order to prevent it from lifting again?

 

[56Mark]

Densifier on those spots to maybe make the concrete a little tighter and maybe block the moisture from coming up?

 

[Arkive]

I don't envy your decision right now. I really hope it works and lasts for though as I could tell from your original post how upsetting that must have been. Gotta say, this is just another reason I've jumped off the epoxy bandwagon and moved over to Team Porcelain.

 

[ConCretin]

It was ~10 degrees the week they poured, so I'm sure they put something in it. The slab was under plastic sheets, and panels of foam insulation for a week after the pour and at the end of the week it was still wet and 50 degrees on the surface even though the air temperatures were well below freezing...

I think what has happened is that whatever curing agent they put in/on the concrete to make it set in the negative temperatures is deliquescent. When hot tires park over one of these spots, the water must evaporate and cause the coating to come loose.

For whats its worth, the poly they placed on the floor suggests that it was the intended curing method rather than a spray on product. Chemicals used to accelerate the set time during cold weather are usually admixtures rather than surface applied. Even if they did apply something to the surface, the grinding would remove it. No way to know for sure of course but I doubt something applied by your finisher is the cause of your problem. Btw, it sounds like you got a very good cure on your slab.

The dark spots you observed suggest condensation but I'm not aware of a condition that would cause it to vary by area. It's just warm moist air contacting the cooler slab surface. Did you install a vapor barrier under the slab?

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

I am going to jump in here. ...from what you described, you have a moisture problem. Bubbling coating, dark spots, etc....

I doubt the coating was bad, doubt your slab had a treatment issue. Moisture won’t pop up everywhere, just where it finds an easy vein to the surface.

Your next step is to test, then talk to your mason about next steps.

Good luck




Sent from my iPhone using Garage Journal

 

[ivan256]

I guess I've been overthinking this.

I had a pro come look at my slab. His opinion was that the dark spots were condensation (cold slab from air conditioned room hit with hot humid outside air) on places where I had simply glazed over the surface with the diamabrush instead of cut through. Considerable grinding with the diamabrush on one of those spots and seeing what it looks like afterwards leads me to believe he's right.

I need a more aggressive tool, and to take my lumps.

 

[Garage Flooring]

I am going to jump in here. ...from what you described, you have a moisture problem. Bubbling coating, dark spots, etc....

I doubt the coating was bad, doubt your slab had a treatment issue. Moisture won’t pop up everywhere, just where it finds an easy vein to the surface.

Your next step is to test, then talk to your mason about next steps.

Good luck




Sent from my iPhone using Garage Journal

Would tend to agree. The the other possible issue we had seen with this type of coating is it is very very reliant on minimum mil thickness. We were able to replicate a similar issue by underapplying the product in certain areas

 

[Leevon]

If it makes you feel any better I own a commercial repair shop with 9 bays and fully coated floor. The epoxy recipe and install has been perfected by the vender over 100+ store installations. It is beat daily end to end and holds up great. Yet in 5 years and 30,000 cars I NEVER had one hot tire lift...until I parked my new truck with BFG A/T's on the floor over a weekend. It literally lifted the epoxy and a patch of concrete with it! Also, the BFG's have stained tire prints in three bays. I really don't know what they put in those tires but again, 30,000+ cars and one particular set of tires is responsible for wreaking havoc. Technicalities aside, sometime it's just a roll of the dice!

 

[GRivera]

My garage floor was spalling and I coated it with a concrete based material. I didn't like the look so I was considering Rust Bullet or other similar product. In the end, I was too worried that I'd have issues like what you are experiencing so I purchased a roll of textured garage floor vinyl and went that route 4 years ago. After spilling oil, brake fluid, and all sorts of solvents on it, it has become discolored in a few spots but is holding up really well. It sweeps clean easily and is non-slip. When it finally does fail, I can roll it up and lay down another roll.

Sorry you have been having this issue with your coating. If you get too frustrated, you can do what I did.

Which garage floor vinyl did you put down? How's it holding up?