Scratches in new epoxy floor

[snip227]

Greetings...

This is a residential , two and a half car garage. During the pandemic I decided to tackle my wish list and epoxy coat this space. Before I begin... I am realizing I might not have proceeded as best as I could. So here we go: As there was an existing epoxy covering I rented a floor grinder and took that off over the course of a weekend. I bought H&C Shield Crete kits (2) from Sherwin Williams and applied the product per the instructions. After 48 hours I applied a top coat of the H&C Shield Crete Acrylic Clear. I waited three more days, before putting anything on the floor. It looks great, but my two Labrador Retrievers are scratching it up and stressing me out. My first call to the manufactur resulted in me being told that it needed to cure longer. The second call, twelve days later, ended with me being told that it isn't scratch proof. Well, now I'm I've spent good time and money on a project I thought went well, and now I'm afraid before long the floor with look like **** again. To be fair, some of the lighter scratches wipe off with a wet rag but there are a few that look nasty. I guess my questions are (1) best technique to remove them, as much as possible, and (2) is there something I can put on top of what I have to make it even more durable. I've read enough to realize that perhaps I should have gone with more of a commercial product? From what I was told, and read here and there I thought the battle was in prepping the floor properly - which I believe I did. Thanks.

 

[SGKent]

Sounds like you need to talk with the store that sold it to you. Dogs get long hollow nails, and can pick up sand and small bits of stone and gravel in them. They can be brutal on finishes, even scratch glass. I'd say wax it but you don't need an ice skating rink.

You can also be sure the dogs nails are trimmed and kept filed with rounded edges. That will help keep them off the floor. If you can hear them go clickity click when walking the nails are long. PLEASE understand that a dogs nails are filled with blood vessels and bleed profusely if they are cut to the quick. If their nails are long, they have to be shortened slowly over weeks and months so the quick retreats and they don't bleed. Have the vet do it if you haven't done it before.

 

[allinon72]

Sounds like you did everything right with the prep, but you may have chosen the wrong product. I’ve never heard of that epoxy kit, but a polyurea kit from a vendor here would have been a perfect choice and I guarantee it doesn’t scratch with dog nails.

 

[snip227]

Would it be possible to coat the floor with polyurethane at this point?

 

[Shea]

This is unfortunate considering the fact that you went through the process of prepping your concrete the proper way. In addition, this is the problem with acrylic clear coats or "Glaze Coats" as they tend to call them. Assuming this is the clear coat you used, it's just a water-based acrylic. It's essentially the least durable of clear coatings you can apply. It's frustrating how companies tout these as durable coatings for garage floors when it's not the case at all.

The best you can do at this point is either live with it or remove the clear down to the color coat via sanding and then recoat with an epoxy, polyurethane, or polyurea clear. One possible issue is that the H&C epoxy is a low solids epoxy that does not go on very thick, so you would need to be careful not to grind through the color down to the concrete. The color coat will look dull after the grinding, but the clear will brighten it all back up again like new.

 

[Armorpoxy]

Acrylic topcoat is the wrong product and will scratch. We carry a very scratch resistant one part topcoat. Contact us directly at below and request our Red Label Topcoat and we will send you a free sample to test so hopefully no stress!

If it works well for you then you can recoat the floor.

 

[BonanzaGuy]

Almost two years ago now, I had an almost new concrete floor in an aircraft hangar that I applied ArmorPoxy Ultra. Due some delays, and a couple errors on my part, I finished applying it on Saturday, and a week later we had 250 people standing on it, tables, chairs, a band, etc. for my wedding. My black lab was running around on it a couple days after applying it. Even after the wedding, there were a few unavoidable scratches, but I don't believe any material would have held up better. My lab is on it all the time and he couldn't scratch it if he tried.

Jason

 

[benwah]

You used a waterborne epoxy with a waterborne acrylic top coat, that's going to make a soft(er) floor. ESPECIALLY the acrylic top coat.

God I hate Sherwin William's, I wish you would have come here first. They never know WTF they're talking about.

Like Shea mentioned, your your best bet would be to sand the acrylic off if possible and recoat with a polyurethane or polyurea. I will save you time time and money with this piece of advice. DO NOT GO BACK TO SHERWIN-WILLIAMS. I have seen more competent people behind the counter at ACE.