Second Opinion on "Professional Work"

[stueveone]

Hi All,

So after much debating, I ended up calling in a professional outfit to epoxy/polyasparatic coat my garage floor. I am not at all happy with the outcome mainly, the crack repair is very obvious and telegraphing badly. There are also voids or little holes in the flake where there is no top coat as well as areas that look like there is too little top coat and areas that look like too much.

What do you guys think? Would you be happy with this job if you paid for it?

 

[stueveone]

 

[stueveone]

 

['52Chevy]

If I paid to have that done, I would not be happy. If that's how it looked after I did it, I would be perfectly fine with it.

I honestly think if it was only the crack repair that was visible, it wouldn't be the end of the world, but it's obviously not evenly applied in all locations.

What do you plan to do ?

 

[Git]

^^^ Summed up my opinion nicely

 

[kd3pc]

did you talk with the installer, I hesitate to call him "pro" about what you wanted done to the cracks? Number of coats, quality of the job and so on? Did you check his references and ask him about the prep? Did the installer actually do the job or was it handed off to a couple of labor hands for the actual application?

I have always scratched out and vacuumed the cracks before using a self leveling compound that will work with the coatings I have selected. Parging and leaving the now highlighted crack is not what I would consider "fixed" - not even close.

The high and low is just not being focused on the job at hand. Perhaps they were trying to stretch the bottom of the pail, not sure.

I would not be happy at all with this result. Whether we did or they did it.

 

[benwah]

I would be pissed with myself and embarrassed if I left a floor looking like that.

 

[Garage Flooring]

As an industry professional it would be ill-advised for me to criticize someone in public that might be considered either a customer or a competitor. Let me try give you some things to think about.

Did their bid include floor prep. Did they do a professional job of prepping the floor?

Did their bid include crack repair or filling joints? If so, did they do a professional job?

Did their bid include professional installation of a primer, based coat and top coat? Is that what you got?

For me, it comes down to who did the prep work and the repair work. I am also curious.... How long between the clear and the previous coat?

 

[APEowner]

As Garage Flooring alluded, it comes down to what the contract/quote specified compared to what was delivered.

 

[bigdave_185]

What did ya pay? How much a square foot?


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[Armorpoxy]

Without seeing the contract you signed it's hard to comment if you received what you paid for.

As all of the vendors here note regularly, the secret is in the prep...Also multi color flecks do a good job of hiding issues with floors, while monotones do not.

 

[stueveone]

The work to be performed was grinding down the concrete, fixing the cracks, applying a color epoxy coat, flake, and a top polyaspartic top coat. The photos above were after they came out a second time to redo the entire floor after royally messing it up the 1st time. So, the expectations were pretty well clear.

1st install: two guys other than the guy who quoted me showed up and performed most of the work (filling cracks, grinding, etc). The next day they did the top coat and it took me a few days to get out on the floor and realize it was way off. Bunch of voids. The crack repair was about 1/4 inch proud of the surface. Different texture throughout. Oh, and there was even a boot print on the crack weld!

I raised hell, had the main guy come back out and we both agreed on what needed to happen. "you won't see the cracks he said".

2nd install: Just the main guy this time doing all the work. Sand the entire floor, sand the crack weld with a palm sander (which seemed like the wrong tool for the job, see: angle grinder), another epoxy color coat and flake. Next day scrape and top coat. You can see the results in the photos above.

-s

 

[Armorpoxy]

Well without getting too deep into this the workmanship in our opinion is not terrific. Most likely they met the contract at least in spirit. Use of difference colored flecks would have helped a lot here to visually break things up, it's very rare we see monotone fleck pattern.

 

[tinmanwpk]

My initial thought upon looking at the pictures (other than the poor prep work, etc.) was that they did not use flecks to break up that monotone.

 

[CombatNinja]

You hired a ******** "pro" and got a ******** result. Not sure what recourse you have after already having the "head guy" out to fix the issues already. He just doesn't know what he is doing, period. You could have him out 30 more times and it won't make him any smarter.

But yeah, colored flake would hide 90% of that disaster. "Pro" should have counseled you on that from the get-go. Not knowing enough to tell you that is just part of what makes him a ******** "pro". Sorry for your subpar result there. Not sure what I can say in the way of encouraging words.

Epoxy is like having a ********* with your wife. For every dude that ends up happy, there are 200 stories of it all ending in tears and lots of drinking and a whole lot of lost money.

 

[mepstein]

To me, a pro job should look like all the pretty pictures of garage floors unless they warned you of a lesser outcome ahead of time.
Are you looking for a showpiece or something nice to park your cars? Showpiece expectation will need it redone. Parking your cars in a clean neat environment is what you have. Most will be covered by the cars. It depends what you can live with.

 

[BillK]

Like a couple of others have said ........ depends on how much you paid

 

[stueveone]

I paid $2300 500sqft and the guy is a Garage Expert franchisee. Trying to recoup that cost now so I can rehire someone to come in and do it all again. Otherwise, I'm pretty well stuck with it because I don't have the budget to pay twice +.

I'm most worried about the holes/voids whatever you want to call them. Second place would be the rougher patches of flake which might have voids underneath. I work with tanks of water so worried that water is going soak in. Should I get some polyaspartic and try and do some patch work? Any other suggestions?

Thanks for all your replies.

-s

 

[bigdave_185]

$4.50 a sq isn’t insane for a home owner, commercial can get up to $8 a square

It needs ground down and re surfaced.

Weather you’ll get that or not is unknown

You paid all upfront?


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[dmurgo]

I've been calling around Massachusetts for mine, going rate is about $8/ sq ft for a new garage floor here.

 

[Andy Smith Jr.]

I've been calling around Massachusetts for mine, going rate is about $8/ sq ft for a new garage floor here.

Wow! Going rate in Texas is $4 per square foot for epoxy / urethane system.

I think i would do it myself if i got quoted $8.

 

[gatewaysysop]

Ugh. That's hard to look at.

To each their own, but I don't buy into the line of thinking where the amount someone paid somehow shifts blame or in any way justifies this kind of a piss poor install. There's no magic price above which you are assured quality or below which you have no right to complain. A bad install is a bad install, and you can find **** jobs at every price point in every trade.

Honestly, having seen a number of threads like this, I have a new appreciation for bare concrete floor.