Starting my Epoxy-Coat Tomorrow Morning

[ManxRacer]

OK, tomorrow's the day. I actually started this project several weeks ago having bought my kits from Lowe's (drove 1.5 hr. each way to Louisville). I'm coating a new construction floor which has had nothing on it other than builders feet and boxes since it was poured back in June. I did a moisture test and also did the test that consists of sprinkling water on the floor and watching absorption. Both worked well. I washed and rinsed the floor then etched it with the soulution provided in the kits. I followed up with baking soda to neutralize the acid, then rinsed completely. The expansion joints were filled with a latex caulk. All of this was over a month ago.

When I was ready to coat on the Labor Day weekend, the weather turned extremely hot (close to 100) and it started raining resulting in a near 100% humidity. So I postponed.

After lengthy business travel, I spent the day today sweeping the floor with a shop vac, then lightly wet mopping. The floor now looks like this:

I've read the posts about non-curing floors with great trepidation but am confident that I can do this by watching the mixtures closely. Incidentally, I asked my professional paint contractor for a quote. This contractor has applied epoxy floors before and refused to give me a quote. He said that he's had these go bad before and was not willing to take the risk of having to eat the cost if it doesn't work. Therefore, I'm going to give it a shot. I'm already invested in this to the tune of three regular kits and three clear-coat kits. I'm gonna make this work.

So, I'll try to take some pictures and will post some updates as the work progresses. If all goes well, I should have a floor curing no later than Wednesday. We'll see.

 

[fredlangva]

Get seperate buckets to measure and use the big bucket just to mix part A and B. The most trouble seems to be using the paint stick and getting the measurements wrong. Also mix according to the directions for the amount of time. That's needed to get the epoxy reacting together.

I start mine when we close in a few months on our new house

 

[ManxRacer]

Yeah, I've already gotten the graduated mixing buckets from Lowe's. Christine posted the ratio (1/2 gal part A to 1 Quart hardener for each 10X10 square). I read the problem posts pretty closely...

 

[DGOZ06]

Having done this twice in the last month, I can offer my list of supplies. I was glad I kept the list for the 2nd time around. Here's what we had on-hand.

Kit contents
Separated flakes into equal parts according to # of sections
Non-skid - just used a tiny amount for each 10x10 - about 2 tablespoons
Spike shoes for each participant
Drill plus a back-up drill
2 handles - one for roller frame, one for squeegy
Roller frame/handle
Mixing containers marked for A & B, was easier for us than stick method
(we pre-measured when we got to the last 3 batches to make sure we had enough part A)
Old rubber spatulas - 3 - one for A, one for B, one for mixed
Trash can, put an extra bag at the bottom in case you need an extra
Paper towels - 2 rolls
Zylol
Egg timer
Leaf blower
Paint tape, cardboard and/or brown paper
Rubber gloves - whole box - change gloves repeatedly for easy clean-up
Safety glasses
Chairs
Snacks & water
Extra shoes to change into if you need to leave the work area

We used painters tape to cover drill handles & shoes.
Taped edge of garage slab just inside overhead doors.
Taped service door threshold
Taped OH door tracks at the bottom
Placed cardboard outside all doorways and covered a large area for mixing
Made a level surface for measuring - kept level there to make sure.

Good luck. I'm sure you'll love the result!

 

[JamieK]

^ should be a sticky!

 

[CMMG]

Starting my Epoxy-Coat on 10/8

I'll be starting my floor on 10/8 weather permitting and I'll be using many of the great ideas found on GJ. My floor is about 600 sqft and I am using Epoxy-Coat, I ordered 1 1/2 kits w/clear from Christine last week. I'm not going to use the measuring sticks, I'm going to mixing containers like other people have. I do have a couple questions to put out there:

1. I was just thinking of dividing my garage into 4 equal parts @ 150 sqft each, that should be okay right? That would make measuring easy: 2 quart A and 1 quart B per section.
2. I live in Oregon so it rains a lot, is it true I can't apply the epoxy if it's raining outside even my garage is sealed up? My window for temperature is closing pretty quickly around here so I don't want to have to wait too long.
3. I assume that I would apply the clear using the same 4 section method? It seems like the clear goes on a lot easier based on what I've seen in videos.
4. I was going to divide the kits into 4 equal part A's & B's so I'll have 8 separate containers. Do these need to be sealed as I'm progressing through the batches even though they parts haven't been mixed together?
5. Last question at least for now. I saw that Christine from Epoxy-Coat mentioned in another post or two that they usually give you slightly more part B than required and quite often people have a small amount left over. If I mixing my 4 equal batches ahead of time and find that I have slightly more part B than necessary, is it okay to divide that equally among the 4 batches or do I need to strictly adhere to the 2 part A - 1 part B mixing ratio?

 

[ManxRacer]

Re: Starting my Epoxy-Coat on 10/8

I'll be starting my floor on 10/8 weather permitting and I'll be using many of the great ideas found on GJ. My floor is about 600 sqft and I am using Epoxy-Coat, I ordered 1 1/2 kits w/clear from Christine last week. I'm not going to use the measuring sticks, I'm going to mixing containers like other people have. I do have a couple questions to put out there:

1. I was just thinking of dividing my garage into 4 equal parts @ 150 sqft each, that should be okay right? That would make measuring easy: 2 quart A and 1 quart B per section.
2. I live in Oregon so it rains a lot, is it true I can't apply the epoxy if it's raining outside even my garage is sealed up? My window for temperature is closing pretty quickly around here so I don't want to have to wait too long.
3. I assume that I would apply the clear using the same 4 section method? It seems like the clear goes on a lot easier based on what I've seen in videos.
4. I was going to divide the kits into 4 equal part A's & B's so I'll have 8 separate containers. Do these need to be sealed as I'm progressing through the batches even though they parts haven't been mixed together?
5. Last question at least for now. I saw that Christine from Epoxy-Coat mentioned in another post or two that they usually give you slightly more part B than required and quite often people have a small amount left over. If I mixing my 4 equal batches ahead of time and find that I have slightly more part B than necessary, is it okay to divide that equally among the 4 batches or do I need to strictly adhere to the 2 part A - 1 part B mixing ratio?

CMMG,

I just finished applying my base coat and will be applying the clear coat tomorrow. In answer to your questions I would say:

- I guess dividing into 150 sq. ft. sections is OK as long as you make the batches large enough and stick to the 2:1 ratio. I found it easier to apply in 10' X 10' sections as the 2 qt part A to 1 qt part B is just about the right quantity for 100 sq. ft.

- I postponed my application because of high humidity and high temperatures. If you have climate control of some sort you're OK. However, if you don't you'll likely need to know the temp and humidity inside. When I called for advice, I was told that I needed the temperature and humidity below 80.

- If you're using the epoxy coat clear, it's just the same as the base coat. Same stuff in fact, just no pigment.

- I don't think your containers need to be sealed, just protected from contamination until you use them (bugs, dirt, etc.).

- WRT your last question, I would not rely upon the amounts in the shipping containers to be exactly 2:1. I would recommend measuring out each batch.
I ended up using the Lowe's mixing buckets and they worked great. I bought a five quart and a two quart, the former for the part A and the latter for the part B. Be careful though, each of these measuring buckets have both metric and SAE measurements. If you measure one in liters and one in quarts, you'll be a little off. I highly recommend making a large marking with a Sharpie at the proper quart level (2 and 1).

So... as I said, I got the base coat down. Took me about 6 hours. The only minor emergency was an incident when I'd already poured the blended mixture on a new section and had squeegee'd it out. When I went to use the roller I found that it had hardened too much so tried to change it out with a new one only to find that it had 'glued' itself onto the roller. I highly recommend having a couple of cheap rollers around and several spare roller covers. Have a spare standing by ready to go. I also found that I needed more paint brushes than supplied with the kit. Once the mixture hardens on one it's useless. I was unable to get more than two 10' X10' sections done with each brush.

 

[CMMG]

Exellent information, I appreciate the input. I will follow your lead and purchase additional supplies so I'm ready for any issues that arise. I re-read my post and I'm already off to a bad start. I ordered 1.5 kits from Christine so I'll receive 3 gallons on part A and 1.5 gallons of part B. I stated that I would be mixing 2 quarts A and 1 quart B for each of my 4 150 sqft sections. That's wrong! I will equally divide the 3 gallons and the 1.5 gallon appropriately to make sure the coverage is correct. Luckily my wife and my 15 year old son will be checking my math. Thanks!

 

[ManxRacer]

Finished the clear coat yesterday morning. Here's the result:

The clear did go on a lot easier than the base coat. I started on the clear about 19 hours after putting down the base coat. By that time the floor was cured enough to walk on with no tacky spots! A couple of lessons-learned:

- Have plenty of extra gloves on hand. I was covering almost 1500 sq. ft. with a total of six kits (3 base; 3 clear). The gloves tend to tear easily.

- Take the advice in the above checklist about covering your drill with painter's tape. I didn't and now have a gunky looking drill.

- Make sure you stage your materials at your final egress point and make sure that the ground is spotlessly clean so that you don't track anything in during the process. Have a good floor mat for cleaning your feet/shoes. I tried and still had to clean up some trash that I tracked in.

So, everything went fairly well and I'm very happy with the result. Now to wait for it to cure!

 

[f2hatch]

That looks great. Nice job

 

[rugerlady]

Floor looks really good! Great job.

PSF2hatch...love your avatar!

 

[jeff68bird]

Finished the clear coat yesterday morning. Here's the result:

The clear did go on a lot easier than the base coat. I started on the clear about 19 hours after putting down the base coat. By that time the floor was cured enough to walk on with no tacky spots! A couple of lessons-learned:

- Have plenty of extra gloves on hand. I was covering almost 1500 sq. ft. with a total of six kits (3 base; 3 clear). The gloves tend to tear easily.

- Take the advice in the above checklist about covering your drill with painter's tape. I didn't and now have a gunky looking drill.

- Make sure you stage your materials at your final egress point and make sure that the ground is spotlessly clean so that you don't track anything in during the process. Have a good floor mat for cleaning your feet/shoes. I tried and still had to clean up some trash that I tracked in.

So, everything went fairly well and I'm very happy with the result. Now to wait for it to cure!

floor looks great. lots of good tips in this thread.had a couple questions.was it hard to blend each 10x10 section and can you tell where any of the sections stopped and started. did you use flakes?hard to tell from the picture. if so where they hard to get on even. also did you fill the saw cuts completely with the chalk or can you still see them . and lastly where did you break the front lip by the garage door. looks like your concrete has the 2x4 lip made and was wondering where is the cleanest place to stop the epoxy at the top or bottom of the lip. great to have input from someone who just got done with a project your about to do.

 

[ManxRacer]

floor looks great. lots of good tips in this thread.had a couple questions.was it hard to blend each 10x10 section and can you tell where any of the sections stopped and started. did you use flakes?hard to tell from the picture. if so where they hard to get on even. also did you fill the saw cuts completely with the chalk or can you still see them . and lastly where did you break the front lip by the garage door. looks like your concrete has the 2x4 lip made and was wondering where is the cleanest place to stop the epoxy at the top or bottom of the lip. great to have input from someone who just got done with a project your about to do.

Jeff,

- It was not hard to blend the sections. I do have expansion joints cut into the floor that divide it into 10 X10 sections. I did fill them with latex caulk so that made them even. In some cases I overlapped over the expansion joint, but it blended in well when I did the adjacent section.

- I did use flakes. I used the black/white/blue flakes. I'll try to take a picture looking down at the floor later. I did find it a bit of a challenge to get the flakes evenly coated. There are a couple of places where I inadvertently dropped some flakes into a small concentrated area. Not a big deal though. Still looks good.

- My floor has a natural break at the door where there's a lip and it recesses about 1/2". I recommend that you use the high-quality blue painters tape to delineate it exactly where you want it. Take your time putting the tape down to protect any baseboards, garage door guides, door sills, etc. It's very easy to get a little wild with this stuff since you have a bit of a time constraint. The tape will help a lot.

As a last comment, I removed the masking tape today as it's the first opportunity to get on the floor. I had to use a box cutter along the bottom edges to get it off. I suspect that in another 24 hours it would be difficult to cut the tape edge free.

 

[jeff68bird]

Jeff,

- It was not hard to blend the sections. I do have expansion joints cut into the floor that divide it into 10 X10 sections. I did fill them with latex caulk so that made them even. In some cases I overlapped over the expansion joint, but it blended in well when I did the adjacent section.

- I did use flakes. I used the black/white/blue flakes. I'll try to take a picture looking down at the floor later. I did find it a bit of a challenge to get the flakes evenly coated. There are a couple of places where I inadvertently dropped some flakes into a small concentrated area. Not a big deal though. Still looks good.

- My floor has a natural break at the door where there's a lip and it recesses about 1/2". I recommend that you use the high-quality blue painters tape to delineate it exactly where you want it. Take your time putting the tape down to protect any baseboards, garage door guides, door sills, etc. It's very easy to get a little wild with this stuff since you have a bit of a time constraint. The tape will help a lot.

As a last comment, I removed the masking tape today as it's the first opportunity to get on the floor. I had to use a box cutter along the bottom edges to get it off. I suspect that in another 24 hours it would be difficult to cut the tape edge free.

thanks for info. keeping track of all these tips. might help me to avoid problems.

 

[NitroPress]

Finished the clear coat yesterday morning. Here's the result:

Beautiful. Looks a lot like mine - I can see the appeal of stronger color combinations but I think I'd get tired of them, and a really unique color set might harm resale, so I went with reg'lar gray for the base coat.

What's the stripey thing in the middle, though?

 

[ManxRacer]

Beautiful. Looks a lot like mine - I can see the appeal of stronger color combinations but I think I'd get tired of them, and a really unique color set might harm resale, so I went with reg'lar gray for the base coat.

What's the stripey thing in the middle, though?

Thanks! By "stripey thing" I'm guessing that you mean on the floor. It's one of two floor drains. I put them in so that I can wash my cars in bad weather. You can see one of them better in the following picture:

Jeff,

You were asking about the chips as you couldn't see them in the pictures. Here's a closeup of the floor showing the chip density (black, white and blue chips):

 

[jeff68bird]

Thanks! By "stripey thing" I'm guessing that you mean on the floor. It's one of two floor drains. I put them in so that I can wash my cars in bad weather. You can see one of them better in the following picture:

Jeff,

You were asking about the chips as you couldn't see them in the pictures. Here's a closeup of the floor showing the chip density (black, white and blue chips):

thanks for the pic.the density is just what i was looking at. did you order extra chips or was this just what was supplied in the kits,

 

[ManxRacer]

thanks for the pic.the density is just what i was looking at. did you order extra chips or was this just what was supplied in the kits,

The kits came with black and white chips as I recall. When I ordered the clear coat I also ordered the black, white and blue chips from Christine with the understanding that I would send the original chips back. The plan was that Epoxy Coat was going to have the chips picked up. I left the chips on my porch for two weeks but they were never picked up, so I ended up just mailing them myself.

The bucket of chips that I received was huge. Since I had 12 sections to coat, I divided the chips into twelve sealable plastic containers to ensure that I didn't run out. As it turned out, I only used four of the containers. I have quite a few chips left over.