Sudden Death: Epoxy-Coat vs. Wolverine Coating

[drsifu]

New to this forum and simply amazed at some of the garages I have seen from forum members. You guys truly are an inspiration.

I am going to start my garage project by laying down an epoxy floor.

I have narrowed down my choice for epoxy floor between Epoxy-Coat and Wolverine. I am leaning towards Wolverine because it is slightly ahead in price when all factors are taken into consideration.

Floor will be grinded down, so I will not need any cleaning agents.

400 sq ft garage with expansion joints

Epoxy-Coat (19.4 mils):

2 coats of light gray epoxy (4 gallon of Epoxy Part A and 2 gallons of Part B) - $590.00
6 lbs flakes - $60.00
filler for expansion joints - ??
shipping - $90.00

total: $740.00

Wolverine Coating (27.0 mils):

Bondtite 1101 3 gallon - $225.00
Liquatile 1184 (silver gray) 3.75 gallon - $300.00
Integraflex 1921 1 gallon for expansion joints - $75.00
6 lbs flakes - $40.20
CA tax 9.25% - $60.00
shipping - $115.00

total: $815

A few here have used Epoxy-Coat with great results. The same can be said with the Wolverine products. Both companies seem to have good customer service.

Anyone here want to confirm my choice of using Wolverine or push me towards Epoxy-Coat??? I have not heard of Wolverine outside this forum.

Thank you,

Vinh

EDIT: got a quote for Wolverine shipping. decisions. decisions.

 

[thegarageguy]

Wow, $75 per gallon for a primer and $80 for a base? Is that the GJ discounted price?

 

[drsifu]

^this is who I was looking for to play devil's advocate. i've read quite a few threads from you regarding Wolverine and they were quite interesting to say the least.

 

[AlphaGarage]

Wow, $75 per gallon for a primer and $80 for a base? Is that the GJ discounted price?

Yeah - marked down from $98.33 per gallon.

 

[thegarageguy]

^this is who I was looking for to play devil's advocate. i've read quite a few threads from you regarding Wolverine and they were quite interesting to say the least.

I'd be interested to see what you read from me regarding anything Wolverine. Since I have no experience with their product, I haven't ever commented. So please explain what was so interesting?

 

[drsifu]

from a few posts I have read, you do not seem to like Wolverine Coatings and how they market themselves on this forum. what better person to tell me why I should not go with their product and choose something else than you.

 

[burger]

I have had Epoxy Coat on my garage floor for about 9 months. It was a fresh slab, so no cleaning issues, oil spots, etc.

The floor has soldiered thru a fair amount of automotive restoration work in that period -- welding, grinding, chemicals, etc.

Welding sparks did not discolor or burn it.

The worst damage happened when I lost control of a knotted wire wheel mounted to an angle grinder. It left a couple of marks as it skittered across the floor.

Carb cleaner will discolor it. Now I have to be a little more careful and lay down cardboard where I'm working.

In all, I guess I'm satisifed with the product. It holds up to "standard" usage pretty well. My garage is a "working" garage, not a showroom or even just a place to park the cars, so I guess that just means the floor is going to get beat up.

 

[drsifu]

^thanks for your feedback. very much appreciate.

There is a local company in San Diego who quoted my $1780 for the garage. This includes prepping the floor by grinding, primer, base coat, full flake coverage, top coat for the garage and the stem walls. Also includes filling in the expansion joints.

They say after all is said and done, the floor will be 1/16" thick. The company uses products from Concrete Solutions. Their product is not 100% solids. From what I've read, 100% solids is the way to go, but 1/16" thick is 60 mils, much thicker than any of the 100% solids when applied in one coat.

decisions, decisions

 

[Irondrive]

Even if their primer, base and topcoat were all 100% solid and counting 3-5 mils for the chips, I don't think they get close to 60 mils.

 

[Jaguar Fan]

... Floor will be grinded down, so I will not need any cleaning agents...

I'm not a professional, but if I were you, I'd probably plan on some degreasing time. It isn't a big deal insofar as cost is concerned. It all depends, of course, on the condition of your slab today. Why don't you post a few pictures to get a few opinions?

 

[drsifu]

yeah, 60 mils sounds like...how should i say it...bull sh!t.

slab is 5 yrs olds and is in good condition. grinding the top layer down should allow me to skip on the cleaning/degreasing stage

 

[rugerlady]

I believe the price was a bit high for the Epoxy-Coat. Call the office and ask for Jamie or Christine. Tell them your grom the GJ. They will take care of you on the shipping too. $90.00 seems way off base.

 

[drsifu]

that is the quote i got from Jamie Hudson via email for the shipment of two full kits. It was actually $44.60 /kit to be exact.

maybe there is a discount for garage journal members, but right now I am leaning towards a DIY project with Wolverine products.

vinh

 

[ka41]

I would go with Wolverine if I were you. I am putting down vct only because it was free. Otherwise I would be using the wolverine. Fred at AlphaGarage is a great guy to talk to about this and willing to help out anyway he can. He's not one to bash another product and often he offers suggestions to people about their floor, even though they are not using his product.

 

[v7guy]

I've just ordered from fred as well and I have to agree that his customer service is great and he has very quick follow up to any questions. He's been nothing but helpful to everyone on the forum, regardless of the products they're using. the product itself is suppose to be very durable as well.

The combination of fred/alpha garage and their great customer service coupled with the quality of the epoxy has made for a very popular product/vendor. If somebody else was selling wolverine coatings with lesser customer service and/or wasn't so active on this board with helpful advice I don't think the wolverine coatings would be as popular here as they are.

just my .02

 

[Rowdy Rat]

I purchased Wolverine Coatings products through Fred at Alpha Garage and was completely satisfied with the customer service, the installation process went smoothly, and the product has held up (almost a year now) better than I ever expected.

You can read about my experience here (beginning toward the bottom of the page):

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20698&page=5

While some of the folks in this thread seem to have an issue with the price for Wolverine Coatings products, all I can say is that the per foot cost was less than half of any professional quote I received and the finished floor looks much better than the retail floor kits that some of my friends have used.

I plan on using Wolverine Coatings again when I do the floor in our other garage. The quality and ease of installation is well worth the price.

Regards,

Stan

 

[drsifu]

thank you for your review Stan. Garage looks top-notch.

i actually did end up going with Wolverine Coatings. Took advantage of their 15% ebay promotion through Bing.

Product was recently shipped and I should have it by this weekend.

 

[nate379]

I went with Lowe's stuff because I knew my floor is going to get beat up and I didn't want to worry about keeping a $1000 "paint job" looking nice. Cost me ~$350

 

[thegarageguy]

from a few posts I have read, you do not seem to like Wolverine Coatings and how they market themselves on this forum. what better person to tell me why I should not go with their product and choose something else than you.

Never used their products and don't care to. Obviously they have satisfied customers so do what you like.

As I said before and I'll say it again, the preparation of your concrete is the foundation of your flooring system. You can apply $4000 per gallon material, if it's not prepped right, it'll peel off like 10 cents a gallon material.

DIY is not our gig and never will be. I'm allways on the side of proffessional installed but I understand that there is a market for it. This is why I am on here, to help guide and inform from my 7 years of back breaking, knee dragging, epoxy drenched and solvent cleaned hands on experience. Not to knock or endorse a product or company.

 

[AlphaGarage]

Prep is the key - but so is good product.

For example, check out 2 of the messages in this thread. In both cases some epoxy primer leaked onto completely un-prepped concrete, not shot blast, not grinded - doesn't even sound like the concrete was cleaned.

Yet later on when the spots were uncovered the only way the GJ members could remove the BondTite was by using a hammer and chisel to chisel it off, and even then it only came off with concrete stuck to it.

Clearly we continue to recommend that the entire floor should be properly prepped.

If you want to see what prep was done on these floors, other than those spots that weren't prepped at all, here are some links. There are some great tips in these posts, regardless of where you get your epoxy...

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13347
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20542
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24034
http://www.wolverinecoatings.com/forums/index.php?t=1028

 

[drsifu]

yup, i agree that prep is key.

i have my bosch 1773ak concrete grinder on the way. as much as I am not looking forward to doing this, buying the handheld gave me the option to work at my own pace, versus renting a stand alone machine from Home Depot. Plus I get to have a new tool.