to power trowel or not

[AA7483]

Is power troweling necessary if I plan to epoxy coat the floor?

 

[Elkjunkie]

I'll be epoxy coating my floor because I used a power trowel. It was my first floor with one and I have one bad section where the finish is rippled. The rest of the floor is quite smooth and my searches have shown that it will need etching, grinding or sandblasting to prep for good epoxy adhesion.
Best of luck.

 

[glentre]

Ask your epoxy supplier. I used Rust Bullet and they recommended not to power trowel since its very smooth surface would not allow a good adhesion for the finish. Suspect epoxy would be the same but best to be sure before proceeding.

Glen

 

[ConCretin]

There are two operations performed by power troweling. Floating the surface with float blades or pans flattens the floor followed by troweling with finish blades which densifies and polishes the surface. I would definitely float the floor and make a few passes with the finish blades but you could probably stop short of a final polish. If you don’t use a power trowel at all you’ll have to do it by hand, which is obviously a lot of work but will also be less effective. You’ll probably see a lot of waviness in your shiny new epoxy.