Topcoat problems, Epoxy-Coat premium

[tschepp]

[/ATTACH]So I spent $1,200 on Epoxy-Coat Premium garage floor covering kits.
Long story, but when it was all done, it looked pretty good. But now I'm mad at myself for going with the topcoat.

Side note: Even with the aluminum oxide slip resistant sprinkled on top, it's still very slick. My daughter ran in from the wet grass, slipped and fell and got shredded by the slip grit. Slippery and sharp..........nice.

My problem with staining is this: Less than two weeks after my floor was done, my kid put sunscreen on in the garage. Just a standard spray on Coppertone sun screen for kids. The next day, I had yellow where the overspray landed and anywhere the can dripped. Looks much worse than the picture shows.

I contacted Epoxy Coat. They said that there are oxidizers in the sun screen that caused the spots. Their answer and their answer to EVERYTHING is to sand off and re-coat, (at my expense of course). I had to contact them a few times, even when they were to blame….sand and re-coat at your expense.
I’m ticked off because I was protecting my floor from paints, solvents, gas, oil, break fluid,…whatever. In two weeks my 7 year old kills the floor with…………sunscreen for Kids.
I’ve tried everything and now started sanding. The stain goes right to the color. I have to try to sand off all of the yellow without burning through the color epoxy.
Is there a better clear coat available that will resist yellowing in the sun, and the ever dreaded kiss of death, SPF 50?
Ps. A friend of mine said he had a similar issue with bug spray. What's next grape juice?

 

[Jim B]

I use all kinds of sunscreens. And lots of it due to a bout with skin cancer. A little like closing the barn door after the horse gets out but what I have found is that most spray on sunscreens stain everything they touch. For that reason I always apply it outdoors. If I'm on my boat I go to which ever part of the deck is leeward and apply it there. Never spray it in the house. You might give the stain some time. Sometimes sunlight will lighten a stain. I don't think any coating is impervious to all staining.

 

[mayday0017]

Yet another reason why I won't consider epoxy anymore. I have done 3 garages now but moving forward I'll be doing tile in my homes. Price is the same or better, finished looks is nicer, repair is cheaper/easier.

Sorry for your problems man, if it was me I would probably remind myself it is a garage and grit my teeth.

I do appricate your feedback on the company, it is good to hear how a company treats a customer who spent $1,200 with them. Tells me to stear others away from them when they come to me asking for advice.

 

[BARN ONE]

Yet another reason why I won't consider epoxy anymore. I have done 3 garages now but moving forward I'll be doing tile in my homes. Price is the same or better, finished looks is nicer, repair is cheaper/easier.

What kind of tile would you use?

 

[mayday0017]

Ceramic, after seeing videos posted here of hitting with sledge hammer and seeing them in an industrial garage here I believe they can take much much more abuse then I use to think. Tile installed properly is very strong, easy to clean, and will never lift due to hot tires

 

[bdamico]

[/ATTACH]So I spent $1,200 on Epoxy-Coat Premium garage floor covering kits.
Long story, but when it was all done, it looked pretty good. But now I'm mad at myself for going with the topcoat.

Side note: Even with the aluminum oxide slip resistant sprinkled on top, it's still very slick. My daughter ran in from the wet grass, slipped and fell and got shredded by the slip grit. Slippery and sharp..........nice.

My problem with staining is this: Less than two weeks after my floor was done, my kid put sunscreen on in the garage. Just a standard spray on Coppertone sun screen for kids. The next day, I had yellow where the overspray landed and anywhere the can dripped. Looks much worse than the picture shows.

I contacted Epoxy Coat. They said that there are oxidizers in the sun screen that caused the spots. Their answer and their answer to EVERYTHING is to sand off and re-coat, (at my expense of course). I had to contact them a few times, even when they were to blame….sand and re-coat at your expense.
I’m ticked off because I was protecting my floor from paints, solvents, gas, oil, break fluid,…whatever. In two weeks my 7 year old kills the floor with…………sunscreen for Kids.
I’ve tried everything and now started sanding. The stain goes right to the color. I have to try to sand off all of the yellow without burning through the color epoxy.
Is there a better clear coat available that will resist yellowing in the sun, and the ever dreaded kiss of death, SPF 50?
Ps. A friend of mine said he had a similar issue with bug spray. What's next grape juice?

I've got you beat--I had a dog that peed on my epoxy floor a few times. That wouldn't come off either.

 

[slickgt1]

Lol, really, sun lotion?

Tile is the way to go guys. Click on links in my sig if you are curious how durable it is.

 

[Big-Foot]

Ceramic, after seeing videos posted here of hitting with sledge hammer and seeing them in an industrial garage here I believe they can take much much more abuse then I use to think. Tile installed properly is very strong, easy to clean, and will never lift due to hot tires

Are you sure about the hammer test with Ceramic? I thought it was Porceline which is much more expensive...

Sorry to hear of the staining. That is rather surprising to hear. Although, I don't think that would sway me from doing epoxy as I am just looking for a floor that is easy to clean.

 

[Garage Flooring]

First, from what I have seen in the forum, Epoxy Coat does support their customers. They seem to be a good company with a decent product. In fairness, I think most of use would have replied the same way.

When we (or anyone) develop a system we often focus on chemical resistance to certain products. For example, when I was working on our Polyurea system, I was frustrated by the results many systems see with brake fluid and we worked on it until we had the resistance we wanted. http://www.garageflooringllc.com/chemical-resistance/


You will notice that many of us even test soda, Alcohol and all sorts of stuff you would find in the garage. Now, I am not a chemist and I do not claim to be. BUT my understanding from my people is this: "We can build a floor which is resistance to whatever you tell us to make it resistant to" If XYZ company came to me and said they wanted 4000 Sq. Ft of epoxy and they want to be able to dump their stuff on it without it staining, we could make something. Now, if they took that same floor and it got stained by brake fluid, there would not be a whole lot I could do. The same would hold true of a kennel or any other specialty application.

It is frustrating and I completely understand that, but I also think we need to be fair to the manufacturers. I have never called my carpet manufacturer and complained that grape juice stained it -- but if I bought the one that showed grape juice in the commercial and it still stained, I would.

All of us make coating kits a little different but we all take into account what we think the floor might come in contact with. I can't speak for anyone else but I never thought to test for sunscreen --although if you tell me the brand, I will!

One final thought, many of us will do things for customers as a customer service that is not part of the warranty.

 

[slickgt1]

Are you sure about the hammer test with Ceramic? I thought it was Porceline which is much more expensive...

Sorry to hear of the staining. That is rather surprising to hear. Although, I don't think that would sway me from doing epoxy as I am just looking for a floor that is easy to clean.

Yes Jack Olsen took a vid of his ceramic tiles when he was breaking some out for his lift. It took quite a few shots without breaking. The camera was jumping on the floor and the tile held. And yes, Porcelain is even stronger. One of the links in my sig, is my running durability thread. When something epic happens, I take a pic, and add to it. lol.

 

[Jack Olsen]

Here it is. Inexpensive .59/sf ceramic tile from Home Depot.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

It was likely oxy-benzone. It causes cancer and it will stain many things.
Please clarify, was this a clear epoxy topcoat or a urethane ?Very important to know.

Also, epoxy-coat is a very reputable company.

 

[tschepp]

This was a clear coat epoxy.

I want to be clear that I'm not bashing Epoxy-Coat. I’m sure they are a GOOD company. I know there is nothing they can do about the problem. They just did nothing to help.
I guess that after my $1,200 purchase two weeks ago, (and some shipping promises that were broken), when I told them that this floor was all stained from a very common household product, that they would have been a little more willing to help. I’m not suggesting that they dispatch a team to come over and fix the floor, but offering me a discount on the $250 kit to repair the floor would have been a step in the right direction. Just saying “sand and recoat” left a bad taste in my mouth.
Being a manufacturer’s rep, I send out product to customers all the time to help them out, solve problems, and exceed expectations. If free product breaks the bank, I offer discounts. People appreciate that. That’s what separates a good company from an exceptional one.

I'm still shaking my head thinking this rock hard epoxy that can withstand the UV rays, hot tires, dropped tools and everything else can't stand up to my daughters sunscreen. Who knew

 

[Td_20]

Hi tschepp,

Thanks for the info on the sunscreen, hopefully some the company reps with test this out and give us some info on how if reacts with their products.

Could you give us over view of your floor project, what you did to get ready to apply your epxoy?

I have my kit from Legacy sitting at home waiting for my first day off so any tips would be helpfully, all the reviews posted help!


Have a great Day!

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Td, use urethane as a topcoat and you will be fine.

 

[tschepp]

Td, use urethane as a topcoat and you will be fine.

Will do. Thanks,
Is there a particular brand or product that you like? I don't know much about urethanes.

 

[tschepp]

I looked at the Legacy Industrial Urethane. Doesn't urethane yellow after a while?

 

[pauls340]

As some have said EpoxyCoat is a good, very good or excellent company and their CS is usually excelent based on thousands of threads on this forum. A mfg can't test every single possible "issue" out there. We spent almost $100,000 testing one product and several DOT's still want more testing...MDOT wants $12000, really? Most of the contractors and mfg here DO suggest sand and recoat. I just had an acid based brick cleaner leak in my garage and has caused thousand's of dollars in damage; the owner told me I should have known. I agree, the $250 repair kit should be (and probably is) $50. Good luck

 

[ADKGarage]

Sadly, kids will destroy anything and everything. Its just the nature of them. Look around your house and your yard, over the years you could probably come up with all the crazy things they did and the result was something broke or whatever. If you don't want something to get screwed up, don't let them in there. Just the fact that there is a slippery floor would have told me ahead of time to say OFF LIMITS! Besides, there is gas and other things that can go bang or cut or bash etc in a garage. It's not a playground, it is in a way a semi-industrial area. One thing that pisses me off to no end is to see these parents with the mindless idiot kids in Home Depot, its an accident waiting to happen and there is no place for kids there either. What are the parents thinking? Its almost like letting the kiddies play in traffic and not expecting something bad to happen, sorry.

 

[burleyfarm]

Not possitive but I think Epoxy Coat has a repair kit for around $50. Contact Christine and ask about it.

 

[rugerlady]

Wow, all this when I was on vacation! I have heard that Jenny has gone the extra mile to help this customer! I would like to hear from tschepp to confirm this. Also, as far as the dog urine goes...this must have happened before the 7 day full cure. I sell our product to kennels, aspca's, etc. the only time they had a problem with urine or feces staining is when the animals were on the floor in less than 7 days.

 

[fromnwmt]

Might mention bug repellent is very caustic to some coatiings (the good stuff military grade) is worse then brake fluid orange peels then peels off dropped a bottle once I was very surprised at result

 

[Nch209]

I need to post a longer thread about my run in with epoxy coat with simular yellowing.... this came about with the top clear coat. In short it looked like hell, but RUGERLADY did right with me and I redid everything less the top coat and just used HPU747 instead. Two years later and all is well!

 

[tschepp]

Epoxy Coat came through. They sent me a repair kit at no charge! I ended up ordering a full kit, but the fact that they helped me out will not be forgotten.

 

[tschepp]

I was sent a clear coat repair kit at no cost. After sanding, it looked pretty bad so I ordered a color repair kit and a full clear kit. I'll patch the spots with color and chips, and then cover the whole section with clear to blend it in.

 

[tschepp]

Wow, all this when I was on vacation! I have heard that Jenny has gone the extra mile to help this customer! I would like to hear from tschepp to confirm this. Also, as far as the dog urine goes...this must have happened before the 7 day full cure. I sell our product to kennels, aspca's, etc. the only time they had a problem with urine or feces staining is when the animals were on the floor in less than 7 days.

I was sent a clear coat repair kit at no cost. After sanding, it looked pretty bad so I ordered a color repair kit and a full clear kit. I'll patch the spots with color and chips, and then cover the whole section with clear to blend it in.
That should do it...I hope.
THANKS.