Urethane left milky/cloudy finish

[ranman1]

I put down two coats of armorseal 1000 HS. Weather was good, overnight lows in the low 60s and humidity fine. I waited ~3 days after my second coat and put down my first coat of Rexthane and was planning to do my second coat this evening. The first coat went down clean and seemed to dry nice and glossy but I noticed throughout the day today that the finish was getting cloudy and streaky. I called Sherwin Williams and they said they usually recommend waiting more than a week to topcoat their epoxy (even though the data sheet says 7 days maximum to recoat) and they suspect it's pulling up moisture.

Any suggestion on if I am ever going to be able to fix it? They recommended removing the finish but that's going to be impossible at this point as it is heavily flaked. I tried mineral spirits and that didnt seem to have an impact. Help!

 

[rlitman]

I'd try some heat and giving it some time.

 

[Garage Flooring]

I put down two coats of armorseal 1000 HS. Weather was good, overnight lows in the low 60s and humidity fine. I waited ~3 days after my second coat and put down my first coat of Rexthane and was planning to do my second coat this evening. The first coat went down clean and seemed to dry nice and glossy but I noticed throughout the day today that the finish was getting cloudy and streaky. I called Sherwin Williams and they said they usually recommend waiting more than a week to topcoat their epoxy (even though the data sheet says 7 days maximum to recoat) and they suspect it's pulling up moisture.

Any suggestion on if I am ever going to be able to fix it? They recommended removing the finish but that's going to be impossible at this point as it is heavily flaked. I tried mineral spirits and that didnt seem to have an impact. Help!

Not my product so in some sense I am speaking out of turn. Here are things to look at

1. Most of our epoxies and urethanes want the next coat within 20-24 hours of the previous coat (MAX). Failure to do so can cause poor inter-coat adhesion and certain products will get that while look. Have a look at the TDS for the product and see what the recoat window is (the recoat window is based on the product being coated, not the product doing the coating)

2. I have seen urethane in direct to concrete applications where the moisture content of concrete was higher than expected look like that.

 

[Armorpoxy]

Hi, sorry you are having issues. We have also seen this when the urethane was put down too thick. Urethane is designed to be put down thin/tight, not like high solids epoxy. If that was the case recoating may be the only answer.

 

[Garage Flooring]

Hi, sorry you are having issues. We have also seen this when the urethane was put down too thick. Urethane is designed to be put down thin/tight, not like high solids epoxy. If that was the case recoating may be the only answer.

I knew I had a #3 on my list

 

[ranman1]

I think you're right about it being opaque where it was put down too thick. In the data sheet, it says 1 gallon will cover 358-537 sq ft. I have a 500 sq ft space so when I had more left in the can near the end I started putting on a little heavier and that's where it's the worst.

So, my question now is what is the best way to recoat? Sanding is not an option because it's pretty heavily flaked. I tried a bit of Xylene and that didnt appear to have any impact.

thanks for the help so far

 

[ranman1]

I think you're right about it being opaque where it was put down too thick. In the data sheet, it says 1 gallon will cover 358-537 sq ft. I have a 500 sq ft space so when I had a bit left at the end I re-covered some areas and that's where it's the worst.

So, my question now is what is the best way to recoat? Sanding is not an option because it's pretty heavily flaked. I tried a bit of Xylene and that didnt appear to have any impact.

thanks for the help so far

 

[Armorpoxy]

Hi, when we mean recoat, we mean the entire job needs to be redone if you can't live with the problem. It's almost impossible to grind off just the topcoat.

Alternately you can recoat with epxoy/flecks/topcoat the affected area but you may have shade differences of the base coat since pigmented epoxies of different batches can be off a bit shade-wise.