Wild Bill Kelso
Member
Hey all, long time no post. Had a few procedures on my leg due to a job releated injury (firefighter) which one of the options was to "just take it off" as my surgeon said. 
Refering to my left leg. Thankfully I still have all my limbs and am back in action.
Months ago I signed up with Adam Moore from Rocksolid to test out a semi transparent Polyeura Carbon color. Finally back to work, oddly enough I had vacation schedualed with the family & had time to lay the floor down.
I read the booklet maybe 5 or 6 times, watched the DVD, hell I can repeat it verbatum now. I decided to get started.
Got everything moved out & took the simple green to the tire tracks & stains. Hopped over to the Home Depot & rented the pressure washer & did work. Stains lifted great, used the safe etch that came with my kits & rinsed 3 times & let that dry overnight with the help of a shop fan. I should note my wife left for the week to NYC on a "girls trip" & I did this by myself. Grab a friend if you do this.
I knew I'd have to beat the heat & get on this really early due to the fact you shouldn't lay the floor above 90. Well here in Baton Rouge it's 90 at about 10:00 am. with humidity of 75% or higher, you pretty much just breath water with this weather.
I mixed the color (Carbon) with the Polyeura & set out with my roller. Right away I felt as if the stuff was drying. I poured & rolled & the color seemed to only stay where I poured. Thinking to myself the whole time "Well it IS SEMI transparent" & then later to "Holy sh*t I'm screwed". Next I broke a handle to my roller. I should note I was cheap & used a screw handle off one of those cheap'o walmart brooms. Next I found another cheap'o broom laying in the pile of junk & proceeded to break that one off right in the handle of the roller rendering it hand only & I still had about 20% left to roll.
Being the fireman I am I wasn't worried ( much ) but took to the hands & knees, I have no feeling in my knees after 16 years of my job, & don't get any ideas. . . I hear the jokes coming now, moving on. . .
I ran out of product & came out with this.
Holy **** Nuggets!
So I give Adam a shout & send him some pics. Seeing as how I was testing this I was supposed to get refunded my $$ sans the shipping. Sat around on it for 6 months, not going over that again. Honestly felt bad to ask Adam about my agreement for the test phase, but I didn't want to be stuck with this turd of a floor now. Adam got me on the phone after looking at the pics I sent. I was well expected to answer the phone &
, but Adam didn't let me speak & quickly took the wind out my sails. He sent me 3 basic kits of tan which abviously isn't being tested & is in wide use. Next he gave me instructions to sand the floor with a 60-80 grit, WEAR A MASK when I do, shop vac the dust up & wipe the floor with some acetone. Then follow the directions with the new product. 
I'm thinking HELL YEAH!
Soooo my cheap a** decided to be a cheap a** and sand 441 sq. ft. with my 3x21 sander. Not a bright idea. So the wife decides to pull the trigger & us go rent a 17' sander. We got 3 80 grit pads & set out. 30 minutes later we were back for more pads cause the 80 grits went over like a fart in church. All they had was 80 or 36 grit pads, so I got 3 36 grits. They worked like a charm. We sanded, vaccumed & mopped with acetone. @ 101 the heat index this day was around 120 or so, plus the acetone I had a awsome cause of the Whaa Whaa's, but I'd had enough of the dust mask. It wasn't like wearing a Scott airpack at work. I can do that all day, not in this heat though. So for the day we wrapped it up & let the floor dry. I should add, the unfinished portion was etched again as per Rocksolid's directions.
0500 hrs I woke up to a screaming two yearold, a poopy diaper & a wife that really just wanted to sleep in. I wasn't going to let it phase me one bit. Got the kiddo changed & fed & mommy's a** brought her to daycare. Meanwhile I get ready. A few songs on Pandora & a couple of smokes later the wife get's back & is hungry for some breakfast. It's now 0730 & 80 degrees.
Now having worked with the product once before I picked up some techniques. None of which my wife wanted to listen to. . .or attempt. She was ready to blaze her own trail. Did I mention she dropped her bagel with butter & jelly on the floor we were about to paint? No? Well let me tell you it was a mess & I almost did a super freak out on her after that & her lack of listening on where I screwed up the first time.
I poured she painted, we found our groove on the second 4x4 area & this stuff went on great! We did 4x4 ft. areas at a time & broadcast the chips after each leaving a 6 inch wet edge around the area we were about to paint.
Later after it dried she applied the trusty Rocksolid Logo & I decided to hit my edges of exposed concrete around the floor with some Masonry paint tinted black. (picked that idea up here)
Here's the finished product. We love our garage & I can't wait to get it smelling like sawdust again!
Tips: When you etch the floor, wear some old shoes or in my case I didn't care about my boots. They're strictly for working in the shop.
If you botch a job & have to sand WEAR A RESIPRATOR! I can't stress that enough. I've put some wicked cruel stuff in my lungs over the years of working as a firefighter & teaching at LSU Fire School. I insisted on wearing one.
Patch the crack! I was cheap & didn't & wished I had!
Get a friend to help. This will be a two person job, I don't care what anyone tells you!
If you have a two car garage mine is 441 square ft. two kits will get it. But buy a third. There's nothing like doing this job & worrying the whole time if you'll have enough. The nearest place that sales this product is a 5 hour drive or a 3 day wait from UPS. So get the extra kit.
If you get multiple kits, grab an unused empty paint bucket & pour your color shots into that & stirr it up. Then you can use the old color shot container to guage how much color goes into the polyeura. This will even the color out in each new batch you put down.
When in doubt FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS. Rocksolid made it very clear on what needed to go down, they even give you a movie to watch & see.
After having Rocksolid down I trust this product. When I knew the test didn't go as planned & had to wait (4 days no biggie) to put down a new one I tried to put this floor through the motions. Well it's just as the title says, Rocksolid. I've gotten NO hot tire problems & the wife wants me to put it down on our rear 15 x 50 ft. porch in the back.
For those of you that wanted to know YES this is a DIY'er kit & if you follow the directions you can do it great.
Refering to my left leg. Thankfully I still have all my limbs and am back in action.Months ago I signed up with Adam Moore from Rocksolid to test out a semi transparent Polyeura Carbon color. Finally back to work, oddly enough I had vacation schedualed with the family & had time to lay the floor down.
I read the booklet maybe 5 or 6 times, watched the DVD, hell I can repeat it verbatum now. I decided to get started.
Got everything moved out & took the simple green to the tire tracks & stains. Hopped over to the Home Depot & rented the pressure washer & did work. Stains lifted great, used the safe etch that came with my kits & rinsed 3 times & let that dry overnight with the help of a shop fan. I should note my wife left for the week to NYC on a "girls trip" & I did this by myself. Grab a friend if you do this.
I knew I'd have to beat the heat & get on this really early due to the fact you shouldn't lay the floor above 90. Well here in Baton Rouge it's 90 at about 10:00 am. with humidity of 75% or higher, you pretty much just breath water with this weather.
I mixed the color (Carbon) with the Polyeura & set out with my roller. Right away I felt as if the stuff was drying. I poured & rolled & the color seemed to only stay where I poured. Thinking to myself the whole time "Well it IS SEMI transparent" & then later to "Holy sh*t I'm screwed". Next I broke a handle to my roller. I should note I was cheap & used a screw handle off one of those cheap'o walmart brooms. Next I found another cheap'o broom laying in the pile of junk & proceeded to break that one off right in the handle of the roller rendering it hand only & I still had about 20% left to roll.
Being the fireman I am I wasn't worried ( much ) but took to the hands & knees, I have no feeling in my knees after 16 years of my job, & don't get any ideas. . . I hear the jokes coming now, moving on. . .
I ran out of product & came out with this.
Holy **** Nuggets!
So I give Adam a shout & send him some pics. Seeing as how I was testing this I was supposed to get refunded my $$ sans the shipping. Sat around on it for 6 months, not going over that again. Honestly felt bad to ask Adam about my agreement for the test phase, but I didn't want to be stuck with this turd of a floor now. Adam got me on the phone after looking at the pics I sent. I was well expected to answer the phone &
, but Adam didn't let me speak & quickly took the wind out my sails. He sent me 3 basic kits of tan which abviously isn't being tested & is in wide use. Next he gave me instructions to sand the floor with a 60-80 grit, WEAR A MASK when I do, shop vac the dust up & wipe the floor with some acetone. Then follow the directions with the new product. I'm thinking HELL YEAH!Soooo my cheap a** decided to be a cheap a** and sand 441 sq. ft. with my 3x21 sander. Not a bright idea. So the wife decides to pull the trigger & us go rent a 17' sander. We got 3 80 grit pads & set out. 30 minutes later we were back for more pads cause the 80 grits went over like a fart in church. All they had was 80 or 36 grit pads, so I got 3 36 grits. They worked like a charm. We sanded, vaccumed & mopped with acetone. @ 101 the heat index this day was around 120 or so, plus the acetone I had a awsome cause of the Whaa Whaa's, but I'd had enough of the dust mask. It wasn't like wearing a Scott airpack at work. I can do that all day, not in this heat though. So for the day we wrapped it up & let the floor dry. I should add, the unfinished portion was etched again as per Rocksolid's directions.
0500 hrs I woke up to a screaming two yearold, a poopy diaper & a wife that really just wanted to sleep in. I wasn't going to let it phase me one bit. Got the kiddo changed & fed & mommy's a** brought her to daycare. Meanwhile I get ready. A few songs on Pandora & a couple of smokes later the wife get's back & is hungry for some breakfast. It's now 0730 & 80 degrees.
Now having worked with the product once before I picked up some techniques. None of which my wife wanted to listen to. . .or attempt. She was ready to blaze her own trail. Did I mention she dropped her bagel with butter & jelly on the floor we were about to paint? No? Well let me tell you it was a mess & I almost did a super freak out on her after that & her lack of listening on where I screwed up the first time.
I poured she painted, we found our groove on the second 4x4 area & this stuff went on great! We did 4x4 ft. areas at a time & broadcast the chips after each leaving a 6 inch wet edge around the area we were about to paint.
Later after it dried she applied the trusty Rocksolid Logo & I decided to hit my edges of exposed concrete around the floor with some Masonry paint tinted black. (picked that idea up here)
Here's the finished product. We love our garage & I can't wait to get it smelling like sawdust again!
Tips: When you etch the floor, wear some old shoes or in my case I didn't care about my boots. They're strictly for working in the shop.
If you botch a job & have to sand WEAR A RESIPRATOR! I can't stress that enough. I've put some wicked cruel stuff in my lungs over the years of working as a firefighter & teaching at LSU Fire School. I insisted on wearing one.
Patch the crack! I was cheap & didn't & wished I had!
Get a friend to help. This will be a two person job, I don't care what anyone tells you!
If you have a two car garage mine is 441 square ft. two kits will get it. But buy a third. There's nothing like doing this job & worrying the whole time if you'll have enough. The nearest place that sales this product is a 5 hour drive or a 3 day wait from UPS. So get the extra kit.
If you get multiple kits, grab an unused empty paint bucket & pour your color shots into that & stirr it up. Then you can use the old color shot container to guage how much color goes into the polyeura. This will even the color out in each new batch you put down.
When in doubt FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS. Rocksolid made it very clear on what needed to go down, they even give you a movie to watch & see.
After having Rocksolid down I trust this product. When I knew the test didn't go as planned & had to wait (4 days no biggie) to put down a new one I tried to put this floor through the motions. Well it's just as the title says, Rocksolid. I've gotten NO hot tire problems & the wife wants me to put it down on our rear 15 x 50 ft. porch in the back.
For those of you that wanted to know YES this is a DIY'er kit & if you follow the directions you can do it great.