Wolverine Coatings CFLC 2-layer Ceramic System Installation

[ssanto]

Howdy!

I just finished up installing my new 2-layer Ceramic Epoxy Floor system from Wolverine Coatings (purchased through their distributor AlphaGarage.com). Overall I am very impressed with the quality of the product and the service I got from the guys over at Alpha Garage. I'll post some quick before and after pictures here and then follow up with replies to this thread for all the steps along the way.

This turned out to be a 36 hour job (total hours of labor) at a cost of about $3200 for 825 square feet. This is not including time and costs for packing and the storage unit rental. I'd say this is a 3-weekend job for an average DIY'er. One weekend grinding, one weekend patching, one weekend painting. Don't underestimate the amount of work it takes to grind... leave yourself plenty of time in the schedule to rest and recover between phases if you are 40+ guy like me

This is for my 3-car garage used as a race car shop. It previously had the Home Depot Rustoleum epoxy floor. I found that this floor was easily stained by paints and automotive cleaners. Over the past 6 years it had become very messy looking and difficult to keep clean.






Here's what it looks like now with the new coating. It's already paying off because 2 days after the install I repainted the garage walls and the drips were SOOO) much easier to clean up. Just a damp rag and my fingernail was all that's needed to get up the dried paint.

 

[ssanto]

First step was packing and moving everything out of the garage. I ended up using my enclosed race car trailer (for the race car and a few tools) and then also got a 16x8 portable storage container for everything else. I was happy that the minimum rental was for a month so it gave me plenty of time to work without worrying about where to put the stuff.

 

[ssanto]

The hardest part of the job was the floor grinder. Here are my notes from that:

• Get the dual head Edco… the single head would have been 2x the work and it is already a lot of work
• You'll feel it sound different and kick up more dust when you hit a soft spot
• Rent the vacuum from the grinder rental place… you need a big shop vacuum and a cyclone dust separator. My vacuum was too small so I had to go out and get the best they had at Home Depot (on a Saturday) and it caught maybe 50% of the dust
• I started by blowing out the dust after each section but it would have been better to sweep first and then blow. Have to stop every 10 minutes or so to knock the dust of the vacuum filter - it gets clogged quickly even with the cyclone dust separator
• I used the hand grinder for edges and places where the floor grinder couldn't reach
• After grinding, blow and sweep the floor... then walk the whole floor looking closely with a hammer to test for soft spots that are spalling
• Mark and then hit them on a second pass with the hand grinder
• Got quoted $3k to do it - I spent maybe $800 on the grinder rental, vacuum, grinding discs
• 12 hours of labor

Before grinding:




Spalled concrete around the entrance to the garage:


Other random sections of weak concrete were exposed by the grinder:

 

[ssanto]

I purchased TrowlEase from Alpha Garage to do the patching on the concrete. It is an epoxy that you mix sand into. My garage has a ledge around the perimeter and the original concrete finish was rough and uneven there. Plus the grinder exposed a number of spalled areas that needed patching.

Here are my notes from the TrowlEase:

• Buy more than you think you'll need - I bought a 1 gallon kit and wished I had bought 2 gallons
• I used fine blasting sand available from my local masonry supply store
• Plastic scraper worked well for filling spalled areas of concrete
• I used some BondTite when I ran out of TrowelEase and it worked well - just mix up a slurry with the sand
• I had a lot of drips on the floor so I used a new floor scraper to get them up - this worked well
• 4 hours of labor

After TrowelEase need to go through with a 50-80 grit sanding disc on the angle grinder to clean up the edges

• 3 hours of labor

Big area of patching:


You can see how many spots were needed:

 

[ssanto]

Next up was applying the BondTite epoxy primer.

• Helper is more needed here than with LiquiTile - I had a helper and it was good, could have done it myself if I moved fast
• It's thinner than the top coat Epoxy and you have to spread it 2x as far before it cures
• Use one 5 gallon mixing bucket as the transfer bucket for each 3-gal batch
• Don't try to reuse any 5 gallon buckets - new bucket each time - It's not worth the hassle or risk
• New rollers (2x because 2 people rolling) for each batch
• 6 hours of labor (3 hours for 2 people)

After the BondTite cured, I had bubbles all across floor from the concrete outgassing. I used floor scraper as first pass to knock them down. The scraper also caught a handful of trash and missed TrowelEase blobs. Then did a 120 grit on a pole sander. Then mopped with alcohol.

• 2 hours of labor

 

[ssanto]

Last phase was prep and application of the LiquiTile top coat. The stuff is ceramic based and has a very nice gloss so no clear coat is required.

• 4 batches needed 4 transfer buckets - Adding the 2 for BondTite, that's 6 total for the job
• 1 squeegee reused each batch
• 4x 18-inch rollers used - one for each batch
• Drill- If you are planning to use a battery-powered drill, make sure that you have at least two 5ah batteries plus a third battery for backup - Each batch of the LiquiTile drained a 5ah battery on my Dewalt 20v drill… the drill was getting hot and I could smell it at the end of each batch - You need to have a backup (preferably corded) drill in case your battery drill fails - You don't want to be stuck half-way through the job with a broken drill
• Application - Spread with squeegee, Roll out, Get corners with brush on pole, Roll, roll again at 90 degrees, roll again
• Probably rolled too many times - got some pin bubbles pretty evenly across the entire floor
• 1 person is fine for this
• 4 hours of labor

Final product -

 

[epoxonyourhouse]

Thanks for the report. You just made me not want to do my floor. Looks like a ton of work.
Was the spalling the worst part?

PS: You blew the dust? That doesn't sound right.

 

[ssanto]

Yes the grinding was the worst part and that uncovered a bunch of weak areas of the concrete that needed patching. The Rustoleum Epoxy I put down 6 years ago was just on the raw concrete without any grinding... and over the years a few areas chipped up. I'm glad that I got the grinder for this redo so that I can know that won't happen again.

And yes you read right that I blew much of the dust out the doors of the garage... it isn't right but was the most expedient way to remove it. I was a 1-man crew and the vacuum was only partially effective. I live on an acreage homesite so neighbors were plenty far away to not be affected. I'd recommend getting the best vacuum available from the rental place.

 

[Foreman05]

Looks amazing, I love the gloss!

 

[epoxonyourhouse]

Yes the grinding was the worst part and that uncovered a bunch of weak areas of the concrete that needed patching. The Rustoleum Epoxy I put down 6 years ago was just on the raw concrete without any grinding... and over the years a few areas chipped up. I'm glad that I got the grinder for this redo so that I can know that won't happen again.

And yes you read right that I blew much of the dust out the doors of the garage... it isn't right but was the most expedient way to remove it. I was a 1-man crew and the vacuum was only partially effective. I live on an acreage homesite so neighbors were plenty far away to not be affected. I'd recommend getting the best vacuum available from the rental place.

Gotcha.
What's the approx sqft'age of that garage?

Definitely renting a vac. I'm not worried about the work, I'm concerned about the dust. What PPE did you use?

Is that a stand-alone garage or is it attached to the house? I'm trying to figure out what amount of tarping is necessary - walls and ceilings or not. Definitely will do doors.

 

[ssanto]

Gotcha.
What's the approx sqft'age of that garage?

Definitely renting a vac. I'm not worried about the work, I'm concerned about the dust. What PPE did you use?

Is that a stand-alone garage or is it attached to the house? I'm trying to figure out what amount of tarping is necessary - walls and ceilings or not. Definitely will do doors.

It was about 750 square feet and I ordered a 825 square feet kit. It is an attached garage but the door to the house has weather stripping. Didn't notice any dust in the house other than what I tracked in on my shoes every time I came in the house. I didn't tape anything for the grinding.

I used a P100 respirator from Home Depot and a pair of foam-lined goggles.

 

[dudley123]

Looks great! I'm getting ready to do about 1800sqft of mine. did you degrease and power-wash before you started grinding? Did you also go with the minimum thickness on the AG site or did you go a bit thicker?

 

[ssanto]

I did not degrease and power wash before grinding... I figured since the top layer was coming up that I didn't need to. This was on an existing epoxy coating and it had been mopped before grinding which got up most everything.

The minimum thickness from their order calculator was I think a total of 32 mills. I think I had about 760 sq ft in the garage and ordered for 825 sq ft... enough to give me some left over for mixing losses and then it probably laid down a bit thicker.

 

[FJ4FUN]

Looks great! I'm getting ready to do about 1800sqft of mine. did you degrease and power-wash before you started grinding? Did you also go with the minimum thickness on the AG site or did you go a bit thicker?

We do recommend degreasing with a quality eco-friendly degreaser for anything but new bare concrete floors but shy away from high pressure washing. Follow the degreaser manufacturer's instructions and rinse with city pressure water. It's better to flood and squeegee (or vacuum out for basement types of situations) a couple of times than to blast with a 1500+psi stream of water that will potentially drive contaminants deeper into the concrete pore structure beyond reach of the grinder and will likely create deep gouges that will then need to be filled.