Rick3Foxes
Member
I have a 640 SF 2-car attached garage that had been neglected since the house was built, and the existing sheetrock had turned brown, the tape was peeling off, the floor had stains, etc…
After I spent most of the winter ripping off pegboard, putting up insulation and sheetrock, finishing, painting and trimming it, I was ready to do something with the floor.
After scouring the web for options, I realized that I couldn’t afford RaceDeck, and my options were VCT or epoxy. It seemed like every time I read another forum report, I changed my mind about which to do. Finally, I decided that epoxy was the way to go, and 100% solids was the ultimate epoxy.
By now, I’m over budget, but I had to keep asking myself two questions:
1. How long do you want this to last?
2. How many times do you want to do this floor?
So I chose the product that I “couldn’t afford”: Wolverine Epoxy.
I remember too many times that I have “bought cheap”, and then had to trash it and “buy quality”.
I talked with Fred at AlphaGarage, and placed the order on April 9.
3 days later, Fedex dropped off this:
3 Gal Bondtite (2-part epoxy clear primer)
6 Gal LiquaTile in Silver Gray (main epoxy base coat)
1.875 Gal EnduraShield (UV resistant epoxy topcoat)
12 lbs. DecoFlakes (blended to my specs)
1.5 lbs. SuperGrip 850 (anti-slip grit)
1 lb SuperGrip 300 (to make crack-filler)
Spike Shoes
22” notched squeegee
After doing the acid etch, the floor looked ready to go, but only on the spots where I poured it out. The areas where I spread it around were barely etched at all. So I bought more, and repeated the etch (1-4 acid to water mix). While rinsing the acid, and weeping the water out the doors with a push broom, I began to see what looked like hairs on the concrete. I thought the acid might be dissolving the fibers on the broom, so I switched to a smooth squeegee to finish. BAD assumption. Had I looked a little closer, I could have saved myself a lot of anxiety later on...
I only had some small cracks to fill, so I didn’t buy the 1-gallon can of IntegraFlex. I mixed a small batch of LiquaTile and added SuperGrip 300 (very fine sand) to make a crack-filling compound (thanks to Fred for the suggestion). I filled the cracks and let it dry.
If I had it to do over, I would fill the cracks, and wait until the compound reached the “rubbery” consistency, and scrape it level with a putty knife. It will scrape off pretty easily, but still not pull the epoxy out of the cracks.
Primer Coat:
I scheduled Friday for a vacation day, so the plan was:
Thursday night – BondTite primer
Friday morning – LiquaTile & Flakes
Friday night – EnduraShield.
But it didn’t quite work out that way…
Here goes the BondTite primer:
I was a little deceived by the clear appearance of the BondTite, and thought it would go on a little thicker than water. That’s why I decided to do the garage in 2 batches instead of 4.
BondTite IS clear, but it’s nearly the consistency of honey. When I poured it out and started rolling, it was much thicker and stickier than I expected. It definitely wanted to stay right where it was poured. But a few minutes later I had it spread around nicely. I finished the other half also in a single batch.
A few words about the spike shoes… I used them on the primer, the base coat, the flakes, and the topcoat. I wouldn’t dream of trying a floor without them.
But the first hour on them was “difficult”… It took me a while to realize that you can reach, but not LEAN. Every time you lean, your ankles roll over because your foot is wider than the spike area. Once I realized what I was doing, I learned to take a lot of little steps and avoid leaning. Problem solved. BTW, the quality of the spike shoes was much better than the photos indicated. Each spike is an individual hardened, replaceable, sharpened bolt.
Shortly after I finished with the BondTite, I was admiring my work, until I began to realize that something was wrong. Instead of a smooth shiny floor, I was looking at thousands of bubbles.
Then I started remembering those hairs that I saw during the acid-etch stage. Fibermesh in the concrete?? I wasn’t there when they poured the slab, but nobody said anything about the fiber. I took some photos and emailed them to Fred.
Fred responded the same evening with 3 possibilities:
1. Gas bubbles coming through the concrete
2. Fibermesh in the concrete
3. Lint fibers coming off the roller cover
After I looked closer, I finally realized that it was indeed Fibermesh, and I should have addressed it before putting anything on the floor.
Now I was convinced that I would have to diamond-grind everything off, burn the fibers with a torch, order more BondTite, and start over.
When I e-mailed my findings (and despair) back to Fred, he called me.
Yes, On the Phone.
(I suppose if I had bought the Home Depot epoxy, somebody there would have called me to help also…) LOL
Fred convinced me that it might not be as bad as I believed, and offered 2 solutions:
1. Since the bubbles were tiny, proceed with the heavy coat of LiquaTile, and allow it and the 12 lbs. of Flakes to cover all the imperfections.
2. Rent a floor buffer with an abrasive mesh pad and try to smooth out the bubbles before proceeding.
No, I didn’t sleep well that night.
Friday morning, I examined, analyzed, debated and stressed over the problem and decided to go with Solution #1. Outside of saving a ton of work, I had 2 reasons: First, I looked at the bubbles with a magnifying glass and saw the whiskers poking out the top. If I sanded down the bubbles, the hairs would still be there. Second, I found a low spot in the floor where the Bondtite had pooled a bit, and the surface was smooth as glass. So I decided to trust the ~15 mils of LiquaTile.
I’m glad I did. The LiquaTile hid the bubbles, and the Flakes hid any imperfections left. There’s no indication of the “disaster” I thought I had.
But I wonder how it would have looked if I had used one of the single-coat 4 mil products on the market. Would it have covered up the fibermesh? Not a chance!
Curiously enough, I just dropped by the Wolverine forum and read a floor report by “Dave”. The photos of his floor after the BondTite look almost exactly like mine! And he didn’t even mention it! He just proceeded on to the next step, and it turned out great.
I could have saved some gray hairs by doing that…
http://www.wolverinecoatings.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1278
To Be Continued...
After I spent most of the winter ripping off pegboard, putting up insulation and sheetrock, finishing, painting and trimming it, I was ready to do something with the floor.
After scouring the web for options, I realized that I couldn’t afford RaceDeck, and my options were VCT or epoxy. It seemed like every time I read another forum report, I changed my mind about which to do. Finally, I decided that epoxy was the way to go, and 100% solids was the ultimate epoxy.
By now, I’m over budget, but I had to keep asking myself two questions:
1. How long do you want this to last?
2. How many times do you want to do this floor?
So I chose the product that I “couldn’t afford”: Wolverine Epoxy.
I remember too many times that I have “bought cheap”, and then had to trash it and “buy quality”.
I talked with Fred at AlphaGarage, and placed the order on April 9.
3 days later, Fedex dropped off this:
3 Gal Bondtite (2-part epoxy clear primer)
6 Gal LiquaTile in Silver Gray (main epoxy base coat)
1.875 Gal EnduraShield (UV resistant epoxy topcoat)
12 lbs. DecoFlakes (blended to my specs)
1.5 lbs. SuperGrip 850 (anti-slip grit)
1 lb SuperGrip 300 (to make crack-filler)
Spike Shoes
22” notched squeegee
After doing the acid etch, the floor looked ready to go, but only on the spots where I poured it out. The areas where I spread it around were barely etched at all. So I bought more, and repeated the etch (1-4 acid to water mix). While rinsing the acid, and weeping the water out the doors with a push broom, I began to see what looked like hairs on the concrete. I thought the acid might be dissolving the fibers on the broom, so I switched to a smooth squeegee to finish. BAD assumption. Had I looked a little closer, I could have saved myself a lot of anxiety later on...
I only had some small cracks to fill, so I didn’t buy the 1-gallon can of IntegraFlex. I mixed a small batch of LiquaTile and added SuperGrip 300 (very fine sand) to make a crack-filling compound (thanks to Fred for the suggestion). I filled the cracks and let it dry.
If I had it to do over, I would fill the cracks, and wait until the compound reached the “rubbery” consistency, and scrape it level with a putty knife. It will scrape off pretty easily, but still not pull the epoxy out of the cracks.
Primer Coat:
I scheduled Friday for a vacation day, so the plan was:
Thursday night – BondTite primer
Friday morning – LiquaTile & Flakes
Friday night – EnduraShield.
But it didn’t quite work out that way…
Here goes the BondTite primer:
I was a little deceived by the clear appearance of the BondTite, and thought it would go on a little thicker than water. That’s why I decided to do the garage in 2 batches instead of 4.
BondTite IS clear, but it’s nearly the consistency of honey. When I poured it out and started rolling, it was much thicker and stickier than I expected. It definitely wanted to stay right where it was poured. But a few minutes later I had it spread around nicely. I finished the other half also in a single batch.
A few words about the spike shoes… I used them on the primer, the base coat, the flakes, and the topcoat. I wouldn’t dream of trying a floor without them.
But the first hour on them was “difficult”… It took me a while to realize that you can reach, but not LEAN. Every time you lean, your ankles roll over because your foot is wider than the spike area. Once I realized what I was doing, I learned to take a lot of little steps and avoid leaning. Problem solved. BTW, the quality of the spike shoes was much better than the photos indicated. Each spike is an individual hardened, replaceable, sharpened bolt.
Shortly after I finished with the BondTite, I was admiring my work, until I began to realize that something was wrong. Instead of a smooth shiny floor, I was looking at thousands of bubbles.
Then I started remembering those hairs that I saw during the acid-etch stage. Fibermesh in the concrete?? I wasn’t there when they poured the slab, but nobody said anything about the fiber. I took some photos and emailed them to Fred.
Fred responded the same evening with 3 possibilities:
1. Gas bubbles coming through the concrete
2. Fibermesh in the concrete
3. Lint fibers coming off the roller cover
After I looked closer, I finally realized that it was indeed Fibermesh, and I should have addressed it before putting anything on the floor.
Now I was convinced that I would have to diamond-grind everything off, burn the fibers with a torch, order more BondTite, and start over.
When I e-mailed my findings (and despair) back to Fred, he called me.
Yes, On the Phone.
(I suppose if I had bought the Home Depot epoxy, somebody there would have called me to help also…) LOL
Fred convinced me that it might not be as bad as I believed, and offered 2 solutions:
1. Since the bubbles were tiny, proceed with the heavy coat of LiquaTile, and allow it and the 12 lbs. of Flakes to cover all the imperfections.
2. Rent a floor buffer with an abrasive mesh pad and try to smooth out the bubbles before proceeding.
No, I didn’t sleep well that night.
Friday morning, I examined, analyzed, debated and stressed over the problem and decided to go with Solution #1. Outside of saving a ton of work, I had 2 reasons: First, I looked at the bubbles with a magnifying glass and saw the whiskers poking out the top. If I sanded down the bubbles, the hairs would still be there. Second, I found a low spot in the floor where the Bondtite had pooled a bit, and the surface was smooth as glass. So I decided to trust the ~15 mils of LiquaTile.
I’m glad I did. The LiquaTile hid the bubbles, and the Flakes hid any imperfections left. There’s no indication of the “disaster” I thought I had.
But I wonder how it would have looked if I had used one of the single-coat 4 mil products on the market. Would it have covered up the fibermesh? Not a chance!
Curiously enough, I just dropped by the Wolverine forum and read a floor report by “Dave”. The photos of his floor after the BondTite look almost exactly like mine! And he didn’t even mention it! He just proceeded on to the next step, and it turned out great.
I could have saved some gray hairs by doing that…
http://www.wolverinecoatings.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1278
To Be Continued...
Last edited:
If the flakes were applied with a robot using a dial indicator, I would still be out there trying to find an imperfection. 