Epoxy Floors?

[TRD270]

Just be aware it will not cure correctly if the concrete is cold. So get it as warm as possible and as clean as possible first.
I would highly recommend an acid style concrete etcher.

It's supposed to be 50+ that week, instructions say over 40. Plan to borrow a big ass propane heater from a co-worker to assist.

Would you recommend going beyond the "epoxy clean & prep solution" its shipped with for cleaning?

 

[zmotorsports]

I didn't epoxy coat my new shop floor because I do so much fabrication/machining and the epoxy coating doesn't play well with hot metal. I just sealed my floors in my shop and RV bay with a densifier. Our work floors were coated many years ago with epoxy and look horrible because of the burn spots in them and when hot metal/slag hits it the epoxy pops up in dime sized pieces which actually hurt when they hit you in the arm or face.

At my last house I did the epoxy myself on the attached garage floor and it held up very well to the 10 or so years of daily drivers going in and out on it. I am going to try to finish the attached garage on our new home this spring and I would like to epoxy it as well. I went gray in my last house but leaning towards a light tan with some flake-age in this garage.

Mike

 

[Gravy]

Good deal! Just make sure your not getting too cold at night. I waited 3+ days for it to cure.

I don't know what it's shipped with but Muriatic acid is the stuff to use (hydrochloric acid is the other name for it).
I cleaned and pressure washed mine first then etched it.

I'm sure if you do your prep you'll get an awesome result. I've loved mine.

 

[zmotorsports]

Agree with Gravy above. Muriatic acid is what I used to prep my garage floor after the first 16 years of driving on it. It worked well cleaning then rinsed and squeegeed the water out and let dry for a day or two before coating.

When working with the muriatic acid keep all bare metal away from the area, the fumes from the muriatic acid will cause any uncoated ferrous steel to flash rust in record time.

Mike

 

[TRD270]

Well all done turned out pretty well, only beef for some reason they first two sections I did are a lot darker. I mixed the batches as instructed so no idea what caused it. Only other issues was a ton of bubbling. I spent quite a bit of time popping them but still had a bunch more pop up.

Three things I learned, muriatic acid is great for prep, the prep stuff that came with the kit didn't etch nearly as well. Spiked shoes are a must, I didn't get them and no one local carried them. I ended up using a set of 3/8 micro hiking spikes that worked fairly well just a bit of a mess now. Third this is a very labor intensive project took me a solid 16 hours, wish I'd had one more day to let caulk cure more and I wish I had caulked the smaller cracks, I thought the epoxy would have covered them.


That said I'm still happy with the result

 

[Gravy]

Looks good. It's definitely a metric crap-ton of work.

 

[mbryson]

Any reviews on any of the above installations? I'll have some space where I'll have hot metal hitting the ground occasionally so it looks like epoxy might not be the ideal solution?



The yellow line will be where I expect to have the welder and torch and such

 

[Gravy]

My epoxy has held up great to weld slag and cutting slag there are a few very small burn spots where I've puddled a whole bunch of cutting slag ripping through half inch with my oxy-acyt torch but that's not bad for 7 years of use.

 

[Pike2350]

Following up. I am going to be doing an Epoxy finish on the floor of the new garage. Acid is the best prep? Even for brand new concrete? How long does it take and can it be spread over a few days?

 

[XJEEPER]

Following up. I am going to be doing an Epoxy finish on the floor of the new garage. Acid is the best prep? Even for brand new concrete? How long does it take and can it be spread over a few days?

Yes, 2 component epoxy can be applied over new, cured concrete. Process is the same, sweep floor and shop vac all cracks and corners, wash floor, let dry, mix acid solution and treat entire floor, neutralize acid and squeegee floor, let floor dry completely. Mix and apply first coat of epoxy finish, using mfg instructions. When I used to paint commercially, I would reduce the first coat slightly to ensure better penetration and bonding. Once the first coat has set, mix and apply second coat within the noted re-coat window. Let cure for 3-4 days before foot traffic, 7 days for auto traffic. I used to hedge on the side of longer cure time before auto traffic on the floor, because curing varies and repairing popped epoxy floors is a huge suck-fest. Once the epoxy has cured, you can lay down a quality joint sealant agent that will self-level in deep expansion joints (the kind that swallow a creeper wheel) or use a tube dispensed caulk to seal sawcut joints.

 

[TRD270]

Once the epoxy has cured, you can lay down a quality joint sealant agent that will self-level in deep expansion joints (the kind that swallow a creeper wheel) or use a tube dispensed caulk to seal sawcut joints.

And buy a lot...... my expansion joints chewed up a ton. I put my caulk/joint sealant in before laying down my epoxy.... not sure if i'll have long term issues but almost two years in still holding strong on the caulk.

 

[frieed]

If the gaps are deep, put in foam backer rod first. Caulk should never be more than half as thick as it is wide to keep it flexible enough to expand with the joint.