Another Epoxy-Coat Floor is in

Well, half of it anyway. Today was the day. After many, many days of scrubbing, scraping, etching, and rinsing, I felt pretty good about the prep. Because I can’t leave stuff outside my garage for a few days, I have to do one half at a time. I’ll do the other side tomorrow. As far as putting down the epoxy, it’s was pretty dang easy. This 10’ x 24’ section took 2 hours and that included the taping. I did have a couple of little glitches which I will cover next. But overall, the floor looks fantastic and I’m really pleased with the results so far. Hopefully my experience will help someone else.

I purchased two half kits from epoxt-coat.com, each one can cover 250 sq ft. Which was perfect for my garage, as each half is 240 sq ft. And since I’m doing this in two phases, having two of everything, mixer, bucket, brush, roller, etc works out perfect.

I laid the epoxy down in two batches. Using the measuring stick, a batch can cover 10’ x 12’ feet. And the amount was perfect. You need to be careful when you pour out the epoxy. I poured too much at one end and had to squeegee a bunch around to get even coverage. I did better on the second batch.

I only ended up using about 1 pound of flakes to get medium coverage. This surprised me. I bought 4 pounds based on the estimates on the epoxy-coat.com site.

You definitely need spikes shoes. I was thinking I didn’t need them at first, but after doing some dry runs to check distances, it was clear I needed to be stepping in the epoxy to cover the entire area. I made mine using 3/8 plywood, 1 and 1/4" screws, and self-sticking Velcro.

Ok, here are the glitches.

- The gloves that come with the kit are junk. Sorry epoxy-coat. I ripped through both in about 2 minutes. Buy better gloves and more of them. The epoxy is pretty sticky stuff. It washes off, but it’s not like latex paint. It’s gummy and sticky.

- The squeegee’s that came with my kit didn’t have threads. It looks like it’s some kind of pressed on fit. Luckily it has a hole on the collar, so I just turned one of my handles around, shoved the squeegee on, and put a screw through it.

- One roller is not enough. When I got to the second batch, the roller was just hard enough where it wasn’t holding epoxy. It was just kind of skating on the surface. Luckily because I had two kits, I had the second roller. Maybe if I was faster getting to the second batch, it wouldn’t have been a problem. Tomorrow, I will have the second roller already on a handle and ready to go. This way I won’t have pull the used roller off, which is a mess.

- Cracks. I filled most of the cracks I had with caulk. But I can still see the smaller cracks that I did not fill. I expected the epoxy to fill them. But it didn’t. I’m not sure I could even caulk them, they’re very thin. Maybe a second coat of epoxy would cover them. I’m not that too concerned about them. And the flakes sort of camouflage them.

- Bubbles. I had bubbles. About 1-3 per sq ft. Thankfully, I purchased a small electric leaf blower and had it on hand. It really works well on popping the bubbles. Once they pop, the epoxy starts to level out.

This is the blower I got from Lowes. $35.

Lowes


There you go.

Looks good!

Thanks for the post. I appreciate the documentation of what works and what doesn't. Hope your second half works out just as well. Those home made spiked shoes are STYLIN! Good idea. So even with applying a 10' x 12' section you felt you couldn't distribute the flakes evenly enough? I'm just starting to work on my future epoxy plan and that is one topic I haven't got clear in my mind yet.

nmanitou said:

. So even with applying a 10' x 12' section you felt you couldn't distribute the flakes evenly enough? I'm just starting to work on my future epoxy plan and that is one topic I haven't got clear in my mind yet.

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Flaking is pretty easy. I did throw too much on my first throw. I would start with just a pinch. A little goes a long way when it hits the floor. And it's pretty easy to get even coverage. I used a back hand flip motion and threw the flakes up high. But then for spot targeting, I would throw a little lower. I think mine turned out OK. In hindsight, I would have a better idea of how much too flake before I start. And practicing on a tarp or something before hand would help. The only tricky part is not over flaking. You really need to ease into it a little at a time.

Looking good!

Nice job ... love the shoes!

AArrrrrggggggggggg. I ran out of epoxy. I didn't have enough Part A. I can not figure out how this happened. Since I bought two half kits, I took the two Part A's and poured them both into one 2 gallon bucket. And it nearly filled it. So I know I had two gallons of Part A.

I know I measure right. With the Epoxy Coat half kits, you get two little Part B jugs, which are like pint sized. And when using the measuring stick, one of these goes right up to the bottom line. Then you pour in Part A to the second line to make a 2 to 1 mix. I barely got above the first line while making the second batch today. So basically I got 3 batches out of two half kits. I KNOW I measured right. I'm so pissed.

Now I have to buy another half kit and hope I can blend the two sections together. The first half will be plenty dry by the time I get the new kit.

I had a similar problem. My garage is 638 Sq. Ft. and I bought 750 Sq. Ft. of Epoxy Coat.
During the roll out of the base color, (Beige), I felt that the transparency of the material caused me to apply it too heavy. Towards the end mix I really had to work hard to roll out the material to get a coverage. It is light and too transparent but the flakes and clear hide this reasonably well.

Nice post, good looking floor...

evilcheese said:

I only ended up using about 1 pound of flakes to get medium coverage

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Based on those pictures, I would definitely classify what you did as light (or even "very light") coverage...

wickeral said:

I had a similar problem. My garage is 638 Sq. Ft. and I bought 750 Sq. Ft. of Epoxy Coat.
During the roll out of the base color, (Beige), I felt that the transparency of the material caused me to apply it too heavy. Towards the end mix I really had to work hard to roll out the material to get a coverage. It is light and too transparent but the flakes and clear hide this reasonably well.

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My issue was that I ran out of Part A and didn't have enough to make the forth and final batch. I still can't figure out where it went. Maybe the leftovers in buckets when I mixed the Part A's together? I know I measured right. The measuring sticks in the half kit say a single batch is enough for 10' and 12' and the the half kit covers 240 sq ft. So there should have been enough Part A for two single batches. Anyway, I have another half kit coming. I hope I can make the seam look OK.

I'm finished!! I order another 1/2 kit and finished the last section yesterday. I was able to feather the two sections together pretty well. I just sanded about 3 inches of the previous section and carefully painted that edge with a brush. Thanks to Epoxy-Coat (Christine?) for taking care of my issue. They really stand behind their product.

In hindsight, I would have put down two coats. There are some spots where the concert was more rough and soaked in more epoxy. But I can live with it. This will be a working floor. I.E. lots of jacking and jack stands. I still have a TON of **** to move back in and organize, so for now I'm enjoying the cleanliness.

Nice job, ...,

I wonder if using a hand held fertilizer spreader would work with chip-casting?

Nice floor, great car

Larry M said:

Nice floor, great car

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+1!

S

Very nice finish and looks awesome.

Couple of questions

1. Did you use any anti-skid compound? Does the floor feel slippery or it is normal?
2. Did you use clear coat?
3.Did the anti skid and clear coat come with the kit?
4. Did you use squeeze to spread or used roller brush? Do you have to use any special paint brush or any regular paint roller will do the job.
5. How much flakes did you use and can you describe how you spread the flakes. I don't understand why do you need spiky shoes. Can you not do small sections at a time and spread as you go.
6. Also I like your epoxy color? which color did you use?
7. what solution did you use for scrubbing and etching?

Thank you

jaggudada said:

Very nice finish and looks awesome.

Couple of questions

1. Did you use any anti-skid compound? Does the floor feel slippery or it is normal?
2. Did you use clear coat?
3.Did the anti skid and clear coat come with the kit?
4. Did you use squeeze to spread or used roller brush? Do you have to use any special paint brush or any regular paint roller will do the job.
5. How much flakes did you use and can you describe how you spread the flakes. I don't understand why do you need spiky shoes. Can you not do small sections at a time and spread as you go.
6. Also I like your epoxy color? which color did you use?
7. what solution did you use for scrubbing and etching?

Thank you

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Wow, lots of questions. OK, here goes.

1. No. It actually rained this weekend, so I was in and out with wet shoes. It didn't feel slippery at all. It feels sticky actually. Like a squeaky clean, rubber on rubber feel.

2. No clear coat.

3. Even though I didn't use them, I know they don't come in the kits.

4. Yes, used the squeegee to spread it around and then the roller to even it all out. I just used the kit brush for cutting in. I did buy and use extra rollers. They were high end, non lint ones from Sherwin Williams.

5. (This is two questions. ). I used about 1 1/2 pounds for 480 sq ft. I think this would be classified as light coverage. I needed spike shoes because I couldn't reach the entire area I was applying for rolling and spreading flakes. 10' x 12' at a time. I'm sure you could do smaller sections, but you would need to measure part A and B carefully to make smaller batches.

6. It's their default gray. I like it.

7. Jeez, what didn't I use. . I used mainly simple green and Zep industrial purple cleaner. The Zep works really well at removing oil spots. For etching I used Klean-Strip® Green™ Safer Muriatic Acid in a 4 to 1 ratio. http://www.kleanstripgreen.com/. And then the prep that come with the kit per the instructions.

Hope this helps.