So I’m going to be using one of those epoxy kits with the flakes to coat my garage floor.
So far I’ve acid washed the floor twice and I’m getting ready to paint in a couple days.
I know a bunch of you have probably done this and I’m looking for your advice on things that you learned from doing this already that might not be obvious.
One thing I’m curious about is: Are there any tricks to get the flakes to lay / land in a nice random pattern and not in bunches like I often see in peoples after pics…
What epoxy are you using? Do you have water problems in the yard around the garage? What was on the floor before? Why in the hell did you etch twice?
When you reply with your type of epoxy I’ll help you out with application tips. As far as laying the flake, roll out a 5’x5’ section of epoxy and sprinkle into that, don’t go walking back onto the coating after its rolled out unless you’re wearing spiked shoes. Sprinkling by hand is the best and as stupid as it sounds practice by tossing them onto a plastic drop cloth first.
Sounds like you probably bought the shield-crete kit? Like Ryan said theres no reason to etch it twice. And this may seem like common sense to you, but try to finish at the doorway, and don’t back yourself into a corner. I’ve had more than one person tell me they’ve done this and I can’t help but laugh.
this stuff turns out awesome. my buddy’s dad did it in their garage and its holding up like new after quite a few years. just sprinkle the shit by hand and only do sections at a time. best to get the edges with a brush and use a roller to roll it on.
I’ve got a 5-year old 2.5 car garage that I should really epoxy. Any concern about the weather not being warm enough for this to properly cure? (Ieatpaint) I know I waited too late in the season last year to try it.
My buddy just did this to his on Sunday so it must not be too late. It looked good. His dad painted on the epoxy and he threw the flakes by hand as they went. Looked pretty tough to fuck up unless you were to accidentally drop a handful in one spot or something equally stupid.
as long as it’s not below 50 for about a week things should be fine… I plan to give it plenty of time to dry/cure properly. This week I’m more worried about it being too humid to paint, but it looks like I’m not going to be ready to paint until the weekend anyway.
I picked up 3 kits, but I suspect that I’ll only need 2.
I used the quickcrete brand from Lowes…mostly because of the custom colors. came out GREAT. Its pretty dirty in this pic. also, for anyone thinking of doing this, i have almost a whole gallon of bondloc acid etcher left over…you can have it for free.
When I looked in to this, the message I seemed to be hearing was to avoid the big box store kits and go with the better materials ( ucoatit etc )
Have the HD/Lowes kits improved in quality since then? I’m curious if anyone who does this for a living can comment, because IME no one ever admits that their floor didn’t come out perfect.
all the people who are charging 10x as much will always say these suck, it’s how they make money.
from my research most of the problems that DIY people have is that they half ass the prep work in some way and then bitch at the product when they have problems.
my garage is 480 sq ft and i needed 2 of the quickrete kits at $80 each. 1 kit was exactly enough for 240 sq ft. each kit has 1 gallon. no way 1 kit (assuming the kit has 1 gallon) will cover 500 sq ft. Mine was also a 2 part epoxy, which was super thick.
edit: fwiw, my off the shelf lowes kit really did come out great, and is holding up extremely well. its all in the preperation and cleanlyness. my floor is also 2 years old and had zero stains.
Theres a big difference between a quality floor coating and an off the shelf kit from a big box. Longevity, surface tolerance, durability and leveling are a few of the big ones that come to mind. Theres a reason I can sell more expensive products and be very successful… Its like the difference between buying pep boys brake pads and hawks. Do they do the same thing? Sure, to a degree, will the hawks last longer and perform better? Sure do. Whats the cost difference, $200? When your $30 kit fails in 5 yrs u know how much time, money and work its gonna take to remove it to recoat? The guy who bought the better kit will be plowing his wife eating bbq while you’re busting your ass scraping and stripping. You get what you pay for with everything.
As for temperature, the CONCRETE TEMPERATURE must be over 50 for 24hrs.
