PROGRESSIVE EPOXY POLYMERS, INC.

NO SALES TAX - You are shopping in TAX FREE New Hampshire

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Need to Reseal - Repair - Create your Pebble Deck? You're at the right spot.
Twenty years of helping people like you!

(find out why it is the best and why you should reseal your pebble stone deck yourself)

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DIY Repairing / Creating Epoxy/

Resealing/Stone Deck/Patio Floor Surfaces

"When the Stones Break Loose"

Repair and then Reseal with Basic No Blush Epoxy

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PEBBLE DECK-FLOOR Systems appear under many different names:

Riverstone (tm), Chattahoochee Stone (tm), etc.

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stone walkway resealed

with Basic No Blush epoxy

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(9/17/14)  Paul, --- Just placed another order for Basic No Blush epoxy to recoat our pool deck. Last done in Spring of 2012 and plan on doing it next Spring when we open the pool here in Ohio. This is the 4th time I have used the Basic No Blush and it is a great product. Continued success. --- Kevin- Ohio

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"You provide outstanding products, and Fantastic Support. Thank You." Brian S.

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"Thanks for all your advice, tips & moral support concerning my project. It turned out beautiful. Quality people backing a quality product is the only way to go!" Joe

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 "I am very happy with my recent purchase of the No-Blush Pebble Re-coat product. The split rollers were exceptional.

I have some product left over and wanted to get an idea of how long I can wait before using the rest. "Thank you, Jack 7/18

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Your Host and Tour Guide:

Paul Oman, MS, MBA - Progressive Epoxy Polymers, Inc. (floor epoxies, marine epoxies, underwater epoxies, repair epoxies)

Member: NACE (National Assoc. of Corrosion Engineers), SSPC (Soc. of Protective Coatings)

Board member: Friends of the Suncook River - 501(c)(3) non profit ----- Founder: Friday Night Paddlers .

"Professionals helping Professionals"

INTRODUCTION (In a Nutshell...  stuff you need to know)

Section 1 - Epoxy pebble deck basics

Section 2 - Epoxies yellow

Section 3 - Which epoxy to use

Section 4 - Application notes

Section 5 - Temperature issues

Section 6 - Customer feedback

Section 7 - Why buy Basic No Blush epoxy for your deck

Section 8 - Creating a pebble epoxy deck from scratch

Section 9 - Ordering information

Section 10 - Useful links - special pebble stone epoxy rollers (optional) --- UV top coat to keep the NEW epoxy coating from UV yellowing and damage

Section 1 - Epoxy pebble deck basics

Packaged under a lot of different names (Riverstone (tm), Chattahoochee Stone (tm), etc.) , there are many flavors of epoxy and stone slurries that are applied over concrete surfaces to form an attractive and uniform new surface. These systems are generally used on patios, porches, around swimming pools (visit our swimming pool repair page for products/notes in and around pools), and along walkways. After a period of time (a few years) the epoxy ‘glue' begins to breakdown, primarily due to sun (UV) exposure and the stones break loose. The standard fix is a new coating of epoxy over the surface every few years (usually every 3 - 5 years applied in cooler  60 - 80 degree temps).
 

The problem will always exist because of UV damage to any/all epoxies, however it is probably made worse by the methods and products used by the original installer/applicator. The ideal application would consist of a high quality epoxy (with little or no solvents), and smallish stones (more surface contact/glue points). After the slurry is applied (over a layer of wet epoxy on a cement slab that is in good condition) and allowed to cure (harden) - an additional top coating of epoxy should be applied because much of the epoxy in the original slurry would have flowed away from the surface grains and pooled uselessly along the bottom of the slurry mixture.

--- So --- resealing (a single coat of epoxy on the top of the existing pebble/epoxy surface) is usually required every few years using our Basic No Blush epoxy (and special optional roller).

Section 2 - Epoxies yellow

EPOXY YELLOWING (ALL EPOXIES WILL TURN YELLOW IN SUNLIGHT OVER TIME)

Note: most pebble decks are a soft golden color - which is the color of UV yellowed epoxy (which you cannot remove). Reseal with

our Basic No Blush which will start off very clear and slowly yellow toward the existing yellow gold color already in place.

special two part polys can be applied over the epoxy to slow or stop the yellowing (rarely done).

A  UV resistant coating can be applied on top of everything to help protect the epoxy from UV sun damage.  (our 2 part acrylic poly UV plus is sometimes put over the epoxy coatings to keep them from yellowing).

Our Best UV blocker is a clear 2 part polyurethane with max UV protection (Acrylic Poly UV plus  - not for sale in Calif.). It is rolled on  in 1 or 2 thin coats over the epoxy to keep it from yellow or to greatly reduce yellowing. UV blockers cannot go into thermoset resin systems like epoxies but they can go into 2 part polys. More on 2 part polys - see in catalog Note that very few people top coat with a UV blocking 2 part poly - the UV yellow look is the most common finish.

Top coating with the Acrylic Poly UV plus is not usually done (especially over already yellowed epoxy).

Section 3 - Which epoxy to use

If the repair has become your job:

Use our Basic No Blush and our special slit-foam roller  to apply a new topcoat of epoxy to the stones. Find it in our catalog - click here (special summer, regular or cold weather curing agents available for this product).

Basic No Blush color is clear to amber

SPECIAL HOT WEATHER AND COLD WEATHER VERSIONS OF THE EPOXY ARE AVAILABLE IN RESEALING WITH THE REGULAR VERSION IN 60-75 DEGREE WEATHER IS NOT AN OPTION

Section 4 - Application notes

COVERAGE

Coverage rates will very greatly depending upon stone size, condition of the surface and personal technique, never-the-less we estimate 200 square feet of recoat coverage per 1.5 gallon kit of epoxy based upon user feedback. Note that this is a very common number but we also get folks saying they only got 150 sf per kit, and others insisting they got over 300 sf. Still, 80% of people seem to like the 200 sf figure.

WARNINGS

Best to coat before the hottest part of summer. Epoxies have very short working times when temperatures are elevated. - see HOT WEATHER below.

The epoxy will yellow in sunlight (starts out clear). Your stones are probably golden in color - this is most likely actually white stones covered with sun yellowed epoxy.

Pool chemical contamination on your stones can sometimes turn the epoxy a bright yellow or white. Even hosing/washing etc. of the stones always seems to miss places, so yellow chemical stains can become an issue.

Also and more commonly, rain, water splashes, bird pee, or dew on still liquid or tacky epoxy (ay 0-18 hours after application) can result in a white 'stain' that will not go away. It is either a waxy white film that forms on the surface (blush - but being a no blush epoxy this is rare) or more commonly little water caused indents on the smooth epoxy surface that now reflects the light making it appear white. Try a bit of clear nail polish over these white spots. Very likely it will fill in the 'dents' and the surface will (maybe) return to clear. (I have no way to test this). If so, the fix is a bit more epoxy over those spots.

While this spotting is often not an issue (only comes up once or twice a year), we did have a customer that had this problem again and again. He contacted other 'experts' and reported back to us: "One stone manufacturer that I did speak with felt that there may be water coming up from underneath the pebble stone and this was causing the white spots to develop but didn't know of any remedy for it." This would explain a lot. Picture a plastic sheet (the epoxy) over humid ground as the sun warms the air. Water will form (condense) on the bottom of the plastic. This would cause the spots on the new epoxy. It is obviously best to have plastic under the stones and/or have it ground REALLY dry before epoxy coating. In other words, a few dry days are needed after it rains (wetting the ground under the stones) to get the ground under the stones completely dry.

Note that we are not responsible and have no control over this sometimes white spotting

Section 5 - Temperature issues

HOT SUMMER WEATHER OR COLD WINTER WEATHER RESEALING

The epoxy will set up too quickly if temperatures are in the 80's or 90's. You can do your stone repair, but postpone resealing until temperatures are cooler. Best time to reseal is when temps are in the 60s and 70s - spring and fall for most of the country.

SPECIAL HOT WEATHER AND COLD WEATHER VERSIONS OF THE EPOXY ARE AVAILABLE IN RESEALING WITH THE REGULAR VERSION IN 60-75 DEGREE WEATHER IS NOT AN OPTION.  Call - 603 435 -7199

To extend pot life for the epoxy keep in cool (in the shade) and even consider placing the mixed epoxy into an ice bath so that the mixed epoxy temperature is at about 50 - 70 degrees. This alone could double your working time which would be very short (maybe just a few minutes) in warm weather. Adding a bit of solvent (say 10 - 15%% by volume to the mixed epoxy) will also extend pot life. Also work in small batch sizes, mix no more epoxy than what you can apply in 10 - 20 minutes.

Summary:

temps in the 60s and mid 70s - regular curing agent (all epoxies, ours and competitors)

temps in the 80s - consider using our special Basic No Blush with slow summer cure

temps in the 90s - wait for cooler weather

temps in the mid to low 40s - consider using our special Basic No Blush with the fast winter cure

Section 6 - Customer feedback

(7/31/02) "Job went well for a do-it-yourselfer. Coverage was much higher than directions - covered 600 square feet with a little less than 3 gallons. Mixed 1.5 gallons per batch. First batch exothermed and cured in the paint pan in about 30 minutes. Air temperature was 74 degrees F and in the shade." - John K.

(6/2006) "Just finished using your No Blush Epoxy on our stone/pebble pool deck. Used four 1.5 gallon kits for about 800 sq. feet. The rollers you sell for this are the way to go. I used 3 for this job and should have ordered a 4th to be safe. Power mixed 1.5 gallons at a time and used an oversized paint roller an(1 gallon) and a standard size one. With 2 people we were done in 11/2 hours. The weather was overcast and 62 degrees and had not trouble at all. Looks great and hope to get 3 or 4 years out of it here in Ohio. The stone was laid 3 years ago and am interested to see the comparison. Great product."
Kevin D

FOUR YEARS LATER KEVIN DID ANOTHER DIY RECOAT - HERE ARE HIS MOST RECENT COMMENTS

(5/2010) "Wanted to let you know how pleased we are with the No Blush (summer version). Just finished doing our pebble pool deck and it came out great. The summer version gave us more time to roll on the product and not feel rushed. I highly recommend the split rollers. Our deck is around 850 sq. ft. ; we used 4 of the 1.5 gallon kits and 3 of the split rollers The split rollers worked great, just make sure that you keep them wet and don't over roll the stone so that the roller has little to no epoxy on it. It took us around 2 hours including power blowing the deck surface. The temperature was around 75.

Really a simple project if you plan ahead. Used a 3 gallon plastic bucket to mix the batch using a battery powered drill and mixing device attached. Clean-up was easy. We used old plastic bags to take the roller off and dispose of them.

By the way, the quotes to do our deck (825 sq. ft) ranged between $850 to $1200. Also they all were using standard rollers for epoxy and not the foam split rollers you sell. The amount of epoxy used by the contractors to recoat was only 2 to 3 gallons versus the four of the 1.5 gallon kits you sell. People need to be sure if they have it done there is enough epoxy being used by the contractors to settle into the gaps with the stone to get a good sealing.

Great product and will continue to make use of your products in the future."  Kevin D .

(5/20012) Paul,

A few years ago I used you Basic No-Blush 2 epoxy on my DIY epoxy pebble stone pool deck. However, when I look at your web site now I only find Basic No-Blush (without the 2 on the end). Has the product changed? Should I now use the Basic No-Blush? Do you have another product that is even better for recoating epoxy stone decks/patios? I need to recoat now so I will be needing to place an order pretty soon. (SAME PRODUCT - WE JUST DROPPED THE 2 - the 2 was in improved - reformulated version of the original product).

As best as I can recall, one coat was all that is needed for recoating. Is this correct? (YES)

I doubt that you will remember this far back, but in 2005 you and I have several email exchanges about white areas showing up after proper application and drying of your product. There was absolutely no problem with your product as the problem seemed to derive from the moisture coming up under the epoxy from what must be the lack of satisfactory vapor barrier under the slab. Even though that happened and will probably happen again I found your product to be the best thing that I can use.

Thanks.

Section 7 - Why buy Basic No Blush  (tm) epoxy for your deck

We are a coatings /  epoxy company, not an epoxy repackager. Repackagers simply buy barrels of the raw resins and repackage it for all sorts of uses. They do not 'formulate' the epoxies, just repackage the basic chemicals and charge 'super good prices' - say $80 - $100 per 1.5 gal units (it is the difference between alcohol and Jack Daniels). These sites don't have user notes, instructions, help pages, etc. They just want to sell you their 'crude' resin systems - counting on you to buy cheap instead of buying performance and a track record. And you wouldn't expect them to offer more than one type of curing agent (i.e. slow summer curing agent, fast winter curing agent and regular) curing agent). But different cures makes lots of sense. Formulated boat building epoxies (from various vendors) come with different curing agents to match the weather and climate. It only makes sense that those that can offer different curing agents  (the part B) for outdoor decks would too. You will also note there are batch numbers on our epoxy containers. Epoxies are chemicals and should be carefully tracked from manufacture to your front door. You probably will not see batch numbers on the products sold by other vendors.

We hope the information provided by these pages will convince you to go for Quality over low end, cheap, generic epoxy. We are a professional  epoxy  company that wants informed customers and cares about those customer's projects. We have this entire web page telling you all about the ins and outs of re-sealing (or creating) your pebble deck.

Most of our competitors just list the product with a paragraph or two description and hope to win you over with a low generic price. They cannot give you more info (or ask you to email or call them) because they don't know much about pebble deck recoating - not enough to fill an entire web page or answer your questions. We cannot match their prices, but they cannot match our product quality and product knowledge.

Section 8 - Creating a pebble epoxy deck from scratch

It's not that difficult to make your own epoxy - stone surface. The most difficult part is finding the small pebble stone. Having to purchase 3 tons of stone and shipping it across the country will probably nix the entire project. If you can get around 'stone availability' issue, you're home free.

Usually the epoxy-stone surface is applied as a thin topcoat over a poured concrete surface. It is generally applied as thin as possible. You want to cover the surface with a uniform layer of pebble stone, but not much thicker. The smaller the stones the, easier and more attractive the end result will be. WE SUGGEST YOU DO A 'LEARNING CURVE' TEST ON PLYWOOD ETC. SEE HOW MUCH EPOXY YOU ARE USING, SEE IF YOUR KNEES AND SHOULDERS CAN TAKE IT. SEE IF YOU HAVE FIGURED OUT HOW TO MIX THE EPOXY AND STONES (LIKE EPOXY "RICE KRISPY TREATS")  (APPROX 15 - 20 SF OF NEW SURFACE PER GALLON OF EPOXY).

OK - here's how to do it:

(this is the method used by the best PROs - not the quick and dirty method seen on some YouTube Sites):

Mix up epoxy and have the stone ready. Working time will be about 30 minutes per batch of epoxy (in hot summer weather could be more like 10 - 12 minutes). Use our Basic No Blush epoxy. Roll on a coat of epoxy on the concrete (1.5 oz of epoxy per square foot).

Immediately begin applying the stone - epoxy slurry over the epoxy primer coat. The slurry will consist of 2.5 oz of epoxy and approx. 1.85 pounds of pebbles per square foot.

Evenly spread the epoxy - smooth using a trowel. Wiping down the trowel with our Trowel Aid cleaner will keep the epoxy-stone slurry from sticking to the trowel (the Trowel Aid product is a helpful, but not necessary, product).

Let the epoxy-stone surface harden overnight or longer.

It is strongly suggested you apply a topcoat of more epoxy to prolong the life of the surface. Follow the directions above for 'repair'. You will use approx. 1.5 oz of epoxy per square foot and we suggest you use our extra thick, slotted foam roller.

Only a few people put a UV blocker over the epoxy to keep it from UV yellowing, but if you wanted to we do have a 2 part clear polyurethane with lots of UV blockers in it (very hard to find clear coats with UV blockers) called Acrylic Poly UV Plus. This will keep the surface shiny much longer and will, to a small degree, protect the epoxy and provide additional 'gluing' between the pebbles. Figure on about 2.5 oz of clear acrylic per square foot, applied with an ordinary paint roller (this is an approx. figure, not based on user feedback).

STONE SOURCE: TRY ARKANSAS DECORATIVE STONE (http://www.arkansasdecorativestone.com/). Pls tell them you found them via Progressive Epoxy Polymers!

Section 9 - Ordering information

Special Epoxy Application Roller (optional) These thick foam rollers are used to apply epoxy to pebble stone deck surfaces. The vert. splits (looks like someone sliced the rollers with a knife) help to keep the epoxy evenly loaded as it is rolled over rough surfaces (such as a layer of pebbles). Nine inches long - standard roller size!  No required, but very popular! (under "misc or accessories" in our 2 online stores) - Order Rollers and Basic No Blush epoxy from our Simple Online Store. USER ROLLER COMMENTS: "I ordered the No Blush product and some of the recommended split rollers. We waited for a 3-day no rain forecast and even though it was a warm 72-degree morning I had my wife mix small batches while I applied the No Blush without any hardening problems and we finished the job in a couple of hours. The key thing was the split rollers. They hold and apply the epoxy much better than any standard roller. I ordered (4) rollers... " (5/2010) "Wanted to let you know how pleased we are with the No Blush... I highly recommend the split rollers. Our deck is around 850 sq. ft. ; we used 4 of the 1.5 gallon kits and 3 of the split rollers The split rollers worked great, just make sure that you keep them wet..." (note the 2010 date - we have been doing this for a long time!) "I am very happy with my recent purchase of the No-Blush Pebble Re-coat product. The split rollers were exceptional." Jack 7/18 Note: as long as you keep fresh epoxy on the roller it will last and not 'harden up" - If you stop or keep too much epoxy for too long on the roller it will harden up very quickly.  --- be sure NOT to order the "short nap epoxy rollers" --- order 1.5 gal kit of Basic No Blush per 200 sf of resealing. Must glue down any loose stones first with same product before resealing. Apply in 'perfect weather" - mornings in the 70s - no rain in sight for several days.

 

CLEAR EPOXIES AND UV PROTECTION

UV blockers/absorbers CANNOT be added to cross-linking thermo-set resin systems like epoxies (they can be added to 2 part polyurethanes). Anyone that tells you they have a UV resistant epoxy or a non yellowing epoxy is either ignorant or lying to you. You decide if you want to do business with dishonest companies/individuals. Your existing epoxy pebble deck as already experienced UV yellowing so you will not notice much of a change