HOW AND WHY TO EPOXY RESIN COAT YOUR GARAGE / CONCRETE SLAB

UNDERSTANDING CONCRETE SLAB EPOXY FLOOR PAINTING

FLOOR EPOXY SYSTEMS SINCE  1994

	Links to Lots of MUST READ Information Articles About the Best Epoxy Floor Paints, Including Preparation, Alternatives, What Can Go Wrong, etc. floor related articles, info, links CLICK HERE
Bio Vee Seal - INTERNAL CONCRETE SEALER	SOME OF THE SITES THE ABOVE LINK WILL DIRECT YOU TO
Clear Top Coats  - FLOOR CLEAR TOP	Best Floor Epoxy - CLICK HERE
Epoxy Quartz Floor - BROADCAST FLOOR	Acid Etching - ACID
Epoxy Paint Chip Floor - CHIPS	Epoxy Paint vs. Floor Epoxy Paint - EPOXY PAINTS
Epoxy Paint - SURFACE PREP	Floor Basics/Options - START HERE
Floor Epoxy - CATALOG PAGE	Questions: ASK PROFESSOR E. POXY

 

 

REASONS TO EPOXY PAINT YOUR CEMENT (GARAGE) FLOOR

Concrete (garage) floors are coated with pigmented epoxy resin systems for several reasons. These include:

1) to improve chemical resistance,

2) to prevent the concrete from sweating (epoxies are used for this application,

3) to impart a non-skid surface,

4) to seal the surface from moisture and/or reduce dust, and

5) for appearance sake.

POSSIBLE PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH EPOXY FLOORS

In some cases getting a suitable, long term bond between the concrete and the coating can become career or profit destroying task. Because of these potentially dreadful results, consider epoxy painting your slab or garage only if you really need to and only if you are willing to perform suitable surface preparation (which will help greatly in avoiding possible problems). It is often difficult to say exactly why a coating on a cement slab will fail (not stick, peel, blister, etc.). Reasons can include:

1) a layer of dust or dirt or the surface,

2) too smooth, oily or waxy a surface (from previous coatings or contaminants),

3) a damp surface,

4) surface salts or ions that are already present or forming/collecting (can be from surface waters, contaminants or from the concrete itself),

5) vapor pressure and or water flow within the porous concrete itself before, during, or after the coating has been applied, or

6) a weak surface layer of concrete (from either very old or very new concrete). Other problem situations include existing 'active' cracks and/or expansion joints. If you simply paint over them the coating will crack or peal when movement or shifting takes place.

SURFACE PREPARATION FOR EPOXY RESIN FLOOR PAINT

Surface preparation is often a judgment call based upon the location, condition and history of the existing concrete. Perhaps the surface needing the least preparation is the typical cement sidewalk outside your house that has been 'weathered' for several years and has never been oil stained, painted, etc. The existing factory or work floor is the floor that should cause you the most concern. Waxes, sealers, spills, dissolved salts, are all possible problems awaiting discovery.

Your best chance at a successful floor coating job in this case is to shot blast the floor, removing the top layer and providing a new, fresh surface profile. I would then water blast the surface and include a salt-removing agent. Finally wet vac the surface dry, sucking away the water, dust, and dissolved salts.

MODERN SOLVENT-FREE EPOXY COATINGS

Our company sells a line of solvent-free epoxies for floor coating. Solvent free epoxies have no strong fumes to deal with and their wet thickness equals their dry thickness. In other words, if you apply 20 mils of coating or fill in a tiny void with the wet epoxy, it will harden at 20 mils instead of shrinking and re-exposing any filled in cracks or voids. An 50% solvent (50% VOC) epoxy would require applying 40 mils of product to get 20 mils of dry epoxy. Of course, you probably cannot apply 40 mils in one coat so two or coats would be necessary (add in time and labor costs). Actually, it is even difficult to apply 10-20 mils of a solvent based coating without getting 'alligator' textures of peaks and indents with wet paint trapped underneath due to trapped solvent under the top layer of dry paint. No solvents also means nothing to soften or weaken existing coatings or finishes (such as the adhesive under floor tiles that are being encased or sealed in epoxy). These epoxies can also be applied to wet or damp (or even submerged) floors. Remember that moisture is one possible cause for floor coatings to fail.

COST OF EPOXY FLOOR PAINTS

As the above paragraph suggests, a $50/gallon, 50% solvent epoxy has the same amount of coverage as a $100/gallon, 0% solvent (0% VOC) product without the dangers and fumes of the solvent, nor the potential extra labor costs of solvent based product.

Epoxy paints generally sell for between $20 and $1,000 per gallon. To a degree, you get what you pay for. A premium grade epoxy could easily contain raw materials costing the manufacturer between $25 and $50-$60 per gallon. Like all products (but less than most) there is a several hundred percent market-up to pay for salaries, one or more layers of distributors and/or reps, marketing, packaging, R&D, overhead, profit, insurance, advertising, etc. To make very inexpensive epoxy means either using a lot of inexpensive solvents and/or inert, inexpensive fillers. This affects performance and quality.

EVALUATING EPOXY PAINTS

On a cost basis, evaluate your epoxy options on a cost per square foot, per dry mil basis. That removes the solvent factor (but not the fumes safety problem). Look for ease of application and reapplication. Beware of a problem know as 'amine blush' which leaves behind a waxy residue on the epoxy surface. Look for an ASTM E648 fire testing of the epoxy (or resin) system. Some epoxies require extreme care in getting the mix ratio 100% correct. Instead, look for a more 'field friendly' mix where being 'close' is good enough.