“MY GARAGE FLOOR IS PITTED, CORRODED, HAS SPIDER CRACKS AND/OR IS NOT SMOOTH”
We get this comment several times a day, so in an effort to educate and give you options Armorpoxy has issued this bulletin.
First, a quick lesson in measuring coatings. Floor coatings are measured in ‘mils’ (thousandths of an inch). Standard latex/home center type paint when dry measures about 2.0 mils. For reference a sheet of copy paper is 4.5 mils. Armorclad Epoxy with topcoat, flecks and non-skid is about 16 mils. One-eighth of an inch is 125 mils, so you can see that attempting to ‘fix’ your floor with just an epoxy alone is not economically feasible.
You have several options:
- Coat the floor as is. It will still show the problems, but they will be less than before as the thicker Armorclad helps to fill in to some extent, but it will not cure any problems. Even though it is self-leveling, it will still follow the pattern of the floor to a great extent, similar to the effect of painting wood that had knots in it. The decorative flecks also help to visually break up surface. A corroded/pitted floor should be primed with the ArmorClad Primer, as priming causes the epoxy to not soak in and sit up higher therefore increasing it’s ability to self level.
- Skim coat the floor. This is a process of using a commercialy-available product that comes in cement bags and you mix with water and skim over the floor to fill in and level, which resurfaces it. Each 50 lb bag of skim coat will cover about 50 sq ft @ 1/8” depth, so if you have a standard 2-car garage of 450 sq ft, you would need 9 bags (450 lbs!) of skim coat. These products are made by companies such as Ardex, CMP, and Quikrete, and are locally available at building supply stores and home centers, Armorpoxy does not carry them. When using these products the manufacturers also recommend using a bonding primer coat that they carry. Skim coated floors must also be primed with ArmorClad primer prior to coating as the skim coat is very porous. You would then apply the Armorclad normally.
- Do a ‘full broadcast’ of decorative flecks. This is a process where you apply the decorative flecks to the wet epoxy floor until the epoxy is completely covered ‘to rejection’ and the floor won’t hold any more in the epoxy. Then, the following day you sweep/vacuum up the excess flecks. Note: A standard 2 car garage would use about 6 lbs of flecks for a nice medium sprinkle, a full broadcast floor will use about 50 lbs! You would then run a flat bladed floor scraper or tool over the floor to knock off any ‘high spot’s as the flecks can settle in crooked and you can end up with a rough surface otherwise. You can also sand the flecks lightly to remove any high spots. Finally, you would apply at least 2 coats of clear coat. Due to the millions of little valleys and gaps created by the flecks these floors use much, much more clear coat. The effect though of this process is to give a ‘granite look’, and the thickness of the epoxy and flecks does a wonderful job of filling in the irregular floor. Full broadcast floors should also be primed prior to coating. In general, a full broadcast floor will run about double the price of a standard floor due to the large amount of materials needed.
4. Use one of our Non Epoxy Floor Covering Solutions such as SupraTile (www.supratile.com) which are interlocking heavy duty floor tiles that simply snap together and lay on the floor, or ArmorCover (Garage duty roll-out floor covering). These solutions, while more expensive per square ft completely cover the floor and eliminate the need for much, if any prep. They also install in just hours instead of days. When figuring in the cost of labor and downtime, these are very cost effective solutions.
Below are some photos of some of the items noted above for your review. Thank you for contacting Armorpoxy regarding your flooring needs. Please feel free to call us or email any time for technical assistance or pricing.
Skim Coating:
Full Broadcast:
ArmorCover:
SupraTile
Great for virtually any use: garages, storage areas, hangars, warehouses, plants, factories, auto shops, loading docks, offices, gyms, trailers and more. Manufactured from the highest quality, industrial grade base materials. Easy to install with just a rubber mallet and a pair of snips or small electric saw to trim around edges. Highly resistant to chemicals and dirt. Easy cleaning with any mild cleaner and water. No waxing or other maintenance required. SupraTiles are oversized (18″-20.5″ square, see technical data). Super hard 92 durometer for minimum compression and many, many years of long service life.
