Floors are often laid with materials like jib create, that deteriorate from moisture and abrasion. Kitchens, baths, and work areas have liquids and other materials that end up on flooring which can cause spalling, erosion and flaking. A coating of 100% solid epoxy can level those floors and seal them from further damage. By using a squeegee type motion, liquid epoxy can be pulled over floor irregularities allowing them to fill in. Because epoxy is hard and water tight, once sealed further erosion is usually stopped.

Water standing in low spots on floors can often last for days creating safety problems and cleaning issues. During the troweling of floors some uneven ness can create low spots where spilled liquids can form. Low spots or depressions can now be filled in with 100% solid epoxy to bring them to level. Berms can also be adhered within an epoxy floor to contain liquid spills rendering them easy to squeegee out. Often containment of liquids to safe areas is all that is needed to avoid damage to items stored on the same floor.

Epoxy flooring is not only seamless but can be Class III Laboratory qualified. These mold and mildew resistant surfaces are easy to clean with hoses and squeegees. Bleach resistant epoxy flooring can take strong cleaners and heavy abrasion.

Epoxy floors can be flooded, and scrubbed back into service in minutes. Mold, bacteria, and contaminants can be rinsed off. The surfaces are impervious to penetration by liquid-born contaminants. Even diesel, gas, and oil will not penetrate them and can be washed or wiped up. Old technology floorings, including paint, carpeting, vinyl tile, linoleum, and wood, are subject to severe contamination and damage if flood cleansing is used. Beautiful flood-proof epoxy coated flooring can be used from wall to wall, often including coated vertical surfaces to help further contain liquids.

Durall Industrial Flooring supplies kits of materials that are customized to owner specification and delivered directly to the job site. Kits include full directions and 24/7 help lines staffed by seasoned flooring experts, so professionals and amateurs alike can successfully install a quality floor.

Web visitors can obtain free, job-specific quotes on materials or nationwide turnkey installations by completing a simple questionnaire at http://www.concrete-floor-coatings.com.

For a high-resolution photo example, visit: http://www.concrete-floor-coatings.com/photos

For more information, contact Harvey Chichester at: harvey@concrete-floor-coatings.com Phone: 1-800-466-8910 or 952-888-1488 (24/7)

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Here are useful tips learned during more than 40 years of installing epoxy urethane floor seals and coatings on Fortune 500 company concrete floors, as well as in basements, garages, and decks. These tips can help you avoid mistakes that can limit the life of your floor.

There are three broad steps to doing your floor project: planning and preparation, repairing, and applying the coating. This article is the third in a three part series, and deals with applying the epoxy paint to the floor.

General guidelines for applying an epoxy coating to your floor:



Do no harm.

Investing in preparation produces the most years of service.

Let the chemicals and equipment do the work.

What can go wrong, will go wrong, unless you think ahead.

Technique is what separates mortals from Rembrandts.

An once of prevention is worth a pound of cure.



Now let’s get started with tips on how to coat your floor with an epoxy or urethane floor paint.

 



Plan the job.

Good floor prep is key to a long lasting floor.

Take a break.

Mix 200 strokes.

Easy work makes for a better job

No one is perfect

Don’t worry about tricks of gravity

A rag may not save you

Technique, technique, technique.

This is an application pattern I like to teach and can serve you very well. Tip your roller and remove it quickly before it fills with liquid. Apply a quick wet line 3 or 4 feet back from where you had stopped coating. Now fill in the area between that wet line and your previous rolled area. As you overlap the new wet part, . The strong two-part coatings you are applying are not the water-based latexes that wipe easily off with a rag or a little water. If you get the coating on something you did not want to coat, it may be less harmful to leave it than to smear it all over the place. You may be better off chipping it off once it dries a little, or coating over it with paint that matches what you got it on.

. As you put your first coat down, you will find things, bugs, sand, water, lint, and the like. What was in the air eventually will be on the floor. Remember this is a two-coat process. Yes, remove what you can as you go but those small bits of debris may be easier to remove when you screen between coats and sweep before your second coat.

. I do floors lots of floors and still have misses, marks, and errors. I just can’t rely on myself to be perfect all the time. That’s why two coats are always planned.

. Tape your cutting brush to a broom handle, use a wheeled bucket for 18-inch rollers, and several pails if using 9-inch rollers, and wear a mask if using solvent based products. Save your back and let yourself move quickly. Moving fast is more fun but it also sets a rhythm, which keeps a repetitive job interesting enough to maintain focus.

Two-part flooring products can produce floors that click when you first walk over them. That clicking often means that the two parts were not mixed well. Clicking is sucking dust off your feet and could cause both lifting and discoloration problems down the road. Yes, the floor will usually stop clicking and harden, but it may come from aging rather than a strong chemical change. Mixing is not a science, but you must be able to count to 200.

I always take a break after floor preparation to let the floor dry. Putting down a coating can be smooth and uniform or splotchy with misses. A little rest before the artistic part of the job will improve the quality of your application process.

For this article, we will assume that you have done a good job of doing you’re preparation and repair work already.

Two-part coatings harden in the can once mixed, so it is best to have everything you need at the start of your job. A useful first step is to go to a website like www.concrete-floor-coatings.com for a free cost analysis report that also lists everything you need to do your job including step-by-step instructions.

you re-wet your roller

and as you overlap the previous area your roller is re-moistened. When you get to the end, roll back over the same area a second time. This re-rolling will spread any lines that may have come off your roller edges as you move across the floor.

Push the roller on, not off.

I always flip my roller so that I move towards the open end. This little step pushes the roller onto the frame not off it. Each time the roller moves on the frame you have the danger of opening a gap at the end that fills the roller with coating as you dip. Soon you are getting lines as the liquid drips out of the ends of the roller. And soon the roller is sliding back and forth on your frame because the interior is now very slippery.

Don’t hit the roller.

If your roller cover starts to slide off the frame, don’t tap the roller, tap the frame. If you tap the roller, you often get dents in the roller that show up as marks as you roll. If you tap the frame end of the roller, it will slide on without changing its shape.

There is dirt in that pail.

I can’t say how often I have compromised the quality of a job by pouring my last amount of coating out of the pail onto the floor as I exit. The problem is every piece of sand, lint, or bug that had stuck to the roller is resting at the bottom of the pail. Right where I have wanted the floor to look its best (at the entrance or exit), I have poured out all my debris on the floor so that I can use that last 3-oz. of coating. Don’t do it! You will be sorry.

Screen the floor after your primer coat repairs are made

. By screening your floor with a 60 grit screen after any additional repairs are made, you can usually shave your floor flat. This screening removes bubbles, lint, sand, bugs, leaves, and fillers that are above the desired surface.

Sweep your floor with a kitchen type broom before coating.

Push brooms just don’t pick up enough of the small grains. A kitchen broom takes a little longer but does a better job.

Vacuum the corners

. It is just too hard to get grains of sand and other small particles out of corners and along baseboards or out of holes unless you use a vacuum.

After experiencing lifting and pealing of floor products, many industries have reduced their expectations for shop floor life to three or four years. This is unfortunate because epoxy floorshave an intrinsic service period of a decade or more if the subfloor is properly prepared prior to laying down the coating.

Even new floors require proper preparation before a seal coating is applied. New concrete is dusty or the first few years as the microscopic latents are kicked off the surface. If concrete is exposed to wear, it will eventually deteriorate. Friction wear, erosion, and contamination all play a role. Dust, cracks, crumbling, rough surfaces, and the inability to keep the environment clean are symptoms of a floor that has not been protected and is moving towards an unserviceable condition.

The secret to success in producing floors that last a decade or more is paying attention to the preparation process. Instead of using simple raw materials like hydrochloric acid and tri-sodium phosphate, it is better to employ cleaners that have penetrants, rinse agents, and detergents built-in. Such specialty products ensure that the etching and cleaning of the subfloor results in a strongly bonded epoxy layer.

Mission-critical sites in industries such as printing, food processing, air travel, and breweries rely on decade-old epoxy floors that are used 24 hours per day.

Recently, at least one manufacturer has begun providing kits of materials customized to owner specification and delivered directly to the job site. These kits include full directions and 24/7 help lines staffed by seasoned flooring experts, so professionals and amateurs alike can successfullyinstall a quality floor.

On the Web, individuals and project managers can obtain free, job-specific quotes on materials or nationwide turnkey installations by completing a simple questionnaire at www.concrete-floor-coatings.com.

For photo examples and more detail, visit www.concrete-floor-coatings.com

For more information, contact Harvey Chichester at: harvey@concrete-floor-coatings.com

Phone: 1-800-466-8910 or 952-888-1488 (24/7)