Epoxy garage floor prep can I have a bit of help please?
Discussion
Ah mate, I am sorry to hear that! What a truly crappy situation across the board. 
I am also a 100% subscriber to the doctrine of "once a f
k up is realised, panic and make it worse". I have a floor of concrete, primed & hidden under self leveller having cocked mixes up to prove it...
The only saving grace I can leave is one day both you & Andy will have a cracking pub story of this, once the wounds have healed (!)
Ah mate...
I am also a 100% subscriber to the doctrine of "once a f
k up is realised, panic and make it worse". I have a floor of concrete, primed & hidden under self leveller having cocked mixes up to prove it... The only saving grace I can leave is one day both you & Andy will have a cracking pub story of this, once the wounds have healed (!)
Ah mate...
Cheers guys. So I’ve been in tonight and done as instructed. Both heaters flat out and I’ll leave them on until the morning - see what happens.
Position at 24 hours in is that the bad area is clearly defined - it’s gone off to the extent that you can walk on it but you leave full prints on it. If you press it with your finger it’s still somewhat soft.
Thoughts are that if it’s gone off that much maybe it will actually cure given time?
Tomorrow morning andy is coming round and we are going to try and sort it. I now have this serious amount of paint to do a 1mm coat - previously I had 11 cans to do two coats. Now I have 20 more cans to do one coat - yikes!
Position at 24 hours in is that the bad area is clearly defined - it’s gone off to the extent that you can walk on it but you leave full prints on it. If you press it with your finger it’s still somewhat soft.
Thoughts are that if it’s gone off that much maybe it will actually cure given time?
Tomorrow morning andy is coming round and we are going to try and sort it. I now have this serious amount of paint to do a 1mm coat - previously I had 11 cans to do two coats. Now I have 20 more cans to do one coat - yikes!
Evening chaps.
Well we battled hard but I think my mistake is terminal.
We hired a floor sander and sanded all day at it today. Emma and Andy both gave me 100% and the three of us have scraped and sanded our hearts out.
We got an amazing finish on the section fore and aft of the bad bit but the problem is that although we are back to the concrete on the high spots on the bit that hasn’t gone off the low spots are like chewing gum. I tried a wire brush on a drill but that doesn’t work either.
Final thoughts as I closed the door for the evening are:
1) go ahead and paint the new coat. It will be sticking to the high spots and hovering over the depressions filled with chewing gum as a substrate.
2) accept that it’s not possible to now use epoxy on this floor and consider other alternatives designed for bad sub floors - I suppose options are the rubber tiles, some form of industrial “amtico” or “karndean” or whatever.
3) hit the floor with heavy duty floor screed at about 3mm thick all the way over and THEN paint it.
What do we think?
I’m so upset but to see my Mrs and my mate helping me so much without me asking is lovely. Big thanks to both of them I really appreciate all your support
Well we battled hard but I think my mistake is terminal.
We hired a floor sander and sanded all day at it today. Emma and Andy both gave me 100% and the three of us have scraped and sanded our hearts out.
We got an amazing finish on the section fore and aft of the bad bit but the problem is that although we are back to the concrete on the high spots on the bit that hasn’t gone off the low spots are like chewing gum. I tried a wire brush on a drill but that doesn’t work either.
Final thoughts as I closed the door for the evening are:
1) go ahead and paint the new coat. It will be sticking to the high spots and hovering over the depressions filled with chewing gum as a substrate.
2) accept that it’s not possible to now use epoxy on this floor and consider other alternatives designed for bad sub floors - I suppose options are the rubber tiles, some form of industrial “amtico” or “karndean” or whatever.
3) hit the floor with heavy duty floor screed at about 3mm thick all the way over and THEN paint it.
What do we think?
I’m so upset but to see my Mrs and my mate helping me so much without me asking is lovely. Big thanks to both of them I really appreciate all your support
Before you give up on the epoxy, give the technical guys at Rawlins paints a call, they're very helpful and may be able to suggest the best way forward. Fess up to what you have done and see what they come up with: https://www.rawlinspaints.com/
My thought is that if you now put fresh mix on top it may be sufficient to cure the residue as well as the top coat.
My thought is that if you now put fresh mix on top it may be sufficient to cure the residue as well as the top coat.
I'd ring the supplier, see what they say. Remind them you have spent £1000,but are loosing your nerve keeping it unless they known of a decent solution.
Considered paint thinner, or paint stripper etc? Chemical break of it? Testing in small localised areas obviously.
I wouldn't risk putting good stuff over bad stuff you will always be nervous about it everytime you drive/Park on it.
Considered paint thinner, or paint stripper etc? Chemical break of it? Testing in small localised areas obviously.
I wouldn't risk putting good stuff over bad stuff you will always be nervous about it everytime you drive/Park on it.
Andehh said:
I'd ring the supplier, see what they say. Remind them you have spent £1000,but are loosing your nerve keeping it unless they known of a decent solution.
Considered paint thinner, or paint stripper etc? Chemical break of it? Testing in small localised areas obviously.
I wouldn't risk putting good stuff over bad stuff you will always be nervous about it everytime you drive/Park on it.
He's done that already.Considered paint thinner, or paint stripper etc? Chemical break of it? Testing in small localised areas obviously.
I wouldn't risk putting good stuff over bad stuff you will always be nervous about it everytime you drive/Park on it.
Some potential solutions here: https://www.microtonano.com/TIN-Removing-Cured-Epo...
Some of the chemicals are quite harsh, so ventilate well and consider fume masks.
Heat definitely works on epoxy, I've blow torched epoxy adhesive before and it turns crumbly.
I'd be tempted to grab some epoxy remover fluid and give it a good soak then try to scrape it up in your position. Using a paint scraper or similar should do it.
Some of the chemicals are quite harsh, so ventilate well and consider fume masks.
Heat definitely works on epoxy, I've blow torched epoxy adhesive before and it turns crumbly.
I'd be tempted to grab some epoxy remover fluid and give it a good soak then try to scrape it up in your position. Using a paint scraper or similar should do it.
Edited by Flibble on Sunday 25th March 10:07
No idea if this will help, but here goes. A similar cock up happened in an engineering company I worked for. An apprentice screwed up the epoxy mixing. The first suggestion was for a company to come in, and literally scrape the entire floor clean with a machine. The second was a company who bonded what I think was chipboard type flooring over the entire are. This was then coated with what I’d call very heavy duty linoleum, again bonded such that the floor met the requirements that it had to be bullet proof and water/liquid spillage tight. The bonded on linoleum actually went a few inches up the wall, so you could have flooded it and made a mini swimming pool if you wanted too!!
Appreciate the help - I had a look at some options this morning for solvents and came up with acetone as a possible.
A quick test with nail varnish remover - yep - it works. So I purchased 5 litres of the stuff from the local drysalter/drugstore this morning and hit it with a hand wire brush, doing one square foot at a time. Thankfully the weather was good so the doors were open so it didn’t gas us!
After about four hours and 2.5 litres of acetone we are sorted. Every bit of the soft stuff is gone and we now have a bare floor again with patches of good first coat (second coat was the bad one).
Got to say it does feel good to have solved the problem. Options now:
1) return half the paint. Screed the floor so it’s perfectly flat and go for mirror finish.
2) use one can of paint on the bare bit we had to scrape, quick de nib with the floor sander and then use the remaining 19 cans of paint mixed with some metal flake - it will then we shiny but the flake will take your eye off any scratches that happen and imperfections in the concrete.
3) screed it and use all 20 cans for a super heavy duty coating.
What do we think?
A quick test with nail varnish remover - yep - it works. So I purchased 5 litres of the stuff from the local drysalter/drugstore this morning and hit it with a hand wire brush, doing one square foot at a time. Thankfully the weather was good so the doors were open so it didn’t gas us!
After about four hours and 2.5 litres of acetone we are sorted. Every bit of the soft stuff is gone and we now have a bare floor again with patches of good first coat (second coat was the bad one).
Got to say it does feel good to have solved the problem. Options now:
1) return half the paint. Screed the floor so it’s perfectly flat and go for mirror finish.
2) use one can of paint on the bare bit we had to scrape, quick de nib with the floor sander and then use the remaining 19 cans of paint mixed with some metal flake - it will then we shiny but the flake will take your eye off any scratches that happen and imperfections in the concrete.
3) screed it and use all 20 cans for a super heavy duty coating.
What do we think?
turbospud said:
i know it wont help but even at this stage id still ceramic tile it.
I did that in my last garage and I did find the tiles cracked easily. When I’m not messing up epoxy mixing I do some fairly heavy duty stuff (I’m actually restoring an old car which is why I’ve built this garage because I ran out of room in the last one!) so the ceramics aren’t really an option for me based on previous performance.Having got to where we are I can tell you with certainty that a thickly applied epoxy floor is seriously durable - even hitting the cured stuff with a coarse belt on the industrial sander does little more than de-nib unless you make an effort to hold it in one place. I’ve also noticed that (and this is obviously my opinion only) the best result with the epoxy is where it is properly thick. I have a feeling they suggest rolling it on thin to keep the coverage sensible and the cost down but, again, based on attacking this one the thicker areas are far more resistant to sanding, scraping and even impact where I have had a test chisel at it.
Based on this I am erring towards the re prime and metal flake option.
I’d like to thank everyone who has helped me so far - tonight I’m really happy because although it’s not finished the problem is solved properly rather than a cross your fingers style solution.
Pleased you're ending on a high! A very valuable lesson learnt, which will definitely help myself & other be more wary!
Also very interesting to hear of the thicker the better, with my original garage floor paint the thicker areas were sift to point loads vs the thinner coverage.
What machine did you hire to remove your paint? I will need to hire one to remove the current paint & crude on my otherwise solid floor. Any tips with using it? Where did you hire it from?
Also very interesting to hear of the thicker the better, with my original garage floor paint the thicker areas were sift to point loads vs the thinner coverage.
What machine did you hire to remove your paint? I will need to hire one to remove the current paint & crude on my otherwise solid floor. Any tips with using it? Where did you hire it from?
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