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Looking for an Epoxy Contractor In Your Area?
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How to Prepare Your Garage for Epoxy Flooring
Inspect Your Floor
Clean Up
Profile Your Garage Floor
Complete Any Repairs
Prepare the Room
Mixing the Epoxy
Conclusion
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How to Prepare Your Garage for Epoxy Flooring
Inspect Your Garage Floor
First, you need to inspect your floor. Epoxy coating is best applied to concrete that is clean and dry. There should also be no cracking or damages. Cracks and small holes will ruin the design and make the coating less durable. You can patch them up with concrete patch products beforehand.
Take note that epoxy will not adhere to sealed concrete so make sure that your floor is not a sealed concrete before applying any epoxy coating. If it is, you need to remove the sealer by mechanical means like grinding.
You can test if your floor has sealers by sprinkling water on the surface. If you see the water bead up immediately and the surface does not get darker, that means your concrete is sealed and you need to remove it. If the water is absorbed and turns the floor dark, there is no sealer.
If your floor is a newly poured concrete, wait and let it cure for at least thirty days before applying epoxy coating.
Clean Up
Another important preparation for your epoxy flooring is actually cleaning your home floor. Once you are sure that there is no moisture and your floor can accept epoxy coating, you can now clean its surface. It should be free from any oils or grease.
If there are areas with oil or grease stains on the floor, they will act like a sealer and repel the water so the epoxy will not adhere properly to the concrete. To remove grease, you can use a degreaser with a stiff brush then let the floor dry.
Sweep the floor with a broom and use a wet-dry vacuum to thoroughly clean the floor of any debris.
Profile Your Garage Floor
Once you’ve cleaned your floor and you’re sure that it can accept the epoxy coating, you need to profile it. This process involves exposing the pores in the concrete’s surface so that the epoxy will flow in and create a good bond. This is the most important preparation for your epoxy flooring.
You can do this by doing either acid etch or grinding the surface to make it achieve the proper floor profile. Most professionals prefer grinding the floor but doing a proper acid etch is sufficient for most applications.
Vacuum the entire floor after this and make sure that there aren’t any white residues after. You will know that you need to vacuum some more if there is still some dust.
Give your floor enough time to dry if you have chosen the acid etch method for your epoxy flooring.
Complete Any Repairs
Finally, once you have cleaned, tested, and profiled your floor, you need to make the necessary repairs where they are needed. Check for any damages and make sure to repair them before proceeding with the installation.
Don’t use latex crack repair products because they are too soft compared to the concrete and epoxy. They will shrink as they age and that will make the epoxy floor depress underneath the coating. Your epoxy flooring may also crack under pressure.
If you need to fill in contraction joints on your floor, do it first before applying the coating. Make sure that the surface of the areas that you repair are flat and smooth.
Prepare the Room
Before applying the coating, use a wide painter’s tape to cover the bottoms of your home walls for your epoxy flooring. You can also tape some plastic sheeting on the bottom foot.
Mixing the Epoxy
Most epoxy mixtures contain two parts. One is a catalyst or hardener and the other is resin. These two must be mixed well together before they are applied. Stir the paint lightly and gently pour the hardener or catalyst as you continue to stir.
Once you have used up all of the hardener, stir the mixture for about another minute or two until they are thoroughly combined. Let it rest and follow the instructions for the amount of time it needs before application. Also, make sure that the temperature is between 70 and 80 degrees before you start.
Conclusion
Follow the above preparations and you are sure to have a fail-proof epoxy flooring installation. Make sure to apply the epoxy mixture as soon as it is ready.
Properly preparing your home floor for epoxy flooring is very important to ensure that you will end up with the beautiful and durable design that epoxy flooring is intended to be. Failing to prepare your home will defeat the purpose of applying epoxy flooring because it will not last.
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