Epoxy Concrete Floor Failures

Epoxy Floor Failures

You need or want an epoxy floor for your business or home and you start to search around, look online and have a few estimates.

What you find is the information you receive may be all over the place but one thing that is more important than the type of epoxy used or who does your epoxy project is the preparation needs to be done and done well and specifically how the epoxy being used mandates.

Read the specifications

With every paint or epoxy, you buy or consider using you should have access to the datasheets an inside those data sheets it will specify the application and preparation methods needed and may even note the CSP (concrete surface profile) level needed.

I would bet some companies you have had out may have never heard of CSP profiles but they are so important to know and must be met so you have a manufactures warranty on your floor.

CSP

Concrete Surface Profile (CSP) is the measure of the average distance from the peaks of the surface to the valleys as seen through a cross-sectional view of the concrete surface. The standards are rated 1-9 with 1 being the smoothest and 9 being the roughest.

The CSP is important to consider when trying to achieve proper bonding of concrete overlays and coatings. Generally, when using a thick overlay, the CSP needs to be higher. When using a coating that is slim, a smoother CSP of 2 to 4 is correct. When using thicker self-leveling and polymer overlays, the appropriate CSP will range from 4 to 6. (ref )

Every person who is coating your floor should know what csp profile is needed and have the csp samples to match up before applying any coating.

Acid Etch or Grind?

When it comes to preparing concrete for a garage floor coating, the best method is to grind the garage floor. One of the reasons for this is that the profile of the surface can be controlled to provide the desired outcome. It provides a rougher and more porous surface that is considered ideal. It will also remove excess laitance that acid etching doesn’t always remove. Link

Remember, acid etching will not remove dirt and oil from your concrete floor. It still needs to be cleaned first. Etching works by reacting with the free lime in concrete. If the concrete is coated in oil or grime, the acid will not be very effective.

The results

So what happens if you do not prepare your floor?

This is an actual site we were asked to come out and diagnose the issue of the previous companies coating, it was pretty easy to tell the floor was installed over an unprepared sealed concrete floor. In this or most any environment, the flor would never work and of course, you get failure.

Not only did they pay the first contractor, now they had to pay us to remove that coating, grind the floor and install another coating, so double or triple the original price

Do it right first

Please do the project correctly the first time and save yourself a lot of headaches and money down the road, we have seen it time and time again.

Check out out my video on this subject and hopefully, we can save you some issues