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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT

DIY EPOXY FLOOR PAINT KITS

(best info on garage epoxy paint/floor coating)

 

 

- Epoxy Help -

 

 WHAT THE OTHER GUYS WILL NOT TELL YOU ABOUT DIY EPOXY COATINGS

 

Contractors and DIY folks not interested in 'kits' can and should go the traditional way. That's purchasing a commercial grade, solvent free floor epoxy (like our Industrial Floor Epoxy) and optional chips separately.

 

    The "Dog Honest" truth about epoxy floor kits

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epoxy floor coating kits - compare garage kits
EPOXY GARAGE PAINT KITS - Confused by all the different epoxy floor paint kits available? Review the options - help

PROGRESSIVE EPOXY POLYMERS, INC.

Your Host and Tour Guide:

Paul Oman, MS, MBA - Progressive Epoxy Polymers, Inc. (floor epoxies, marine epoxies, underwater epoxies, repair epoxies)

Member: NACE (National Assoc. of Corrosion Engineers), SSPC (Soc. of Protective Coatings)

"Professionals helping Professionals since 1994"

INTRODUCTION REVIEW

We have been selling epoxy floor paints for well over a decade. We offer high end commercial products repackaged for both the DIY homeowner and small contractor. There are multiple epoxies to select from, multiple number of coats or layers and multiple ways to apply optional colored chips and / or clear topcoats. So when working with us you have/had literally dozens of decisions to make but the result was/is a very commercial, high-end, result.

About 5 or 7 years ago the epoxy floor part of our business began to noticeably slow down. Some of that was the weak economy and the jump in gasoline prices. Instead of putting their money into an epoxy floor for their garage those dollars were now going into gasoline purchases for their automobile. But the drop in business had other causes too. Over the last few years the Internet has exploded with 'garage epoxy floor paint' web sites. They are slick sites with lots of pretty pictures and charming text written by professional marketing folks (and not paint/epoxy professionals). The quality of their products varies from site to site and technical details about those products are often thin or not present at all. More importantly, these sites offer "epoxy kits." No big decisions to make - just buy the 'kit' and follow the directions. Of course you lose the options of different techniques, number of coats options etc. But for an entry level, medium to low quality system, it make sense to new users not seriously into epoxies.

Working with one of our suppliers we are now offering an entry level kit system too. We still have our 'all the options' professional grade products but now we also offer a high solids, floor chip epoxy system. The purpose of this document is to enable you to compare and evaluate the many different epoxy floor system kits available online. Without some basic background knowledge you cannot compare the different web sites as their product offerings, packaging and prices are all over the place and your decision then gets based on the slickness of their web site instead of the technology of their product kits.

High Solids/100% Solids or Water Based Systems Epoxy Coatings - Paints

There are two main types of epoxy floor coatings. Both are two part epoxies that you mix together and then apply. Water based epoxy floor coatings will remind you of latex paint. On the plus side they are easy to mix and apply. Clean up is with water, just like latex paint. Being thin, coverage is very good. They actually do contain some true solvents (besides the water) and may not be available in some locations that have strict air quality/solvent level standards. The down side with water based floor epoxies is that they dry very thin, do not hide or bury surface cracks or flaws. In fact, the end result will sort of look like you painted the floor with a can of semi gloss enamel paint. Like most products there are high end water based floor epoxies and low end water based floor epoxies.

High Solids epoxy floor coatings have little (high solids) or no (100% solids) solvents in them. They go on thick and cure/harden thick. Hence coverage per gallon is lower. They will bury or flood small surface floors and have little or no odor. On the down side, they have a short working life after mixing so you have to work in small batches. Clean up is pretty much 'throw everything' away, rather than try to clean. Most (not all) serious commercial or professional floors use high solids or 100% solids (which means 0% solvent or VOC).

The low end, inexpensive floor epoxy kits sold in the big box stores (and online!) for under $100 are water based epoxy systems. Some online floor epoxy kit sites sell water based systems and others sell high solids or solvent free kits. Some of the water based kits are prices inexpensively, but many forget they are selling water based epoxies and charge (over-charge) prices that are high even for 100% solids epoxy kits. It is a 'buyer beware" situation.

Chips

All the epoxy floor coating kits offer blends of color 'paint chips' to liven up the dull solid color. They all have you sprinkle the chips on to the surface of the wet epoxy. Note that this is not the way most professional/commercial systems do this (they usually apply the chips into an intermediate clear middle coat). One hundred percent chip coverage, meaning the paints chips are so dense that you no longer see any of the colored epoxy paint under the chips, are common only in high end commercial sites. Such coverage requires one pound of chips for every seven to ten square feet of floor. Most kits by comparison include only about 1 pound of chips so instead of 100% chip coverage you get maybe 4 or 5 percent chip coverage. In other words, a colored accent chip every here and there.... (our kit comes with 3 pounds of colored chips).

(5/14 we no longer sell colored floor chips)

We really appreciate you visiting PROGRESSIVE EPOXY POLYMERS, INC. and our web site: EPOXYPRODUCTS.COM.  Take advantage of the CONTACT links on this page to ask questions about our products and/or your projects. You can stay in touch with us via our NEWSLETTER (link on our contact page) which is emailed  every 6-8 weeks.

This current page is all about:

Surface Preparation

A tricky issue that the vendors handle differently. Bottom line is that the correct/best/suitable surface preparation is going to be the same for all the epoxy products. No one product needs less surface preparation than any other product. In some cases there are problems and issues so bad that nothing you do will result in a successful epoxy floor. The methods used by professional floor coaters (such as shot blasting) are generally not available to DIY folks, and even those professionals know when to turn down/pass on a job that will probably have issues and not be successful. This brings up Warranty issues (see warranty below) - to do anything less than a professional coater would/could do, puts the vendor at risk for something completely out of his control. So, in fairness, surface preparation issues are generally outside the warranty and/or 'less than professional preparation' voids the warranty. The good news is that most homeowners just sweep or pressure wash their floor and usually gets away with just that amount of preparation. See our floor prep page.

Clear Topcoats

Some epoxy kits offer a non epoxy clear top coating over the epoxy floor. This is done to improve gloss, seal and protect the paint chips and perhaps to protect the epoxy from UV yellowing (see problems section below). Note however that 99% of clear coat products do not have any serious amount of UV protectors added to them (these additives are very expensive). Most DIY floors are NOT top coated with a clear coating.

There are water based and solvent based clear coat products. It appears that some of the clear water based products have issues with moisture and standing water and most professionals stay away from them. On the other hand, most of the solvent based clear coat products have solvent levels too high to be sold and used in many parts of the country.

One part acrylic coatings (water or solvent based) are generally the lower end, least durable clear coat products. One part polyurethanes or urethanes are generally the next level up in performance. Two part polyurethanes are generally high solvent products that smell badly but provide the best protection and durability. The clear coat on automobiles are two part polys (called LPU coatings).

We sell two clear coat products. One is a 2 part LPU acrylic  poly with max. UV protection called Acrylic Poly UV Plus. It cannot be sold in California. The other is a polyester polyurethane (Polyester Poly). Tougher than the Acrylic Poly but without the UV blockers that prevent epoxy yellowing. Ideally you apply 1 or 2 coats of the acrylic poly and then 1 or 2 coats of the harder Polyester Poly.  To stay competitive homeowner epoxy floor kit vendors go cheap on the clear coat.  More about this - CLICK HERE .

Warranty Review

Most of the epoxy floor kit vendors do offer some sort of warranty, mostly as a way to increase sales. It is another "buyer beware" situation. Think about it, the manufacturer has no control or knowledge of your situation, experience, how well you read the mixing or application instructions, or the condition of your floor. How can they really offer any sort of warranty over anything beyond the factory specifications of the coating/epoxy itself? It would be like the car companies offer a warranty against you having an accident while driving their car. Very rarely is an accident the result of a manufacturing fault in the car. Accidents are almost always 'pilot error' - bad road, too much speed, distractions, lack of maintenance, etc.

The epoxy vendors get around this in two ways. They mark up the price of the product so much that they can refund the cost of the epoxy to those folks (maybe 1 in 10 or 1 in 5) that mess up even though it wasn't the vendor's fault or anything wrong with the epoxy. Or, more commonly, they make the 'requirements' so strict ("mix in a clockwise direction while facing the moon on a Thursday afternoon") that you cannot avoid 'voiding the warranty'.

The bottom line is that some floors are not good candidates for epoxy floors and some people are not qualified or experienced enough to do the job correctly or to decide if their garage floor is suitable for such a coating. A clever warranty statement takes the buyer past these concerns until a problem actually comes up.

Bottom line - don't count on a warranty when the condition of your floor, your experience, and what you do/can do to prepare the floor for coating is outside of the vendors control or responsibility. They only have control of the epoxy itself - i.e. it will get hard when you combine part a and part b correctly.

Below are a few problems you might experience with the application and use of an epoxy floor. You can be almost certain that they are not covered in any warranty.

Marketing Hype - let the buyer beware!

Don't be impressed with terms like "Military Grade". It just means they filled out a few federal forms or decided that their product was similar to some product being purchased by the military.

Watch out for excesses hype about 'non shrinking' and 'no odor' etc. Solvent free, non water based, epoxies have no solvents in them (most epoxies are solvent free or nearly solvent free). A coating that is half solvent (50% solids) will shrink about 50%. The wet coating thickness is X and the dry coating thickness is half of X. A solvent free coating as no solvent and wet coating thickness equals dry coating thickness. Having a little bit of solvent in a floor epoxy isn't such a bad thing. Solvents help the epoxy flow off the roller, expand working time, etc. An epoxy that is 93% solids has 7% solvent and will shrink down about 7%, an amount so small you will not notice it nor will you probably be able to smell that small amount of solvent.

Nationwide Approval usually just means it can be sold and used anywhere in the USA. Different parts of the country allow different amounts of solvent to be used in floor coatings. To put it simply, southern California has the most strict requirements and practically speaking floor coatings sold there need to be 100% solvent free (i.e. 0% VOC).

"BEST EPOXY" Available claims - Epoxy coatings are the result of a chemical reaction between chemical A and chemical B plus fillers, additives, pigments and perhaps some solvents. Still, no epoxy or 'special coating' is 'head and shoulders' above the competition or some sort of paint industry nearly magic breakthrough technology. One high/100% solids epoxy paint is going to be similar to any other vendor's high/100% solids epoxy paint. Differences and performance will be similar. With only a few exceptions, similar epoxies will be an 'apples to apples' comparison (or beer brand to beer brand comparison) instead of an 'apples to oranges' comparison.

We've been selling epoxies since 1994. Find out how long the vendor you are looking at has been in business. The epoxy floor business has boomed on the internet in the last few years. Most of these companies are in the 'sell you stuff' business and not the 'epoxy' business.  When the epoxy floor paint / garage floor epoxy market slows, (or if there reputation goes south) those same sites will re-appear selling the next 'big' product.

Induction Time

A bit of a warning here, or a clue to coating quality would be what is called Induction Time (or set time, wait time, etc). Some epoxies require that you let them sit for X amount of time after mixing before you use them. Most epoxies no longer require this (both water based and solvent/solvent free epoxies). It was common with epoxies from years ago.. If the product you are considering has this wait time, it is generally a sign of a lower quality, old technology product. You probably you will not see any mention of an induction time requirement on any vendor's web site. If they have one, they will probably spring it on you in the directions that come with your purchase. It is a red flag to be sure, but not a deal breaker.

Coverage per Kit

A two car garage is about 550 square feet, so don't be too impressed with the reported coverage of any kit. Some claim 300 sf, others 400 sf, etc. The truth is you need one kit per car. A two car garage will require two kits, a three car garage will require three kits. This is for all the vendors.

Problems ------

RETURN TO OUR LINKS PAGE AND CLICK ON THE LINK OF WHAT CAN GO WRONG

The Best Professional Alternative

Contractors and DIY folks not interested in 'kits' can and should go the traditional way. That's purchasing a commercial grade, solvent free floor epoxy (like our Industrial Floor Epoxy) and optional chips separately. Our Industrial Floor Epoxy is sold in 1.5 gallon kits and 15 gallon units (actually any gallon amount 15 gallons or more). The 15 plus gallon orders are shipped direct from the factory. The 1.5 gal units cover about 180-200 sf and a 15 gal kit covers 2000 sf. Chips are sold in 10 and 55 pound bags, you pick the colors and percentage of each color. Usually the chips are applied into an intermediate clear coat and not directly upon the pigmented epoxy base coat. Find Industrial Floor Epoxy in our catalog - CLICK HERE .

Solvent free Industrial Floor Epoxy can be sold and used in all 50 states.

	Links to Lots of MUST READ Information Articles About the Best Epoxy Floor Paints, Including Preparation, Alternatives, What Can Go Wrong, etc. floor related articles, info, links CLICK HERE
Bio Vee Seal - INTERNAL CONCRETE SEALER	SOME OF THE SITES THE ABOVE LINK WILL DIRECT YOU TO
Clear Top Coats  - FLOOR CLEAR TOP	Best Floor Epoxy - CLICK HERE
Epoxy Quartz Floor - BROADCAST FLOOR	Acid Etching - ACID
Epoxy Paint Chip Floor - CHIPS	Epoxy Paint vs. Floor Epoxy Paint - EPOXY PAINTS
Epoxy Paint - SURFACE PREP	Floor Basics/Options - START HERE
Floor Epoxy - CATALOG PAGE	Questions: ASK PROFESSOR E. POXY

 

CLICK HERE TO GOOGLE SEARCH OUR ENTIRE WEB SITE FOR KEY TERMS/WORDS

www.epoxyproducts.com

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	site master greatthings4u gifts	protagonist paul oman	ground zero pittsfield/northwood NH

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Best DIY epoxy floor coating kits - compare garage kits
EPOXY GARAGE PAINT KITS - Confused by all the different epoxy floor paint kits available? Review the options - help
 

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