The Stronghold Floors Blog

There are a lot of products that are used with concrete.  One newer item that causes some confusion is concrete densifiers.  Are they a sealer?  Are they the same as epoxy?  Just what is a densifier?

Concrete Densifiers Explained

Concrete densifiers are chemicals that are applied to the surface to:

1)      Fill in the pores at the surface

2)      Increase surface density

3)      Improve the wear resistance

4)      Reduce dusting

We continue to install more commercial coatings that will have a lot of traffic on them.   Some will see mostly foot traffic, while others are subjected daily to automobile, forklift and lift jacks.   These coatings differ in their construct, but regardless of whether it’s a showroom or a warehouse floor, cleaning and maintenance is a must.

Last Thursday, Dave and I went to see three commercial prospects in northern Virginia and Maryland. That, in itself, was not unusual. What was bizarre was the variety of prospects we went to see in just one day.   I’ll review them in order to show how broadly epoxy coatings can be applied in different industries. 

Our team gets asked all the time about why floor coatings fail.   Sometimes it’s for a garage floor that was painted with a big-box store’s epoxy kit.   Other times it’s a commercial service garage where the epoxy just won’t stick.   The reasons can vary, but I’m going to attempt to describe the most common reasons why epoxy coatings fail (this will typically hold true for other types of coatings such as polyaspartic or polyurea). 

Improper Surface Preparation

Too often, an epoxy paint kit from a big box store will instruct the DIY user to just clean the floor or etch it with muriatic acid.   Cleaning along is NEVER enough.   Acid etching, while a valid preparation method, will only work if the concrete’s pores are open enough to allow the acid to react and remove the laitance (the thin cement paste on the very top).  Acid etching will also not suffice for areas of the concrete which are sealed, oil stained, painted or contaminated (with wax, tire shine or other chemicals).

To ensure a proper concrete surface profile (CSP 2 or 3), we normally utilize our shrouded concrete grinders. On rare occasion, we may also shot blast the concrete.  For more information:   Epoxy Floor Coatings: Concrete Surface Profiles Explained

The word epoxy is used too much, even many architects and general contractors do not realize how specialized many coatings materials can be. While most general purpose, epoxy coatings afford a high level of chemical resistance to the concrete they protect, a special class of epoxies, called Novolac provides extremely high chemical resistance.  The Novolac epoxy resins increases resistance to many acids and solvents; although these coatings often have lower flexibility than other coatings.

In epoxy and other polymer coatings, there is always the question of whether the concrete has been properly prepared.   Is the surface rough enough to allow the coating to soak in?  Is it too rough so that the ending surface is not the desired or specified texture?

Polished concrete is commonly featured in decorative concrete magazines and websites.   For the later part of the 2000s, it seemed that polished concrete was the rage.   Like many concrete coatings companies, we began to install polished concrete in residential basements, fire stations, commercial showrooms and industrial production environments.    Now, like many concrete coatings companies, we rarely install polished concrete in commercial/industrial settings and will NOT install polished concrete in residential environments.

In the past 12 months, we have completed a wide array of commercial floor coating projects.   Some required simply epoxy coatings for a warehouse floor.  Others required more complicated systems, such as secondary containment systems comprised of Novolacs and high compression systems comprised of multiple sand-reinforced layers of epoxy with special urethane topcoats.  

Again, sorry if the title threw you off.  This is not a blog poking fun at plumbers’ beltlines or the new Cannabis laws in Colorado.    It deals with common questions we receive about epoxy floor coatings.     Many of these questions come from residential homeowners concerning their garage or basement floors.   So, I’ll concentrate my answers to garage and basement coatings.    Much of the information is applicable to the commercial environment as well.

In part 1 of this blog, I discuss some of the common questions concerning cracking of the concrete surface. Here in part 2, I’m discussing the types of joints used in residential construction and how they impact the installation and performance of an epoxy or other polymer floor coating system.

Question:  Why do the cracks in my garage floor have white plastic strip in them?