DIY Epoxy Floor Coatings

2020-01-07

DIY Epoxy Floor Coatings

While there are a number of professional floor coating companies that operate both nationally and internationally, installing your own epoxy floor coating can be a cost-saving and fulfilling way of getting the job done. Although a garage or exercise area might not be part of your house you most want to show-off, installing an attractive epoxy floor coating can help make it more appealing and save money on costly repairs to unsightly cracks and blemishes. Epoxy coating can also be used as preventative maintenance for concrete flooring.

Epoxy Floor Coating - Preparing the Floor and Cleaning

The first step in how to apply epoxy flooring is cleaning the floor. All furniture and other items must be cleared from the area, and then any stains should be cleaned as best they can. If a stain is too difficult to clean with consumer or industrial products, consider using a sander, a sandblaster or a high powered grinder across the entire floor space. This can smooth out the floor and make it ideal for epoxy coating. The process is especially important if there is an old layer of paint, epoxy resin or some other sealant still present on the floor. To test for sealant, pour a small amount of water onto the floor. It should soak in. If it doesn’t, and instead forms beads of water on top, the floor has already been sealed.

Moisture is another thing to avoid. A method recommended by Ezine is to tape down a 3 x 3 piece of plastic tarpaulin for two days and then check it to see if there is moisture gathered on the underside of the plastic. If moisture is present, consider some other form of coating.

Once the floor has been tested for suitability, the sander or grinder comes into play. If you do not own or have access to a grinder, putting a board of sandpaper on the end of a long stick or pole and using this tool like a mop can do the job for you. All divots, chips and incorrectly aligned joints need to be repaired. If there is a break in the concrete, the crack should be filled to make the disjunction level. Any sprouting nails or screws should be driven in or tightened so they aren’t out of alignment when the primer is applied.

Each of these preparation steps may be performed multiple times to ensure the whole surface is well prepared for priming. The process may take several days.

Epoxy Resin Flooring - Primer Application

Once the entire floor surface has been prepped for coating, it is time to apply the primer. The primer is applied just like paint and allowed to settle for several hours before the epoxy resin floor coating goes on. This process is very simple and requires general painting tools, like a roller and a splash pan. Directions on the epoxy bottle should be followed, but they generally resemble the following instructions:

First, cover the floor in a thin layer of water. Then, dump all your needed epoxy on the ground. Using a roller pin on a pole, spread the epoxy out in a thin layer across the entire floor space. Allow the epoxy to set, usually for about five to six hours.

Epoxy Flooring - Finisher Application

Once the primer has dried, it is time to apply the second coat: epoxy finisher. The finisher is applied in the same manner as the primer, minus the water basing. Once the finisher has been allowed to set overnight, the floor should look like a showroom. A quick sweep and a polish and the floor will be attractive, easy to clean and will make sure to keep your floor damage-free.

As far as how to clean epoxy floors, you can just use a dust mop or Swiffer, or vacuum as you would a regular floor, but be sure to clean up any spills promptly.

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