Home Improvement by Abyssal » Industrial Flooring

Cement Floor Seals Are Not All Equal

abyssal — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 09:26:04 +0000

Many cement floor seals are saturates that soak into the pores of the floor. These saturant-type floor seals may work fine in some, but not all, situations. Looking through a microscope can reveal just how porous a cement floor can be. Saturant-type seals soak into the pores and then harden, bringing the pores level with the surrounding cement. This type of seal helps to reduce dusting and wear on the floor by providing more surface area for wheels and foot traffic to rest on. Problems, however, can arise later when the floor gets wet, causing the saturants to wash out of the cement and allowing liquids to penetrate and dissolve the cement.

In contrast to saturant-type seals, laminate floor seals create a barrier between the floor and the liquids, wheels, and foot traffic that impact it. The use of laminate floor seals is critical in environments where chemicals, diesel, or oils are likely to contact the floor. Laminates also create a wear-barrier that prevents friction being applied to the underlying cement. Epoxy or urethane laminates create a particularly durable, seamless membrane, or plate, which isolates the cement surface from contact with machinery and liquids. The coatings can be re-applied as needed, a process that is considerable less expensive than repairing a worn or damaged concrete floor.

Unlike saturant-type coatings, epoxy floor seals are moisture-resistant as well as compatible with damp humid areas and flooding. These qualities result from the catalysis that epoxy undergoes when applied, changing into a plastic that will not re-liquify if its carrying solvents are reintroduced. Floor saturating seals are carried in water or solvent bases that evaporate to leave the finish. If those carriers are reintroduced to the floor, the saturant seal can re-dissolve back into a liquid state and wash away. In contrast, water and most solvents have no effect on sealed epoxy surfaces. Epoxy flooring goes on at the job site and produces no seams. When there are no breaks in the surface coating, the result is a continuous membrane that seals what is above from what is below. These epoxy surfaces have been used in food processing plants for over 50 years now. Mold, mildew, and other contaminants cannot penetrate the epoxy membrane and are easily washed off.

Preparation is everything when applying finishes. A surface can be expected to stay in place only if its substrate is permanent. Naturally, if the substrate crumbles or moves, the surface will move with it. New floors are especially vulnerable and require extensive preparation. It is well known that new concrete is dusty for the first few years while the latents of concrete on the surface are kicked, rubbed, or driven off. Those latents must be removed before quality epoxy topcoats are applied or the topcoats will move with the latents as they break free from the substrate.

One should not rely on retail store clerks to help with a floor that will be used for 10 to 20 years. As a result of 40 years of application experience, flooring experts have developed application preparation procedures that help minimize the risk of substrates moving. Factory-direct kits of materials including step-by-step instructions and a 24/7 help line are now available online. With these resources, anyone can put a quality floor down in their garage that will last for decades. Like a car finish, you may get some scratches and marks, but also like a car finish, a little touching up can keep those finishes looking great for decades.

Durall Industrial Flooring offers no-cost, no-obligation quotes for its fully customized kits of materials, including all preparation materials and procedures, for installing industrial quality epoxy or urethane coatings at www.concrete-floor-coatings.com. These beautifully sealed and easy-to-maintain floors come in over 20 colors. The floor finish can be gloss, flat, or satin and may be easily accented with decorative chips. Additionally, the floors may be skid-resistant like emery paper, yet still easy to sweep or squeegee.

For photo examples and more detail, visit www.concrete-floor-coatings.com For more information, contact Harvey Chichester at harvey@durallfmg.com Phone: 800-466-8910 or 952-888-1488 (24/7)

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Cement Floor Seals Are Not All Equal is a post from: Home Improvement by Abyssal

Checkerboard Floors and Collector Cars Look Great Together

abyssal — Sat, 23 May 2009 09:26:05 +0000

You’ll take the checker flag every time when you show off your collector cars on a checkerboard floor.

Now the Internet can get you complete quotes with step-by-step instructions on how to put down the checkerboard floor you have always dreamed of. By being artistic, you can make concrete floors develop character and give you easy maintenance. All too often collectors fail to take full creative advantage of their facilities largest single surface, their floors. Epoxy coatings can not only give you the ease of maintenance associated with a class III laboratory floor surface but great individualized looks as well.

Your project will start by measuring your floors, length and width. Then decide on the size and color of the squares that you want. 24″ x 24″ squares will be less work than 12″ x 12″ and will not give that tile look. The color can be traditional black and white, but if you have a blue car, dark blue might be the answer. Naturally, if you’re going to do the work to achieve a custom checkerboard floor you want it to last. Just as with that glowing car finish, we all know that it is prep, prep, and prep that make the difference between a good job and a great job.

Ever notice how when you walk across concrete in your socks they get all dusty on the bottoms. That’s because concrete continuously deteriorates and breaks apart leaving the garage dusty like your socks. A few dips of oil on concrete might still be seen years later as the oil soaks into porous concrete. But if you seal the floor with an epoxy coating that adheres well to the concrete because your prep job was good, you can just wipe off oil, gas, and dirt with a rag. You can hose out and squeegee that garage floor to a clean shiny surface in minutes.

Your prep should include a high alkaline cleaner used with a rotary scrubber and a black pad or stiff Nilo grit type concrete brush. Your prep should include a high alkaline degreaser to bring the pH of the floor up to nearly 12 as it removes the left over adhesive and contaminants. Then you shock the concrete and contaminants into letting go by switching to scrubbing with an acidic cleaner containing water softeners, detergents, and rinse agents that bring the floor down to a pH of 3.5. This jump in pH will force contaminants and vulnerable cement particles to release from the floor. The acidic cleaner also opens the floor up to allow the epoxy top coats to create a strong long-lasting bond. A final scrub rinse and the floor is ready to dry and start accepting repairs and artistic coloring.

First you should coat the entire floor with two coats of your light color. You can screen between coats with your scrubber to remove any sand, bugs or contaminants that fell into the first coat. Next pull a chalk line diagonally through the widest part of your floor to set your pattern. Now lay down any size template squares side by side in two rows along the chalk line, and remove every other one. Using blue tape, place paper that is cut one inch smaller than your templates, setting them in the open squares. Tape the paper masking down with blue tape and move on. Once complete, you just walk on the paper and use a roller and brush to fill in the open squares. Note that for best results, brush from the tape towards the center to avoid getting epoxy leaking under your tape. One coat of your dark color should be sufficient. Once you have filled in all the open squares with your dark color be sure to remove the tape and masking paper. You don’t want to glue that tape to your floor.

Durall Industrial Flooring supplies kits of materials including checkerboard templates in 24″ x 24″ size that are customized to owner specification and delivered directly to the job site. Kits include full directions and 24/7 help lines staffed by seasoned flooring experts, so professionals and amateurs alike can successfully install a quality floor.

Web visitors can obtain free, job-specific quotes on materials or nationwide turnkey installations by completing a simple questionnaire at http://www.concrete-floor-coatings.com.

For high-resolution photo examples, visit: http://www.concrete-floor-coatings.com/photos/checkerboard

For more information, contact Harvey Chichester at: harvey@concrete-floor-coatings.com Phone: 1-800-466-8910 or 952-888-1488 (24/7)

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“Take Me On The Floor” The lights are out and I barely know you We’re going up and the place is slowing down I knew you’d come around You captivate me, something about you has got me I was lonely now you make me feel alive Will you be mine tonight? Take me on the floor (dadada…

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Checkerboard Floors and Collector Cars Look Great Together is a post from: Home Improvement by Abyssal