is the slab good enough for coating?
During a recent site visit, I was confronted with a particularly bad slab in a garage and asked if I thought it was good enough for a resin
floor coating. If it was, what would I recommend as the best way to proceed?
I thought this was a great example to discuss with the global resin flooring network as we all would've seen similar slabs before, but we
might have slightly different opinions on how to tackle it (if at all).
Below is a couple of photos showing the slab halfway through surface preparation. You can see there's an existing grey coating that has
partially peeled/flaked off, and the concrete is heavily pitted in some areas.
A close up shows that the existing coating wasn't very strong (possibly a water-based epoxy), and from the look of the concrete underneath,
there's a question mark on whether it was prepared before the coating was applied.
Below is a close up the prepared concrete and a spot where I had a bit of a dig with a chisel to see how soft the slab was.
So, what do you think? Is the concrete suitable for resin flooring? If so, how would you go about installing the flake floor the client was
hoping for?
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If ting ting go ahead
If a dull thud no
Check compressive strength min 25 Mpa
Check pull off strength min 1.5 Mpa
If both ok proceed
Check if effective DPC is under the slab
If yes, continue
Check for cracks and discuss with client what can be done and what can’t be done
Remove and repair unsound concrete with Epoxy mortar or putty as appropriate
Grind the surface
Vacuum
Prime with solvent free Epoxy primer
Allow to cure
Fill blow holes imperfections with quick set Epoxy putty
Allow to cure sand smooth, vacuum
Apply 250 micron solvent free pigmented scraper coat
Allow to cure
Sand smooth
Fill blow holes with quick set Epoxy putty
Allow to cure
Sand smooth
Vacuum
Solvent wipe
Surface must be perfect at this stage
Apply final coat of 750 micron solvent free pigmented self leveling Epoxy
Allow to cure
Cut and seal joint
Allow full cure of joints and floor
Open to traffic
So you would do a tensile pull off test and also use a rebound Schmidt hammer to check tensile and compression test for a garage project? (keep in mind limited project price)
We could not get access to see if the slab had a sheet under it, does that mean you would rely on moisture meters (probe or capacitance) to reassure yourself for moisture?
Keep smiling @resinjack