Before and Afters, Concrete Preparation, Garage Floor Coatings

Epoxy Floors, Failure and Removal

by Joe Sheehan

October 12, 2010

In the past few years, we’ve experienced a sharp increase in the demand to remove failed epoxy garage floors in the metro area. After asking each and every one of our customers about why their previous floor failed – we got a variety of responses. Some of the floors lasted years, some of them months and some of them just days. Some of them blamed their applicators, some of them blamed the product. Some of them even blamed the neighbor who told them to do it in the first place. Regardless of who did it, or why it happen, one thing was clear – each epoxy floor had separated from the garage surface. The coating simply delaminated from the concrete.

On a positive note: each of the customers found value in having a garage coating. They appreciated the decorative colors that matched their houses or garage interior. They liked the way their vehicles looked parked on the floor. They appreciated the overall “neat / clean” look of the garage. They even noticed that they were less likely to fall on the floor due to the increased slip-resistance of the coating.

To avoid the failure factor – the formula is simple – the “Prep Perfect System,” polyurea / polyaspartic, and an experienced applicator.

Here are some of our finished floors – that are guaranteed to work long-term.

Questions? Comments? Feel free to give us a call at 612.919.4414

Before and Afters, Concrete Preparation, Garage Floor Coatings

Floor Drains and Minnesota Garage Floor Coatings

by Joe Sheehan

October 12, 2010

The History: This home was built in the early 90’s in an upscale development in Woodbury Minnesota. The garage floor was installed with a center floor drain. A handy and useful feature in any garage. Especially in Minnesota, where snow melts from vehicles in the winter.

The Challenge: However, in this case, the drain simply didn’t work. The reason being, the drain was set too high in the floor, which caused a large ponding area around the drain.

To show this, we placed a level between the drain and the surrounding floor. Surprisingly, this challenge is not that uncommon.

The Solution: The “old school” solution is to build up concrete or repair material around the floor drain so that water flows correctly. We’ve seen this attempted numerous times – generally, this solution is short-lived. Often times, the fill will delaminate due to moisture building up around the drain. Add in freeze / thaw cycles and road salts – delamination is inevitable.

Our solution: instead of adding concrete around the drain, we create drain paths. By cutting notches in the cast iron drain bowl, and drainage paths in the surrounding concrete, our solution allows water to easily flow into the drain. Simple. Furthermore, we give our customers a surface that is easily cleanable, and with a soft double headed foam squeegee the customer can move water and debris to the drain in minutes. Leaving the surface bone-dry and ready for use.

garage floor drain

To prove that our thought-process and solution worked. We returned days later and flooded the floor with 10 gallons of water and gave our customer a squeegee and asked him politely to clean his floor. And as you can see from the pictures, it worked perfectly. The floor drain that was unusable for the last 15 years now worked as it should.

squeegee garage floor

Our customer’s comment: “It works!”

Comments? Questions? Call us at 612.919.4414

Garage Coating Maintenance

How to Clean a G-F One Garage Floor Coating

by Joe Sheehan

October 6, 2010

One of the biggest wants / needs we hear from our customers is this, “I want a Garage Floor that’s easy to clean. How easy is your garage coating to clean, and how do I do it?” Here’s the answer to all of those questions.

Firstly, all floors get dirty. Due to water, dirt, debris from outside and from the vehicles that are parked on it, it’s inevitable that your floor will get dirty – with or without a garage floor coating. However, our coating is extremely easy to clean. Unlike concrete, which soaks up moisture and retains dirt, our garage floor coating is waterproof and stain resistant, allowing for quick and easy clean-up. In a few quick steps, you can have your floor looking like it was put down that day.

Here’s what you need.

1. Five gallon bucket
2. Clear ammonia
3. Soft-bristle push broom
4. Soft dual-head floor squeegee
5. Joy – for cleaning grease spots
6. Warm Water
7. Wet / Dry Shop Vac

Step 1 – Clean all grease, oil and/or dark stains – Pour warm water into the bucket. Pour the water onto the affected areas and apply a few drops of Joy onto the surface. Use a small hand brush to clean the surface and wipe clean after. DO NOT USE TOO MUCH SOAP – too much ends up creating a thin film build that will make your floor look hazy or cloudy and also makes it slippery when wet. It doesn’t hurt the floor, but it does create a safety hazard and makes it difficult to clean up since soap attracts dirt. Our advice – just don’t do it!

Step 2 – Add 10% ammonia to warm water / Agitate With Broom – Pour out the water with ammonia evenly over the garage floor. Then take the soft bristle push broom and scrub and agitate the dirt. This mobilize the dirt into the water.

Step 3 – Squeegee the water out of the garage – Next, take the foam squeegee and pull toward the garage door. Be sure to rinse off driveway with a garden to prevent dirt / debris build up. In the winter pull it to one area and pick up the water with a Wet / Dry Shop Vac.

And just like that, your floor is restored to it’s original (clean) condition. We recommend that you clean it or broom it off as often as possible (weekly). Dirt and debris create extra abrasion which can cause premature wear on a floor – depending on the amount of traffic it sees.

See G-F One Coatings for more information or call us at 612.919.4414

Before and Afters, Cold Weather Applications, Concrete Preparation, Garage Floor Coatings

Installing Concrete Coatings in Cold Weather

by Joe Sheehan

June 19, 2010

Like many Minnesotans, many of the city dwellers have a cabin up north.

Here’s the story: a family had built a log style detached garage near their cabin about 100 miles north of Minneapolis. With Christmas on the way, the family wanted to have their garage coated before the holiday for a holiday gathering. This wouldn’t be a problem for us at G-F One Coatings. Our coatings can be applied anywhere from below freezing and as high as 100 degrees, something many garage floor contractors can’t do with their products.

To start, we ground the surface smooth to remove all the latents in the surface of the concrete garage floor. Once the concrete had been ground, we filled all of the cracks with our “flexible” vertical crack filler. We also repaired all spalling and pop-outs in the surface. Once the crack filler had cured in the repaired areas, we ground it smooth again.

Once the garage floor was completely smooth. We applied our polyurea/aspartic elastomeric coating material. Once the material was down on the floor, we threw in our decorative vinyl composite chip, which is available in a variety of color choices.

Once the base coat was dry, we collected the remaining chip and applied our long-term, ultra-wear resistant pure polyurea top-coat with slip-resistant additive. See G-F One Coatings for more information or call us at 651-748-5999