A friend did his kitchen floor in decorative grooved and stained concrete. He
then put on 2 coats of a 1 part urethane with a lambs wool applicator. The
stuff's fairly thick and doesn't feel very hard, never fully leveled and has
some pieces of wool at places. It did dry to a sheen, but shows scrapes from
most anything, including wooden chair legs.

He also did concrete countertops, but ended up using beeswax since it's easily
recoatable.

At this point his wife is trying to scrape it off the floor. Is anybody
familiar with any coating that would hold up better here, and be repairable?
I'm thinking a better urethane that's either 2-part or with a catalyst
hardener would hold up better than an epoxy, but that's just a guess.

The additional problem with the countertops would be hot pans placed on the
surface. Don't know if there's any answer to that one.

Thanks,
GerryG

Also try alt.home.repair

On Wed, 08 Sep 2004 14:46:30 GMT, GerryG wrote:

A friend did his kitchen floor in decorative grooved and stained concrete. He
then put on 2 coats of a 1 part urethane with a lambs wool applicator. The
stuff's fairly thick and doesn't feel very hard, never fully leveled and has
some pieces of wool at places. It did dry to a sheen, but shows scrapes from
most anything, including wooden chair legs.

He also did concrete countertops, but ended up using beeswax since it's easily
recoatable.

At this point his wife is trying to scrape it off the floor. Is anybody
familiar with any coating that would hold up better here, and be repairable?
I'm thinking a better urethane that's either 2-part or with a catalyst
hardener would hold up better than an epoxy, but that's just a guess.

The additional problem with the countertops would be hot pans placed on the
surface. Don't know if there's any answer to that one.

Thanks,
GerryG

On Wed, 08 Sep 2004 14:46:30 GMT, GerryG wrote:

At this point his wife is trying to scrape it off the floor. Is anybody
familiar with any coating that would hold up better here, and be repairable?

Loads of them. All of them are noted for not working over an
undercoat of something unstable.

I think he's screwed. Serves him right for using poly in the first
place. Here's a clue: If you do dumb stuff without asking for advice
_first_, you get to live with your mistake afterwards.

Yup, his wife is steaming. Found out the product is Sonothane, which was
applied over stained concrete, after initial cure. The stuff's supposed to be
for interior concrete floors, with "excellent" abrasion resistance and
high-traffic areas. So it has a stable base that it's made for. It's just the
surface doesn't wear very well.
GerryG

On Thu, 09 Sep 2004 01:26:35 +0100, Andy Dingley
wrote:

On Wed, 08 Sep 2004 14:46:30 GMT, GerryG wrote:

At this point his wife is trying to scrape it off the floor. Is anybody
familiar with any coating that would hold up better here, and be repairable?

Loads of them. All of them are noted for not working over an
undercoat of something unstable.

I think he's screwed. Serves him right for using poly in the first
place. Here's a clue: If you do dumb stuff without asking for advice
_first_, you get to live with your mistake afterwards.

Andy Dingley wrote in
:

snipped

I think he's screwed. Serves him right for using poly in the first
place. Here's a clue: If you do dumb stuff without asking for advice
_first_, you get to live with your mistake afterwards.


And if you do dumb stuff, in spite of asking for AND RECEIVING good advice,
you get to live with your mistake, and the knowledge that you did dumb
stuff anyway. DAMHIKT.

Patriarch

Now, wait a minute here. Even if I look at www.expoxysystems.com , I find
their recommendation for this application is not epoxy, but a 2-part
polyurethane coating. Both their product and what he used have abrasion
resistance of 30-40 mg under ASTM-C501, and are used in warehouses and
aircraft hangers. Nor have I seen any other types of products to use for this
application, other than modified acrylics which can be very similiar.

I've used urethane on wood floors, and have also successfully patched areas
that were scratched and scraped, and had that last for years. The problems
I've seen tend to stem from using the wrong formulation, or incorrect
application.

Examining the floor he did, I felt a number of nibs sticking up, and the
surface just didn't feel very hard. Questioning him further this evening may
have shed some light on this issue.

Although they appear clear, many of these formulations require a considerable
amount of mixing, often power mixing. They are also more sensitive to film
thickness, temperature and humidity. It now appears he barely stirred it,
applied it too thick, and at maybe 100 deg F (or more). Manufacturer suggests
3-4 minutes of power stirring, a 3/8 roller, and temp of 60-85 deg.

I think he's got a lot of scraping and sanding ahead.

So, if somebody is either familiar with this particular product (Sonothane) or
has some other suggested treatment, I'd love to hear from you.
GerryG


On Thu, 09 Sep 2004 01:24:31 GMT, patriarch patriarch wrote:

Andy Dingley wrote in
:

snipped

I think he's screwed. Serves him right for using poly in the first
place. Here's a clue: If you do dumb stuff without asking for advice
_first_, you get to live with your mistake afterwards.


And if you do dumb stuff, in spite of asking for AND RECEIVING good advice,
you get to live with your mistake, and the knowledge that you did dumb
stuff anyway. DAMHIKT.

Patriarch

"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
...
|
| If you do dumb stuff without asking for advice
| _first_, you get to live with your mistake afterwards.

You can't outrun education; you can only choose the form it takes.

--Jay