Substrate Technology, Inc’s Post

Even though this surface will only see foot traffic, the full process of surface preparation is still a good idea. Epoxy flake coatings are usually the thickness of a credit card. For the purpose of the best possible adhesion, every surface to be coated should be prepped to hold it. It’s more work and there’s an expense to be paid. When compared to premature failure and the expense to repair, it’s worth the initial investment. 🇺🇸💪🏼🇺🇸💪🏼🇺🇸💪🏼 #ROTARYGRINDER #SURFACEPREPARATION

Big thanks to Level 10 Coatings for their training and troubleshooting workshop attendance. Hopefully it increases your prep productivity and predictability. 🇺🇸💪🏼🇺🇸💪🏼🇺🇸 #SURFACEPREPARATION #EPOXYCOATINGS

Concrete and other masonry surfaces are porous. This condition favors mechanical attachment of any topical color or chemical surface protection. Being a substrate containing natural materials, though, this usually means porosity will be variable. Mechanical attachment will not be an issue, but controlling color yield and sealer uniformity will be difficult. The video documents one way to mask concrete and use the new surface for decorative finishing. The fresh canvas is used as one which accepts a stain and a protective sealer. 🇺🇸💪🏼🇺🇸💪🏼🇺🇸 #DECORATIVECONCRETE #SURFACEPREPARATION

Bare concrete, new or old, doesn’t require as much work to polish as one that’s been coated or covered by flooring. Either surface can be polished to the same level of refinement but it takes more time and work to polish one that’s been coarsely ground. The video documents the removal of a marble tile and subsequent concrete polishing. The tile is removed, the thinset is ground, the concrete is densified and then it’s polished. 🇺🇸💪🏼🇺🇸💪🏼🇺🇸 #ROTARYGRINDER #POLISHEDCONCRETE

Recoating an existing flake floor should include surface prep. Assuming the new topcoat will be a high performance product, a minimum surface texture will be required. The floor should be clean too. For the process of creating texture, the aim is to scratch the surface enough to remove all or most the gloss. Once vacuumed and solvent wiped, the new texture is expected to anchor the new topcoat. The video documents a basic de-glossing of cured polyaspartic. Being a flake floor the peaks and valleys of flake and resin make it difficult to scuff it uniformly. Fine silica sand and a stripping pad do a good job to reach where a screen would miss. 🇺🇸💪🏼🇺🇸💪🏼🇺🇸 #SURFACEPREPARATION #EPOXYFLAKE

Smoothing concrete using a diamond grinder shouldn’t be confused with proper profile creation for a coating. Sometimes the rough spots (trowel marks) just need to be knocked flush to accommodate the next treatment. The benefit for the one doing the work is how quick and easy a walk-behind grinder gets the surface smooth. The video documents a pool’s concrete bottom being ground to accept a new liner. The liner is 30 mils thick and will be vacuum formed against the slab, walls and stairs. All the slab needs is a quick smoothing by diamond segments. The area is just over 500SF and took less than 20 minutes. The time to get into and out of the pool took longer than the work itself. 🇺🇸💪🏼🇺🇸💪🏼🇺🇸 #ROTARYGRINDER #SURFACEPREPARATION

Unlike a coated slab, polished concrete’s appearance relies mostly upon surface refinement through mechanical processing. A coating provides an opaque or clear finish that fills in any voids or inequalities. With polished concrete every imperfection, not processed out, will be visible. Detail polish work doesn’t come cheap because it relies upon hand-held equipment. The additional labor carries additional cost. For a floor that is polished wall-to-wall, though, there aren’t many options to hide where the big equipment fails to polish. The video documents a small polish job where the contractor wasn’t able to detail around the drains. The floor’s owner asked what could be done to blend better around these areas. A hand-held variable speed grinder and a copper bond 100 grit pad were able to improve the floor’s overall uniformity. 🇺🇸💪🏼🇺🇸💪🏼🇺🇸 #POLISHEDCONCRETE #EDGEPOLISHING

Industrial floor applications expect traffic from pallet jacks and fork trucks. These two types of equipment represent a dynamic and repetitive load put upon coated concrete floors. While there are floor systems that can withstand traffic such as this, there’s no defense against surface inequality erosion. Whether it be pits or joints, a small area of broken surface will only get worse. This surface erosion can lead to equipment damage and/or safety concerns. The video documents the repair of two joints contained inside a high traffic thruway. Continuous passage of forktrucks and pallet jacks has begun to break the joints open. The process shown removes the damaged concrete and replaces it with a high performance patch. 🇺🇸💪🏼🇺🇸💪🏼🇺🇸 #SURFACEPREPARATION #JOINTREPAIR

Polished concrete works great where a low maintenance and abrasion resistant finish is needed. Foot and wheeled traffic do little to degrade the durable surface. One of its few performance limitations, though, is its inability to mask color variation or areas that have been patched. The choice, therefore, to do a polish may require some flexibility for preexisting conditions. The video documents an unforeseen circumstance of polishing an existing slab. The concrete had carpet and vinyl covering it. Once these old materials were removed, and the floor was planned to be polished, some accommodation had to be made for data and electrical boxes. 🇺🇸💪🏼🇺🇸💪🏼🇺🇸 #POLISHEDCONCRETE #SURFACEPREPARATION

A grind, stain and seal floor requires pretty much the same prep as the early cuts of polished concrete. Issues such as a lack of flatness or color variation won’t be hidden much better by a stain and urethane than a mechanical polish. Though the rest of the work for either finish is quite different (polished concrete is much more work), they both start pretty much the same. The video documents a 70 grit diamond being used to remove surface laitance and trowel marks. The purpose of this step is to make the surface more uniform in flatness and color. After this step will follow a water scrub to remove all dust, a decorative stain and two coats of urethane. 🇺🇸💪🏼🇺🇸💪🏼🇺🇸 #DECORATIVECONCRETE #SURFACEPREPARATION