I install epoxy floor coatings as a profession. This is my PSA to y’all about DIY epoxy kits. They will not hold up long term in the slightest due to 2 reasons. 1 is inadequate surface preparation. The source of nearly all coating failures are linked to surface preparation, and without equipment like concrete grinders and high power vacuums it is impossible to achieve. And 2 the material in those kits are not the greatest, so when you put those together you end up with a coating that will not last long. Not to mention you pretty much ALWAYS end up needing more product than they advertise on their labels (as we saw in this video) it ends up being a waste of money if you’re looking for it to last long term. Removing existing epoxy coatings are also an extreme pain in the ass that can be expensive and labor intensive. My advice if you’re looking for an epoxy floor is to spend the extra money to hire the professionals who have the equipment and high grade material needed for such a project. Hoping this can give at least one person that is considering DIY epoxy flooring some more info!
I also do this for a living. Been in the industry for over 6 years and have installed upwards of 2 million square foot of epoxy and I agree with you 100%.
Impossible for me to agree more. I did epoxy floors for 5 years and you are spot on. Without epoxy grinders, that will never bond. Especially not to that self leveling crap.
Yep I give it 6 months if that. There is No body coat prior to pigment resin, next time check your pot time, know your sq ft per gal mix mark it with painters tape where it should reach and hopefully there was clear sealer.
@epicbobbingfan if I said mutagenic or carcinogenic people would think "Oh cool Spiderman smoking cigarettes!" but teratogenic paints a better picture, limbless newborns and tumors with teeth. It's a more sobering term to illustrate how harmful this is to do indoors.
@@S42069 that makes no sense. Why would you even attempt any other floor than yours when you have 0 experience lol? Messing up your floor and having to strip all that and redo it or hire a professional does NOT sound like fun
I own a remodeling company. Dear God what have they done? This is possible the worst epoxy finish I have ever seen. I want to save this video and use it as an example of what not to do.
Thank God I'm hiring a licensed, bonded, insured and factory trained epoxy coating specialist. I talked to the owner and saw the walk behind industrial concrete grinder that they use for prep work.
We have a pro installed epoxy floor in our shop. Been driving fork trucks over it for the last 5 years without issue. Not a chip or crack to be seen. Don't cheap out and get clowns like these guy to do it and you will be fine.
Hands down… I’m not trying to be overly rude but these guys really don’t know what they’re doing. You can tell they’re very new into this business and not doing things correctly
@@jaythedonrizz doesn’t come off without a solvent bath, causes contact dermatitis, can be burning hot, and if you come in contact enough you become allergic to it even. Not to mention the other health effects already said
One of my dads businesses is specialist floor coatings and this is exactly why you should always hire professionals to do a job if you want it to look good
I’ve been doing epoxy floors for 20 years. Everybody thinks it’s just so easy until you mess up and I have to come back and charge more. Happens all the time.
Yep I do poly floors up north and these guys just wasted their own time and the time of whatever poor sap has to come out and grind all the BS off the floor. Gotta love diyers
Never EVER seen DIY epoxy floors that looked great in the end, or lasted very long. I used to do commercial office space cleaning for small and medium sized businesses. I saw tons of small businesses with floors like these that were all cracked or there was a part in the corner I had to constantly sweep because of epoxy cracking off.
@@SamSep01 might? Lol It’s for sure going to catch up to them later. Once they do they’ll chalk it up to something else when in reality it’s this. But hey, they epoxied the floor! 😅
I swear in the first vid you said you’re pros? Touching expoxy with your barehands is a terrible idea and can cause serious health issues. You didn’t know the pot life of the product you’re using? I’m so lost on this vid.
@@user-ui9jn1ju7u reading comprehension is a must in life my fucking guy he said in the first video they said the were proffesionals read before ypu get emotional
@@user-ui9jn1ju7u all it takes is 1hr of research to know the basics of using epoxy, seeing as how they where touching it with their hands means they didn’t even take 1 minute to research. People like this are the reason “Don’t Eat” labels are put on lawn mowers
You can’t mix the epoxy vigorously with a stick. The mixture will begin to undergo a reaction where heat is a result and the mixture will quickly harden into a solid. Gently mix and immediately apply before the contents begin to harden. Instructions caution the mixing process. Happened to me.
I did my entire shop myself, a friend of mine who does epoxy floors offered to help but he was really busy and his wife just had a kid so i told him just relax, He came in, ground the floors for me and ran the vacuum over it to get the surface prepped and then He told me what to do and he also told me that for his estimate, get 4X the epoxy of what he estimated that i would need. I did and i ended up doing my entire shop, 7000 square feet without an issue, been 7 years and i dont even have a single crack or chip.
Exothermic reactions are no joke. Walked into the backroom one day and it was filled with acrid smoke. Coworker had thrown a resin saturated roller in the trash. He didn't do that again.
@@TheWeedyBird if you have any sort of catalyzed epoxy or resin and there's a lot of it in one space, for example a saturated roller, it can heat up a lot. It's an exothermic reaction so if you get them all together as those molecules react with the catalyst it can get stupidly hot. Heat usually speeds up a cure so then it turns into this feedback loop. Even in a cup or bucket. I'm trying to think of an analogy lol. Like other people said, sometimes the material it encounters can react.
I just did my daughter's room with the silver and black and glitter highlights. Came out really well. The only thing I advise is to buy twice as much as needed and make sure it's a good brand. I used stonecoat floor epoxy. A little spendy compared to other epoxies but it's better.
Yea you are 100% mask is sooo needed you can develop an allergy to epoxy. Secondly that “highlight” pour they mixed sat in the bucket for too long and started to cure epoxy let’s off lots of heat when it’s curing. They took way too much time doing the highlights and should have mixed it in smaller batches or done it faster.
Just in prep work you have to grind floors down shopvac up dust and wipe the entire floor down with Zylene. Then measure out the part A and B of epoxy and mix it up really really good and don't run out until the whole floor is coated and you will have an extremely tough and durable floor. I worked for my dads paint company for 7 years and we did so many epoxy jobs because we are the only company in Louisville ky area that would actually do the job right. One time we got called to a job some other paint company did and they didn't add part b so it didn't cure so we had to hand wipe the entire floor and get all the part a epoxy off the floor..
How do you not add the 2nd part?!?! Under mixing I can understand...but just not using it? Did they finish thinking they'd bought twice what they needed for the job?
100sf per gallon per coat at a minimum. Metallic coats plan on 75-50 sf per gallon. I use 4 coats on an epoxy floor. #1 Vapor barrier primer coat. #2 Color base coat, gray, black or tan. #3 metallic coat/ money coat #4 Urethane clear coat/ wear coat
First job out of high school was for a concrete coating company. The amount of work it take to prep a floor before epoxy is insane. We had to grind down floor with big grinders and grind down all edges by had and the vacuums we used were dust collectors specifically for silica. Floor had to be smooth with no gouges. Floor prep is key for material not to pop off in the future. You also need a primer coat, base and clear. At least we did for flake applications.
I did an epoxy floor in my shop with 3 of my friends. It turned out great and wasn't too hard for us first timers. It's pretty much a big garage for all of our boats and outdoor toys. We all decided it would be super badass to use camo colored flakes on top of the base coat... Let me tell you when you drop a nut or bolt it's easier to just go buy a new one then to search the clean floor🤣. Knowing now, I would have used red, white, blue flakes on a black base🤣
PSA....if you don't want a bucket to self set, put the mix in a flatter enclosure.....no more than an inch thick....that will give you 30 minutes of working time.
I make resin ashtrays and that plastic melting off in the resin is very real and lethal. You always want to wear the proper mask when dealing with resin that cures fast and gives off toxic fumes. There’s not a lot of resins that are meant for big jobs like this and are not toxic.
High speed mixing will cause epoxy to set up way faster. I've burned the label off a metal can because I didn't know, thankfully there was a swimming pool near by.
If I walked into a tattoo parlor and it looked like that, im calling the fire department, osha, or somebody because I could only assume everything else in that place is just as fucked.
Imagine the electricity, etc.. And imagine the DIY inks or reused needles he's capable of using on his clients after seing him out his bare hand directly in the epoxy.. 🤢
I get that you guys get alot of hate, but you guys deserve it in a way because everything I've seen you guys do is something someone with common sense wouldn't do, let alone OSHA.
If they like how it turned out in the end, awesome! Hope they fixed any cracks, properly sanded and vacuumed/cleaned up any dust and debris before applying the epoxy! In 1999, I made my first attempt to finish our 2,000 square foot garage in blue epoxy with contrasting darker blue flakes. Took my time to properly do everything and it turned out great! Fast forward to 2023, and add 6 employees....my professional flooring company is doing well!
Epoxy is all about beating the clock… never a simple process. I have also learned the hard way but now I’m super efficient and the result are always incredible.
This is why knowing a small bit about chemistry can save you from 3rd degree burns, and a little math helps you get enough paint to cover square footage properly. This is why people pay professionals to get it done correctly and efficiently.
The shit stains were BEAUTIFUL 😍 they splattered it with their sphincters 😂😂😂😂 This comment got me weak asf bro so true. Terrible job. 😂 looks like a dog drug it's ass after eating a bottle of hot sauce😂😂 ... On another note resin is an art. My first time i thought it would be easy too. I learned real quick it's very difficult to work with and turn out a superior result. I wasted alot before getting good with it
It sucks doing epoxy floor . Once thing start to go wrong everything goes wrong and working against the clock sucks even worse. I did a 500+ sq ft room by myself and almost lost it I could not keep up and moving to long or not enough time. I feel you on this one
Yeah we used to blast the surface grind edges vacuuming dust . Seal off we could do a pretty good area. Plus you have pour and keep a wet edge so you can keep spreading equally. Then start broadcasting the flakes. Then top coat with a clear coat. Never huffed so much chemicals. Tuff job good times with the right crew.😂
Man…. I just did my garage floor, and it turned out GREAT….. I had some issues, but nothing as drastic as this….now I feel really good about how my project went
i em a contractor and have done a cupple painted floors, i will no longer do them and just like roofs and electrical get a pro that all they do is eoxy floors or painted floors. the few painted floors we have done wasn't because we did something wrong it was it wasn't good enough, the proper equipment required to do it proper is insanely expensive...
Yeah… some off the ingredients are very similar to plastic explosives. I have an acquaintance that deals with this stuff and if you miss one step in prep the intire floor ruins. Did a gym one time and had to get some epoxy reps on the phone to make it was done correctly. Big money but also dangerous and hard
From experience DO NOT GET ANY KIND OF EPOXY ON YOUR SKIN. WEAR MASKS. WEAR GLOVES. OR EVEN BETTER PLEASE SAVE UP TO HIRE A PROFESSIONAL. This stuff may not seem that dangerous, but the chemical reactions alone have been known to cause fires. I had my little shop nearly catch fire when a project started smoking hardcore and melted to my table.
When we use epoxy grout on our tile floors at work we learned to keep the hardener in the cooler on ice. When you mix it it doesn't set up as fast and gives you more time to work. I am not sure if this will help with this particular application but I hope it helps.
You put all the highlights down at one time. Then go back to each spot and swirl it around with a tool. Leaving it in the bucket causes a thermal reaction.
experience cant be 'bought' it has to be learned, KUDOs to these fellas for having the guts to pull the trigger and go for it.. NEVER let that toxic chit touch your skin though amigo.. gloves!
I used Rust-Oleum rock solid epoxy on my concrete floor! It came out really nice. Once you mix it, you have about 20 minutes to use it or it turns into taffy!! Glad I did it but I’d probably never do it again
Yea metallic epoxy is my specialty it has very little bucket life you have to get it out of the bucket and on the floor to achieve the full working time this is why you always get detailed info from your representative about the product you are using
Why is that every time is see one of their videos they are completely winging it while simultaneously not giving a crap about their health. This is just wrong on so many levels
It's called exothermic reaction, it's from the site to site molecular connections happening. All iso , ortho , hetron, and epoxy resins use this and or photo chemical reactions
As someone who has worked with epoxy for the last 5 years or so at a commercial scale. Using 55 gallon drums, doing anywhere from 15,000 to 80,000 sqft in a day. I would always try my best to avoid getting messy and getting this stuff on my skin. These people are a joke and have no idea... so many shitty jobs I've seen them do.
Try using a wooden spoon and be sure to sand it down because the spoon is covered in a chemical that can cause epoxy to combust and then catch flame because of it
That means you added to much activator it went off too soon or it was too warm in the building .. if it’s in a warm building put the epoxy in the bucket without the activator and put it on ice … chill it then add activator it will give you more time to use.
I couldn't imagine putting my hand into a chemical reaction, let alone something that will harden... Hard enough to get the stuff off when it is separated...
I wouldn't have called this terribly wrong since the epoxy worked fine this was a management gone wrong since you didn't get enough, the epoxy worked just fine
