When wet concrete is poured a watery layer forms on the surface, after drying the watery surface layer turns into a weak flaky layer called laitance. If you want to bond a floor finish to concrete properly you'll need to remove the laitance by mechanical scrubbing or grinding, or by chemical means, so the finish can bond directly to strong concrete.
I was considering this product, but holy schmolly! I’m definitely not wasting my money. Thank you so much for this honest information. I almost spent $630 for 3 kits. I love your channel so much ever since the hinged bathtub lid, ive been hooked!
Thank you for an honest review! Too often when creators review a product they sugar coat it. I love the fact that you simply told it like it is. Love your channel.
The hydraulic pressure from the water is what causes it to fail. Concrete is porous and moisture comes through. The epoxy stops that process hence the hydraulic pressure. Hot tires cause the moisture to rise in that spot hence hot tire lift off. If the floor had been correctly prepped it wouldn’t happen. I’m not talking about what rustoleum says is correct. I’m talking about the industry standard which is grinding to a 40 grit scratch. It’s the scratches that provide the tooth for a finish to properly bond. Rent a grinder and do it again correctly. It will be a great project for your channel.
wow what a coincidence...I was just commenting on another Rocksolid video about the Rustoleum deck coating I put on my deck last summer (2019) is peeling off in sheets this spring (2020) and stated I would not have any faith in this Rocksolid product to stay on either and low and behold here you are showing just that.... I bet grey floor paint would stay on better.
Awesome. I was to buy rocksolid metallic for my garage as part of my spring project and now after this video I have changed my mind. 3 weeks of back and forth and finally the concrete to be blamed? Crazy!!! 3 weeks back and forth = 3 months due to covid
This is so real life situation. This has to be one of the best style of video i have came across. Thank you ladies. I learned some new helpful information
I love you two ladies, but this was a perfect video on convincing me to not use that particular product. If it takes them three tries to get you usable product directly from the manufacturer, they have a huge QC problem.
Great videos. Like you I'm doing a fair amount of research before starting on my floor. (Got the acid scrub done tonight, next up is filling and patching.) Although your videos weren't the first I watched, you did provide an important tip that I didn't think of - checking the boxes for leaked bags before starting. Sure enough, 1 of the 6 boxes we bought had a leaked bag and needs to get exchanged. So glad this was discovered before starting application! Thanks for sharing that tip!
Saw both videos. Love the painted toenails!. I guess prep prep prep is what is a must for epoxy floors. I live in Florida as well and am waiting for the rainy season to stop before I put down my new studio floor. Thanks ladies! Loved the videos. Thomas.
WOW, so glad I caught up with you both ! I am definitely a DIY -- 'why as a man when we can do the same-- and maybe even faster !" You are now my favorite video team ! NOW to do the RockSolid ! Blessings !
I watched your other videos on this project and based on what I learned when I painted my concrete basement floor, I think I can offer some advice. I didn’t notice any fizzing when you etched. So I would suspect there wasn’t enough surface to grab. But I didn’t see the application clearly. I would have added a bonding primer, such as Behr’s bonding primer. I used 2 coats in my basement followed by 2 coats of Behr 1 part epoxy paint. A year later and not one inch is peeling. Also, you might have benefited by using a floor cleaner attached to a pressure washer. Anyway, I hope your patch holds.
You did a great job. I used something similar 10 years ago called epoxy shield and had all the aforementioned problems. I switched to race deck and couldn't be happier. I'm using the free flow tiles which are 100%slip resistant but harder to clean than a coated floor. Again great videos
Just went and bought 5 gallon base epoxy and 5 gallon hardener from some dude on Facebook for $60 total. Was able to get 4 coats on my 500sf garage and used 3 bags of chip flakes. Hopefully it holds!!!
I'm so thankful for your video..I just bought the rock solid today,and I'm regretting my purchase,only because I have some poorly laid concrete that always let's out moisture and leaves salt everywhere and I feel itll ruin the epoxy quickly,when it rains heavily it floods in kutside our garage which let's in lots of water when I drive the car inside,and I cant afford a fall.
i would see if you can return it...even if you lose a lil money in shipping or restocking. i have reconsidered also as i get that salt/efflorescence residue in my garage as well. i'm thinking that industrial Epoxy and polyurea brands would be better
I used this product for a basement home office floor. Looked beautiful for a while, but it bubbled and peeled eventually where my chair casters rubbed constantly. My initial surface was a feather coat of cement over a nasty older surface, so maybe that was part of the issue.
I had a friend use RockSolid , his garage floor is terrible after 2 years. lots of peeling all over. complete failure. He did everything right and carefully prepped with a grinder. I used Sherwin Williams macropoxy with rexthane top clear coat and 5 years later its holding up very good.
The reason why you see separation and delamination of these products is that they are not installed correctly DIY products like this appeal to the average consumer who dosnt know any better In the majority of cases you either have to diamond grind or shot blast a concrete surface to get good bonding. Acid etching is not specified by any commercial manufacturer of resin base epoxy of most other coatings because it just dosnt work. What else can we talk about, RH in concrete etc etc Any garage floor should have some level of shark bite, anti skid or aluminum oxide broadcast into the final clear coat or made part of that clear coat on backroll.
Been thinking of using the product in my garage but couldn’t find much in the form of a long term review. Thanks for the video. I think I’ll be buying several kits to use on my floor, but I’ll hit my parking area either MEK as a precautionary step in homes of having to reapply. 👍🏼
Love it; just found you two and instantly subscribed once I saw your intro. I'm looking forward to learning a lot more from you and courageously entering the world of DIY. Thank you.
Thanks for this review. I wished have seen this video first. It did not come up on my search when I was researching this product. I bought three 2.5-garage packs for my 3-car garage and the same thing is happening to my coating. My concrete surface did not adhere to the coating as they did on yours, so I hope they are not using the same weaken concrete excuse. I would not recommend this product. I have had better luck with their regular epoxy.
We used the original 2 part epoxy garage floor paint on a 10 year old grease free garage floor we added their anti slip product and the epoxy clear coat on the finish. We etched the floor as directed and applied as directed. The floor has never peeled under the hot tires at all but it has peeled in about 30 spots or so most about 3”or 6” round/ square area. It has now been down for years and will need ground off to repair it. I would guess to the tune of thousands of $$$$$. I would NEVER ever use epoxy coatings on any concrete surface again. I would use porch and floor paint and redcoat as required. Don’t get stuck with epoxy for life
Ok today i just bought 4 cherry bomb kits for a 15×22 space. I purchased the anti slip packets. I was thinking about putting a protective diamond coat over the paint to protect it from scratches. Hopefully this works
Something went wrong with the cure maybe? I’ve had it in my garage for 10 years. One thing that did happen is the clear coat yellowed like an old Chevy on the bay that the door is open a lot.
Its interesting that Rustoleum stated they "Are not sure why it happens", regarding the peel up. Their products have been doing it YEARS and one would figure they would have figured it out. BUT to be fair... many of these types of covering do it as well. Was hoping that they improved the situation with the Metallics but don't think Ill take the risk given previous experiences with their other products in the Alabama humidity and heat. ... On a side note, I've many a bump and bruise stepping out of a rained on vehicle onto the 'slick floor'. Doing the splits with one foot on the floor and one in the truck was also an occasional event. :) Thanks for the video!
I think it may be in the prep, because as you could see, the paint chips they scraped up had a layer of concrete on it. I suspect that the acid etch may not be enough. I've had the same thing happen on an interior room I painted. Went on beautifully, but the dog scratched up a spot, LOL. I think it's okay to paint a concrete floor like this that doesn't get a vehicle parked in it, but probably not a good choice if there will be vehicles.
Ive yet to find one video of someone who installed this product and didn't have any issues. I wanted so bad to give this a try, but it just seems to be a waste of money. Unless they bring the price down, I just cant take a chance on it. Thank you for the video.
This looks more like a failure to prep the surface properly prior to painting rather than a failure of the product. There is no adhesion. My floor and several others I have painted with rustoleum garage floor coating has lasted over 10 years and shows no sign of peeling or cracking even with heavy use.
Same thoughts..... I applied Rustoleum Epoxy to the garage floor of my last house. I cleaned the floor and prior to applying I used Muriatic Acid to etch the concrete.... lasted about 12 years before the spots where the car tires were wore thin.... as with any painting, preparation is key.....
Looks to me like the epoxy pulled a layer of concrete up with it, so it was actually doing its job and was well-adhered to the surface. Seems to suggest a concrete failure and not a coating failure.
Preferred product for garage floors is a poly urea base coat sealed with a polyacrostic coating. Take 5 hours (2 car garage) and ready to use in 48 hours. Not slippery, does not scratch with normal use.
I laughed a little when you said "mek was toxic" because I worked in a clean room and we mopped the floor with it (ceilings only about 10ft high, but lots of air movement through HEPA filters about every 10ft on the entire ceiling) .. there WERE a few brain cells killed, and times when my tongue was numb. 🤭
I have the best tip ever for keeping garage floor coatings from peeling,or wearing out from tire traffic,power wash the floor & get down to bare concrete,allow to fan dry for 10 days,step #1 prime the bare concrete with Rustoleum concrete garage floor primer,step #2 apply 1 roller coat of Rustoleum 1 part garage floor epoxy & allow to dry for 48 hours rushing dry time between coats is not good,step #3 Purchase several 36" wide rolls of fiberglass mesh used to reinforce drywall mud,plaster or roofing tar,the yellow plastic mesh is what i use,step #4 apply a 30 ml thick coating of the Rustoleum 1 part grey floor epoxy in 36" wide ribbons by 6-8 ft long and have a friend help lay the fiberglass reinforcement material into the fresh epoxy,while your spreading out the next 36" by 6-8 ft area have your helper use a roller dipped in the 1 part epoxy to press the mesh firmly into the 30 mil thick 1 part epoxy,you can gauge thickness by dropping a US dime into a freshly epoxied area,the grey epoxy should come up very near the top of the dime once you push down on the dime,remove the dime & apply more epoxy if needed,while imbedding the 36 inch wide strips of reinforcement material keep in mind to lay the material in the same direction as your car tire traffic will run,continue applying the 1 part grey epoxy & imbedding in the fiberglass mesh until you reach 30 inches away from your garage door,you do not continue applying the reinforcement material all the way to tje end of the garage floor because you want to run a single 36" width sheet or material at the start of your garage floor to protect & cover the laps created by the reinforcement material running in the dirrection of tire traffic. After your 1st strip is applied on 1 side of the garage apply another 3ft wide x 6-8 ft long area of 1 part grey epoxy,only this time you want a 2" to 3" lap of the reinforcement material all the length of the floor,rub in the material while a 2nd person is applying more epoxy,continue until you reach the opposite wall,if the final row of material & epoxy to be applied leaves you more than a 6 inch overlap of reinforcement material youll need to use scissors to cut the roll leaving a 2 to 3 inch overlap,once youve applied the final strip of 1 part grey epoxy & reinforcement material going with traffic youll need to address the 30 inch strip you didnt apply epoxy & material that runs with the garage door ,when laying out the grey 1 part epoxy before imbedding the reinforcement mesh make sure to tape off a straight line on the floor where no grey epoxy shows beyond the closed door,use the paint roller to press in the material only this time youll want to apply enough epoxy on roller to cover the mesh entirely grey,once finished allow to fan dry 72 hours before applying a 2nd coat of the 1 part grey " color of your choice epoxy " ,use a rough surface roller to roll out a coat of epoxy thick enough to cover any signs of the reinforcement mesh & allow to dry 72 hours. Ive done over 100 garage floors using the Rustoleum epoxy system so ive learned to apply the 2 part clear epoxy final coat by pouring out ribbons of the clear epoxy,then spreading the epoxy usiny a notched rubber squeegee with 1/4 inch notches,have your helper spread the clear epoxy using a semi rough surface roller until expoxy is uniformly smooth,repeat until the entire floor is covered, i use this method for waterproofing basement floors and covered patios,my garage floor is 6 years old without any peeling but im applying q fresh coat of clear epoxy tonight to bring back the lost shine,using the fiberglass reinforcement material turns your epoxy coatings into 1 big single sheet of reinforced membrane that will last for decades as long as installed & allowed to dry between applications at least 48 hours between coats,im a Journeyman as well as licensed contractor of 42 years.
Did you applied MEK product to the whole concrete that you scraped or just the edging? My garage floor concrete is weak, it started to come off. I don't know how to make the concrete stronger or what to do about it.
I am ashamed to say, that I have been doing projects since I was a wee lad (9/10 yrs old), and never once thought about using a yard stick, and clamps as a fence. That is freaking brilliant!
The repaired patches are holding up. And the front section we repainted it perfect. We have had a few other spots peel up, but those were from the original pour. -Steph
This product is very over hyped in my opinion. I used it on my new shop and after a few weeks, it sucks. It scratches easily, it stains with almost anything that has had contact with the floor (oil, grease, etc) and even driving a lawn tractor over the surface leaves tread marks that can't be removed. Driving my car over it also leaves the same tire prints that, so far, I've been unable to remove. If you are looking for something that is easy to clean and keep clean, do not buy this product.
I like your video because as a viewer I like it when you get to the point and edit out bits that are not needed. I watch many clips with too much blah blah blah. And you guys offered some very valuable information. I really appreciate it.
You have moisture coming through the concrete. Your failure happened because when the moisture was trapped it efloresced. That's actually the lime deteriorating inside the concrete. That's the white powder substance you encountered as you scraped up the paint and why chunks of concrete came up with the paint. You will have this problem continuously until you actually fix the moisture issue. Next time, after scraping loose paint, apply a product called radon seal to the exposed concrete. Then wait ten days before you reapply the paint. Then you will never have that issue again as the concrete will no longer allow water through it.
You can get a much better result on your caulking is to tool it out with a small paint brush with soapy water for most caulking. It looks like you maybe used some urethane(oil based) caulking which would require mineral spirits instead of soapy water. Look at the label under cleanup if you're not sure. Urethane is very thick and incredibly sticky. Unless you have mastered cutting your tip and laying out a perfect bead there really isn't any other way. Its how professionals do it.
Great video with good information presented. Just a precaution . . . MEK is extremely flammable. Using a small fan that close to where you are using the MEK is very risky. The electric motor in the fan creates a spark which is an ignition source for any vapors which may have been accumulated from using the MEK. Please be careful! Thanks for the product review.
After seeing multiple videos about this inferior product, I ended up staining my garage floor and finished it with a clear concrete epoxy. 3 years later still looks great and oil spills clean right up.
Thanks! If your floor gets wet often, this might not be a great option. Rust-Oleum does make an anti-slip material that can be added, but we don't have experience with it.
TortugaRagCo. Oceanwear That was exactly what I was thinking. Just like taking your suit to the cleaners. It’s always someone else’s fault that that buttons came back crushed.
In their defense it really was the concrete in this case. You'll notice when she scraped it off there was concrete adhered to the coating. The coating was intact but a thin layer of concrete had broken loose.
Please tell me after you used the MEK that you neutralized it with isopropyl alcohol. The MEK will continue to work long after it is wiped cleaned. It will eventually weaken and distort the bonding agent.
Great video and your both beautiful ladies. I'm torn between this or these interlocking mats for basement floor. Anyone have any suggestions for basement? I don't want to go over 1500 dollars and my square footage is 650.
Hi! I would be concerned about the fumes during application of this coating in a basement. We have not used interlocking mats, but we have used vinyl flooring and really like it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-uUEkLituYPA.html
Get a polyurea, polyaspartic coating professionally installed. Best available coating out there. 100uv stable, non porous, no hot tire pick up, and highly elastic to shift with concrete. 👌
Have heard pluses and minuses on this product. Has a lot to do with the quality of the substrate. Worth watching, though, because you seem to be a fun person.
@Stephen Lacher , exactly. That concrete pad top surface looked chalky/soft so I would have used a sealer as a bonding agent which penetrates the surface.
Mine was installed per the instructions on concrete that was very clean and 11 years old spoke to the factory did it as told. I now have about 20 areas that have lifted in various locations from 4 to say 12 sq inches. I would not use this stuff ever again. My garage is a mess. NEVER AGAIN!!!!
Thanks for the video update! I've had similar issues over the last 3 years with this product and have been working with a rep from RockSolid. I recently received my replacement kits, so I'm going through the steps to prep the concrete again. I did have a question for you. Towards the end of the video, you discussed the issues with using it outdoors. I noticed that mine (non metallic) seemed to discolor in the sun and having the door open for extended times, but the issue is that part between the garage door towards the driveway on that little part of exposed concrete. Did you put the coating down directly underneath the garage door seal? I was wondering if that would lift off with repeated open/close cycles of the door.
Hi Andy! My garage floor is a little longer than where the door closes. Originally, we put rocksoild on the full floor (which included where the door seal comes down and the outdoor exposed strip) We noticed the discoloring on the outside exposed part but have not really noticed it on the rest. Hope that helps! - steph
Other people mask a line at the garage door, which I intend to do with my floor because I think it would just look weird having a colored stripe outside the door simply because of where the slab ends.
These type of resin driven epoxy coatings are pretty much all subject to UV breakdown including ambering. You have to move to a polyaspartic or even polyurea finish to get away from those problems
What a great video guys! Going to give this a try on our new house. Would you add the Non-Slip additive if you did it again? Thanks for putting this together.
We're adding the clear topcoat over our metallic finish and including the non-slip additive with the clear coat (comes with the kit). Being a garage floor, I like having the extra layer of RockSolid for increased durability, and then also nobody will be doing any Tom Cruise "Risky Business" moves on the floor.
The delamination issue that you experienced with this product (to me anyways) looks like not enough attention was paid to the "prep" of the concrete. When a concrete floor is properly ground with diamond tooling, you create a "mechanical rooting" opportunity for the product (whatever it happens to be epoxy, this stuff etc.) to actually make a mechanical bond to the substrate. This (in my opinion) did not take place on your floor. After watching your and a few other various videos on this product - I am VERY skeptical of using it on any of my properties. Best of luck to ya ! Cheers !
Hi, do you think that it really was a prep issue if there was concrete stuck to the back of the epoxy coating that flaked off? Obviously the bond was there. If the flaked epoxy didn't have concrete attached I would agree with you but it really does seem like they had weak concrete. Either way, I'm weary of using this product as well.
I had ready to use this product until I saw your video. NO WAY would I use this. Now I have to investigate the outdoor epoxy paint. That might be the product to use.
