Here are useful tips learned during more than 40 years of installing epoxy urethane floor seals and coatings on Fortune 500 company concrete floors, as well as in basements, garages, and decks. These tips can help you avoid mistakes that can limit the life of your floor.

There are three broad steps to doing your floor project: planning and preparation, repairing, and applying the coating. This article is the first in a three part series, and deals with planning and preparation.

General guidelines for applying an epoxy coating to your floor:

Do no harm.

Investing in prep produces the best value, (cost divided by years of service).

Let the chemicals and equipment do the work.

What can go wrong, will go wrong, unless you think ahead.

Technique is what separates mortals from Rembrandts.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Now let's get started with tips on how to plan your job and prepare your floor.

Plan the job.

Stick your coating to something that is not going to move

The better the tools, the less work you have to do.

Removing loose concrete is as important as removing dirt

Different types of dirt require different cleaners

"Shocking" the floor can help free dirt and contaminants.

Some things must be abraded off.

Don’t blow bubbles through your finish

There is only one way to remove gum

Asphalt bleeds

If you coat over things that move, your floor may move

Vacuum out those holes

Gravity is unforgiving

. Once you prep your floor, anything in the air will eventually end up as dirt on your floor. So don’t wait too long to do your coatings. Bugs, leaves, dust, and lint can eventually compromise the quality of the job you end up with.. Water settles in floor cracks and holes. If you vacuum them out or blot them with a rag, you will not have the problem of unexpected delays due to finding water still in your floor after the surface has dried.
. Adhesives are often a problem to remove on floors. But if you leave the adhesive, your coating is like an eggshell. A hard exterior with a soft interior will often let the shell crack and peal away.
. If you use a solvent-based floor coating and coat over any asphalt spots, the solvents will make the asphalt bleed into your finish spoiling the color. Use a scraper to remove any asphalt. Then follow with some degreaser or mineral spirits.
. Modern gum is actually synthetic rubber and is not affected by cleaners or most solvents. Scraping is the most common method of removing gum but a 190-degree hot water jet works fast if you have one.
. Gases often come up through your porous concrete floor. Methane and radon gas are very common under concrete slabs and move their way through the concrete causing some bubbles in the finish. But most often bubbles are caused by the chemical reaction still going on between your cleaners and the floor. One or two good scrub rinses are needed to help avoid generating gas bubbles in your floor.
Gum, adhesive, asphalt, some paints, concrete splatters, silicone sprays from Rain X, and Tire Shine are just some of the blemishes that you may need to scrape or grind off by hand when preparing a floor.
When you do your laundry you put your shirt in the wash and it is probably at a pH of 6.5 or 7. Then you add your detergent, which may bring the pH up to 8 or 8.5. That pH change is part of what make the dirt particles want to let go of the fabric. When we do floors, we shock the floor by bringing the pH up to 12 and then hitting it with the acidic cleaner dropping the pH to 5.5 or so. That really helps make concrete particles that are about to let to, let go.
. If one cleaner worked for everything there would only be one cleaner sold. But some dirt and contaminants, like fats and oils, respond to alkaline-type cleaners and some dirt and contaminants, like minerals, rust and concrete respond, to acidic-type cleaners. If alkaline and acidic are mixed they cancel each other out to neutral, so two separate cleanings are needed for your concrete floor, one alkaline cleaning and one acidic, followed by a good scrub rinse to stop the chemical action.
. If you walk over concrete with your socks on, you will usually see that they get all dusty. That’s because the concrete is constantly deteriorating and breaking away. Your preparation should leave only concrete that is well attached, so aggressive scrubbing is a must.
Renting power scrubbers, walk-behind vacuums, double-bladed squeegees, and long-handled scrapers are all multipliers that reduce your work and increase your performance. You can try to do without lots of fancy tools, but you might have to ask yourself, will you stop your work earlier than you should because it's just too much work.
. Remember that a floor that has 3000 lb. or more going over it every day needs much better adhesion than a wall that may get brushed by an elbow occasionally. Stick your coating to something that is not going to move.
Save trips to the store and costly delays by getting everything you need ready before the job starts. One quick step would be to go to a website like www.concrete-floor-coatings.com for a free cost analysis which will list everything you need to do your job, including step by step instructions.

Remember, "Life imitates Star Trek." You may begin to notice in the future that virtually every floor in the galaxy seems to have a flow-coated, two-part coating on it. I am seeing fewer and fewer new wood floors, linoleum, or oriental rugs. How about you?

Follow the rules and your job will turn out with the great look you want.

For more information, contact Harvey Chichester at harvey@concrete-floor-coatings.com or phone 1-800-466-8910 or 952-888-1488 (24/7).

• Installation and Refinishing Concrete Floor Project: Tips and Tricks That Save Time and Money
• You Selected Epoxy Garage Paint?

Epoxy floors are considered to be very good for places where there are lots of chances for the floor getting damaged. And it's because epoxy garage paint is quite durable material. It is hard to find a type of floor that can endure everything that these floor can in such long periods of time.

The resistance capabilities they have are better than in any other floor type. Besides being able to resist dust and dirt, they also resist to tear and wear. They can be easily cleaned. We all know that the garage is the best place to use for epoxy coating. And the reason for this is because garage floors have high risk of being damaged to the activities that happen in the garage itself.

It is not hard to apply the epoxy coating to the floor. You only have few steps to follow and you will achive this. We can divide the whole flooring process into 4 main activities. The first part or the first step that one has to take is to etch the concrete. It's a little step that will help you prepare your floor for the epoxy paint. Before applying the epoxy, make sure you cleaned the floor first.

The more you etch and clean your floor, the rougher it will be and your epoxy paint will have better adhesion then usual. Another step is very important, and that is to check is there any moisture present on the floor. The concrete should be sealed so that floor is free from the risk of moisture which would diminish the efficiency of the epoxy coating.

To bond the epoxy paint and the floor, you should make sure sealing is done correctly. When this is done, the coating can then be applied. A roller, brush or even a spray will be suitable for this. If the floor is damp then the bonding of the epoxy coating does not takes place.

Top coat is the last step you have to take. I can't stress enough the importance of the top coat when it comes to epoxy painting. Do not forget that you should not forget about the top coat if you are aiming to have top resuts for your floor.

• You Selected Epoxy Garage Paint?
• Epoxy Floor Paint Projects: Tips and Tricks That Save Time and Money

It is not so rare to see bubbles appear on epoxy coating. Bubbles are usually observed to be the size of a pinhead or more than an inch in diameter. They are usually found in groups on certain parts of flooring. A phenomenon calle "out gassin" is what causes this. And it happens when the epoxy begins to dry up. Because the temperature rises, air is hotter and it expands into a bubble under the epoxy coating.

Application primer should be used to reduce the chance of bubble appearance. Make sure that you do not apply epoxy coating where there is direct sunlight and it would be good to use a drill with slower speed to mix the coating.

If you are using a roller, I recommend that you go with a medium one. The epoxy should be applied very slowly in a gentle motion. It is another thing that can help with bubbles that can appear on our garage floor.

Bubbles that are formed in epoxy floorings can be removed using grit sandpaper and a rotary scrubber. Use some sandpaper to roughen the bubbled area as a first step. Then get on to some serious dust cleaning work. Then with a rag wipe the surface area with a strong solvent. When you finish this, apply one more coating. Another type of bubble observed is fisheyes. They are usually caused by residual silicon on the surface.

Use sandpaper of medium grit to clean this area in entirety. After this, scrupulously clean the area with a rag dipped in solvent. After this a fresh coating may be applied.

Consider shot blasting or sand blasting the entire epoxy coating in case the bubbles are spread all over that floor. First remove the epoxy coating by sand blasting the entire area. You also need to clean the entire area with an acid. In case you are working on a very small area, you can isolate it. Repair the area and then apply the coating again.

Our epoxy coating can have bubbles due to another reason: moisture. To verify this break one of the blisters thus formed and see if there is any moisture inside.

• You Selected Epoxy Garage Paint?
• Some Options for Flooring That Are Easy to Keep Looking Great

The usual target for epoxy paints are basements and garages, since they take heavy traffic and need a paint that can endure it well. Good results can be made on concrete slabs, kennels, interior floors, wooden car trailers, brick pavers, shop floor, laundry room floors and pole barns. Many paints can't resist various chemicals and other contaminants, but epoxy fights well against, water, oil, grease, dirt and other debris. This is made possible through the use of tough resins that are mixed on application. Since they have such great price to value ratio, they are the best floor coating solution.

There are three types of epoxy adhesive paints. The first thing to know is that 100% solids don't hace any solvents that will evaporate. Number two are solvent based epoxies that penetrate and adhere quite well, but these are dangerous to health and you will have to vent your garage while you are applying them to the surface, due to heavy fumes. And third, water based paints are thinner, cheaper, maintains anti-slip texture and do not produce hazardous fumes. But, a lot of ventilation is needed for these to dry up.

You will have to clean your floor before applying the paint, use a hard bristled brush to remove all the debris and dirt, and do not forget to use some soapy water on the concrete to help you deal with the dirt. Get a degreaser and scrub it all over the floor so all the soluble contaminants can be rinsed with water. You can check is your epoxy garage surface clean by spraying some water to see will it stick on the flooring. The garage floor should then be left overnight to dry. Apply your paint the following morning. You will need 2 or 3 layers to make a good coating. To get rid of those spills and paint drips, you need to have a clean rag made of cotton near you, as well as some epoxy thinner that will clean solvent based paints well.

Its toughness, its durability, its easy to clean finish, its salt and acid resistance is what endears me to this paint. But you can atain these from proper application and penetration only, while you have to give them time to cure before any vehicles are allowed to move onto the surface.

• Epoxy Floor And Bubbles – What To Do?
• Epoxy Floor Paint Projects: Tips and Tricks That Save Time and Money