Flooring Solutions

To achieve a successful epoxy floor installation, it’s crucial to understand the basics of epoxy coatings and the importance of proper surface preparation. Common issues, such as moisture problems, adhesion failures, and bubbling, can be avoided by ensuring the substrate is dry, clean, and free from contaminants. Proper mixing and application techniques, along with allowing adequate curing time, are essential for a durable and long-lasting finish. By addressing these factors, you can significantly enhance the quality and longevity of your epoxy flooring.

Hydrostatic Pressure is a real threat

Hydrostatic water pressure results from the weight of material above the point measured, calculated in depth x density x gravity. Hydrostatic pressure acts on a coating through the movement of water or water vapor in a substrate. Typically, this pressure is caused by a moisture source close to the bottom of the slab, which, in the absence of an effective moisture barrier below rises through the pores in the concrete. When this moisture gets trapped beneath an impermeable film sitting on the surface, pressure gets built up. At some point this pressure can be sufficient enough in pressure or duration to blow sections off or cause other forms of damage like blisters.

Whilst epoxy with MBV (moisture vapor barriers) prevent moisture from coming to the surface and vapors eminating from the substrate, excessive forces of nature cannot be remediated via epoxy. As a matter of fact, the epoxy may be so strong that it may hold on to the substrate and break or tear the substrate as the pressure tries to break through to the surface.

Concrete hydrostatic, capillary or moisture pressure must be no greater than 3.0 lbs. / 1000 sf / 24 hours. Substrates in contact with the ground must have a properly installed, functioning and effective vapor barrier to help prevent potential problems resulting from hydrostatic, capillary or moisture vapor emission. Concrete must contain less than 3% moisture when tested per ASTM D1864. Floor drains are imperative. Water control cannot rely on one method. Work on keeping water out, letting it out if it gets in and creating hygric buffers in between.

If your epoxy floor behaved beautifully for an extended period of time and suddenly seems to act up, material or operator failure is unlikely.

Contact your Installer and InduraFloor so we can discuss the issue at hand.

DIY mistakes to avoid

When you buy epoxy floor coating kits, don't try to stretch it too thin. A properly prepared floor will absorb some of the epoxy. If you have a 700 square foot garage and you buy a kit that says covers 600-800 square feet on a flat and even surface and you are not a professional, you will run out. Trying to stretch the product so it completely covers the floor may result in a coating that is too thin or not hard enough.

InduraFloor cannot warranty surfaces where the coating is not applied according to the application instructions. We can however work with our team at Epoxy LA Floors to find a solution to your project around so your idea will become reality.

Improvising your way to failure

Instructions were written for a reason. Contractors are specialized in trades for a reason. If a contractor is not properly licensed or does not follow our instructions, the project may end in a disappointment. Epoxy is a thermosetting resin. It becomes a product that last a lifetime if it is mixed following the exact ratios, for the exact time required, and applied following the method specified. Epoxy is a science.

InduraFloor cannot warranty Contractors. If you believe your floor was incorrectly installed or that your contractor was not properly licensed, do reach out to InduraFloor. Our Service specialists are available to answer questions and offer solutions.

Primer is key

Epoxy systems are called systems because each layer is chemically connected to the next. Primer is critical to a successful floor.

If the coating was an incomplete install - without primer as base layer, InduraFloor cannot warranty any issues that may arise as result from this omission. If the Primer used was not an InduraFloor product, please reach out to the manufacturer with your questions.

Substrate failure

A weak substrate will always result in product failure. An improperly finished substrate will fail. It may happen within the first months of applying the floor, it may take years, but since epoxy resin products have very high bond strengths when fully cured, if the epoxy bond strength is higher than the concrete cohesive strength, epoxy will pull and break the concrete away from itself.

Osmosis

Osmotic pressure is the minimum pressure required to prevent flow across a semi-permeable membrane. It involves the inhomogeneous aggregation of ion concentrations, which causes a force in water particles. Osmotic blistering occurs when moisture penetrates through the surface of a coating, is trapped beneath the layer of paint or epoxy and creates blisters.

Osmosis is not the same as hydrostatic pressure. Osmotic blisters usually happen after epoxy floors are already long cured. They occur when three things are brought together:

1. the semi-permeable membrane: resin applied to concrete. Moisture can flow from concrete to resin, but with a moisture vapor barrier will stop there.

2. water in the substrate, whether as a constant or extraordinary situation (such as flooding)

3. concentrated water soluble organic or inorganic elements. This can range from salts, calcium to trace elements from cleaning supplies or acids from shotblasting or grinding (underneath the coating in a closed in environment - not on top of the coating - where epoxy easily is able to withstand a multitude of acids and other chemical components).

A coating with proper adhesion will develop osmotic blisters that remain intact because the film has sufficient structural integrity.

InduraFloor does unfortunately not provide warranty for osmosis. Do reach out to InduraFloor's service team and see what solutions EpoxyLA Floors has to offer for remediation because the coating may very well continue to function for the remainder of its predicted service life.