Concrete coating in kitchen

[GerryG]

A friend did his kitchen floor in decorative grooved and stained concrete. He then put on 2 coats of a 1 part urethane with a lambs wool applicator. The stuff's fairly thick and doesn't feel very hard, never fully leveled and has some pieces of wool at places. It did dry to a sheen, but shows scrapes from most anything, including wooden chair legs.

He also did concrete countertops, but ended up using beeswax since it's easily recoatable.

At this point his wife is trying to scrape it off the floor. Is anybody familiar with any coating that would hold up better here, and be repairable? I'm thinking a better urethane that's either 2-part or with a catalyst hardener would hold up better than an epoxy, but that's just a guess.

The additional problem with the countertops would be hot pans placed on the surface. Don't know if there's any answer to that one.

Thanks, GerryG

[nospambob]

[Andy Dingley]

Loads of them. All of them are noted for not working over an undercoat of something unstable.

I think he's screwed. Serves him right for using poly in the first place. Here's a clue: If you do dumb stuff without asking for advice _first_, you get to live with your mistake afterwards.

[GerryG]

[patriarch]

Andy Dingley wrote in news: [e-mail]:

And if you do dumb stuff, in spite of asking for AND RECEIVING good advice, you get to live with your mistake, and the knowledge that you did dumb stuff anyway. DAMHIKT.

Patriarch

[GerryG]

Now, wait a minute here. Even if I look at

, I find their recommendation for this application is not epoxy, but a 2-part polyurethane coating. Both their product and what he used have abrasion resistance of 30-40 mg under ASTM-C501, and are used in warehouses and aircraft hangers. Nor have I seen any other types of products to use for this application, other than modified acrylics which can be very similiar.

I've used urethane on wood floors, and have also successfully patched areas that were scratched and scraped, and had that last for years. The problems I've seen tend to stem from using the wrong formulation, or incorrect application.

Examining the floor he did, I felt a number of nibs sticking up, and the surface just didn't feel very hard. Questioning him further this evening may have shed some light on this issue.

Although they appear clear, many of these formulations require a considerable amount of mixing, often power mixing. They are also more sensitive to film thickness, temperature and humidity. It now appears he barely stirred it, applied it too thick, and at maybe 100 deg F (or more). Manufacturer suggests

3-4 minutes of power stirring, a 3/8 roller, and temp of 60-85 deg.

I think he's got a lot of scraping and sanding ahead.

So, if somebody is either familiar with this particular product (Sonothane) or has some other suggested treatment, I'd love to hear from you. GerryG

[Jay Windley]

You can't outrun education; you can only choose the form it takes.

--Jay