Yearly Archives: 2016


Multi-Color Epoxy Flooring DIY

HOW TO DO A MULTI-COLOR EPOXY FLOOR

Girvan P. wanted a two color floor with a border. This is how he did it. Once the floor is properly prepped by etch acid etching or grinding and or both.  You apply the first base coat.  In Girvan’s case he wanted a solid color so we went with our Armor II commercial system. So he did the whole floor in Light Gray and then when that dried the next day he taped off the rectangles and applied the Dark Gray epoxy inside the tape lines. He let that dry and he then taped off the border area and lightly sanded the epoxy floor border area inside the taped area.  This was because the base coat had now been curing for more than 24 hours.  Anytime an epoxy coating cures for more than 24 hours you want to lightly sand it to give the epoxy coating going over it a rough surface to adhere too.  So once the border area was sanded he applied the Yellow epoxy coat.

Now he sanded the entire floor with a block & pole sander using 100 grit paper.  Got off all the dust and sanding residue and applied a clear topcoat over the entire floor.  He now has a beautiful two color epoxy floor with high performance commercial coating that will last many years to come.

It’s easier than it sounds to do these types of floors and you can use any colors or as many colors as you like. We at ArmorGarage can help you layout your floor and guide you on the best way to do it.  Like we did with Girvan.  Here’s what Girvan had to say in an email to us.

“Hi Jim –
New garage floor successfully installed (see pic)- it looks fabulous! This despite the onset of winter – we managed to keep the heat up sufficiently. Quantities were just right – half a can of clear coat left for touch ups.
Very many thanks for all your help
Girvan P.
Ottawa, Canada”


Fill in concrete cracks

WHEN AND HOW TO FILL IN CRACKS

We get asked all the time when should cracks be repaired both size wise and timing wise as far as etching and coating the floor. Lets start with when you should repair any cracks or divots in your concrete floor. If you’re using our Ready Coat Crack Repair, you would do the repairs after you have cleaned and etched your floor and the floor has dried. You would then simply mix the Part A & Part B together to form a sort of a putty and then you would putty knife it into any cracks or divots. Let it sit a minute or two and then you can apply our epoxy right over it without having to wait for the putty to cure. This saves you a whole day or more waiting for your repair compound to cure.

For larger cracks and holes in your concrete slab we have a Crack & Joint compound. This Part A & B get mixed together and then you add in approximately 50lbs of playground sand per gallon of Mortar Liquids and mix together until it becomes a grout consistency. Then you trowel into the repair areas, scrape flat and let cure for at least 24 hrs. If some of your repairs came out a little rough, you can hand grind them smooth. Use this product prior to your etching. epoxy-crack-filler

When do cracks need to be filled in? Our epoxies are thick and can fill in surface cracks. The trick is to know if the crack is at the surface or if it runs the depth of the slab. Even hairline cracks that run the depth of the slab will consume a lot of epoxy to fill them up. Best to use one of our crack compounds to fill them in. For small cracks you can run a grinder wheel down the crack to V out to make it easier to apply the repair compound into them.

For Control Joints and Expansion Joints use the Epoxy Crack & Joint Compound with the sand to fill in. Please note we always recommend not filling them in. Once you fill these in you run the risk of getting a crack down the middle of your brand new high gloss epoxy floor. Especially on newer floors. Although these joints look unsightly now and are garbage collectors, keep in mind that once you’re done epoxying the floor the joints will actually make the floor look better and since the joints are now epoxy painted no dust and dirt will stick inside them. So, unless the control or expansion joints make you physically ill at the sight of them, don’t fill them in, just finish them inside and out with the epoxy.

Check all of our concrete crack repair products at www.armorgarage.com


Epoxy paint your floor in sections

HOW TO EPOXY PAINT YOUR FLOOR IN SECTIONS

Sometimes you have too much stuff on your floor to completely clear out or maybe you just can’t stop what you’re doing business wise on the whole floor at the same time. So you need to do the floor in sections so you can move your stuff around and or keep your business running while you redo your floor with an epoxy flooring coat.

Garage Floor EpoxyOnce the floor is properly prepared (see how to prepare your floor for epoxy coating) you would apply a good duct tape line to section off the floor. Do not use painters tape since our epoxy is too thick for that. Apply the first epoxy floor coat up to the tape line and let dry. Then apply the second coat but stay back 6-12” from the tape line. If doing a third coat as in the case of our Military Epoxy System, stay back 12” from the edge of the second coat. Thus creating a step effect with the floor epoxy.

Then carefully remove the tape, razor cutting the edge will most likely be needed. Before applying the first coat of the next section, lightly sand the first 6-12” strip of the first section to rough up. Then apply the epoxy to the second section and lightly overlap onto that sanded strip of the first section. For the second coat, you will lightly sand the strip of the second coat from the first section and lightly overlap the new section over that. Do the same if doing a third coat. The reason you need to sand those stripes is that after 24 hours the epoxy pores start closing and may affect the bonding of the overlapping epoxy.

Follow this method and the epoxies will all blend into one monolithic coating making your floor look like you did it all in one shot.


Use The Right Epoxy Floor Coating in Battery Charging Rooms

Epoxy Flooring for Charging Rooms

Garage Epoxy FlooringThere are quite a few places in which you can start using garage floor epoxy, but there are also quite a few places that you’ve never thought of. The garage is definitely a sure bet, and even a parking a garage will benefit from this placement. There are, however, several rooms that can definitely make use of this epoxy flooring type and today we’re going to talk about battery charging rooms. Before we get into that, however, let’s go over again very briefly the benefits of good quality garage floor type of epoxy and why you should consider it for virtually any hard floor surface.

What is Garage Epoxy Flooring?

Okay, one of the biggest mistakes that people make when they are selecting something like garage epoxy flooring is believing that it is actually just paint. Yes, you can paint your garage floor but there is a strong chance that it isn’t going to turn out nearly as good as it would with high end epoxy flooring, and with good reason. First of all, it’s highly durable and it definitely stands the test of time. If you really need proof of this, all you need to do is take a look at our website and you will see a few side by side demonstrations, including one from a parking garage in which the coating form a competitor wore down very quickly compared to our epoxy which still looks brand new.

It has been proven time and again that the right epoxy can benefit you in ways that you never even realized. Not only does it last for a long time, it looks really good and let’s be honest, that’s really what counts. Now that we’ve covered that, let’s talk a bit about battery charging rooms.

Battery Charging Rooms and Garage Epoxy Flooring

There are a few things that can happen in a battery charging room, but we’re going to go over the most obvious:

LeaksThis is something that is most definitely going to happen in any scenario where battery charging is involved. A leaky battery isn’t on anyone’s list of things to have, most certainly, but it happens more than you would think. Leaks in a battery room can be particularly detrimental to the floor as you can be dealing with far more than water. Many batteries bring with them corrosive substances, and they are definitely not something that you would want on a typical concrete floor. Leaking acid will eat through your concrete floor fairly aggressively! Then it will cost you much more to repair your floor than a good epoxy floor coating would.

DropsDepending on the type of batteries you’re dealing with; they can be pretty heavy. Epoxy flooring can withstand small impacts without taking serious damage, and with that being the case, they are often perfect for battery charging rooms. While epoxy flooring is not invincible by any means, it can certainly be very helpful in these situations.

IlluminationJust as with any other work environment, having a nice, well lit room is absolutely essential, and garage epoxy flooring will brighten any room, especially with a high gloss topcoat. It looks great, it feels great, and it saves energy – what more could you possible want?

CleanupYes, you will need to clean your floors eventually, even in a room that is only used for charging batteries. The thing to remember here is that epoxy flooring is incredibly easy to clean and maintain. You don’t need to use abrasive chemicals and you don’t need to spend hours on your knees trying to scrub an impossible stain. Epoxy is stain resistant and will go right back to the way it was before you know it – that alone is a great reason to use it.

Battery charging rooms can be found in many different types of facilities such as golf clubs, warehouses, factories and even homes that have golf carts. With so many different electronic devices in play today, you can almost be rest assured that you’ll need one. Retail stores often use battery charging rooms for their PDA devices, and colleges often use them for the charging of laptop batteries. There are plenty of other great applications, but when it comes right down to it, you’re going to want to protect the floor from being damaged. It’s a job for an epoxy and you know it can handle the best. You can be rest assured that the garage floor epoxy cost is well worth it when you consider the results.

 


Garage Floor Epoxy for Storage Units

If you are the proud owner of a storage comapny for example keepsafe storage units, you’ll agree that whether it is indoor or outdoor you know one very important fact: storage units see a LOT of action. There seem to be two different types of renters when it comes to storage units. There is the first type, which tends to organize everything and makes sure that everything is placed inside the unit in an orderly fashion. They may even stop to alphabetize everything, you never know. The second type is the kind that every storage unit owner dreads: the type that simply drops everything into the storage unit and shoves it against the wall as hard as they can, hoping that the door actually closes. That’s on top of keeping everything like the units managed and organized and ensure that those renters keep up with their payments. There are, luckily, storage management software to help owners keep up with all of this, if you are an owner of a storage unit and you want to check out a storage management software, you might want to View Site here for more information. These are the types of people that usually end up with the entire content of their unit up for auction at some point, but we digress.

No matter which type of renter you have, if you’re renting from somewhere like Lock Up Garages, there are a few things that you can be certain of. The first thing is that scratches happen, especially when furniture or other heavy items are being dragged against the concrete floor. The second, is the inevitable spill. You never know what people are going to be putting inside their storage units and there is a good chance that you never actually ask. You can have a specific set of guidelines, but in the end, you can’t just go through every single box that people pull off the back of their truck.

You could have anything from oil spills to soda, and every single thing in between. You probably also know that when they do this, they never stick around to clean it up. Not only is this a hassle for you to clean, you have probably also found that it can cause damage to your units, considering concrete is very easy to stain or crack. One of the best solutions is to use a garage floor epoxy, which is an outstanding way to bring new life to an old floor.

Why Garage Floor Epoxy is the Best Solution for your Storage Unit

Armor GarageAs we said in the previous paragraph you’re going to end up experiencing a number of different problems with renters and the first one we are going to address is spills. Let’s take sticky substances for our first example. You never know how long a renter is going to hold onto a storage unit, but if something spills in there, you also never know if they’re going to clean it up. It could literally be sitting on the floor for days, for weeks, or even for years; you never know honestly. All you know is that when they leave, they’re not going to be cleaning it up. Now you have a problem. If it’s a standard concrete floor, you’re going to be on your hands and knees trying to scrub it up, and there is a good chance that it will never actually come up. It will probably even soak into the floor! If you have an epoxy flooring however, a good mopping and perhaps even some pressure washing will take care of the problem – it’s really nothing you need to worry about.

Along with being easy to clean, epoxy tends to be much more resistant to absorption simply because garage floor epoxy actually seals the floor, making it completely impervious. In addition to that you have to protect your floor from the wear and tear from dollies, pallet jacks and hand trucks rolling in and out all day, everyday. ArmorGarage epoxy systems are forklift rated. It’s hard to imagine anything much better than that. Of course, the durability factor will be much better if you use our military grade topcoat, it will protect the epoxy itself and keep your floor looking new for a lot longer. Then once the clear topcoat begins to wear you simply roll on a new clear topcoat and the whole floor comes right back to new without ever having to redo the epoxy paint itself. The products from Armor Garage are resilient, and much more durable than the big box items that you would normally purchase from a store – don’t miss out on making your storage units virtually invincible.

Get Your Floor in Gear

Garage epoxy flooring has many different uses, as you have undoubtedly already discovered. From the garage, to the storage unit, and even the workshop; don’t make the mistake of going with a lesser brand, go with the product offered by Armor Garage and get your floor in gear.


Garage Flooring Solutions for Classrooms

Epoxy Flooring for Schools

Classrooms see a lot of action to put it mildly, and there are certain precautions you will want to take in order to ensure that the floor does not get damaged and while there are plenty of things for you to consider in this vein, today we are going to be talking about epoxy coating the floor. Now if you were to look at most school classroom floors from the mid-50’s and through the early 90’s, there is a good chance that you would find them to be covered with vinyl flooring.

This works up to a point so long as the tile is kept in good condition but let’s be perfectly honest here: there are quite a few disadvantages of vinyl plank flooring and it’s a classroom — when it comes right down to it, you’re not going to be able to keep it in good condition. There are too many things to take into account and far too many uses for garage epoxy flooring.

Why you Need High Perfomance Epoxy for your Classroom

Your classroom is going to need a coat of super durable epoxy paint for a few reasons. First of all, a classroom is an extremely high traffic area. Secondly, a lot of ‘things’ happen, to put it mildly. For example, items are dropped, desks are dragged, and all manner of other things happen. As they say, kids will be kids, and in any pre-college classroom, you’re going to need a floor that can stand up to the abuse.

In addition to outright trauma you’re going to find that the floor can become easily stained and scuff marks are very common with children. If you want children to learn, it is a great idea to let them play and learn at the same time by watching Youtube videos, children love to Pretend Play in the classroom. What you need to do is make sure you are able to clean up the floor and most importantly, that it doesn’t break under pressure. In older schools you’re going to see vinyl flooring that has broken, chipped, or are completely displaced, and that’s not something you want to see in a classroom with children! Epoxy flooring is cost effective and has many benefits that you might not have discovered yet. Let’s take a look at some of the benefits and the reasons for an immediate installation.

Protect your Classroom Floor

classroom where children learn to draw in a nursery

The first thing that you need to know about vinyl tile is that while the tiles themselves are pretty sturdy and impervious to damage, you’re going to find that the cracks in between them can cause a serious problem. Even spilled water can creep into those cracks and dislodge the tile, ultimately causing it to crack. They also need constant maintenance. Now if you take floor epoxy, it actually seals, completely, so that you won’t have to worry about it cracking, swelling, or taking on an unsightly appearance at any point in time. If you’ve ever seen old vinyl tiles, then you know how valuable it can be to have a solid, sealed floor to enjoy for many years to come. Some flooring tiles can contain asbestos which is a real health hazard, especially in classrooms. Our Epoxy Coat All System allows you to epoxy paint right over these asbestos tiles, which will completely encapsulate them. If your tiles are not asbestos we recommend that you remove the tiles and contact a company that offers asbestos testing services. It’s better to be safe than sorry after all!

Epoxy paint can be installed in many different colors and if you want to add a bit of flavor to that installation, why not consider adding some color paint chips to your floor epoxy with a military grade clear top coat to make it last a lot longer? There are endless possibilities with an epoxy floor, and it won’t be too long before you want to use epoxy in every single one of your rooms. You can trust us when we say it’s a big improvement over the other types of flooring that you might choose to utilize. That being said, it’s time to stop relying on unreliable flooring solutions, and time to start looking into the floor epoxy as a cost effective alternative. We might be slightly more expensive than the big box stores, but our product lasts a lot longer and it is definitely more reliable at the end of the day. You can be rest assured that no matter how much money you sink into your epoxy flooring renovation, you’re going to find that cost is returned to you tenfold over the next few years. Take a look at our floor epoxy systems for sale and bring your classroom to the next level.


Garage Flooring – Perfect for Any Man Cave

Garage Flooring Epoxy for your Man Cave

epoxy-flooringGetting ready to build the perfect man cave can be a bit of a challenge, but in case you’re not familiar with the term, what is a man cave exactly? How should it look? Will you have games consoles and gaming chairs in there for you and your boys? What alcohol will you get? What should the building of it entail? The first thing you need to know is that the man cave is intended to be a completely masculine space. Furthermore, despite the feminine name, many granny flat designs make the perfect space for a man cave. Additionally, most granny flat interiors can be personalised to feel more masculine depending on how you decorate. You might outfit it with wood-paneled walls, or you might want to consider hanging a moose head up at the front of the room or an indoor basketball area to hang out with friends. Then again maybe you would like to set up a massive television and a bar. Before you build it all the way up, however, let’s start at the lowest point: the floor. When it comes to making sure you choose the right floor for your man cave you definitely have plenty of choices.

Some people are going to go with carpet while others will favor hard wood floor. If you are like many men however, you would love a more industrial look, especially if your man cave is separate from the rest of the house. With that being the case, there is a good chance that you have chosen to make use of concrete floors, and that’s an outstanding idea. There’s a good chance you’ll be doing some drinking in here, probably a lot of drinking, and spills are going to be a fact of life. That being said, while concrete is a great choice, you’re going to want to make sure that it is protected. We’re speaking of course about garage flooring, or epoxy – a great way to keep your floor safe from whatever life might throw at it.

Garage Flooring Epoxy is the Way for your Man Cave

Concrete is a great start, but epoxy paint is going to make it even better. To start, you can make it any color you wish, and if you want to add a little bit of texture to your floor then you might consider a light chip broadcast. In our opinion, garage flooring epoxy is a great way to give your man cave a sort of ‘garage-like’ feel, even if you haven’t parked a car inside.

Epoxy does an outstanding job of sealing up the floor so that you won’t have to worry about spills, and you certainly won’t have to worry about stains. You can easily clean anything that spills on a garage floor epoxy, and you can trust us when we say that in a man cave, there are going to be spills.

There are many other benefits of course, the most important of these being that the floor can be designed to be non-slip. It isn’t this way initially, of course, but if you mix an additive with the epoxy mix you can get the non-slip feature and stay far safer in your man cave than you might have otherwise.

Getting the Right Floor Epoxy

Armor GarageThe garage floor epoxy price from our company might seem a little bit high, but you have to consider the benefits of getting it from a reputable source rather than going straight to the big box store. Our website holds a pretty good example of what happens when you rely on the big box brands – it begins to break down after a year, and that’s probably not what you’ll be happy about. You want something that is going to last for many years, and we can definitely accommodate you. Take a good long look at the products we have to offer when you’re trying to outfit your man cave with the best epoxy floor. It will be well worth it, and consider using the military grade top coat while you are at it. Not only will it be prettier to look at, it will actually last quite a bit longer. With our military grade garage floor epoxy system you can have friends and family over and never have to worry about the floor getting ruined from too much activity on it.


Show Off your Classic Car Collection the Right Way with Garage Floor Epoxy

Show off with Garage Flooring Epoxy

Classic cars. Everyone loves them, everyone wants them, and not everyone can have them. It’s too expensive for most people and even those who can afford to have these cars compare car insurance here to see if they can find the cheapest possible policy to help them save money! If you’re lucky enough (or rich enough) to have a collection then you want to show it off. You want to show it off in grand style and you don’t want to skimp on the details. You want all of your cars front and center whether you’re showing off an old Model T from the dawn of the modern car, or a classic 1956 Chevy with its sleek painted exterior. The choices are limitless and they vary from collector to collector. Often, though, collectors turn to sellers, and we see people taking out motor trade insurance so that they can sell their cars to the next batch of collectors. However, we feel that a quality garage with a great collection will deter people from selling off their prize possessions. You may also choose to opt for a steel structure to house your collection, in part due to the impressive metal building life expectancy and the fact that it will provide you with a vast amount of protected space to utilize however you choose.

With your car collection aside for a moment however, you might want to start thinking about how you want to finish your garage floor. Maybe you’ve already set your cars up and have decided that you can do better with the floor, or maybe you’re just starting out and know you need to take your floor to the next level. No matter which it is, you know that garage flooring epoxy is the way to go, and with good reason. Let’s spend a few minutes talking about just why garage floor epoxy is the way to go and how it can help you show off your classic car collection in best possible way.

Garage Floor Epoxy – The Perfect Way to Make your Cars Shine

Your cars shine by themselves but let’s be honest, there’s something cool about having them sitting on a high gloss epoxy floor. It’s shiny, it’s bright, and you can even broadcast chips over it to make a terrazzo or granite look. So you can a solid color floor or a floor with color flakes that can blend with or accent colors in your garage. The choice is yours and you can customize any of our epoxy flooring kits anyway you like.

Easy CleanupWe’re not going to mince words here, if you’re moving classic cars in and out of the area there is a good chance that you’re going to end up with scuff marks, tire marks or oil leaks on the floor. You’ll need to be able to clean them and if you have a naked concrete floor it’s going to be not so easy. With an epoxy floor, on the other hand, you’re going to find that cleaning up anything on the floor is as easy as getting a mop and wiping it up.

Liquid CleanupYou know what the really cool thing about epoxy is? You can spill pretty much anything you want on it and it’s just going to pool at the top rather than soaking into the concrete if its uncoated. This is going to be especially helpful when you find yourself dealing with vehicle fluids – the last thing you want in your showroom is oil stains or corroded concrete. Our epoxies are impervious to all vehicle fluids.

A Garage Flooring Epoxy for A Better Display Overall

Your garage floor epoxy coating is definitely going to make for a better display. The floor will be shiny, and it will be better at reflecting light than a bare or conventionally painted concrete floor. It’s going to add to the aesthetic of your cars, and it’s going to make the room a much more fun place to be – that’s definitely an improvement over the norm.

If you’re going to install garage flooring epoxy in your classic car showroom, then we strongly suggest using a topcoat! You could apply just one layer of epoxy on your floor as some of our competitors suggest, but that would be a big mistake, You’re going to find that adding a topcoat can add many, many years of life to the epoxy finish. When the topcoat starts to break down after many years of service, all you need to do is add an additional coat of the topcoat and you’ll be good to go again. The base epoxy should stay unaffected. If that doesn’t sound good, then we don’t know what does.

ArmorGarage has many different products available, all of which are able to meet your flooring needs. Choose your color and coat your floor in the best floor epoxy on the market. It’s a quick solution that is undoubtedly going to last for many years!

Do you own a classic car and are looking for a loan? Perhaps you’ve got an expensive holiday lined up or a family occasion to pay for? Logbook loans are loans secured on your vehicle, so the lender owns your vehicle until you pay the loan back. Finding a logbook loan company that will accept loans on older cars could therefore be a solution to help you find money quickly.