Monthly Archives: April 2021


Shotblasting VS Diamond Grinding

We get asked a lot of times by customers whether they should shotblast or grind their floor. In this post we will discuss the Pros and Cons of each. First lets start with the fact that shotblasting a floor is cheaper than grinding at the outset. The problem with shotblasting is that unless using an aggregate such as sand or doing a heavy flake job you will see what we call lawn mower lines in the finished epoxy. The reason being is that where you overlap with the shotblaster as you go up and down the floor it leaves a line of deeper indents from the shotblasting beads. Then as you apply epoxy those deeper indents hold more pigment and thus show up as lines as you can see in this photo below.

The benefits of shotblasting other than the lower cost is that it gets down into the small nooks and crannies of very dirty floors that are in poor condition. We would recommend grinding after shotblasting to remove as much of the shotblasting lines as possible but when you do this it obviously increases the cost dramatically.

So grinding 95% of the time is the way to go and most times on smaller floors you can rent the floor prep machine from Home Depot which will do the job just fine. For larger floors or extremely dirty floors you will need a larger machine from a tool rental place. When renting a grinder get the biggest grinder you can handle it will make the job easier and faster also whenever possible get the Vac attachment, that goes for the Home Depot machine too. Grinding generates a lot of dust. After grinding make sure to remove all the dust. If time is not an issue you can hose or power wash the floor and while the floor is wet you might as wet scrub some etch in. This will accomplish two things, one it will open up the concrete pores more and second it will clean any low spots the grinding wheel could not reach.

Once the floor is prepped we like to hit it with a good leaf blower just before apply the coating to get the last bits of dust off the floor, you’ll be surprised at how much dust is left. So in conclusion figure to grind rather than shotblast in all but extreme floor situations. Use the floor prep machine from Home Depot on small to medium floors and for larger floors use an industrial size grinder preferably one with at least 3 heads and new diamonds in about the 25-30 grit range. Always try to use a Vac attachment with your grinder, shop vacs won’t work, they clog up in two minutes. Grinding Vacs have pulsating filters to keep them clean as you vac up all the dust. And as always if you have any questions on the condition or preparation of your floor just give us a call or shoot us an email.


ArmorGarage Is Here To Help

Recently we received a call from a large manufacturer that makes a type of caustic polymer that is poured into large vats at 500 degrees. They needed a coating to protect the vats from corrosion and to prevent the polymers from sticking to the concrete. We have many epoxy coatings for a wide variety of applications but nothing that could stand up to a continuous 500 degrees. So we did some research and discovered a company that makes an industrial grade ceramic epoxy coating. There were many other ceramic coatings but they were all residential grade and mostly for use as an upgrade to car wax or other very light duty needs but this one product was geared towards industrial applications. So we called this customer back with the bad news that we couldn’t provide a product to fit their needs but good news that we found a company that most likely could. They were very appreciative and promised that we would get the call for their upcoming flooring projects.

One of the most important keys to a successful coating application is to make sure you choose the right product for your specific application. That’s why we offer so many different types of epoxy coating products, in fact we have a section called Specialty Coatings. There is no one type epoxy fits all product or at least there shouldn’t be. Take a look around our website and be sure to checkout the Specialty Coating section. We also have what we think is the most informative website with regards to epoxy coating product information and how to choose and apply on correctly so you only have to do it once, so take a look at the Need To Know section. If for some reason you don’t think any of our products fit your needs give us a call or shoot us an email it may just be that your application is not listed for a particular product since there are 100s of different uses we can’t list them all. We can double check to see if one of our products will work for you or steer you in the right direction to find a product that will work for you.