Floor coating tips…and more on sound barriers

Question:

I have questions from the Sound Barriers inquiry in the March issue. I purchased one of the units at Iron Gate Car Condominiums that were featured in February and need to seal the floor with an oil/gas/trans fluidresistant coating. I have checked several industrial catalogs and discovered that a popular rust preventive paint company makes a two-part coating. Do you have any experience with these types of coatings, and any suggestions? The specs on the twopart coating sound a lot better than the stuff you can purchase at a big hardware store.

doing a 1959 Ford Skyliner and was going to use an Eastwood aluminum/butyl insulation but would your suggestion of Thermo Tec work better in the roof because it is not as heavy?

Answer:

There are three possible alternatives for your garage floor: the first and least durable is floor paint—and it is just that. Paint. It is acrylic-based, and holds up well in a typical garage that has light traffic. The second is epoxy floor paint, and it too is paint, but with a little epoxy in it. Whether it will hold up much better than ordinary paint is a good question. But the third alternative is called epoxy coating, and it is a two-part epoxy that you mix on the spot, and you have a limited time to apply it.

For a garage in which you will be restoring classics, the epoxy coating is what you want. It is not paint, and is made up of epoxy and a catalyst. The more epoxy it contains, the more durable and thicker the coating will be, but the harder it will be to apply. However, I have had good results rolling on the thick stuff with a short-nap roller. When you purchase the product, check to see how much epoxy—or solids—it contains. The cheap stuff may have only 25 percent solids in it, but you want at least 50 percent, and 100 percent would be better, though more expensive.

As for applying the coating, to begin with, any oil or grease stains will need to be removed with a commercial grease remover or at least lacquer thinner. After that, scrub the floor with Tide laundry detergent and rinse it thoroughly. Keep in mind that concrete absorbs moisture; so let it dry completely before you apply any coating.

Make sure you have plenty of ventilation and the air temperature is within the range stated on the product, and then mix and roll on the epoxy. The stuff doesn’t actually dry. Instead it cures using a chemical reaction, so stay off of it until it has cured per the manufacturer’s instructions.

As for which sound/heat barrier to use in your Skyliner, Thermo Tec is excellent, but so is the Eastwood product. If you go with Eastwood, I would use the adhesive they recommend as well. They test everything they sell, and they know their products.