Rust-Oleum317284 RockSolid Polycuramine Garage Floor Coating, 2.5 Car Kit, High Gloss Dark Gray

As all other reviews have said - prep is most important. My garage was polished concrete 28 years old. Some oil stains and very few minor cracks. Lots of shiny surfaces. I have a 4 car garage and used 2 boxes of 2.5 glossy gray polycuramine. I was so paranoid about usage from other reviews, I could have and should have put on a little heavier in the beginning. I had 1/4 of the fourth bag left over. Total of 720 sq. feet. I power washed, grinded the floor with a 4 1/2 hand masonry wheel on oil and shinny spots. Spent several hours doing this. Then I acid etched and power washed again. I still had a few spots that needed grinding and did them and then power washed again. I used a blow dryer to remover the fine concrete dust from tough up spots. I had 4 fans going x 48 hours to ensure that concrete was dried out properly.Definitely have attest one other person to help with application - their job - paint 3" trim strips around perimeter and snowflake the chips ( meaning literally throwing the chips up in the air - not outward - but upward and allowing them to float - snowflake - back to the concrete surface). Easy to do and fun. Think fairy dust! This is happening while the other guy (me) pours 2" strip across the 4'x4' working space and then rollers it in. The included rubber rollers worked fine. I used purdy 3/8"nap rollers for clear coat - these worked well also. I used one rubber roller per bag - they usually started coming apart at the end of the bag.The 2 of us finished application in 2 hours. Had plenty of time for application. I did set timer on my apple watch for 3 minutes for the mix and then set timer for 1 hour for application. Usually done in 35 minutes per bag. Once I saw how much application covered per bag and realized we had plenty of time - low stress once process got going. .I had no bubbles and only 5-6 quarter sized voids in whole garage. Didn't see until next morning when polycuramine was hard. Definitely ok for foot traffic next morning. Temperatures ranged 60-78 degrees over the 24 hour period. No car parking until 48 hours. Then when I backed out - where tires sat - some cloudy tread marks that did not wipe away.At 48 hours applied clear coat with anti-skid - one bag covered whole 4 car garage - stirring every 10 minutes to keep mixed. Next morning saw where I missed some spots - very hard to see unless have right angle. Really need to move around to see shiny vs cloud clear coat surface. Be diligent about this. I had to do a second coat the next day (which was fine with me) to cover missed areas. No missed areas this time.Overall, prep was most work. Application fun and easy with a buddy to help. Looks amazing.

Preparation is key to having a great looking floor! That being said a few things to consider. Clean and degrease floor prior to any patching or prep work. I used self leveling concrete cement in heavy pitted areas that worked great (install concrete primer in that area before pouring cement). I also used Sika self leveling caulk in some deep crack spots (big mistake). 2 days later and nothing dries to it! I used Rustoleum ReCoat Primer after patching & caulking which went on great and covered well but would not set up over the areas I caulked. I waited an extra day and it was still tacky in only those areas. I had to continue (no more than 48hrs to install Poly over primer) hoping that the Poly coating would still adhere to it and set up. Installing the final coat and flakes was pretty straightforward with no issues. I did not use the 9" foam rollers that came with the kit. I used an 18" roller frame with a 3/8" roller (worked great) to speed up the install time. I bought (3) one car Rock Solid kits for a 2 car garage (750 sq ft) and was glad I did. Suggest purchasing extra paint flakes as only a small bag comes with each kit (not nearly enough to do a nice flake job). The flakes hide a lot of sins and imperfections so more is better if you have an old pitted concrete floor you are trying to revive. You will also want to plan on purchasing and installing a clear top coat over the flakes which they do not tell you about. Plan on approximately $1000 for all the materials needed to do a 2 car garage.

I give this 4 out of 5 stars only because I believe Rust-Oleum should provide 10% more epoxy in these bags to ensure coverage is possible for the suggested area. The finished product is very nice. Shipping was very fast and at $167, this is the cheapest price I’ve seen yet for the 2.5 car kit (normally $214 in my local stores).There are tons of videos and explanations on how to apply epoxy floor coating, but I wanted to share my experience as well in case something I did differently might help someone else. This is my third time using this product specifically and I wanted to pass a long some of what I’ve learned so far.Before beginning, check all your supplies. The kit should come with two bags of epoxy sealed ( I have purchased these where they bags are slightly leaking, make sure to return and get a new one if that’s the case), two rollers, two bags of flake coloring and two bags of floor etching. If you’re using a clear coat be sure to check that kit as well. Sometimes items will be missing from kits or the contents will be damaged.1) vacuum the floor/cracks and wipe any easily removable contaminants from the floor before etching the concrete. prep is key! I did not use the acid etching method for my floor, since I’ve heard mixed results on that. Instead, I prefer to use an angle grinder with a 4inch cement grinding blade and a dust shroud with shop vacuum attachment (see pictures). The first time I did one of these floors I used a big floor buffer and was never able to grind through everything (oil spots), couldn’t get in the corners, and even with the shop vacuum attached to the floor buffer it still created a lot of dust. For the rental fee of the floor buffer you can own an angle grinder with all the necessary attachments (minus the vacuum probably). The dust shroud I used on the angle grinder really does capture 99% of all dust as advertised and it took me 4-5hrs to angle grind one garage spot. Aim for the same whitish color everywhere on the the cement after grinding; any dark spots indicate an area that might have had an oil spill or other contamination and you should do your best to remove this dark area.2) check floor temperature using an infrared laser thermometer. Harbor freight sells these for $18-60 typically depending which one you want. See picture. Be sure the floor temperature is above 55F is my suggestion. Some people might feel comfortable with lower temps but it will slow or even stop the curing process depending how low the temperature is. I have a garage heater I used to help control the temperatures for this job. Ambient temperature was 74F while the coldest spot on the floor was near 65F for reference. Outside the garage was near 40F. Humidity should remain below 85% according to Rust-Oleum; mine ranged 61-72% from what I saw.3) use the Rust-Oleum Concrete Patch Repair kit epoxy. It comes in a small whiteish box and you can see how far one 24oz kit went in the photos I’ve uploaded. I mixed this epoxy with a putty knife in an old shoe box and used that as my trough for the mixed epoxy while I moved around the garage. If I had wanted to fill all the cracks between the cement slabs for this one garage spot I probably would’ve needed 3-4 more kits. This crack filler product does a great job, but at $1 per ounce it is expensive. I filled cracks up to 1/2 inch wide and deep for this particular epoxy coating and did not fill the cracks between the cement slabs to save some money. (Filling cracks prevents wasting the floor epoxy which will flow into cracks very easily.) Once the filler epoxy has hardened (~8-20hrs depending on your conditions) be sure to grind the filler epoxy to level it out and also to rough it up so the floor epoxy will stick to it next.4) vacuum the entire floor area to be coated. I used a shop vacuum with squeegee attachment then a Dyson house vacuum with the motorized head to scrub the concrete pores.5) wipe the entire floor with acetone and some rags. I’ve found this can pick up additional particulate that the vacuum misses. I allowed the acetone to dry for 12 hours with fans running while looking for any dark spots in the cement (wet) before continuing. If you note a lot of moisture in your cement you may need to perform additional sealing of the concrete before epoxying the floor (see Rust-Oleum moisture stop). Water seeping in to the concrete from the underside can cause the floor epoxy to peal up over time and even to crack the concrete. To determine if there’s a moisture issue, Rust-Oleum suggests using a piece of plastic taped to the floor for 24hrs to see if moisture builds up under the plastic.6) prepping the epoxy... make sure to have your paint roller ready and colored flake accessible. Before breaking the seal between epoxy A and B sides, I mixed around the contents of each separately in case they had become separated or built up in one corner inside the bags (these can sit on the shelf for years in a store). Then, on the floor, slowly roll part A side of the bag (like you’d roll a sleeping bag) toward part B and you should feel the seal in the middle “pop” open and both parts will begin mixing. Very important to mix for the suggested minimum time 3-4 minutes... I add one extra minute of mix time to be sure. Roll the bags around, press the edges, do your best to make sure parts A and B are completely mixed together.7) Start at the furthest point from where you plan to exit the area after coating the floor. Cut the corner of the bag off to allow a small opening to pour from. Pour a line of the epoxy three fingers wide a few inches from the wall. I worked from the back of the garage to the front so I was doing 10ft wide sections at a time. The roller will absorb a bit at first, but then will act more like a squeegee pushing the epoxy around. Avoid pushing any epoxy into deep cracks as this will waste a lot of material. Attempt to keep the same thickness of epoxy in all areas of the floor to avoid discoloration. I was able to complete one 10x20 foot garage area with one bag of epoxy, but I note it appears thin in a couple spots (different color grey finish when dry) due to thin spots most likely. Unfortunately, I believe for perfect coverage, 2.5-3 bags are needed in a 20x20 garage depending on how many pours and pits the concrete has. If you want the color flake, I suggest laying 4-5 feet of epoxy on the floor in front of you, then throwing the flake (throw up and let it fall on the epoxy rather than throwing down. It will disperse more evenly this way)8) leave the garage closed and check back in 8hours. If it is still tacky (not gummy) then check back in another 4-5hrs. I had a little on my paint roller still so I was able to check that for tackiness before I went back to the garage (trying to keep the heat in the garage). After 12hrs my epoxy was hard enough to walk on. I crawled around and used my hands to search for any sticky spots at this point. The first time I used this product I believe it was not mixed long enough before applying and/or the floor was not completely ground down and the epoxy did not cure in 60% of the floor. We had to use grinders and acetone to remove this area and then grind/rough up the cured spots before applying a new coat of epoxy.9) once the epoxy is cured, I chose to add the Rock Solid clear coat for added strength/durability. Since the cement has been coated the pours are sealed and one bag of clear will cover a 20x20 garage floor nicely. After mixing the Part A and B for the clear, I decided to add the provided anti slip additive. I cut the top of the bag open completely and poured in the additive. I worked it around in the bag a bit before starting to pour it out around the floor. Be sure to continue to stir the additive as you’re pouring, or it will all settle to the bottom. Similar to laying the first epoxy coating. Note, This will spread much easier over the already epoxied floor, so you don’t need to pour as much out as you did initially when coating the floor.10) wait 8-12hours and check back on the curing floor. Solid is goo, tacky is okay, gummy might11) I wait a full weekend before moving everything heavy (tool chests) back on the floor just in case some spots are still curing.Good luck!EDIT: if you are applying the Rock Solid Clear, I have recently found better results to throw the anti slip additive on the floor (similar to throwing the colored flakes) rather than adding it to the clear epoxy while it’s in the bag. This prevents clumping of the anti skid material when the clear coat hardens.