# Epoxy garage flooring



## hyunelan2

Make sure you properly clean and prep the floors according to the directions on your floor paint. They guy who lived in my house before me did not, and I am suffering the peeling paint because of it.


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## BlueBSH

hyunelan2 said:


> Make sure you properly clean and prep the floors according to the directions on your floor paint. They guy who lived in my house before me did not, and I am suffering the peeling paint because of it.


 
I've read a lot of places to "prime" the foor, yet the directions for the quikrete epxoy never say anything about priming the floor. It only says to sweep it clean, then do the degreesing / bond lock acid etch let dry for a day then paint...

which is right?


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## Kiwi.

BlueBSH said:


> I've read a lot of places to "prime" the foor, yet the directions for the quikrete epxoy never say anything about priming the floor. It only says to sweep it clean, then do the degreesing / bond lock acid etch let dry for a day then paint...
> 
> which is right?


Don't prime, just clean it more than you thought you'd ever clean your garage floor. The kits usually come with a degreaser/etcher and make sure any other debree is off the floor. 
I'm sure you could do your garage floor in two halfs but you'd need two kits as any left over from the first section probably wouldn't last until you're ready for the second section.
I did mine a couple of years ago and its lasted pretty well, especially considering the salt/gravel that they use on our roads during the winter.


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## BlueBSH

Kiwi. said:


> Don't prime, just clean it more than you thought you'd ever clean your garage floor. The kits usually come with a degreaser/etcher and make sure any other debree is off the floor.
> I'm sure you could do your garage floor in two halfs but you'd need two kits as any left over from the first section probably wouldn't last until you're ready for the second section.
> I did mine a couple of years ago and its lasted pretty well, especially considering the salt/gravel that they use on our roads during the winter.


no problem with scuff marks or scratches? did you do the clear top coat that comes in another kit?


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## Kiwi.

Its pretty (actually really) dirty right now so I can't confirm the presence of scuffs. We did drag our washer and dryer over the floor last week and I think I did scratch it a little but doen't look too bad. Because we're in the mountains I added a Behr anti slip (sand stuff) additive to the mixture and then finished with the 'sprinkles', no clear coat. Can't remember if I read about the clear coat being potentially slippery or not. I also remember doing two coats of the stuff (because I bought the big coat) but that isn't recommended or likely necessary. But it seems to be lasting.
When summer comes around I'll get to clean the floor and see how it looks. I'm sure it looked pretty good last summer.


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## BlueBSH

Kiwi. said:


> Its pretty (actually really) dirty right now so I can't confirm the presence of scuffs. We did drag our washer and dryer over the floor last week and I think I did scratch it a little but doen't look too bad. Because we're in the mountains I added a Behr anti slip (sand stuff) additive to the mixture and then finished with the 'sprinkles', no clear coat. Can't remember if I read about the clear coat being potentially slippery or not. I also remember doing two coats of the stuff (because I bought the big coat) but that isn't recommended or likely necessary. But it seems to be lasting.
> When summer comes around I'll get to clean the floor and see how it looks. I'm sure it looked pretty good last summer.


 
ah the flakes, had a question on those too... are they raised or do they meld into the floor pretty well? the samples at lowes had them littearly laying ontop of the base color, but the pictures always seem to show them like they went into the paint somehow and melted together


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## BigD9

I painted my garage floor about 4 years ago using the *Rust-Oleum EPOXYShield* tinted Ky Wildcat Blue. I also used the flakes, but did not use the "sand" or any other anti-skid material. The floor isn't all that slippery. The chips are slightly embedded, and still sticking up enough to give it some relief. The floor still looks great, but is starting to show scratches and some staining. The paint will stand up to just about anything BUT brake fluid. Brake fluid will bleach out the color and no amount of cleaning will help. I plan to top coat my floor with the clear sometime this summer to bring back the paint to its fantastic blue color. 

On my floor, we acid etched the concrete then pressured blasted the surface until the concrete had a uniform sanded looking surface. I sealed the few cracks with a concrete crack sealer from Lowe's. The expansion sawed joints I left open, but I made sure the epoxy coated the inside of the joints. We used 3 gallons intermixing the base paint so the color would be all the same gallon to gallon.

I plan to paint my new equipment garage floor this year. The epoxy sure makes cleaning the floor soooooo easy. I just need to save up some $ before starting this job. The building is 40' x 40' so that is a floor area of 1600 sq ft.!


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## BlueBSH

BigD9 said:


> I painted my garage floor about 4 years ago using the *Rust-Oleum EPOXYShield* tinted Ky Wildcat Blue. I also used the flakes, but did not use the "sand" or any other anti-skid material. The floor isn't all that slippery. The chips are slightly embedded, and still sticking up enough to give it some relief. The floor still looks great, but is starting to show scratches and some staining. The paint will stand up to just about anything BUT brake fluid. Brake fluid will bleach out the color and no amount of cleaning will help. I plan to top coat my floor with the clear sometime this summer to bring back the paint to its fantastic blue color.
> 
> On my floor, we acid etched the concrete then pressured blasted the surface until the concrete had a uniform sanded looking surface. I sealed the few cracks with a concrete crack sealer from Lowe's. The expansion sawed joints I left open, but I made sure the epoxy coated the inside of the joints. We used 3 gallons intermixing the base paint so the color would be all the same gallon to gallon.
> 
> I plan to paint my new equipment garage floor this year. The epoxy sure makes cleaning the floor soooooo easy. I just need to save up some $ before starting this job. The building is 40' x 40' so that is a floor area of 1600 sq ft.!


 
Yikes! that's like $500 for the epoxy alone before all the other stuff you need to clean if you dont have the tools or crack filler etc :laughing:


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## BigD9

I know, I know. Thats why I said I needed to save some money before I do this! I want to accomplish the painting before I contaminate the new concrete with engine oil, hydraulic fluid, antifreeze grease or any other bad for paint sticking to concrete floors stuff. Right now I have cardboard under the tractor and all the attachments that contain oil or grease. I also fuel the tractor outside just in case I spill some diesel.

What kind of paint did you use on your garage walls? I really need to do mine because like yours the walls seem to only have a thin primer on them. Not too worried about the ceiling. Its 10 feet up there and I'm getting to old to enjoy painting things way up there anymore.

Also I would love to paint the basement floor with something. Just don't know what yet.


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## BlueBSH

BigD9 said:


> I know, I know. Thats why I said I needed to save some money before I do this! I want to accomplish the painting before I contaminate the new concrete with engine oil, hydraulic fluid, antifreeze grease or any other bad for paint sticking to concrete floors stuff. Right now I have cardboard under the tractor and all the attachments that contain oil or grease. I also fuel the tractor outside just in case I spill some diesel.
> 
> What kind of paint did you use on your garage walls? I really need to do mine because like yours the walls seem to only have a thin primer on them. Not too worried about the ceiling. Its 10 feet up there and I'm getting to old to enjoy painting things way up there anymore.
> 
> Also I would love to paint the basement floor with something. Just don't know what yet.


Since its a garage, and can be considered and open space at times, I used semi-gloss exterior paint, some people say not to because of VOC content and stuff of exterior paint, but it seems to uphold better then normal interior paint in the garage with the temp swings and such...

yeah the ceiling I just left that flat white... figured whats the point, ours is 11 ft up so its not the easiest thing to paint even with long handels on the rollers


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## BigD9

One thing I wanted to mention, I painted our basement steps with Valspar Latex Skid-Not Floor Paint. Although the steps are skid resistant, they are also very hard to keep clean. Everything sticks to the rough texture and won't let go! Pet hair is almost impossible to sweep off. I have repainted the steps twice with a regular floor paint trying to smooth the rough surface with some degree of success. So, when they say "Skid-Not", they really mean it!

Anyway, I shied away from adding anything to the epoxy garage paint except for the flakes because of the steps experience. I can't imaging having a garage floor as rough as those steps were.


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## BlueBSH

any temp requirements for this? it hasn't been about 40's much yet around here... I want to do this before it gets too hot out, should be in the 50's for a couple weeks in april... hoping that is a good time to go for it...


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## BlueBSH

alright have a question, did the bond-lock etching last night... it bubbled somewhat, not sure how much its supose to "bubble / fizz" but how much is this exactly supose to etch the surface? it feels about the same as a spot I didn't etch with it... I always thought etching made a surface rougher? its a LOT cleaner then it was after this, but besides that it doesn't seem to much different, or is this a light etching? the concrete was smooth to start with not rough... and isn't sealed at all.


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## BlueBSH

here's what I've done so far for prep...

1) Swep the floor and shop vac'ed it
2) rinsed the floor with clean water, let dry
3) scraped off any paint or anything that is "raised" above the surface so its all smooth and flat
4) shop vac'ed it again
5) had some oil stains so I put Seal-*Krete* Oil Stain Remover on those spots, let it sit over night, swep up the dried up powder left
6) rinsed with clean water to remove any seal krete OSR residue left
7) still had some places oil seems to be making water beed up, so use dawn dish soap mixed with water over the floor and scrubbed it a lot... this got rid of a lot of the oil on top it seemed to clean pretty good
8) rinsed it till all the soap was gone... let dry
9) rinsed it again just because... let dry completely for a day
10) wet down the floor slightly and did the bond-lock in a watering can (3 parts water to 1 part bond-lock like the stuff said) poured it on, didn't do much on contact but it started to bubble after a few seconds... scrubbed it in like directed in two directions... it bubbled but still didn't seem like it did that much
11) let the bond-lock sit for a couple minutes, but didn't let it dry, then rinsed it till the floor water was running clean..... let it dry with a fan helping since its only in the 60's outside after drying the floor looked MUCH cleaner, and amazing all the darker spots are gone now, and the whole floor looks about two shades lighter then spots that wern't covered with the bond lock (parts that went outside, etc)

now waiting for at least 24 hours to completely dry..... finished the last step of the prep last night at 8pm... today it will dry all day so 4hrs last night dry plus 24hrs more tonight and probably going to paint saturday morning around 8pm.... so I hope it will be dry enough by then its pretty dry as it is now...

did a concrete moisture emissions test last year and got basically nothing, so water doesn't seem to be coming out of the slab in any bad amount... also did the take a piece of plastic tarp over a 2x2ft square section to see if any vapor forms under it or the concrete is darker in that spot... nope nothing... so I hope its all good to go for paint.....

what do you guys think?


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## BigD9

Sounds good. Looks like you are following the manufactures recommendations, and you usually can't go wrong there. 

Are you still going to use the Quikrete garage floor epoxy? What color?. If you do tint the base, make sure you mix or box the base cans (before you mix in the hardener) to all containers will be the same color. Going to use the flakes? Got help? My wife and I did ours, and it worked great. She did the mixing and flake spreading, and I did the brush and roller work. Also she was able to point out thick and thin areas so it would all look uniform. 

Good luck, and post plenty of pictures.


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## BlueBSH

BigD9 said:


> Sounds good. Looks like you are following the manufactures recommendations, and you usually can't go wrong there.
> 
> Are you still going to use the Quikrete garage floor epoxy? What color?. If you do tint the base, make sure you mix or box the base cans (before you mix in the hardener) to all containers will be the same color. Going to use the flakes? Got help? My wife and I did ours, and it worked great. She did the mixing and flake spreading, and I did the brush and roller work. Also she was able to point out thick and thin areas so it would all look uniform.
> 
> Good luck, and post plenty of pictures.


 
yes, got Quikrete, got it tinted to a darker grey, forget what its called off hand... its not the darkest gray, but its close, wished they had black but they don't...

not sure about the flakes yet, not sure what color I want... going to figure that out tonight... it comes with the tan flakes, but its gray color, so not sure if i should go with another color flakes or not...

when you did the etching and degreesing, did it fizz much? did it etch all that much? I don't notice much of a change in texture


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## Kiwi.

BlueBSH said:


> what do you guys think?


I think that's as much prep as I did and mine is looking pretty good after a couple of years.


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## BigD9

My floor was 6 months old and didn't have any oil stains to degrease. I had protected it with cardboard under the vehicles. The solution they give you does not fizz all that much. In conjunction with the cleaner/etching solution they provided, I used a 4000 psi pressure washer with a turbo nozzle that really gave a good surface. That sucker will strip paint off a steel plate. It gave me the surface texture I was looking for.


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## BlueBSH

base coat down..... hope to get the top clear coat on tomorrow... this is right after painting so its still wet and shiny

yes the garage has crown molding and chair rail ... hey if im gona do it, i'm going to over do it *lol*


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## BigD9

Great looking job.......Oh No is that a missing spot I see on the floor....Just kidding:whistling2:

Congratulations on a fine looking job. :clap::thumbup:

Do the instructions allow the clear coat to be applied before the base coat has cured? Just asking. I never cleared coated mine, but thought about doing it this year.


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## BlueBSH

BigD9 said:


> Great looking job.......Oh No is that a missing spot I see on the floor....Just kidding:whistling2:
> 
> Congratulations on a fine looking job. :clap::thumbup:
> 
> Do the instructions allow the clear coat to be applied before the base coat has cured? Just asking. I never cleared coated mine, but thought about doing it this year.


 
it says apply after 12 hrs... its almost 12 hrs now... so should be good on that

not to easy to see the color of it though with sun reflection on the wet paint though... when its done will get better pics


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## BlueBSH

Ok have a problem.....

24hrs after the base coat was down, it was completely dry for 12hrs like the clear coat instrucitons said..... put down the clear coat exactly as instructed..... it went on white.... 12hrs later it was still white! well 24hrs now its cleared up significantly put there are still white spots and its not exactly crystal clear.... how long does this stuff take to clear up? the humidity was high yesterday, and we thought that might be slowing it down some... it was 55 degrees out when I put it on.... 80 degrees by lunch time and that for the rest of the day....

I'm really hoping all the white spots turn clear here soon...


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## calconcrete

BlueBSH said:


> any temp requirements for this? it hasn't been about 40's much yet around here... I want to do this before it gets too hot out, should be in the 50's for a couple weeks in april... hoping that is a good time to go for it...


I'd say to wait until the 50's - the higher the better. Epoxy just won't cure properly under 50 . . . or over 90.

Yes, you can do the floor in two sections but you will probably see the seam if you aren't careful. (Remember the painter's mantra about keeping a wet edge? There is a reason for that.) 

1.) I'd recommend taping off the first area with duct tape to create a straight edge. Walk on it to stick it down. Then paint the epoxy from the top of the tape into the body of the floor, not the other way into the edge of the tape. This will keep the epoxy from oozing under the edge. Pull the tape up about an hour after the epoxy goes down. That way it won't run across the line. If you wait a day or two to remove the tape it will be difficult to remove.

2.) Carefully measure out the chips and epoxy into two equal portions so you don't use too much or too little on any one section. 

Good luck with your project. 

Patrick
California Concrete Restoration
www.squidoo.com/epoxygaragefloors


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## calconcrete

BlueBSH said:


> Ok have a problem.....
> 
> 24hrs after the base coat was down, it was completely dry for 12hrs like the clear coat instrucitons said..... put down the clear coat exactly as instructed..... it went on white.... 12hrs later it was still white! well 24hrs now its cleared up significantly put there are still white spots and its not exactly crystal clear.... how long does this stuff take to clear up? the humidity was high yesterday, and we thought that might be slowing it down some... it was 55 degrees out when I put it on.... 80 degrees by lunch time and that for the rest of the day....
> 
> I'm really hoping all the white spots turn clear here soon...


High humidity is a definite problem with clear sealers. As you surmised, it does slow down the curing rate and it also adds moisture to the surface of the uncured sealer which is bad for solvent-based sealers.

Your best bet is to wait a few days to see if it clears up. If not, contact the manufacturer of the materials to see if they have a solution.

Patrick
California Concrete Restoration
www.squidoo.com/epoxygaragefloors


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## calconcrete

BigD9 said:


> My floor was 6 months old and didn't have any oil stains to degrease. I had protected it with cardboard under the vehicles. The solution they give you does not fizz all that much. In conjunction with the cleaner/etching solution they provided, I used a 4000 psi pressure washer with a turbo nozzle that really gave a good surface. That sucker will strip paint off a steel plate. It gave me the surface texture I was looking for.


That was a very good way to go. 

We do epoxy coatings on garage floors and decorative cement overlays on exterior concrete. We don't use our heavy-duty pressure washer inside of garages because it sprays lots of water EVERYWHERE. The water could easily damage interior walls in a garage. Instead, we diamond grind the surface if necessary to achieve porosity for the epoxy.

When we acid wash an exterior concrete surface we use a 10% solution of Muriatic Acid (pool acid). [ALWAYS add acid to water rather than water to acid. Otherwise the acid will splash up.] The Muriatic Acid will etch the concrete unless there are oil or other non-acid soluable materials in the way.

Patrick
California Concrete Restoration
www.squidoo.com/epoxygaragefloors


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## BlueBSH

I just put a dehumidifier out there to try to speed the removal of the humidity up some it seems to be working some for the whole 2 hours its been running, the areas around it are clear now... so you can tell where the dehumidifier was at :laughing: hopefully the whole garage will follow soon... it said the garage was 95% humidity.... yesterday when I put the clear coat down it was only 30% humidity... amazing how fast humidity can rise


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## BigD9

> We do epoxy coatings on garage floors and decorative cement overlays on exterior concrete. We don't use our heavy-duty pressure washer inside of garages because it sprays lots of water EVERYWHERE. The water could easily damage interior walls in a garage. Instead, we diamond grind the surface if necessary to achieve porosity for the epoxy.


I used to oversee contracts for diamond grinding concrete interstate highways, but I doubt I could fit one of those machines in my garage!:no:
(picture from the Internet)


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## BlueBSH

well after a few hours now of dehumidification the RH is down to about 48% and the white is starting to disappear... looks like the humidity was the culprite... anyone that does the clear coat keep that in mind! get the RH down before coating! or do it on a very dry day


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## BigD9

Great website Patrick


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## calconcrete

BlueBSH said:


> I just put a dehumidifier out there to try to speed the removal of the humidity up some it seems to be working some for the whole 2 hours its been running, the areas around it are clear now... so you can tell where the dehumidifier was at :laughing: hopefully the whole garage will follow soon... it said the garage was 95% humidity.... yesterday when I put the clear coat down it was only 30% humidity... amazing how fast humidity can rise



Best of luck to you. Hopefully your job turns out OK.

Patrick
California Concrete Restoration


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## BlueBSH

well been dehumidifying for about 18 hours now, RH is staying around 40-45%, and the floor is clearing up, minus two big circular white spots in the middle of the floor, but hopefully those will go here soon also... everything else besides those is crystal clear now


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## calconcrete

BigD9,

Glad you liked our web site. We try to provide lots of practical information to the homeowner so they can achieve their goals for their epoxy garage floor within their budget.

Check out the links near the bottom of the page. These are links to our other pages which discuss epoxy floor maintenance, repairs, proper materials to use etc.

Patrick
California Concrete Restoration
www.squidoo.com/epoxygaragefloors
:yes:


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## BlueBSH

starting to think the humidity needs to drop outside ugh.... every since I got this clear coat done, its been raining! for the 3rd day in a row now the humidity is 100% which means the dew point is at the ambient temp... which means the floor is staying white in some spots... despite the dehumidifier... I have about 90% of the floor crystal clear..... except for 2 spots which are about 2ft in diameter circles that are still white as heck ugh... at least tomorrow the Humidity is supose to go down to 50%.... maybe that will finally help


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## BlueBSH

well almost a week down now and there is still two big white spots... not sure if they are shrinking or not in size... sent an e-mail to quikrete (valspar) yesterday about it to see what they say.... besides those spots the floor is clear


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## BigD9

Good job, and keep us posted. I for one am looking at using this product and I sure don't want permanent white spots.


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## BlueBSH

someone at valspar (quikrete) told me to heat the area with a hair dryer to speed up the drying process of the water that is embedded in the clear coat (the water is what makes it white when you put it down, as it evaporates it turns clear).. going to try that this weekend once I can find a hair dryer.... amazingly I dont have one :laughing:

the instructions say make sure the dew point is at least 5 degrees below ambient temp, I'd say make sure its at leat 15 just to prevent this from happening... if the dew point is to close to the outside temp, the water wont evaporate quickly, and thats a problem with this time of the year in my region


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## BigD9

> someone at valspar (quikrete) told me to heat the area with a hair dryer to speed up the drying process of the water that is embedded in the clear coat (the water is what makes it white when you put it down, as it evaporates it turns clear).. going to try that this weekend once I can find a hair dryer.... amazingly I dont have one :laughing:


I have a wife, two daughters and a granddaughter. There is enough hair dryers in this house to to raise the temperature of Kentucky by 10 degrees!


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## BlueBSH

BigD9 said:


> I have a wife, two daughters and a granddaughter. There is enough hair dryers in this house to to raise the temperature of Kentucky by 10 degrees!


come on over :tongue_smilie:


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## BlueBSH

alright got results on the hair dryer experiment...

to test it i took the paint stir from the clear coat which was very tickly coated and stayed white... put the hair dryer on it, and after 1 minute turned crystal clear! so tried it on the floor... since the concrete is cold right now it took about 2 minutes of heating up and it turned clear so this method does work great... just not so great if you have a large spot. but the blow dryer i bought had one of those "condensor" atachments to make it a rectangular flow and it conviently would stand up on that when you put it on the floor so the flow blew right down the floor and out in a rectangle flow... just set it on the floor let it flow and 2 minutes a spot about 5 x 12 inches turned clear... move it to the next area and repeat.. works great if you have a humidity problem when you do this


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## BlueBSH

have a solution that actually works for anyone that gets white spots in their clear coat..... valspar said to coat the floor with Xylene using a 3/8 nap paint roller and it sucks the moister left in the clear coat right out... as you roll you can see some come out and the rest evaporates, it might take additional coats if its a very bright white spot, lighter spots happen almost instantly..

make sure you have good ventalation though when using Xylene, it has a lot of fumes and is strong... and have a good fan running to circulate air in the room


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## BlueBSH

valspar also said "do not use a dehumidifier"... just put some box fans and run to blow air over the floor to help circulate air and move the moisture out of the floor


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