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Here are useful tips learned during more than 40 years of installing epoxy urethane floor seals and coatings on Fortune 500 company concrete floors, as well as in basements, garages, and decks. These tips can help you avoid mistakes that can limit the life of your floor.

There are three broad steps to doing your floor project: planning and preparation, repairing, and applying the coating. This article is the first in a three part series, and deals with planning and preparation.

General guidelines for applying an epoxy coating to your floor:

Do no harm.

Investing in prep produces the best value, (cost divided by years of service).

Let the chemicals and equipment do the work.

What can go wrong, will go wrong, unless you think ahead.

Technique is what separates mortals from Rembrandts.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Now let’s get started with tips on how to plan your job and prepare your floor.

Plan the job.

Stick your coating to something that is not going to move

The better the tools, the less work you have to do.

Removing loose concrete is as important as removing dirt

Different types of dirt require different cleaners

“Shocking” the floor can help free dirt and contaminants.

Some things must be abraded off.

Don’t blow bubbles through your finish

There is only one way to remove gum

Asphalt bleeds

If you coat over things that move, your floor may move

Vacuum out those holes

Gravity is unforgiving

Boston home owners should plan ahead to find out how much it will cost to paint their house. Boston house painting contractors may give different estimates depending on their work schedule.  To get a house painted in Spring, asking for a quote during the Winter, when business is slow, may save some money.  The cost of painting the same house may rise in the Summer and Fall when painting contractors are busiest.

A bit of education will reveal that Boston house painters may come up with different approaches to the exact same job.  Knowing what those approaches are will help determine your costs and allow you to intelligently evaluate a house painting estimate.

Exterior house painting can be accomplished in a variety of ways.  Some house painters will prefer to spray the paint on, and others will rely on brushes or rollers to paint the same walls.  Each technique has advantages and disadvantages.  Painting contractors using the spray method may be faster, but often create a mess if windows and trim are not protected from the spray. Rollers will give a fast job without the mess, but are best suited for painting stucco, concrete and brick.  Brushes are the slowest application, but experienced house painters will often rely on them for the best results, especially on shingle and houses with clapboard or other siding materials.  

Before calling a contractor for your first quote, be aware of the condition of the walls of your house. Is the paint peeling, bubbling or cracking?  Is there mold, mildew or moss growing on the walls?  A good painter will not paint over unstable surfaces. Preparation requirements like scraping off old paint, priming raw wood, and caulking imperfections, gaps and cracks will affect your estimate.  

Here are useful tips learned during more than 40 years of installing epoxy urethane floor seals and coatings on Fortune 500 company concrete floors, as well as in basements, garages, and decks. These tips can help you avoid mistakes that can limit the life of your floor.

There are three broad steps to doing your floor project: planning and preparation, repairing, and applying the coating. This article is the first in a three part series, and deals with planning and preparation.

General guidelines for applying an epoxy coating to your floor:

Do no harm.

Investing in prep produces the best value, (cost divided by years of service).

Let the chemicals and equipment do the work.

What can go wrong, will go wrong, unless you think ahead.

Technique is what separates mortals from Rembrandts.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Now let’s get started with tips on how to plan your job and prepare your floor.

Plan the job.

Stick your coating to something that is not going to move

The better the tools, the less work you have to do.

Removing loose concrete is as important as removing dirt

Different types of dirt require different cleaners

“Shocking” the floor can help free dirt and contaminants.

Some things must be abraded off.

Don’t blow bubbles through your finish

There is only one way to remove gum

Asphalt bleeds

If you coat over things that move, your floor may move

Vacuum out those holes

Gravity is unforgiving

There are a number of pitfalls to watch out for when you paint.

Bleeding.
Bleeding usually occurs on exterior surfaces when a stain already on the surface bleeds through the new paint. Inside, too, problems can arise, as when children use crayons or permanent ink on walls. You may paint the area a dozen times, but the marks always bleed through. (Try spraying them with shellac first.)

Blistering.
Blistering occurs when you paint over a surface that is wet. For example, when you are painting outdoors over rotted wood or on a misty day, the moisture gets underneath the surface of the paint and lifts it up. Blistering usually occurs soon after painting. Be sure the surface is dry before you paint.

Chalking and Fading.
Chalking and fading may simply be the result of the aging process of the paint. If it’s excessive, however, it could indicate an underlying water problem. The subsurface could be wet. You will need to dig down into the subsurface to determine where the moisture is coming from and then put up a barrier.

Nail Popping.
This occurs most often on sheet rock where the nail pops up, causing a protrusion in the paint, although it can occur on any surface. It might simply be that the nail was never properly hammered down. However, if rust marks show through, there is moisture in the wood from which the nail protrudes. You will probably have to get into the wall to determine where the moisture is coming from and then resolve the problem.

Wrinkling.
Wrinkling is usually an outdoor problem caused by putting on too much paint or painting on a hot day. Wrinkling can also occur if the previous coat (or primer) was not completely dry. Whatever the cause, you will need to strip the paint off and start over-a good reason to be extra careful!

Using a spray gun to apply paint can be quicker and easier than other methods and can give a better finish. Some paints – car body finishes, for example – are specially formulated for spraying; other paints can be sprayed provided that they are ‘thinned’ with solvent.

Successful spraying requires a fair degree of skill and knowledge both about the paint you’re applying and the paint spraying equipment itself.

Types of spray gun

There are two main types of spray gun: with separate compressors or airless.

Spray guns with separate compressors

These are the conventional design of spray gun. Originally, they had large compressors plus a bulky ‘receiver’ to balance out fluctuations in pressure. This type of equipment can still be bought (or hired), but the amateur is more likely to be interested in one of the range of smaller guns with separate compressors. The compressor, which is electrically powered, provides a supply of air under pressure to the gun which has a container for the paint. Some of the air passes into the paint container to pressurise the paint; the remainder comes out through the nozzle as a fine stream. When the gun’s trigger is pulled back, a needle valve at the back of the nozzle is opened and the paint passes up from the container past the needle and into the air flow. The paint mixes with the air flow to provide a fine spray from the nozzle. The amount of paint that flows can be controlled by the trigger the further that the trigger is pulled back, the more paint that flows – though in practice the amount is limited by the power of the compressor.

Airless spray guns