35 Years in the Making!

[Michael B]

I trenched almost 500' in an evening. I picked the machine up at the rental store about 4:00 pm. Came home and ran two trenches (one for water and one for power) had the trencher loaded back on the trailer at 7:30 pm. Returned the trencher the next morning. Cost was minimal and worth every dollar!

 

[knuckle47]

@Michael B that’s impressive. I dream about it in my head but have not yet gotten it done…. Electrical inspector said he’d do the entire rough inspection at the same time so I’m slowly finishing the interior. Then spending the ridiculous money for that 4/0 wire and conduit. the power company has been slow to return my calls about using a lesser wire. I’m not needing 200 amps. If I use 40, it’s a lot.

 

[knuckle47]

So nearly finished the interior wiring… starting the epoxy flooring Sunday

 

[Hugh Heifer]

I dread doing the electrical. I know a couple guys that will help out but that does not help me with the town and the prices.

 

[knuckle47]

I was there at the town office this morning…. He looks at me and says “ your not an electrician?”

 

[knuckle47]

if I can get everything from the meter pan to the pole for 5000.00, I am sure that is a deal…. I have a friend of my son coming by who is a union electrician and has a trencher. As long as he is willing to do the job…it will get done sooner than much much later. Opened the door today it had to be 120 degrees or more inside. With all the doors opened in about 1 minute, it was perfect…nice breeze and 80 degrees. I May re-direct that 5000.00 foam spray cost towards the electric install until fall. The 4 post lift is supposed to come in 2 weeks. Electricity makes it work a whole lot better

 

[knuckle47]

Made some progress finally electrically and MIGHT have power in there before Labor Day. My power company guy was on vacation so I know why he did not get back to me. I’ve not been on vacation in 22 years so I kinda forgot most people actually do that. All in all, if you have the cash, things get done much quicker…haha

so at this point, grinding the new concrete and epoxying the floor in a few days. It’s the lessor of 2 evils

 

[knuckle47]

Picked up the concrete grinder at 8am. Rented it for the day but the job was complete in less than 2 hours. It worked extremely well. Spent another hour blowing and vacuuming the floor but since it was only 10:30 decided to pour on the first coat of epoxy. This process is pretty un-eventful although minimal focus is needed for mixing and adding color.

My son who is in construction, mixed and poured the epoxy and squeegeed the first coat. I back rolled it and threw the color flakes. 50 lbs of flake. We were completely finished by 12:30. The catalyzed reaction was amazing. During the cleanup, the 18” roller was over 140 degrees. Hot enough to drop in the stones of the current driveway. The floor was nicely hardening by 4pm and is drying overnight. Second coat after scraping the excess flake goes on tomorrow and this process is finished.

since we have no power yet, this Hurricane Sandy generator came in handy once again and never skipped a beat. Also performed flawlessly for 13 days back then and the fairly frequent outages we seem to be prone to

 

[greenbeast]

Looks great! My son just told me two of his high school buddies in college started company doing floors, of course they did after I moved over 800 miles to the east.

Overall would you say pretty easy job now that you have done it? I’d like to do same on mine.

 

[knuckle47]

@greenbeast I called 2 companies for estimates $4900 & $5800 for 950sq ft. Whether it’s old concrete or new…they say it has to be ground. It allows excellent adhesion to the surface. Since I get tired easily these days I rented the 10” concrete grinder from Home Depot for $187 for the day. It was a lot harder than steering and old FJ40. Using the generator for power, the job was done in under 2 hours. The dust was incredible but using a blower and respirator I cleaned out the area. Took 4 tries to insure a semi dust free floor.

I used (2) MPC-100 in 3 gallon pails from Amazon For the 1st coat and 2 for the second. Every review of every product the users complain about the area coverage and running short. It is a 2 part epoxy and added MICAH powder for color. Basically gray. Spread it with the squeegee and followed up with the roller to smooth it out and then cast the grey/white/dark grey flakes( this takes a bit of concentration to ensure uniformity) I could have done better in some spots . I might have needed another 15-20 lbs of flake for the density I wanted. If you throw them up in the air , they scatter and flicker to the ground like butterflies compared to tossing them as a handful.

I let it sit over night. It is 9:45 Saturday am and I have been finished with the second coat for almost an hour. All that’s left is to let it harden a few days.

the squeegee is more work than the roller. I have about $1200 all told with materials, rental, spreaders, rollers. My quotes were almost $6.00 a sqft and we have labor and materials for $1.20

the hardest part is broadcasting the flake as this is really the look you get. It sits under a clear coat surface so a thick patch shows up well compared to a thinner area. I would absolutely do it again. I am 69 with arthritis issues and a-fib and both of these days started at 79 degrees and it was near 92 on Friday when we finished. Right now at 9;50am it is 81 with 85% humidity… bring 2 shirts!!

that is the complete story . I have only seen the 1st dry coat, looks good, seems hard. If it all winds up as it seem it will, I’d be very very pleased. Before adding the second clear coat, I ran over the entire surface with a steel scraper to kill any peaks of flake ….scraped up a coffee can of excess

 

[knuckle47]

By the way: I bought 2 pair of those cheap spiked shoe plates. These are a must. You can cruise across the floor without slipping but they truly suck for staying on with the enclosed straps. for the second day I took some 1/8 Dacron cord and made up some simple shoelaces…. Worked perfectly.

without these spikes, it’s like sliding on oil slicked surface.they leave no marks in the epoxy when it’s wet and provides stability

 

[BadReligion]

Floor looks great. Any reason for choosing epoxy over the newer polyaspartic coatings? It sounds like the latter are UV stable and don't yellow.

 

[knuckle47]

@BadReligion no reason…. My 40 year old garage was used to restore vintage American motorcycles for 30 years. They came in as basket cases and left as near new. The process caused spills of all kinds from rusty gas and water, jellied oils, grease, paints, sawdust ( that one is easy ). That floor to this day looks horrendous.

being as old as I am, I won’t be so aggressive in rebuilding things now but when something spills, I can just wipe it up. The epoxy was quickly available and cost effective without too much thinking. Now that it’s done… I can finish up and get started doing some project on the FJ40. There has been a Holley Sniper sitting in my basement for almost 2 months now calling my name

MPC-100 Epoxy Resin Flooring Kit (3gal) - Latux Epoxy & Flooring - https://latuxepoxy.com/product/mpc-100-epoxy-resin-flooring-kit-3gal/ I used 12 gallons of this for 2 coats….6 each

i have to assume the UV issue is minimum since the surface is enclosed…this stuff seems to be industrial enough. If it does yellow LET THE NEXT GUY WORRY ABOUT IT!. When I was with the salesman for the pole building…he said “ do you want to upgrade to the stainless steel screws…the standard ones have a 30 year guarantee? “. gee, let me think…I’m 69, I’ll be 99 when they start to rust?

UPDATE: it has been about 10 hours… floor is dry to touch and looks glossy like an ice rink… should not be slippery too much, it has aluminum oxide sprinkled and roller distributed nicely….

 

[knuckle47]

For anyone interested, after the flakes had dried into the first layer of epoxy, I used this to pass over the surface so any high stuff would not create spikes that could be a barefoot problem or just look irregular. It did a great job and the 24 hour dry look this morning is smooth as can be

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Nicely done. I have had the flake system (polyaspartic though) in two garages and I really liked the way it cleaned up. What I didn't like was finding an M4 nut after I dropped it. For some reason that flake tends to camouflage everything.

 

[knuckle47]

@WarDamnEagle ha ha, I fully understand that… I had no choice but to do much of my motorcycle restoration work in a dirt and gravel driveway and a small garage. It has been years since I stopped doing this but…Harbor Freight sold a magnet bar that I still roll around the dirt and find rusted nuts bolts and washers, .035 carbon steel welding wire cuts and many other surprises. I did question that same issue when flinging the flakes

 

[therisingsun]

Nicely done. I have had the flake system (polyaspartic though) in two garages and I really liked the way it cleaned up. What I didn't like was finding an M4 nut after I dropped it. For some reason that flake tends to camouflage everything.

War Eagle - auburn local

 

[knuckle47]

An update on getting power to the pole barn. This 114’ trench is about 30” deep from the electric pole to the side of the building. My son and his friend did much of the work. The process of pulling 160’ of 4/0 wire was so much easier than I thought with the giant pulley above the 3” schedule 80 conduit. He used a power puller that pulled this wire about 4-6” a second. Got my inspection this morning…passed! Will have a service inspection on Thursday and hoping to wrap this all up by the week after Labor Day

On the schedule: next up….spray foam and 24k btu mini split

 

[1911]

An update on getting power to the pole barn. This 114’ trench is about 30” deep from the electric pole to the side of the building. My son and his friend did much of the work.

I'm going to be doing that next week.

 

[knuckle47]

Also have this photo of the second coat of epoxy on the floor… it’s been nearly a month dry and the gloss is remarkable. Anyone who has come by to look thinks it is wet and hesitates to walk on it…