I want to make my own epoxy setup plate for my garage floor. It's not very level and pretty much unusable for corner weighting and alignment.

I'm hoping to find something at Home Depot to use as the edging dam to hold a few gallons of epoxy as it cures on the garage floor to form a super flat setup plate. The only thing I can find is the super expensive plate done by the guys that do all the NASCAR race shops.

Anyone tried it?

 

Epoxy is pretty thick, I would just use some sheet plastic (duct taped to the cement) and build your dam out of 2x4s (place the 2x4s over the plastic and flod it back over the 2x4 so that the epoxy doesn't stick to the edge of the 2x4). You can use some small carbide nails (headless) to hold them in place. The good thing about carbide nails is that when your done either just tap them sideways and they break right off or you can pound them down flush with the surface. If you try to pull them up they will pull out a chunk of concrete with them.

You could also use sand bags or other weights if you don't want to use a few of those carbide nails.

I use to do this all the time when working with ARDEX products (self leveling concrete). You'll probably also need to etch the concrete first with an acid so that it doesn't break up. If it doesn't bond well to the substrate it can do all kinds of funny things....

-Rob

 

Thanks for the suggestions Rob, plastic sheet and 2x4s sounds like a good solution for the dam. I just did the math for the amount of epoxy to do a 10 x 8 feet pad at 1.5 inches deep and it came to 75 gallons!

8' x 10' = 80 square feet
x 144 = 11,520 square inches
x 1.5 inches deep = 17,280 cubic inches = 74.8 gallons

Holy crap! Rob, does that sound right?

I think I figured out why there is so little info about do-it-yourself epoxy setup pads available.

 

Can't you just not epoxy the center? You canconnect the two sides at three different points (fr,ctr,rr) and that way it all levels the same.

I would contact Fred @ alphagarage, he deals with wolverine epoxy coatings and is extremely helpful.

Fred@alphagarage.com

j

 

I'm not familiar with doing an epoxy pad that thick so I'm unsure about the math.


I would look into possibly using an ARDEX product. ARDEX K 15 is a 4100psi self leveling portland cement. It covers 55sq/ft per bag at 1/4" thick (I think). You can even add aggregate to make it up to 5" thick.
3-6 bags should do an 8x10 pad (as long as you know how badly the substrate is out of level....you probably don't need to do an 1 1/2"). I think K 15 runs about $40-50 a bag. You would still need to etch the cement and use the primers.

You could even get some of their decorative interior flooring cements (6100psi) and throw in some dye to make it any color you want.

This stuff is super strong and if you install it correcty you will never be able to remove it. If you try to break it up it will shear off the top layer of the underlaying cement. In fact you should actually run a chain across the floor and listen for micro fractures, bubbles, and so on... depending on how the concrete is you might even need a tumbler to make sure you get a good bond.



Anyways it's just a thought and probably cheaper than 1 1/2" thinck epoxy floor.


If you have an 8', 10' or 12' straight edge, level, or box edge; glue two new quarters to each end on one side. A quarter is exactly 1/8" think....2 of them will give you a precise 1/4" shim. This side of the level will check for humps in the concrete 1/4" high and the other side will show dips Some times it's hard to tell whether the concrete is high or just has 2 low spots on each side making it look like a high spot.......

-Rob

 

Thanks for the suggestions guys. If I do this I'll probably go with the ARDEX. My garage floor is pretty bad. When they laid the slab it rained and there were some pretty deep puddles. I should have specified the importance of a smooth, flat floor for at least the work stall.