Installing a new slip-resistant floor at an automotive collision shop is no job for a rookie outfit with an inexperienced crew and a few cans of unfamiliar epoxy finish.
Car repair facilities are notoriously rough on cement floors. Power tools and heavy components fall and leave gouges. Rust and caked-on dirt shake loose from body panels, only to be ground into the floor. Paint prep creates fine dust, which settles everywhere. Perhaps worst of all, motor oil inevitably spills and seeps deep into concrete floors.
The chipped and pitted floor awaits a new installation.
Not every contractor is up for such a tough challenge, but the body repair and oil change facility could count on one: Xtreme Engineered Floor Systems of Hudsonville, Michigan. With over 23 years of installations covering more than 50 million square feet, the company knows floor coatings, concrete polishing and line striping like few others.
But where do you start when installing a new epoxy surface for the shop’s 5,000 sq. ft. of rough, pitted, oil-soaked floor?
The Xtreme crew began by mechanically profiling the surface using grinders and a shot blaster. At the same time, they cut out joints while patching and filling chips and gouges.
Sealing in oil was key. But how? The team prepared the floor using V-8 Oil Stop Primer. A product of V-8 High Performance Floors, it made sure that years of motor oil accumulation didn’t penetrate back through the concrete and later defeat the adhesive bond between the new topcoats and the floor.
If left unsealed, motor oil defeats new floor bonding.
Once the floor was sealed, the Xtreme crew installed V-8’s 6.0 HP (High-Performance) Epoxy self-leveling system. A must for uneven surfaces that result from years of concrete deterioration, the self-leveling coating fills in any low areas. It also “glasses out” to a smooth and attractive finish. Another plus, the application is thick. It provides customers with excellent impact resistance long after the installation is completed.
“The crowning touch was a high-wearing Magnum Urethane Topcoat in a matte finish, also from V-8,” said Ross VanWieren, Technical Support for Xtreme Engineered Floor Systems. “It delivered a slip-resistant quality to the new floor to enhance worker safety. With the topcoat, the collision shop also gained a chemical- and scratch-resistant surface. They can now count on a more attractive workplace appearance for years to come.”
