I own a 40,000 square foot industrial building with concrete floors that we
coated with 2-part polyurethane in 1963 - and the concrete was old then. We
scrubbed it, removed all the oil where equipment had been mounted, lightly
etched with muriatic (hydrochloric) acid, and coated it by floating/swabbing
on a thick coat with a lamb's-wool applicator. Some failures over the
years, but mostly it's still fine 40+ years later.
We filled and smoothed some expansion joints with a mixture of sand and the
same sealer, and while it wasn't as successful, some of those fills are
still OK too.
Oh yeah - we were printers and used all manner of evil solvents - nothing
ever touched the floor coating. Tough enough for you?
FWIW, we originally used materials from West Chemical Company - no idea if
they're still around. Urethanes were really new then, but those
formulations were obviously good ones. Some areas we coated in later years
got Tremco materials, pretty much the same durability. The even later (late
1970's) areas where we used moisture-cured urethanes weren't as strong, but
not bad. And those areas typically got a more sparing coat.
Good luck !
Karl Vacek
> I'm open to suggestions. I contacted RustOleum after it became apparent
> that the floor wasn't holding up well. They suggested a polyurethane
> topcoat. I'm open to all options -- is polyurethane the best way to go?
> What about tile?? Is anyone using a covering that they would recommend?
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