Thread: 2 questions

We had something similar in the house for our ceiling when we moved in. It was rubbish for keeping the heat out in summer or keeping it in for winter. We added some regular Bunnings insulation (R 5.2 or something - can't remember now) and it made the world of difference. That stuff looks like it is more of a fire/moisture barrier than your actual serious insulation.

Sorry no idea about the paint. Will be interested in that info myself.

John

I vouch for 2-part epoxy paint (I used Rustoleum brand) for the floor if you regularly spill use solvents, oils and that sort of stuff and need to clean them up. If it's just an aid to helping keep the floor possibly sweepable then White Knight Ultra-Pave garage paint.

Note that the epoxy doesn't like UV, so it's for inside the garage only.

Where I used to work there was one of only two Accredited testing facilities for thermal insulation in Australia.
The bloke that ran it tested a swag of those so called insulting paints and found that they consistently under-performed even basic conventional insulation.

I'll second the recommendation to use two part Epoxy Paint for the Garage/Workshop Floor. I treated a commercial workshop floor with 2 part epoxy concrete floor paint back in 2001. The floor was in a newly built commercial investment property that I'd bought, and the building was about leased out as motor vehicle workshop. I don't remember the brand of coating that we used, but the key issues remain the same when applying these two part concrete floor epoxy paints:

• The concrete must be completely clean, and must have all grease and oil residue completely removed.
• The concrete has to be acid etched first, to provide an etched surface onto which the epoxy coating can successfully bond.
• If you don't do the acid etching thoroughly, the epoxy coating will peel off in areas where there was inadequate etching.
• The acid that was supplied by our paint supplier reacted with steel and galv coating on steel. The building was steel framed and colourbond sheeted. We carefully wiped a layer of axle grease onto all the steel surfaces within 50 mm of the floor that might get acid on them. I understand that modern concrete etch chemicals don't attack the steel, but you'd best ask your paint supplier for written confirmation of that.
• We applied the epoxy coating with an ordinary wide floor paint roller. The rollers have to get disposed of after each coat is applied, but the roller head can be cleaned with acetone.
• There was a strict time frame within which a second or third coat could be applied. From vague memory, I believe that the time limit for the epoxy brand that we used was re-coat between 2 and 6 hours. If you re-coat too soon, the coating will blister and bubble. If you wait too long before re-coating, the coating will peel off the layer below.
• If you do the job properly, carefully following the manufacturer’s instructions, you will end up with a near bullet proof floor. It'll be oil and grease resistant. It will be very hard.
• If you sprinkle the non-slip grit on top of the final coat while it's still wet, the floor will be very safe when it's wet. If you choose a light coloured epoxy such as white, cream, etc, then you'll find that the workshop will appear a lot better lit with the same old lighting.
• In 2005, when the first tenant had moved out, I found that the original epoxy floor coating had been worn through to the concrete in a few places where the tenant had been wheeling a steel wheeled Engine Crane around the workshop. I got the Pro's in to re-coat the floor. They first washed the old epoxy floor with a Gurni and some sort of truck wash compound, then washed again with just water in the Gurni, then acid etched the epoxy, then washed with water again, then applied three coats of epoxy with a powered paint roller. It wasn't a cheap job to re-coat the epoxy floor(100 SQM), but that re-coat had lasted nine years when I sold the property, and looked like it would last a few more years.
• www.stusshed.com (one of this forum's sponsors for the Toy Making sub-forum) did a video a few years ago about treating his new workshop floor with this sort of epoxy coating. http://stusshed.com/2014/01/14/episo...-shield-crete/ I don't know whether Stu has done a follow-up to that video to say how the coating has stood up in use - you could email him from his web site.

Anyway - I hope that info will be useful.

Regards,

RoyG

Thank you all for replying, RoyG cheers for posting that Stusshed info, he did a great article on insulation which helped, and John l'm staying away from that foam sh$t, glass blanket or batts for me.

l forgot to say that the floor area (6m x 3m) l want to paint will have very light foot traffic, its only where l will have the timber storage/drying racks, basically painting the floor will just make it easier to sweep, and to reflect some light.

Rustoleum (water based) buying and small video link - http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/RUSTOLEUM...UAAOSwTapV4ACS

The info is not wasted, as many after me will want the same answers ,so cheers for the above.

Regards
Stevo

We used a foil backed foam insulation called FastLay plus polyester batts around our weatherboard house. We also put polyester batts in all internal walls and the roof. I think the combination of the foil-backed foam plus the batts provides really good insulation. Not the cheapest solution because it is belt and braces, but we plan on living there for a long time.

Hi Stevo

I have found Berger Paving Paint to be very good, and quite cheap. Paints designated as "factory floor paints" are designed to be driven over by forklifts, etc, and are even harder.

The guff with that other stuff says that its insulation value is R0.2 - about the same as window glass - or pretty useless as insulation! You want a least R 3.0 and preferably more.


Fair Winds

Graeme