Thread: Inaccuracies in paint coverage

Hi, more of a rant than information or question....

Working on my man cave recently. 50+ year old single car garage (brick, concrete and tin) which was made into someone's workshop. When we purchased property, I kept it and demolished the home. (garage size 3.8 x 6.8)

Anyway, I spent 2 months (weekends) on prepping the old concrete floor. in this sequence

1. water pressure clean it.
2. 2l sugar soap and stiff brush then pressure clean and inspect
3. 5l degreaser - let is soak, brush, then pressure clean and inspect
4. (this is probably overkill). 1:4 dilution with HCl to etch it. Pressure clean and inspect.
5. 1:4 dilution again as in 4. Still some stubborn spots.
6. 1:2 dilution this time still some spots that were not budging (lets say 3m2 of it)
7. Modified two wire brushes into a broom like set up and scrubbed the offending area with that, then thought why not do the rest! broomed and pressure washed.
8. 1.4 diluton of acid again and boy did it fiz....... it was bubbling!
9, 2x pressure washes.
now for the reason for the post.
10. 4l tin of Dulux sealer ("stage 2") for concrete and paving. After the first liberal coat I had about 1.5 litres left. [ now it does say 10m2 per litre]. Let it set, a few drinks later and ready for the second coat. thinking might not be enough and get ready to go back to the store for another tin! Was I wrong! it used a little over 1 litre the second time... and I was not stingy at all. So, yes, the first coat did as it said but the second was way out.
11. Then let it set for two weeks. Then this week went off to get the 4l tin of the stage 3 paint and tint.
12. Followed the similar steps and ended up with this time about 1 litre remaining after the first coat. Knowing that 1 litre is not enough I contacted both the "B-ings" store and the Dulux store asking if there is a 2l or 1l tin available. both said no. So I asked the Dulux store - is there an alternative that I can use for a second coat and they said no.

So here is the dilemma.... I need most likely 1 litre of paint to add to the 1 litre remaining to give the garage a second coat. which will mean I will have 3 remaining after that. What a waste of money (these are $140 kits).

I cannot believe that they do not have smaller volumes available.
And B-ings wont split the un-tinted paint for me so that I have 3l left which I can then on-sell to anyone that is in the same predicament.

So i am now left with doing three coats!


Because we all know, in this day and age you do not want to waste a good thing.


(rant over).

(by the way, it does need a second coat as you can still see the markings below.