Coating your walls and curbs

There are a couple of areas that need to be addressed when you want to coat a vertical surface.

First is the coating flow.

A nice property about our epoxies is that they’re self-leveling. This is a great benefit when coating floors, but one that can get in the way when coating walls, that’s because the epoxy wants to level out, and it does that by sliding down the wall. On walls 18 inches tall or lower, this usually isn’t a problem, on taller walls the issue can be partially mitigated by applying 2 or more light coats instead of a single heavy coat. We also have available a thickening powder (AVR 200A) that can be combined with the Part A and Part B components as they’re mixed. If you have large vertical areas to coat we also offer coatings specially formulated to work well on those applications, contact us for details.

The second issue is the possibility that there will be a shift or movement between the wall and the floor.

Should the shift be too great, understandably there will be a crack along the intersection of the two planes. The way to deal with this possibility is to run a bead of our IntegraFlex 1921 along that seam, which

would move and flex with any movement – within limits of course. So, the IntegraFlex is optional and won’t help if there’s too much shift between the two surfaces, but will avoid visible cracking with minor displacements. IntegraFlex 1921 can be applied to the seam like silicone caulking. Run it about ½ inch out from the corner on both the wall and the floor and cove it so that’s its smooth and easy to clean. After it sets just coat with BondTite 1101 followed by the other layers per instructions. As far as coverage goes 1 gallon of IntegraFlex 1921 is good for about 165 cubic inches.

Another point to consider is the composition of the walls.

If they’re made from cinder block the surface will be very porous, and if that’s the case you’ll want to let us know so we can increase the amount of BondTite 1101 needed for the job. If the walls are poured concrete generally, they are smooth and that won’t be an issue. If you want to use DecoFlakes on the wall, the process is the same as with the floors. Stand back and throw small amounts (start very small) towards the wall immediately after applying the LiquaTile 1184. Remember it’s easy to apply more DecoFlakes if needed, impossible to remove them if you applied too much. Usually it’s easier to coat the walls before coating the floors, should any epoxy run onto the floor it’s easily covered by the subsequent coatings. Some of our clients decide to simply get a good quality masonry paint and have it color matched, and since the walls usually don’t get too much punishment, that’s not a bad option. But if you’re willing to take a few extra steps and go with the epoxy, in the end it does look pretty sweet.

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