How To Fix Bubbles In Cured Epoxy Floor

Why Does My Epoxy Floor Take Bubbles?

Past Tom Lux on June 2nd, 2018 in Technical

outgassing appears as a perfect circle that affects the aesthetics but not the integrity When bubbles appear in a freshly applied epoxy blanket, the nearly mutual culprit is something called "outgassing".

Outgassing is a site status that allows air or gas from the physical substrate to escape in excess and crusade blisters, craters, bubbling, or pinholes.

Temporary Condition

Different moisture vapor transmission (MVT), which can be a more serious ongoing issue, outgassing is a temporary condition ordinarily occurring during installation.

The resulting surface anomalies take away from the aesthetics of the flooring, only do not immediately touch on the integrity of the coating itself.

All the same, outgassing is not to exist ignored, since the pinholes tin can trap dirt or liquids and make cleaning the expanse hard. If left unchecked, these contaminants tin affect the flooring organisation over time.

See Joint and Patching Repair

How to Identify Outgassing

Outgassing volition most e'er show upward equally a perfect circle with either a ridge effectually the border of the circle or equally a chimera in the coating. There may or may not be a pinhole visible at the bottom of the circle.

The pinhole is where the gas is escaping from the slab. If no pinhole is present, this is good news! It means that the coating has sealed off the outgassing site.

Possible Causes of Outgassing

outgassing epoxy floor bubbles Outgassing tends to occur when one or more of the following conditions are present:

A concrete substrate of the air-entrained variety that has had excessive air volume incorporated into the original mix

Moisture vapor or liquid escaping from the concrete slab

Air moving in and out of the concrete slab with changes in temperature and barometric pressure level

Physical that has not been cured properly and is soft/ punky

Fixes

During prime coat installation:

If outgassing bubbling are seen during the primer application, a metal porcupine roller can exist used to pop the surface tension equally bubbling start to develop. This tin can frequently prevent the outgassing bubble from forming, and permit the primer to fill in the pinhole that would otherwise be created.

Though non a guaranteed remedy, use of the metallic porcupine roller during priming has proven itself to be a highly successful fashion to "nip it in the bud" and forbid outgassing bubbles from appearing in subsequent coats.

Later prime glaze:

If the outgassing surface anomalies are seen after the prime coat installation, and then re-priming the afflicted area is all-time. In sections where outgassing is especially aggressive, application of a thick, gummy epoxy patching textile may be needed, prior to re-priming.

In very severe cases, multiple coats of patch product may be required before pinholes are completely sealed off and the prime number coat can be applied.

Later finish coats:

If stop coats are applied earlier the outgassing upshot is identified, the best choice is to sand the afflicted areas and patch with the topcoat cloth — or a thixotropic product, followed by the topcoat material. If the outgassing is wide spread, recoating the unabridged floor may be required.

The Good News:

While outgassing bubbling or craters may exist unattractive, they do non affect the bail strength of the coating.

So past taking the time to accost the issue properly, a skilled professional flooring contractor tin still deliver a cute, impressively durable, high performance floor that meets their customer's expectations.

Have other technical questions about resinous flooring? We're here to assist – but contact us!

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