As part of broken things to fix in our old house here. This was actually a result of a quick flip on a previous owner to just make a quick bucks while just investing in the cheapest material possible.
The crazy thing is it did not even take a lot of effot to do a damage. All it takes is just one simple action of kneeling down while mopping the floor and there is a big crack on the hollow floor.
Looking back, if we knew how to examine housing materials better, we could have done negotiated a lower price for the house.
There were several damaged spots and there’s no easy way to fix them without reflooring. Or maybe there is and I just don’t have enough knowledge about it. But one suggestion from a friend is just to use epoxy over the wood floor. I had never hear about epoxy floor repair before, so for sure this one seemed to be something worth to try.
So just to give it a try, I got the small one first, J-B Weld clear epoxy with 3900 PSI strength for Tile, Most Plastics, Ceramic, Glass, and Wood.
Our friend called it clear epoxy floor coating for wood, but can you even call it coating? This is more like filling in the crack and crevices in the floor. After opening the package, I just used a plastic cup to mix it and started to pour it on the small crack first.
When poured, the substance moved slowly so you have to be careful to stop before you think you have put enough as it was still expanding. So what I did was to just applied it in two phases (layering). I did the first layer and let it settled and hardened. After one hour, I added another layer to fill it to the edge (see below).
Not too bad, I just wished there would be an easy way to not have the tiny bubbles. But that could be controlled better in the mixing stage and if you’re going to put wood color afterwards, it’s not going to matter that much. The excess can easily be sanded down, but I just left it as it was because it was not too obvious. Overall, the texture and the hardness are really nice.
Now, it’s time to do apply it on the bigger crack (see the first picture). But for this one, the small JB Weld package is not enough. So I had to buy the bigger package instead. Since this big hole was already there for a while, it trapped a lot of debris. So I wanted to minimize the dirt in it by vacuuming it. The rest of the photos show the progress after pouring the epoxy in two phases.
Overall, I was satisfied with the result. As always you can always paint it with similar color to your floor. And the feeling of the epoxy when it was fully cured, it was more solid than the laminated wood. It was rock hard.
A Word of Caution
Super Strong Odor
One thing that can’t be missed, when you mix the epoxy, there is this disgusting smell permeating from the container and quickly fills the whole room. So be warned, make sure you’re well ventilated for at least until it’s cured. The promise of this product is one hour, but an hour later I was still waiting if the odor would go away. I’d say wait it would be at least two hours and longer if you’re sensitive to smell.
While I was waiting, I searched around the Internet and try to find out what ingredient that produces the strong smell and whether it’s dangerous. Your gut instinct tells you if it’s a chemical and smells bad, most likely it’s bad for your health. If I didn’t know anything, just treat it as a dangerous substance, even if the company says it’s safe. It turns out, it’s not so good. Here’s a good one to give you an idea how bad the odor can affect you.
Just as a precaution again, make sure you are well ventilated when you’re mixing it. And for me, I’m a bit sensitive with strong smell, I used a safety goggle and a respirator and the appropriate filters. It may be an overkill, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
At the end, I bought more epoxy and fixed all the cracks on my floor. I think it was a very good product as long as you take all precautions to mitigate any possibilities on getting the mix on your hands, eyes, or inhaling the odor.
