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Author Topic: Potholes in my floor! Dominic Espinosa Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1172 From: California, U.S.A. Registered: Jan 2004 posted 06-11-2005 01:50 PM                     Okay, here's a couple pics of the two worst "potholes" in our booth floor. You can't really tell the depth with these but they're nearly an inch deep in the deepest parts. I'm not really sure what's underneath it, but there's crappy paint that doesn't stay put because the floor is this powdery chipboard stuff. It just keeps coming up as dust. Just over it is a thin white coating of something and then the paint. Because it just keeps coming up and is so dusty nothing will adhere to it. What can we fill it in to stop these things from getting deeper and dusting the booth? I'm thinking bondo maybe?  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 06-11-2005 04:00 PM                     Head to a paint store and get you some epoxy based floor paint. But first, fill in those holes with filler that the paint store recommends then sand down the filler. Do a primer seal then paint the floor with the epoxy floor paint and a good two or three coats will make things look great. good luck. thx-Monte  |  IP: Logged Joe Beres Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 606 From: Minneapolis, MN, USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 06-11-2005 04:03 PM                     Have you tried floor levelling/patching compound? it is ofen used to prep an unevn floor for hardwood floor installation. It should be available at a local flooring store or even home depot. It might do the trick.  |  IP: Logged Dominic Espinosa Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1172 From: California, U.S.A. Registered: Jan 2004 posted 06-11-2005 04:37 PM                     Ahh, how often the simple solution evades...ME! I'll look into it. My biggest worry is finding something that will adhere to that crap.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 06-11-2005 05:10 PM                     ..at the paint store, there is a compound called concrete fill patch that sticks to about anything. It's good for fixing holes in theatre floors where the floor bolts have came up. This stuff which should easily take care of this. Just wash out the dust to where you have a dry surface so the stuff will adhere to the concrete surface.. thx-Monte  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-11-2005 06:35 PM                     I wonder if the concrete got wet before it was fully cured but, instead of letting the concrete dry naturally, some genius spread dry cement over the wet spots then trowled them smooth. Another thing I have seen is where the workers start troweling the finish on the top layer before the bottom layer has a chance to set up. (Saves labor costs.) I have seen some buildings where things like these have happened. In which case, you'll probably have to clean out the hole, acid etch the area then apply a concrete patching compound to fill the hole. As mentioned above, a good coating of epoxy wouldn't hurt either. [ 06-11-2005, 10:35 PM: Message edited by: Randy Stankey ]  |  IP: Logged Tracy Bellar Film Handler Posts: 72 From: Sciotoville, Oh. Registered: Mar 2005 posted 06-12-2005 12:48 AM                        to clean out the hole you do not use acid. Never. You need to use a bushing hammer either a regular hammer or jack hammer bushing bit. That job isn't nearly big enough for a J.H. so look up a bushing hammer at a construction supply. It gives a good surface for concrete to adhere to. This way it won't come up later. Bushing hammers and bits look like a midevil torture tool. They have spikes that dig into to concrete and make a good rough surface to put concrete over. Before painting use KILZ primer it works great on floors to keep the paint down.  |  IP: Logged Jeremy Fuentes Mmmm, Dr. Pepper! Posts: 1168 From: Corpus Christi, TX United States Registered: Jan 2004 posted 06-12-2005 01:12 AM                     I would just move a trash can over the spot.  |  IP: Logged Aaron Sisemore Flaming Ribs beat Reeses Peanut Butter Cups any day! Posts: 3061 From: Rockwall TX USA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 06-12-2005 01:20 AM                     That floor is unfortunately not concrete, but a 3-inch thick layer of 'Gypcrete' which has awesome sound-deadening properties, but for all intents and purposes is about a point or two tougher than plaster-of-Paris. To seal the Gypcrete and make it basically indestructable, it was to have several heavy coats of epoxy paint coated on it. Well... (the story that I have received on this situation) Apparently some painting contractor that didn't know better decided that the epoxy paint generated too many noxious fumes. So this Einstein goes ahead and coats the floor... with two or three coats of LATEX paint... Voila! No noxious fumes! By the time that word of the error got to the developer and Cinema West management, it was too late, as many pieces of [very heavy projection and sound] equipment had already been hauled up to the booth and set in place (I was on vacation during this portion of the install, so I had little say in what went up there and when- also it was assumed that the contractor had done the floor properly.) Of course, moving the projector bases and platters around when they brought it all up there gouged the hell out of the floor, leaving some of the 'potholes' that Dom is describing, and in other places, the latex paint began to simply bubble and peel off the floor. About six months later they tried to do something as a stopgap fix, but it was only a single layer of eopxy paint, no equipment was moved to lay it down, and we couldn't close the theatre down long enough (at least 1-2 days) to allow both the painters to actually lay down several coats of the paint, and allow the fumes to subside so that we weren't making the entire place ill from the fumes, and to allow multiple coats to properly cure. Apparently this same genius painter decided that the latex paint was fine for the concrete floors in the auditoria as well, as they are also a mess of peeled, spotted and repainted concrete. I don't know if the painter that caused all this trouble ever lost his job or not. -Aaron  |  IP: Logged Adam Martin I'm not even gonna point out the irony. Posts: 3686 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 06-12-2005 01:16 PM                     It sounds to me like the general contractor needs to make good on the trouble caused by the paint sub he hired.  |  IP: Logged William Hooper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1879 From: Mobile, AL USA Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-13-2005 01:08 AM                        Tracy's got the right answer for prepping the hole for the patch, but the surrounding area & the rest of the floor, to get the finish neccessary as Aaron mentions by applying 2-part epoxy paint, will have to be prepped with muriatic acid. This is probably what the painter fled from. Prepping with muriatic acid can put little holes & acid burns in your skin (including face) without covering up. Also, if the room is not completely stripped & you're doing the whole room, it will get at the paint on seat standards, start eating away at exposed conduit & other metal, etc. It looks like one of those 'if it's not done right the first time you'll be battling it forever' problems. You could pull all the seats out, strip the old paint, fill the holes, prep with muriatic acid, & put on a couple of coats of 2-part epoxy paint as was originally spec'd, or come up with some method of dealing with the deterioration as it occurs (patching the hole, painting, & being aware that it will have to be done again sooner or later). If the holes are localized, & recurring in the same spots (like between a couple of rows or down front), it might be worth it to re-do that area only (the row, entire area in front of the screen, whatever), by stripping, filling, prepping & painting with 2-part epoxy. If it's coming up everywhere - under seats, new places everywhere - fixes short of pulling it all out & doing it right are just going to be like bailing water in a hurricane.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 06-14-2005 03:46 AM                        I say, throw one of those rubberized runners on it and be done with it. You cover what sounds like insurmountable problems with the floor and at the same time those runners are easy on your feet. We've put three of them in our booth.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-14-2005 02:44 PM                     quote: Tracy Bellar to clean out the hole you do not use acid. Never. 'Esplain me, please... I thought, any time you put a coating on a cement floor you had to etch it or else it won't stick.  |  IP: Logged Dominic Espinosa Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1172 From: California, U.S.A. Registered: Jan 2004 posted 06-17-2005 02:48 AM                     quote: Aaron Sisemore That floor is unfortunately not concrete, but a 3-inch thick layer of 'Gypcrete' which has awesome sound-deadening properties, but for all intents and purposes is about a point or two tougher than plaster-of-Paris. To seal the Gypcrete and make it basically indestructable, it was to have several heavy coats of epoxy paint coated on it. What I was going to say... Luckily for us the auditorium problem is limited to a 5 foot deep strip in front of the screen. The paint peeling up though makes the whole place look very ghetto. As for our booth, I'd be happy filling it with bondo and laying lenoleum or something. Problem there is whether or not the company would pay for it or be able to get the geniuses responsible for the mess in the first place to pay for it. I'd lay the stuff myself if it meant never having to deal with that crap again!  |  IP: Logged

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