Steps for Perfect Polyurea
Polyurea is a spray-applied rubber coating that is applied with special equipment and training. The equipment and training required typically runs between $10,000 to $30,000 and oftentimes more. With that type of investment and training, you will need to be a polyurea professional, keeping the equipment in operation as often as you possibly can, to get a return on your investment. Coupled to that are the maintenance and repairs. Letting the equipment set for long periods between jobs is costly. If you are looking to have a one-off job, we recommend contacting a company such as ArmorThane that has experts all across the globe. Their expertly trained staff will travel to you and get the job done for less than you might think.
Tech Specifics
Polyurea is a two part component delivered to the covering to be coated at approximately 200 degrees Fahrenheit and 2,000 psi by a technoscientific set of pumping equipment, heated hoses, and a spray gun. The two parts (resin and isocyanate) are heated and mixed by the pumping system and reaching the spray gun through heated hoses that can be up to several hundred feet in length.
The beauty of using polyurea in pond development can be applied virtually any shape or construction within reason, without any creases or folds, and has approximately 400 percent elasticity. It can shield tons of boulders without a hole, and roots can't grow through it.
When used over bare dirt, an underlayment is laid down first with the polyurea applied over it. Polyurea is also a perfect surface coating when cold joints within different concrete sections come together, or other structural materials such as piers or islands are in play. Top edges can overlap and be caught by the top cap or stone, just as you would with liner.
Edge methods can be accomplished with a ledge around the top, just as you would a plant ledge with piled rocks and boulders hiding and binding the edge.
Almost nothing sticks to polyurea. In installations where tile or vertical stone demands to be applied up the face of a surface or wall, stainless steel lath is fused onto the cover to create a grid cover for the mortar to bond to.
Planning for Polyurea
When considering polyurea, you should design around what the technician needs to accomplish your goal. Construct in a "polyurea-friendly" way.
Corners should be radiused and not left as a sharp, 90-degree shape. It can be difficult to shoot into sharp corners, so even a small radius of a half-inch is an improvement. Perforations should be 10 to 12 inches away from corners, floors, or other structures to allow room for the spray gun assembly to be maneuvered. Columns and constructions should be at least 18 inches apart, and shallow troughs should be at least 18 inches wide for clearance. If a deep trough is created, it needs to be even wider so the technician can manipulate the equipment properly.
Polyurea is usually applied in several passes to achieve a thickness of approximately 80 mils. The spray gun needs to shoot at 90 degrees to the surface, spraying "head-on" and not an angle, to get an even coat. Spraying at an angle can cause run ons, drips, and an uneven coating.
Concrete Prep
When applying polyurea over concrete, the surface should have a "sidewalk" finish. Trowel the concrete surface as smooth as possible or parge the surface afterward to fill all the holes, gaps, and imperfections. Polyurea will look like the surface it is applied to, so make it look nice, just as you would "Bondo" the bodywork on a car before painting. Use a product that will become very hard and not powdery or weak when applied thin. Some parge coatings can have a bad chemical reaction with polyurea and pinhole, causing an enormous amount of extra time to deal with. My personal favorite is Gray Bond-Kote by Super-Krete products. Always check with your polyurea applicator of choice before you apply any parge coating system.
Quite a bit of room is required to coat a trough-style pond.
Your penetrations of choice's flanged surfaces will have several screw holes that you will need to find later to attach the clamp ring. Place a finish nail in one or two holes, leaving the others open. Filling all the holes with nails makes removal and preparation for the ring difficult because polyurea is strong and hard to cut. Cutting just one or two nails out with a razor knife is easier, and once the first couple of screws are in place, the other holes are indexed through the holes in the clamp ring. The screws will go right through the poly and into the holes in the flange easily. If the skimmer face is supplied with nuts and bolts or machine screws, place a couple of screws in for indexing and cover the other holes with tape or paper dots. Install the first two and mark the other holes to be cut out afterward to install the faceplate.
Communicate for Best Results
Always be in contact with your polyurea technician before the project gets started. Preparing for polyurea means creating a project that the applicator can coat without a great deal of trouble. You are less likely to be charged for extra prep time by the polyurea technician if you do your job properly. Make sure you allow for the prep time in your bid. On gunite or shotcrete ponds, let the crew know ahead of time what you expect from them. They are used to shooting around protruding piping that gets cut off later by the pool plaster crew.
They will assume you want a rough surface for a plaster coat unless you specify otherwise. Ask if they can have a couple of cement finishers on hand to trowel the surface as smooth as they can and be prepared to pay for that. Otherwise, you will be parging the entire surface yourself after leaving to get the finished surface smooth enough for polyurea. This will be expensive and time-consuming. No matter how nice they make the surface, there will always be some prep to do around the penetrations and some nitpicking of small imperfections.
Once finished, the project will be waterproofed for some time, far longer than any other coating currently available. After you've experienced polyurea, you'll start finding projects to use it on and expand the way you design.
Remember to call ArmorThane whether you need more info or are looking to have a professional do the work for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment