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1) claims of UV resistant epoxy.

Truth - all epoxies will yellow in UV sunlight (or even slowly in the dark). Some yellow faster and more than others, but they all do it. It is part of the chemistry of epoxy.

2) claims product  is made from some sort of 'natural earth loving materials" (a direct appeal to environmentally concerned people)

Truth - epoxies and any solvents used with them are made from nasty chemicals.

3) claims of a safe, no solvent, no smell, 'friendly" epoxy.

Truth - almost all epoxies these days are solvent free (no VOC) and have no smell or fumes.

5) claims of great support and help.

Truth - It is easy to claim great help and support, but most online sales sites are sorely lacking in both before and especially after they get your money. See if your calls or emails are answered after normal business hours and on weekends. If they do reply, did  you get a professional or the most recent hire assigned phone duty? Great companies support their communities, and the company (or staff) are members of professional societies (SSPC is one such international coating professional society) and most are members of their local Better Business Bureau. If you cannot evaluate the company by its response or professional qualifications, proceed with care.

6) messy shipping of epoxy.

Truth - epoxies are serious chemicals. Each epoxy container should have a batch number on it. Metal cans should have clips holding the lids on. Data and MSDS sheets for the epoxy should be included with each order.  Most epoxies cannot be shipped by air. Demand your vendor pays proper respect to the chemicals they are dealing with.

Epoxy counter, bar top, table top fibs:

 Truth - One gallon of any liquid will give you 16 sf of 100 mil thickness.

2) claims of getting many square feet of 1/8 thick epoxy on your pour on table top.

Truth - one gallon of any liquid will give you 12.5 sf of 1/8 inch thickness.

3) claims that you need 75 degree temperatures to use epoxy.

Truth - regular epoxies work in pretty much any temperature above about 40 or 45 degrees. If this product needs 75 degrees it suggests a really really bad epoxy.

 4) claims it matters whether you mix Part A into Part B or Part B into Part A.

Truth - run the torch parallel to the surface of the epoxy and bubbles. Warm the air above the bubbles, not the epoxy itself!

6) claims of fire resistant epoxy demonstrated by burning alcohol on the epoxy.

Truth - alcohol burns at a very low temperature and a few drops of burning rubbing or denatured alcohol will not harm the epoxy at all.

7) claims of epoxy heat resistance. They put a hot pan on the epoxy and then remove it showing no damage.

Truth - except for very special epoxies, regular epoxies will begin to soften at about 150 degrees and hot objects will leave a dent in the epoxy that will not go away. But a pan has a broad flat bottom that makes it hard to leave a dent, and the demonstrations only leave the pan on the epoxy for very short time - not long enough to soften the epoxy. Also, we have no idea how hot the pan actually is.

8) claims of how hard the epoxy is by tapping on a sheet of epoxy coating plywood and stating how it will not shatter the way tile etc. will shatter.

Truth - does tapping on plywood with a hammer ever result in the plywood shattering?

Truth - epoxies cure to something like a medium hard plastic. Yes the experts can sand and buff and wax out scratches on plastic headlights, watch faces, and epoxy surfaces.

1) The big secret in this epoxy niche is that there are two kinds of marine epoxy vendors. The first is the 'cheap' repackagers that simply buy drums of the raw epoxy chemicals for the giant chemical companies. Formulators, on the other hand, start with these raw chemicals and modify or enhance them for better properties (maybe better profits too???). One of the big problems with 'repackaged' epoxy is that they are very brittle and can even massively crack with temperature changes.

2) Amine blush is a waxy film that forms on marine epoxy surfaces as it cures. It needs to be washed off before you can coat over it. There are non blushing marine epoxies (google Basic No Blush) but mostly epoxy vendors sell blushing epoxies and keep silent about the non blushing alternatives.

boat links

Floor epoxy fibs:

1) vendors will compare their floor epoxy to a competitors and brag about their much greater coverage rate.

Truth - they sell a water based epoxy which gets 200 or more square feet of coverage compared to a solvent free epoxy which gets less than half that amount. It is not a fair comparison - like comparing spray paint to tar.

2) vendors bragging they sell a cyclo-aliphatic based epoxy.

Truth - cyclo-aliphatic epoxies are a higher grade epoxy but total unnecessary for floor epoxies and strictly a 'marketing trick".

3) vendors fail to mention the very real possibility of vast numbers of air bubbles coming out of the concrete.

4) vendors fail to recommend or suggest a primer.

Truth - primers are helpful in getting a better bond (especially when the floor is not professionally prepped), reducing air bubbles (see above #3), and testing for unexpected issues. But usually the online vendors don't mention primers because it would make their product or 'system' more expensive than the other vendors who also don't mention the primer option. Many of the best epoxy floor contractors prime to reduce the odds of 'problems' no matter what the manufacture says or doesn't say.

5) vendors make a lot of money selling you inexpensive paint chips to accent your floor.

Truth - there is only one or two paint chip manufacturers in the United States. Buy direct and save, buy direct and select the colors and percent of each color you want. Go to CHIPSUNLIMITED.COM and order direct. Why don't the websites that sell  you the epoxies, also tell you where to get the best deal on the decorative paint chips?

floor links

1) on-site contractors in places like Florida offer year-round resealing at cut-throat prices.

Truth - professional grade resealing (and creating) pebble deck epoxies are solvent free and have short pot life times in hot weather. Generally too short to be used in hot Southern summers (reseal in spring and fall). In order to save lots of money and work in the hot summer climate the contractors heavily solvent thin the epoxy. The result is a re-seal job that will not last the normal 2 - 5 years.