How to Remove Tire Marks from Epoxy Flooring
Queen Creek Epoxy flooring is often used in garages and industrial flooring settings. Epoxy is made of resins that, when applied, coat and protect the floor from damage and debris. Durable epoxy flooring provides a waterproof barrier, is resistant to chemicals and chemical spills, can withstand mold and oil contact, and does not require much maintenance at all to keep clean and functioning.
Barefoot Surfaces knows all too well about tire marks and what to do to get rid of them, here we give you some tips and tricks to clean your epoxy floor coatings.
Although it can endure many of the common damages that other floors can not, tire marks become an epoxy floors nemesis. The perfectly clean and coated floor becomes a race track and path of rubber resistance. Simply pulling in to the garage or leaving too quickly can leave you with tire marks all over. Unfortunately they require a stronger method of cleaning than mopping alone to get your epoxy floor back to spic and span – without the use of harsh chemicals, which is a major win.
The Facts
Many of our clients (and you if you are reading this) wonder how the small amounts of rubber actually transfer to the epoxy floor and what to do to get rid of them. The most frustrating part of the entire experience is more than likely how ugly the black tire prints are making your once gorgeously clean epoxy floor.
The reason that tire rubber can stick to epoxy flooring is because of plasticizers. That is basically a big fancy word for polymer (plastic) compounds that are used in the tire industry to create a more flexible rubber material. This new flexible compound allows the tire to have more traction and helps to keep it soft and pliable in all types of weather. The heat from driving tends to make these aforementioned plasticizers relax and leak out of the tire. Once driven and revved back up, the tires leave these black and oily marks on the epoxy coating.
Although the most common reason that these stains occur are driving in and out of the garage, if a car sits for long periods of time in one spot, the same thing can occur as the oily plastic bits seep out of the tire, but at a much slower pace.
How to get rid of it
I’m sure you are curious how easy is it to remove tire marks from your Queen Creek garage epoxy floor. Of course much of it depends on the quality of the epoxy floor coating in Queen Creek and how long the tire marks have been there before you decided to try and get rid of them. We’ve met a lot of procrastinators along the way.
If you had a high quality sealer coated on top of your epoxy floor, the easier the clean up. When an epoxy floor sealer cures it creates a cross linking pattern that gives the sealer strength and density. The greater the strength and density of the sealer, the less chance that these tire marks will create a permanent home on your garage floor. Basically we are saying that there is less of a chance of the plasticizers seeping further into the epoxy floor coating than just remaining on the surface.
It is not always difficult to remove these annoying tire marks and can usually be remedied with soaking the area for a few minutes first with a heavy duty cleaner such or a concrete degreaser (which is designed to get rid of problems like this). One you’ve let it soak for a few minutes – we suggest 10-15, a stiff bristle brush should do the trick to remove the tire marks. Note of caution: don’t scrub too hard if you are using a Brillo pad or the like – sometimes this can take of the high gloss finish of the sealant. As a worst case scenario and for the trickiest stains you can try Goo Gone as well, found at most hardware stores.
Our magic mixture to get the tire marks off is:
- Mix 1 gallon of warm water with about 2 tablespoons of dish detergent and then apply it to the tire marks.
- Let it to sit for at three to five minutes. Alternatively, if you don’t have dish detergent make sure to wear rubber gloves and pour or spray enough citrus cleaner (super tough on hard to get stains) on the tire marks and cover them completely.
- Scrub the marks with the rough side of the sponge to remove them from the epoxy floor.
- Mop the floor with clean water to remove any cleaning residue and allow it to dry.
Voila! Brand new epoxy flooring. For more information about patio epoxy floors in Queen Creek, our contractors can help! Call Barefoot Surfaces today!
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740 E Redondo
Gilbert, AZ 85296
Phone:602-931-7656
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://barefootsurfaces.com
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