What is it?
This is an issue known as “Hot Tyre pick-up” which is typically caused by hot tyres expanding and retracting on an Epoxy floor. When the tyres are warm from a journey they expand, then during the cooling down process, the tyres will retract back to their original size, during this process the tyres can grip to the epoxy which causes it to peel.
Common Causes:
Lack of preparation – This can range from the incorrect primer being used to a lack of mechanical grinding or even as simple as not removing any contaminates such as moisture/grease/algae. If heavy oil contamination or heavy tyre marks are present prior to grinding, the use of two coats of oil tolerant primer is recommended.
Another cause can also be not "keying" the surface in between coats – it is not recommended coating an epoxy after 48 hours without first abrading the surface, as the new coat will have nothing to successfully bond with.
Oil/Grease Build-up – This issue is often seen inside home garages and working garages where any form of oils from car/bike storage can build up overtime and seep into the substrate. The problem with car tyres is that they create a build-up of tyre residue which can become embedded in the bare concrete, often found where the car tyres rest. This is due to tyres being made up of rubber polymer compounds blended with plasticisers. The issue with the plasticisers is that when the tyre is hot, these oils are deposited on the concrete floor, this then builds up and can cause bonding issues between coatings and the substrate.
How to prevent “Hot Tyre Pickup”.
To prevent this from happening, we generally recommend ensuring you regularly use a strong degreaser on your floor that breaks down oil contamination. We recommend allow your tyres to cool before parking on the epoxy coating for the first week after application, if possible.
So, how would I resolve this?
Without knowing the specific cause of this, simply re-coating may result in the product lifting further down the line if oil or grease are present. Sometimes grinding alone cannot remove this, as oils seep into the substrate and can imbed themselves quite deeply.
- It is strongly recommended that the current coatings are removed, using a strong degreaser to break down any possible oil contamination and washing thoroughly.
- Once this has dried, you can then coat with 2 coats of an oil tolerant primer, which will act as a barrier to prevent the oil seeping up into the topcoat.
- After 12-24 hours, you can then re-coat with our HB epoxy coating, ensuring you leave 12-24 hours in between coats.
- Ensure you leave cars off the freshly painted floor for a minimum of 48 hours, the coating will continue to harden for a further 5 days, with full chemical cure being achieved at 7 days.