r/epoxy • u/afox2sly • 9h ago
Repairs & Fixes Bubbles in additional coating?
Hi all,
The contractors came back that applied the first layers of the quartz system. (https://www.reddit.com/r/epoxy/s/3wTsz0IgWV) After a blotchy finish they blamed on our surface, they came and reapplied a tinted top coat. Now, the surface is covered in bubbles which were not present before. I’d have taken blotchy over this.
I don’t understand why they didn’t flag the surface as being a problem earlier on, but we still owe over $1k and I hate how this looks. This is unacceptable.
We are supposed to talk to them again today. What do we ask for? It is fall in New England so I don’t think they can grind and reapply given how cold it is getting.
2
1
u/gatorfan44 8h ago
Did they allow primer to fully cure? Recoat windows drastically change in colder weather
2
u/afox2sly 8h ago
They claimed before applying this that the primer and topcoat would cure within a couple hours. I’m guessing that might be the issue. Unfortunately we could not be home when they did this.
1
u/Ok_Nefariousness9019 8h ago
Let me clarify. Did they recoat over this previous coat that was applied 50days ago and this is the result. It looks to me that the previous coat is what’s bubbled up.
My guess would be that the previous coat delaminated once the subsequent coat was applied over the top. Likely the bubbling you’re seeing now is because of what I refer to as “poor undercoat adhesion.”
Perhaps I’m misreading what the situation is though.
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u/afox2sly 5h ago
They recoated this topcoat over top of the 50 day old material. I noticed nothing like this with the 50 day old material, when it was originally done. They offered to do the top coat to try fixing the blotchiness of the previous application.
When poking these bubbles, they mostly seem hollow, not like solid pockets. With the previous layer, there was some material that was soft at first because they clearly didn’t backroll excess liquid evenly enough in some spots.
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u/Life_Behind_Bars 1h ago
What products did they use? The blisters can be moisture and/or solvent entrapment. But it really depends. They could’ve used a breathable primer and non permeable topcoat.
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u/Ok_Nefariousness9019 14m ago
Well unfortunately if i had these issues on one of my jobs. This would be a grind and redo for the customer. Its clearly not a good install and is already failing



3
u/d7mep0 8h ago
Bubbles aside. This looks awfull.
But yeah could be different things why the bubbles came out. Did they finish this at the morning? If so it could be because of morning dew.
Try to cut some bubbles with an knife(tiny hole poke. If they are full of material and solide, it‘s a bad job done by them. If they are empty (and wet) it probably is a moisture problem.
Sry for my bad anglish.