Is there a gloss coating that will fill holes?

[Frank Shannon]

Is there a durable, hard, stain resistant gloss coating that will fill pinholes and leave a level surface?   If something exists how big can the holes be?

[Robert Winckler]

You are better off to slurry you holes Frank and then seal. You could ad a filler to epoxy and fill holes but it does not look as good as cement and pigment. Epoxy can work for what you are asking but it could also make things worse if you are not familiar with how to use it. It will also scratch over time. But if you are not setting things on it then you will not worry about scratches.

[Frank Shannon]

I do fill but still end up with pin holes and occasional larger holes smaller than 1mm. This is my way of life, it will always be thus.

I've used epoxy and poly on several projects.  Arizona Polymers, two part which I can get locally (maybe all I can get locally).  Excellent stain resistance, pretty good scratch resistance.  But, I get dimples over pin holes, like little vortexes.  Plus, and this is weird, there are some bits of aggregate now and then that it doesn't seem to want to stick to, it beads over them.

So I'm willing to go with epoxy, poly, whatever.  I'm willing to skip the high gloss but I need performance.  There will be pin holes and some slightly larger holes under 1mm.  I need it to fill the little holes and level itself or I need it to be very thin so the dimples won't be noticeable. 

[Nik]

Robert's sarcastic comment should make you listen.  He's right.

 

Epoxy scratches badly and it yellows.  Polyurethane scratches too.  And yes - the self leveling of epoxy is not what you'd expect. Craters from not adhering over some aggregate - that too.

 

But the biggest thing is what Robert said - you are making a concrete countertop that you are later turning into an ugly looking piece of s*** with a cheap plastic look and feel. You will enjoy the whole exercise much more if you achieve the real look and feel of high quality concrete. And honestly, with the products that one extremely knowledgeable and experienced sponsor of this site put on the market recently one has little excuse to not try to make high quality concrete countertops. Watch the videos by Mark C about System 1 and see what you think.

 

--Nik

[Frank Shannon]

I can't find the video.  Can you give me a link to it?

Nik said:

Robert's sarcastic comment should make you listen.  He's right.

 

Epoxy scratches badly and it yellows.  Polyurethane scratches too.  And yes - the self leveling of epoxy is not what you'd expect. Craters from not adhering over some aggregate - that too.

 

But the biggest thing is what Robert said - you are making a concrete countertop that you are later turning into an ugly looking piece of s*** with a cheap plastic look and feel. You will enjoy the whole exercise much more if you achieve the real look and feel of high quality concrete. And honestly, with the products that one extremely knowledgeable and experienced sponsor of this site put on the market recently one has little excuse to not try to make high quality concrete countertops. Watch the videos by Mark C about System 1 and see what you think.

 

--Nik

[Nik]

http://concretecountertops.ning.com/video/trinic-sb-sealer-test

Frank Shannon said:

I can't find the video.  Can you give me a link to it?

 

[Mark C]

The easiest way to deal with bugholes is to not have any (it is possible), short of that here is an article I wrote about filling them. 

 

http://www.concretedecor.net/decorativeconcretearticles/vol-11-no-3...

 

Mark Celebuski

[e-mail]

www.trinic.us

[Frank Shannon]

Mark,

How do remove the dried residue from you slurry method?  One of my problems is that in cleaning off slurry I open more holes.

Mark C said:

The easiest way to deal with bugholes is to not have any (it is possible), short of that here is an article I wrote about filling them. 

 

http://www.concretedecor.net/decorativeconcretearticles/vol-11-no-3...

 

Mark Celebuski

[e-mail]

www.trinic.us

[John]

Leave the slurry on overnight, wet and cover with plastic. Also use a polymer in the slurry. If you are pulling out slurry, you have let it dry and not cure.