Ryan Martin is no stranger when it comes to demanding high performance from the products he uses. The same goes for the concrete coating materials for his garages and auto shop floors. So, after constructing a brand new 3200 square foot workshop and garage, Ryan decided to purchase and apply a Nohr-S® Polyurea coating system from Legacy Industrial.
For those not familiar, Ryan is the owner, driver, and fan favorite of the red Fireball Camaro which is featured on Discovery Channel’s Street Outlaws. In addition, he is a two-time No Prep Kings drag racing season champion. You can learn more about Ryan here below.
When we learned of his new shop build, we thought our readers would enjoy learning why he chose Nohr-S® Polyurea and what his thoughts are of the coating. Always the gentleman, Ryan was happy to take time out of his busy race schedule to talk with us on the phone and give us a few details.
Ryan’s new shop is located on a property where he is currently building a new home. His initial intention is to use it for his own “personal stuff”. However, at 3200 square feet in size, he admits that he may eventually move his race car operations from the center of town to the new shop to reduce distractions.
Once the building was erected, he wanted to get a floor coating system applied before lights or any other work was completed. He knew he needed a durable and high-performing coating, so he called Scotty from Legacy Industrial to see what he recommended.
For a bit of background, Ryan had originally reached out to Legacy Industrial a few years back. He was looking for a solution to a problem with a floor coating that was installed by a contractor in one of his older shops. Though the original contractor eventually made good with the issue, Ryan was impressed with Scotty’s customer service.
Once Ryan informed Scotty of the intended purpose for the shop, Scotty recommended their Nohr-S® Polyurea Coating System. Nohr-S® is a single-part polyurea coating that is extremely durable and easy to apply. You can read our review of Nohr-S® here.
The full kits consist of one coat each of Nohr-S® Color Prime, Nohr-S® Polyurea with color packs, optional color flakes, and Nohr-S® clear coat with the optional anti-slip media. You can find the Nohr-S® kits here.
The particular Gray color that was applied was created by combining an approximate ratio of 1/2 light Gray and 1/2 standard Gray pigment packs. In addition, Ryan wanted a light color flake coverage that incorporated some red for the Fireball Camaro theme.
As a result, Scotty created a custom color flake blend with red in it that Ryan liked. It is now offered as the Martin Fireball blend with the Nohr-S® kits.
Application of the Nohr-S® Coating System
When I spoke with Ryan, he was quick to point out that he did not install the coating system himself. He was busy at the time with filming for Street Outlaws and could only come by when he was free to check up on the progress.
Instead, he had a good friend from New York who was in town to see some races and he insisted on installing the coating for him. He had done contract work for him in the past and was experienced with coatings.
In addition, Scotty sent a gentleman named Gus to lend a hand. Gus used to work for Legacy Industrial’s install division. Light color flake applications can be tricky for the uninitiated on such a large floor. And because it was a custom blend, Scotty wanted to make sure it was applied appropriately.
The first step of the process was to properly prep the surface of the concrete to accept a coating. Grinding the concrete was the best option since it had been power troweled very smooth to obtain the flat and level surface that Ryan specified for the shop floor.
A floor maintainer with a Diamabrush attachment was used to do the grinding. However, Scotty was not happy with how it looked when Ryan sent him pictures. So, he sent him their HD357 concentrated salt-etch to finish the process.
Not wanting to wait for the etch, Ryan had his friend make another grinding pass on the floor. This time, he went over the concrete at a slower pace and Ryan said they used a more aggressive Diamabrush pad.
Diamabrush offers two different attachments. One is a concrete prep attachment and the other is a coating removal attachment. Our guess is that the wrong attachment (coating removal) was used first. Regardless, the concrete prep looked good after that and was ready for the coating.
As a side note, Ryan stated that he used the HD357 etch when installing Nohr-S® in the garage of his current home. He said it worked great and was easy to use.
The first coat applied was the Nohr-S® Color Prime. This is often referred to in the industry as the Ugly Coat. Besides the typical advantages of an epoxy primer, Nohr-S® Color Prime is similar in color to the Nohr-S® Polyurea color coat. This prevents any concrete color from bleeding through and allows the polyurea color coat to achieve its full rich color and gloss.
After waiting 4 – 6 hours for the Color Prime to cure, the Nohr-S® Polyurea color coat was applied. Though Nohr-S® Polyurea has a long pot life, it will typically begin to cure after 10 minutes of being applied to the floor.
This is where Gus’s experience was put to use. As the polyurea was being applied, Gus followed along shortly after, carefully tossing in the custom blend of color flakes. A 2-man job is highly recommended when doing large floors like this one.
Nohr-S® Polyurea is ready for recoats in approximately 2 hours. If you wait longer than 12 hours, it will require further prep before another coat is applied. Careful planning should be made with recoat requirements in mind when planning your own garage floor coating project.
Once the Nohr-S® Polyurea color coat had cured a few hours, a final coat of Nohr-S® Polyurea Clear was applied. The clear coat locks in and protects the color flakes as well as the color coat. It essentially acts as a sacrificial layer for the coating.
One of the advantages of a clear coat is that years later when the coating begins to look its age, you can make it look brand new by roughing up and sanding the surface to apply a new clear coat.
From start to finish, it took approximately 4 days for the coating installation. One of those days were due to the extra grinding that was required to obtain the proper profile. Regardless, 4 days is still pretty good for such a large shop floor.
Ryan’s Thoughts of the Nohr-S® Polyurea Coating System
I asked Ryan what his overall impressions were of Nohr-S®. I also asked if he had anything he would like to share with our readers about it.
He said one thing he liked, in particular, was the ability to adjust the color tone of the base coat with the use of the color packs. In addition, he said Legacy Industrial has always been great to deal with and Scotty’s customer service is fantastic.
He is very happy with the way the floor coating turned out. He admits that he has not had much vehicle traffic as of yet. At the time I spoke with him he had just finished getting lighting installed in the shop.
However, once his schedule frees up, the coating will be put to the test as he plans to load the shop up and start moving vehicles inside. He does have a Nohr-S® coating installed in the garage of his current home and has been very happy with the performance.
If you are interested in a Nohr-S® system for your garage or workshop, we suggest visiting Legacy Industrial or giving them a call for more information.
Yeah, I’ve chatted with him before at a race, he acts just like he does on tv. It’s fun to see a behind the scenes article like this. Is this coating much better than the stuff you can buy at Menards or Home Depot? It’s definitely more expensive.
Hi James. There is no comparison between Nohr-S polyurea and the inexpensive coatings that you can buy at your local home improvement center. This is a commercial quality coating system that will last 10-15 years before you may need to add a new coat. Rust-Oleum brand coatings and the others you can buy locally usually peel or wear out in 3 – 5 years.