Gauge Rake & Squeegee for Epoxy Floors
Gauge rake & squeegee
What decides whether you paid for 2 mm and got 2 mm
A gauge rake is a flat blade with adjustable pins or notches that spreads self-levelling epoxy to a set thickness. It is what makes a 2 mm floor actually 2 mm across the whole room, rather than thick where spreading was easy and thin under doors and along walls.
A resin floor is sold by thickness. A notched gauge rake is the only thing on site that controls it. The notch depth, the pitch of the blade and the speed it is pulled set how much material stays on the floor behind it.
It is set to the specified film before the first pail is opened, and checked with a wet-film gauge while the resin is still moving.
Spread by eye
Without it the resin goes down thick where it was easy to work and thin where it mattered (under a door, at the end of a run, against a wall), and the job is billed at the specified thickness either way.
You cannot see it once it has cured, and you cannot measure it without drilling the floor. It shows up later as wear in exactly the thin places.
Coverage is arithmetic
Material used divided by area covered is the average film, and it is checkable. We record pails opened against square metres laid, and the figure goes in the handover.
Without itResin spread by eye: thick where it was easy, thin where it mattered, and billed the same either way.
What to ask
Ask for the coverage figure: litres of material against square metres of floor. It is the only honest proof of thickness that does not involve drilling your slab.
Where it is used
Day 02 of the job, the pour, on decorative epoxy, flake floors, quartz broadcast and repairs & recoats.
Questions people ask
How do you check the thickness of an epoxy floor?
While it is wet, with a wet-film gauge pressed into the resin. Once it has cured, the practical check is coverage: the volume of material used divided by the area covered gives the average thickness. Measuring a cured floor directly means cutting or drilling out a sample.
What is the difference between a gauge rake and a squeegee?
A notched squeegee meters material by the depth of its notches and suits thinner coats. A gauge rake has adjustable pins that ride on the slab and hold the blade at a fixed height, which suits thicker self-levelling pours. Both control thickness; a roller or a flat trowel used by eye does not.
What happens if epoxy is laid too thin?
Thin areas wear through first, hide the slab less well and are more likely to show pinholes and marks from the concrete. Because the floor looks the same on the first day, thin spots usually only show up as early wear, in the places people walk most.