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I often get asked this question, even from seasoned installers: Is it important to prime before filling a poured in place rubber hole or crack? Let me put this to rest in this article. Not only is it important, but absolutely essential to a successful PIP repair. Whether you are repairing a hole, a large crack or a gap between the rubber safety surface and concrete curb. I have seen way too many repairs simply delaminate a few months after the repair because they were not primed properly.
When you mix your EPDM rubber granules in any PIP repair kits you use, the granules are well coated on each side with binder, which makes them adhere to each other very well. But, when the surface they are filling is not primed, they don't have the required bond that will last. This would be like trying to join two piece of lumber by applying glue to only one piece of lumber. The bond is simply not as strong as if they both had glue. What happens is soon after the repair, simple physics, like foot traffic and kids pulling at the edges of the repair take over, meaning the end of that patch.
For a successful repair job on your poured in surface, two things need to happen:
1) You need to pick a good primer. A well balanced primer is easy to apply. it is diluted just enough for it to spread well and be well absorbed by the substrate while having the bonding strength needed to withstand the times and abuse the surface gets by kids and adults alike. A good PIP primer is aliphatic based so it has the right UV resistance but also won't stain your surface if overapplied. A good primer has dilutants that will not harm existing surfaces. (At Trassig, we have developed a Poured in place Primer that meets all these conditions. That's why we include it with all our wear layer repair kits). A question that comes up sometimes is why can't I use a regular binder to prime? I never thought that was a good solution because the regular binder will never have the spread and penetration capabilities of a good primer. There is also the risk of hardening your surface, which is unacceptable.
2) You need to apply the primer to the right surfaces. In the case of holes and cracks, you need to apply the PIP primer (usually with a cheap brush) to the sides of the EPDM wear layer as well as the entire base layer. If you are repairing a gap, you will need to prime the wall and base of whatever perimeter you are dealing with, whether it is concrete, wood, or plastic borders. In short, anything your mix will touch needs to be primed.
I will end with this. Having spent 20 years the poured in place install, repair and maintenance business, I have come to the conclustion that if you don't prime the poured in place area you are repairing, might as well not repair it. Priming is an integral part of these types of repairs.
