What Can You Make with Waterproof Epoxy Resin? Three Scenarios for Choosing the Right Product from the Olin Catalog

This is the guide I wish someone had handed me in 2017, before I poured the wrong resin system into a two-inch river-table mold and spent a full weekend grinding out the damage.

I've spent seven years specifying epoxy systems for a small custom fabrication shop. We coat concrete floors, seal wood bar tops, cast decorative slabs, and repair things that sit outdoors in damp environments. I've personally made—and documented—eleven significant resin mistakes. They cost roughly $6,400 in wasted material and labor. I now maintain our shop's epoxy checklist, and the number one pattern I see isn't bad resin. It's a mismatch between the project and the product.

That's why "what can you make with epoxy resin?" doesn't have a single list answer. It has three, and they are not interchangeable.

Waterproof Epoxy Resin Projects Split Into Three Scenarios

Before buying anything, ask yourself: is the epoxy going to be a film, a mass, or a joint?

• A film: the resin is a thin protective layer over wood, concrete, or metal.
• A mass: the resin is the object, or the object is buried inside a pour.
• A joint: the resin has to bond two parts together or fill a gap that will get wet.

Each scenario uses a different product family, and each fails in a different way if you pick wrong.

Scenario 1 — The Resin Is a Waterproof Film Over a Surface

Resin ideas in this group: bar tops, dining tables, kitchen counters, shop workbenches, and sealed concrete floors. The epoxy does the waterproofing, but it's only a thin skin.

For this job, you need a coating-grade system. These are formulated to self-level and flow out into a smooth film. Industrial formulators often build them from liquid epoxy resins that appear in the Olin catalog—an Epon™ Resin 828-based system is the classic example—but what you buy as an end user is the fully formulated product with the correct hardener.

The mistake I see most often here is treating "waterproof" as if it means "surface preparation doesn't matter." In March 2021, we coated a walnut bar top that was still releasing moisture. The coating itself was fine. The wood wasn't ready. After a few warm days, water vapor pushed blisters up under the film. We sanded it back, let the slab acclimate for a week, and recoated. Total extra cost: $890 and one very honest phone call to the customer.

Scenario 2 — The Resin Is a Solid Mass or Encapsulation

River tables, thick decorative slabs, paperweights, lamp bases, and embedded objects (coins, shells, small mechanical parts) all fall into this group. Here, the resin doesn't just protect the surface—it becomes the structural body of the piece.

For mass pours, you need a casting or deep-pour system. Same epoxy chemistry family, but a different cure profile. Thick pours generate heat as they cure. A coating resin that works beautifully at a 1/8-inch film can overheat, crack, or stay soft in the middle when poured two inches thick.

In September 2022, I tried to save money on a two-slab river table order by using a cheaper "multi-purpose" product that was really a coating system. The first 24 hours looked fine. By day three, both slabs had internal cracks and a tacky center. The material cost was $620. The replacement material was $1,100, and we lost three shop days redoing it. The frustrating part: the label didn't say "don't pour thick" in big letters. It was buried in the technical data sheet.

Scenario 3 — The Resin Is a Bond or Repair That Has to Stay Waterproof

Repair and bonding jobs are different again. If you're fixing a split in outdoor furniture, sealing a joint between two pieces of wood, or bonding a component that will sit in a damp environment, you need an adhesive-grade epoxy or a thickened epoxy paste.

A liquid casting resin won't stay where you put it on a vertical crack. It runs out before it cures and leaves you with a surface film and an empty gap underneath. A paste or gel with fillers stays in place, fills the gap, and does the actual structural job.

After our third repair failure in Q1 2024, we added a simple rule to the checklist: if the project is a joint, use a joint product. If the project is a surface, use a surface product. If the project is a thick block, use a casting product. The epoxy family is the same; the application is not.

The Real Price of Certainty in an Epoxy Project

Here's the part that most project guides skip: time changes the decision.

If your install date is flexible, you can afford to experiment a little. If the deadline is fixed—a restaurant reopening, an event, a customer move-in date—then certainty matters more than the price per gallon.

In March 2024, we had ten restaurant table coatings due before a Friday reopening. We had a cheaper hardener in stock from another project that probably would have worked. But "probably" is the most expensive word in this business. We paid $262 in overnight freight to get the exact matching hardener from the manufacturer's spec. The alternative was discovering a bad cure on ten tables after they were installed. That would have meant roughly $2,800 in material, a lost weekend, and a contractor who would never trust us again.

What I do not mean is that you should always buy the most expensive option. I mean that when the schedule is non-negotiable, buy the option with the most certainty. The guarantee of doing it once is worth more than the gamble of doing it twice.

What the Olin Catalog Will and Won't Tell You

When people search for the "Olin catalog," they're often expecting a list of finished craft resins. In reality, Olin's catalog organizes epoxy resins by chemistry and form—liquid epoxy resins, solid epoxy resins, solution resins, and brominated grades—rather than by consumer projects. That's a useful distinction to understand before you buy from a distributor.

If a formulated product says it's based on an Olin liquid epoxy resin like Epon Resin 828, that tells you the backbone is a proven industrial-grade material. But waterproof performance comes from the complete system: the resin, the hardener, the fillers, the cure conditions, and the surface preparation. The catalog gives you the raw material; the technical data sheet gives you the actual answer.

Honestly, I'm still not 100% sure why one of our early castings yellowed more than an identical one made a month later. My best guess is an under-stirred pigment batch. That's the kind of variable you can't fully control the first time.

Which Scenario Are You In?

If you're still unsure, ask three questions.

1. Is the resin a thin skin or the main body? Thin skin → Scenario 1. Main body or thick section → Scenario 2.
2. Does the resin need to hold two existing parts together? If yes → Scenario 3. Do not use a self-leveling casting resin where a gap-filling adhesive is required.
3. What happens if it fails? If failure means redoing the whole project and missing a deadline, choose the proven system and verify it before pouring.

There's something quietly satisfying about a waterproof coating that still looks right six months later. That only happens when the product matches the project.

One practical note: epoxy resin systems require gloves, ventilation, and careful reading of the safety data sheet. Waterproofing for tables and floors is not the same as food-contact certification. If you're making something that will touch food, look for a product specifically rated for that use and verify current regulations before you pour.

Finally, if you landed here searching for "Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation asbestos," that's a different topic from today's epoxy catalog. Historical product and liability questions should be checked with official court records or an attorney. I'm in no position to give legal guidance, and this guide is about choosing epoxy resin, not resolving old claims.