Whether your garage is a workspace for home projects, a place to park the car, or both, you can benefit from a durable floor coating. Epoxy coatings are resistant to chipping, surface damage, and stains from oil, deicing fluids, or street salt.
Epoxy flooring also acts as a concrete sealant, establishing a barrier against chemicals that can damage the underlying flooring. This is a great advantage for health-conscious homeowners. Read on for some ideas.
Durability
Garage floor epoxy coatings stand up to impacts, chemicals, surface abrasion, and moisture much better than paint. This makes them an excellent option for the average home mechanic who wants to protect their garage floor and increase its value at the same time.
Despite what the national brands are promoting, epoxy does not paint your garage floor. Epoxy is a hard material that requires careful preparation of the concrete to achieve a strong chemical bond with it. Poor preparation is the primary reason that garage floor epoxy peels off under car tires.
Epoxy is also more difficult to apply than latex or acrylic floor paints. It requires thorough concrete prep, and it must be mixed and applied quickly before it starts to harden. It takes several hours to fully cure. The result of this quick curing can create surface anomalies such as pinholes or ridges in the epoxy that may trap dirt and liquid over time.
Easy to Clean
The garage is a place where people often work with oil and chemicals, which makes a floor coating an important investment. Coatings protect concrete from oil and chemical stains, while also making it easy to clean and maintain.
Unlike epoxy, polyurea coatings are resistant to UV rays and won’t fade over time like traditional epoxy floors. They also cure in a fraction of the time as epoxy, meaning you can have your concrete floors back to normal in one day or less.
A high-quality commercial quality polyurea or polyaspartic floor coating will be resistant to moisture, dirt, chemicals, salts, and more, making them easy to maintain. The best floor coatings will require very little cleaning, and even then, only a mop and hot or cold water should be used. Avoid using soaps or detergents on a coated garage floor, as they will leave behind a soap scum residue and damage the coating. This will make the floor slippery and unsafe.
Slip-Resistant
Many epoxy coatings contain colored quartz sand to create texture and increase grip. This helps reduce the likelihood of slip-and-fall accidents. It also adds a decorative element to your floor. You can choose to include this additive in the final coat or mix it in earlier on.
Epoxy coatings are also tough, able to withstand heavy vehicles and sharp objects like tools or bicycles. They are also resistant to spilled chemicals, heat, and abrasions. This type of flooring doesn’t shed dust, which can pollute the air and aggravate allergies and respiratory illnesses.
It’s also easier to clean than concrete, and it doesn’t absorb dirt or oils that make floors dirty. It can be cleaned with water or a non-abrasive cleaner, and it doesn’t harbor dust or grime like carpeting or tile. It also has a low VOC content, making it safe for use around children and pets.
Aesthetics
Many homeowners use their garage as more than just a place to park their cars and store household items. It can become their workshop, playroom, or entertainment area. This means that they need a floor that looks attractive and isn’t too slippery to walk on.
A high-quality epoxy floor coating can add a lot of style to the room and is available in a variety of colors and patterns. This makes the room look brighter and more put-together.
Epoxy flooring can also be customized with color flakes and a clear top coat. The flakes are mixed into the color coat during application, which allows for custom colors and a more decorative look. The clear coat protects the flakes and provides added thickness and durability.
Water-based epoxy kits are popular because they can be applied with a paint roller and don’t require curing. However, these DIY products don’t have the same abrasion ratings, chemical resistance, and adhesion that professional-grade epoxy has. Browse the next article.