Finding the right garage floor coating can be hard, especially when you have choices like polyaspartic floor coating. But epoxy floor coatings are a great option for sealing and protecting the concrete floor in your home’s garage, and they’re also an excellent choice for auto shops and other businesses. Compared to bare concrete, an epoxy coating will make the floor far more resilient and protect it from impacts, cracking, and staining. An epoxy coating will make your garage more visually appealing and give it a classier, professional look.
How Epoxy Coating Works
Epoxy floor coatings are made of epoxide resin mixed with a polyamine hardener. When the two substances are mixed, the hardener is a catalyst and produces a chemical reaction. This reaction causes the epoxy to cure and creates strong polymer structures within the coating, making it extremely hard and durable.
You can find epoxy coatings at almost any home improvement store designed for DIY applications. The issue is that these coatings are typically nothing more than a latex or oil-based paint that has a small amount of epoxy mixed into it. These types of DIY coating will still provide some protection for your garage floor, but they are both messy and difficult to install. A DIY epoxy coating will also have nowhere near the strength and resilience of a professional or industrial epoxy coating.
Instead of simply using one layer of paint, a professional epoxy coating consists of multiple layers that make the coating far more durable and give it a much better appearance. The process usually starts by laying down a solid epoxy base coat in the color or colors of your choice. After mixing the epoxy resin and the hardener, the base coat is applied and allowed to cure so that it forms a durable, resilient coating. In most cases, several layers of epoxy will be applied to increase the strength of the coating. Once the base coat fully hardens, a protective polyurethane topcoat is then applied to make the coating much harder and provide a better seal. Now that you know exactly what epoxy coatings are and how they work, we’ll now look at some of the main benefits that an epoxy coating can provide for your garage floor.
Durability
One of the biggest benefits of an epoxy coating is that it will make the concrete floor much more durable. Uncoated concrete can easily crack or chip due to impacts, and this is something that you can easily avoid with an epoxy coating. An epoxy coating will typically last for 15 to 20 years before needing to be reapplied, and the coating is almost guaranteed to extend the life of any concrete floor by protecting it from cracking and other damage.
Epoxy coatings can easily withstand the shock of heavy impacts and will also prevent damage from heat, water and corrosive chemicals. The coating also won’t become stained or damaged by salt from winter roads, unlike bare concrete. Another advantage is that epoxy coatings are almost completely scratch resistant, which means you can easily sweep up dirt, sand and debris without risking damage to your floor or harming its appearance.
Strength
Epoxy coatings aren’t just much more durable than bare concrete, but they are also extremely strong and can allow the concrete to withstand much greater weight. Bare concrete can typically only withstand around 3,000 pounds per square inch. However, some epoxy coatings are strong enough that they will allow the concrete to withstand as much as 10,000 pounds per square inch without cracking or otherwise being damaged.
An epoxy coating is an ideal solution if you do lots of work on your car and want to have vehicle jack stands in the garage. Depending on the size and weight of your vehicle, jack stands could cause bare concrete to crack or buckle. With an epoxy coating, this is not something you’ll need to worry about since it will allow your garage floor to support much more weight.
Easy to Clean
If you park your car in the garage, the concrete floor can easily be stained by oil and other fluids. Epoxy coatings are a great option for preventing staining as they are easy to clean and completely waterproof. This means that oil and other fluids won’t ever soak into the coating and stain the floor. Even if you dumped a gallon of oil on an epoxy-coated floor and left it for weeks or months, the oil will still easily wipe up.
Epoxy coatings make the floor extremely easy to clean since nothing will ever soak into or stick to the coating. With an epoxy coating, you can easily clean up spills, dirt and grime with a mop or simply by spraying the floor off with a hose.
Cost-Effectiveness
Epoxy coatings are also the most cost-effective option for refurbishing old floors or covering up existing stains, as these coatings tend to be cheaper than most other flooring options such as tile or vinyl. An epoxy coating can also be used to cover up the existing flooring. In most cases, the epoxy coating can be laid directly over the existing flooring. This can save you quite a bit of money compared to having the old flooring removed and new flooring installed in its place.
Stylish Appearance
An epoxy floor coating will also give your garage a much more elegant appearance and allow you to create whatever style or look you want. Epoxy coatings are available in a huge number of different colors, and you can even mix and match different colors to create cool patterns and unique styles. You can also choose from a variety of metallic epoxy coatings that can give the floor a stylish 3-D appearance.
Epoxy flakes can also be added to enhance the appearance and add specks of different colors throughout the floor. Another option is to use decorative quartz or mica chips that will give the floor a shiny, speckled look.
Improved Visibility and Safety
An epoxy coating will reflect light, which means it can make the area look larger and brighter. The coating will also increase visibility and make the area much more illuminated to keep you safer while working in your garage.
There are also numerous additives that can also be used to improve safety. Both color flakes and chips will also help make it so that the epoxy coating isn’t quite as slick and improve traction. However, these options will not make the floor anti-slip. For this, you would typically want to add something like sand, gravel or mortar to the epoxy coating as these additives will create more texture, which will help to help improve traction and reduce the chances of slipping and falling.
Professional Epoxy Floor Coatings in Phoenix
At Valley Concrete Coatings & Polishing, we specialize in epoxy floor coatings, and our team has the experience, knowledge and skills to ensure the coating is applied properly and your floor looks exactly like you planned. We carry an extensive selection of standard coating colors as well as a range of different metallic epoxy floor coatings, and we can help you create virtually any style or design that you wish. For more information on our epoxy floor coating services or to learn more about the benefits an epoxy coating can bring to your garage, contact Valley Concrete Coatings & Polishing today.
