A garage floor experiences various pressure from people, equipment, vehicles, and tools, and it is often subject to grease, and stains, and spilled liquids, and so on. Epoxy coating may solve all these issues on the garage floor, and also it looks amazing. By the way, this type of the floor coating is very practical because it does not get dirty quickly, and the maintenance is simple.
Product | Product details | Product dimensions, weight | Brand |
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Rust-Oleum 261845 Check the price | Durable, 2-part Epoxy formula works on interior concrete surfaces,such as garage floors, workshops, basements and more. Walk on ready in 24 hours, vehicle and drive-on ready in 72 hours | 14.2" x 11.5" x 9" 25.6 pounds | Rust-Oleum |
25 LB Box Epoxy Flake Check the price | Great for Basements, Garage Floors, Dog Kennels and much more. 25 LB boxes economically priced | 15" x 12" x 10" 29 pounds | Concrete Floor Supply |
EPOXY-COAT Full KIT Check the price | Everything you need for project included in kit. Lifetime guarantee. Made in the USA! | 3 Gallon 40 pounds | EPOXY-COAT |
SUPERCOAT DecoEffects Check the price | Decorative floor kit containing epoxy coating, flakes with reflective particles, urethane glaze coat and nonslip additive. Low odor, low VOC, water base, decorative, eight color combinations, excellent adhesion to concrete | 2.6 gallons 37.2 pounds | SUPERCOAT |
Jam Garage Floor Check the price | Deliciously beautiful. Deliciously durable. JAM bonds mechanically to a surface, creating an industrial-strength arrier that guards your floor from damage caused by salt, fluids, chemicals and auto wear and tear. | Standard Kit covers approximately 350 - 400 Sq. Ft. 50 pounds | JAM |
Coloreedepoxies 10017 Check the price | Very flexible 100% solids, odorless. Non water based professional grade epoxy, waterproofing, mold and mildew resistant. | 23" x 9" x 11" 9.3 pounds | Coloreedepoxies |
Garage Floor Epoxy Meaning
We would like to share some instructions how to select the best option of the floor epoxy for your garage. However, there are some confusion about this term, and we would like to clear it up at first.
Many people confuse epoxy with the paint, and think that it is the same. Well, it is not true. Epoxy is a type of resin that works with many applications just like insulting, bonding, sealing, and coating surfaces. Mixing epoxy resin with polyamine hardener results in epoxy coating. When one have applied this coating, it undergoes some curing procedure. Due to this, one will have a thick, glossy, and tough polymer finish. A chemical resistances and a mechanical strength of the coating surpass other coatings on the garage floor.
Looking for the proper epoxy, you may face various options such as epoxy paints, solids epoxy, 1 or 2-part epoxy systems, and others. What is the difference? What product will work better? Do they have the same properties? This little instruction will help to know all the details of the epoxy coatings, and select the best option.
I haven’t used thing for long, so I cannt tell you how it lasts but I will say it in 6 months. It looks great. Make sure to read the instructions thoroughly before applying it, otherwise you may screw it up. Advice: I had to do some research before deciding on this kit. It is rather expensive in comparison with epoxy in the box but it worth it. This epoxy is of high quality and lasts for 20 years. Other cheap kits may quickly wear off and flake in a couple of years. Their composition may include water, and this product is 100% epoxy. This kit has everything you need for your painting but you may also need paint roller, plastic mat, old shoes, and gloves, and a drill for the mixing tool. The seller was friendly and gladly helped me to pick a color. Actually, I spent 4 hours for the installation. My concrete floor was new, so I didn’t grind it. There were not stains or spots on it. All I did was acid wash to prepare the surface (it was provided in the kit). The floor looks amazing, and it is easy to clean. 1 year update: I am still impressed even in a year after the installation of the floor. It didn’t peeled anywhere. The floor is used every day, and we park our vehicles there. Of course, some oils and chemicals have been spilled, but I didn’t have any troubles with cleaning them. and no marks left on the surface. Moreover, I didn’t clean some oil spot on purpose, and waited for a week, and it also was cleaned well. The only thing I should of avoided was gripping salt, it came with the kit. When you walk on the floor, you may feel some grab, and it is not cleaned well. I read many positive reviews about this product, and so I bought it for my new shop. We work with various vehicles, cars, motorcycles on the floor. And so we used white/blue/sparkles flakes. It was done within 3 nights, and it dries out within 48 hours. No mops, tire tracks. It is cleaned well. Make sure to use something under your feet to avoid scratches when you use a bagger motorcycle. This product is just amazing and looks great! I really liked the first finish of the floor, and it has just red on it. Then I used a clear coating, and I also added some flakes. Then I thought that it would be difficult to keep it clean, and it could be slippery if I pulled my motorcycle after rain. So I used clear and added the flakes into it. Well, I really like the result, I got what I wanted, even better. This kit has all needed tools for your great garage floor. I mean it. It comes with gloves, and rollers, and mixer for the drill, and notched squeegee, and shoes! I will definitely recommend this kit to my friends. And if you want a longlasting quality floor, you should consider this product for sure! What a great epoxy! I used it a year ago for my garage floor. I highly recommend grinding the floor (of course if it is not new and have not been painted before), you may get a concrete grinder at Home Depot. Then apply masonry acid to rinse oily spots, then vacuum it and let it dry. Spring time will be better because the humidity will be low. If you see that the floor is dried out, start mixing hardener and paint (stir the paint first because some color may be left on the can bottom). It is not like you painting with a common paint. Pour the epoxy on the floor, and use a paint roller to spread it. It does not dry quickly. The manufacturer indicates that it will dry in 30 minutes but it does not. It may take about 48 hours if you use color flakes paint. It depends on humidity. I used 12 gallons for 650-700 square feet garage. Take your time and the result will be amazing. The floor is not slippery, but a paddle of water may cause it. Instructions for Buyer This product consists of one part hardener and one part epoxy. This combination provides a thick and rigid layer after a chemical reaction. The liquid is not evaporated during the curing procedure, and that is why the coating keeps the same thickness after it hardens and dries. That is why the epoxy is called as 100% true or solids epoxy. It provides a good resistance to chemical reactions, abrasion, and also hot tire pickup. The warranty is up to 10 years. This type is often used for heavy-traffic and commercial floors in garages. What is the punch line with solids epoxy? Well, it is more expensive that other types. But it will last long and will be cost-effective. Another punch line: the mixture of epoxy should be quickly applied after you have mixed parts 1 and 2. It rather quickly hardens. The experts name this period as pot life of epoxy. So make sure that you are ready to work fast. The proper skills in this field will be in use to have a perfect result. To ease the work with epoxies, there is a demand in epoxies with solvent or water for easier application. This type of epoxy is cheaper, has a longer pot life, lower percentage of solids, and thinner consistency. The epoxy pot life is about one hour, and it is a long period for DIY fans. As you may assume, the tradeoff provides a lower quality, a shorter lifespan, and also a thinner layer. But it will be a great option for garages without heavy traffic. If you like doing things by yourself and do not want to overpay for the work of other people, we highly recommend using this type of epoxy. This is really a paint product having premixed epoxy. It means that this coating does not have a good protective layer and does not belong to true epoxy. However, it is used for painting floors in the garage. Due to this coating, the garage floor is easily cleaned and will have visual appeal. Do not rely on the good protective features and a long durability. Also, a new coating should be applied every year. We do not recommend using this type of the epoxy if you want to have solid and long-lasting coating of your garage floor. The manufacturer’s technical data should be used for a comparison of the different epoxy products. It is placed in the product label or you may visit a website of the manufacturer. You should consider the following factors besides the curing period, composition of the solids, pot life, cost, and easy of application. Dry film thickness (DFT) is very important because it shows a final coating thickness during the application and curing process. High DFT is peculiar to epoxy with high solids percentage. For instance, a DFT of true epoxy will be 10 mils. And two-part epoxy system has 3 mils DFT. You have to exactly know how much epoxy you need for your floor. This is coverage per gallon. This information will be useful during the comparison of the prices. The smaller the coverage is, the higher the cost per gallon will be. You will easily find this information on a label of the product. The coverage is decreased if you have a rigid concrete floor. Garage Floor Coatings – Product Choices for Garage Flooring A fast-growing market segment is the garage coating industry. Now there are plenty of opportunities available when we talk about garage options. A real popular garage option is what we call the epoxy color chip system. This usually entails starting with a prime coat and then coming back over that with a fuller body code. In the fuller body coat, you’re actually broadcasting these paint chips into the full body pigmented epoxy coat. Now there are different ways that you can broadcast the color chips. This is probably what we would consider a medium broadcast. And what I mean by that it’s the paint chips are not covering the epoxy 100%. You can still see the gray matrix from the epoxy; whereas this, believe it or not, is the same color. Everything is the same. The epoxy is the same and the color chips are the same but we call this broadcasting to refusal. So that means that we’re putting these chips on 100% coverage flooding them on, you really have to apply them heavy. What’s happened in the past is if you’re applying 100% solids pigmented epoxy and you don’t cover it thoroughly, the chips will actually settle and leave little shiny and dull spots. So you really need to throw it on until refusal. Now there are plenty of options. As I mentioned, it comes in different colored matrix. You can use your epoxy coating in Tam’s buffs. There’s a variety of colors and even the paint chips, as you see, you can get those in different colors. Short of using the color chip system something that’s gaining and really gaining in popularity a whole bunch lately is what we call the metallic epoxy. It gives it a very unique surface. It’s almost something like you would expect to see in outer space to be honest with you, because of the cratering that you see here. And what we do is we prime the floor, and then we put the metallic epoxy, and then at the opportune time, we go back out and we spritz it with solvent. And so that’s where you see these craters in the texture. You get really great depth and great texture, and although this looks like it has heavy texture. It’s glass smooth, literally it feels like glass over here. Regardless of the system that you use whether it’s the color chip system or perhaps the metallic epoxy. One thing holds true is the fact that you must prepare that substrate properly in order for these products to perform. You have to address any cracks typically by crack chasing an amount. And most epoxy manufacturers will, in fact, have a system for repairing cracks. So check with them. Also you need to be concerned about any moisture related issues. You might want to consider a relative humidity test, or a calcium chloride test, because with these thick film builds, it doesn’t allow moisture vapor to transmit through the concrete. It will build and build underneath your epoxy system and can potentially fail. So that’s a serious consideration. Also you want to obtain a light profile. Typically you can obtain a light CSP which is what we refer to as a concrete surface profile by dustless grinding. Some manufacturers recommend that it’s okay to acid etch. Again, check with your manufacturer for the proper surface preparation. Now epoxies are not just offered in in pigmented versions like these grays and tens. In fact, you can get clear epoxy. Check out this crazy floor! This was a stamp label overlay that we built layer upon layer. To run you through what we did here, this blue that you see is the actual concrete. That was the actual concrete, the slab of concrete when this building was poured. And we treated it with a blue dye. We knocked this out with foam, and then we poured a stamp a ball overlay to this level, roughly five eighths of an inch thick. So we covered the whole floor with this elevation, came back and covered it again with another lift about five eighths of an inch. So it’s a layering effect, all the way back down to the pre-existing slab of the concrete. This type of epoxy here that’s filling this void is what we call a water clear epoxy. If I was to use a standard clear epoxy and fill that thickness, it would cloud up. So an epoxy sealer like you would roll down on a floor, if you put it in a glass like you would fill a glass with water and look through it, it would be cloudy and hazy. Whereas a water clear epoxy, if you look through it in a glass, you can see through it just like if it was water. Hence the name or clear epoxy. So we filled this level with a water clear epoxy right up to here, and then we came over the top of that with a traditional clear epoxy coating. But that’s not our final wear surface, and the same stands true for a garage coating. You would never take it to this stage right here and just leave this as your final wear surface. It’s really important that you coat over the top of that epoxy surface with something that is, number one, scratch and scuff resistant but also hot tire and chemical resistant. That’s super important. So what we coated over it with this floor, and what you would do perhaps with the garage floor is an aliphatic polyurethane which is very resistant to scuffing and scratching, the chemical resistant when we refer to them as a CRU chemical resistant thing. And they’re also hot tie resistant. It is a wonderful consideration. Polyaspartic also works well in that type of a garage environment. Do your homework, find out which coating best suits your needs for your environment.Rust-Oleum 261845 – Best adhesion on surfaces and covers
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Concrete Floor Supply – Best garage floor epoxy coating
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A fair price for big decorative flakes. Do not buy one pound in your local shop. It is a waste of time and money. This is the best price you may find on the market. Take one box for heavy coating in two-car garage. Mine garage is 450 sq ft. I like how it looks with this product. I would recommend to do coating with a partner. You will not be satisfied with the result if you do it on your own. Split flakes into sections. Make sure to use equal parts to have better look on the floor. I really like this option and I like that there are so many offers at a good price on the market now.
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EPOXY-COAT – Best garage floor epoxy kit
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SUPERCOAT – Professional grade floor system
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Jam Garage Floor – Best garage floor epoxy coating
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Coloreedepoxies 10017 – Best waterproofing garage floor epoxy
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• Solvent-based or 2-part water-based epoxy
• 1-part epoxy paints
Epoxy Product Comparison