Best garage floor epoxy coating & rustoleum garage floor epoxy.

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.

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.

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.

• Solvent-based or 2-part water-based epoxy

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.

• 1-part epoxy paints

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.

Epoxy Product Comparison

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.