The technicians and installers at Garage Floor Coatings are often asked the difference between our coatings and what they can purchase at the big box home centers. As we all know, big home centers and paint stores sell (relatively) inexpensive one- and two-part epoxy kits from Rustoleum, Behr, and other manufacturers. Although we do not wish to criticize any particular brand, generally speaking, these discount kits are of inferior quality, and can not withstand the heavy duty use required for automobile parking, the stress of weather elements (substrate expanding and contracting), and can not fill pre-existing cracks and imperfections. Before you start a project like this, ask yourself a few questions:
- How will I prepare the surface to ensure adhesion?
- How will I fix cracks, divots and imperfections?
- Am I willing to spend a few days of my time to install the product?
- What will I do if the product fails?
Unfortunately, some commercial installers are using discount kits in order to keep their costs down. If you have received a low-ball bid on a concrete coating job at your home, you should be wary and suspicious. Always ask your installer:
- The brand of coating they intend to use.
- Where the installer intends to purchase it. High-grade coatings are purchased from concrete specialty supply houses and directly from manufacturers.
- What is the installer’s method of preparation of the concrete?
- What is the installer’s warranty?
It has been our experience, in reviewing and inspecting concrete that is coated with such products, that the discount coatings fail prematurely, usually in less than one year, for two reasons.
The first problem with such coatings, a significant failure that occurs, is the failure of adhesion between concrete and coating. When a concrete coating fails to adhere to the concrete below, the coating chips away, revealing the concrete underneath. This is why proper preparation is crucial. We will diamond grind your surface to open the pores of the concrete, allowing our product to enter the concrete, seek out the moisture and molecularly bond with the moisture in the concrete, creating an impermeable bond. Our coatings become part of the floor.
A second reason for failure, as important as the first, is when the coating can not flex/shift with the concrete during climate/temperature changes. Concrete is always expanding and contracting, and
your coating needs to be able to do the same as well, otherwise you will end up with cracking and peeling. Due to the failure of these DIY epoxy kit coating systems, the entire floor is usually ground
down to the concrete underneath – at a greater expense to the customer.
After we completely prep the floor, two coats of our 100% Solids Industrial Polymer are applied and the appropriate colored chips are then broadcast into the second coat. One or two Poly Hybrid clear coats are then applied on the second day to ensure chemical and scratch resistance. Our final product comes with a lifetime warranty for residential applications against peeling.
