What Are Polyurea Polyaspartic Coatings
Whats a polyurea? Polyurea is a subgroup of polyurethane. Like epoxy, its a 2-component product . When the two parts are mixed, they quickly catalyze and produce a mixture that becomes very hard, very quickly. The mixture has low to no volatile organic compounds and is more flexible than epoxy. Because of its extremely fast cure rate and incredible hardness , most polyureas require specialized equipment for application.
Whats a polyaspartic? Bayer Material Science describes it as follows: By definition, a polyaspartic polymer is an aliphatic polyurea because it is the reaction of an aliphatic polyisocyanate with an aliphatic diamine the polyaspartic ester. Yikes! A simpler explanation is that a polyaspartic is a polyurea with a slowed-down cure rate. The slowed cure rate allows trained applicators to apply polyaspartics in a more traditional manner.
In a nutshell, all polyaspartics are a polyurea . What this means for the homeowner is that when you see a garage floor coating or kit being advertised as a polyurea or a polyurea polyaspartic, it likely some form of polyaspartic coating .
Epoxy Garage Floors Look Great
Ill bet when youre Googling ideas for inspiration for designing your perfect garage, many of them have brightly colored epoxy floors.
The days of plain concrete floors are long gone.
People use garages for much more than parking their cars or storing tools. It deserves as much attention and care as every other room in your house, right?
You can find epoxy coatings in a wide range of colors and styles to help create your dream garage.
Please dont add glitter to your garage floors .
For a more basic look, colored paint flakes can be added during installation to give the surface some texture. This helps add slip resistance to your garage flooring for additional safety.
How Many Epoxy Floor Coating Layers Do I Need For A Garage Floor
In addition to the primer layer, you will want to apply a minimum of two coats of Epoxy Flooring or Epoxy HB to your garage floor. This will give you good coverage, colour results and hard-wearing qualities.
After priming your garage floor, wait for 24 to 36 hours before applying the HB. You can then repeat coats of the HB to build up thickness to increase its lifetime and durability. The more coats you apply at this stage the longer the floor will last.
Important note: Epoxy garage floor coatings are not self-levelling. As epoxy is not a self-levelling material, you will need to apply a self-levelling compound before the epoxy application.
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How Long Does It Take To Epoxy A Garage Floor
We recommend booking out three to four days to epoxy a garage floor. This allows a day for preparation and priming, a day to apply the first coat and then the application of a second coat the following day. Its important to look at the weather forecast and avoid hot and humid weather as well as a cold snap.
Pvc And Poly Garage Tile Installation Steps
Please follow manufacturers instructions. This article is not about any specific tile installation method.
If your garage floor has moisture issues, apply a concrete sealer first. Water buildup under PVC tiles can encourage mold. Use a sealer on weepy garage floors. Consider using a sealer if the floor is flat. You want the floor under PVC tiles to drain.
Its OK to install PVC and poly tiles on a slight grade, and over small cracks. PVC tiles are flat, so they will flatten anything underneath them. Remove crud before starting. Poly tiles are open-bottomed, but you really dont want junk under your beautiful new floor, so clean before you start. Wait for the floor to dry before putting down the tile.
Start tile installation in the center of the room. Work backwards so that you have full tiles until you meet a wall. Thats where youll need your utility knife to create partial tiles. Leave a gap between the tile edge and the walls.
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How Many Layers Do You Put Down
The number of layers depends on the system that you choose. Our entry level coating, the Silver System, consists of one coat of epoxy with a partial spread of colored vinyl flakes and a clear top coat of a high-solids urethane with a traction increasing additive. Our most popular coating, the Gold System, consists of one body coat of epoxy each with a full broadcast of colored vinyl flakes, a clear grout coat of polyaspartic, and a top coat of a high-solids urethane. Click HERE to learn more about the garage floor coating systems that AFS offers.
Garage Epoxy Colors Finishes & Chips
There are an incredible amount of color and finish options available to the consumer when applying epoxy to their floors. Since a straight gloss finish can be slippery when wet it is often recommended to use an anti slip additive or chips to give the floor some texture. Popular chip colors and styles will emulate a granite look, however creativity can run wild with epoxy. Taping off different squares or shapes and painting different colored epoxy in each one can create a tile look. Mixing color additives in different ways can even result in a floor that looks like water! Many car enthusiasts love the checkered floor aesthetic, and this can also be achieved with a little extra prep work and patience in the application.
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How Much Epoxy Is Needed To Cover A Garage Floor
A typical 250sq/ft one car garage will use a 120fl/oz kit, while a 2 to 2.5 car garage will use the 240 fl/oz kit which can cover 450-500sq/ft. There are some other considerations such as how porous the concrete is that could require additional epoxy. Common garage sizes are as follows:
- 1 car garage: 240 sq/ft to 384sq/ft
- Widths of 12, 14, or 16
- Depths of 20, 22, or 24
Washing The Oil & Grease Spill On The Garage Base Before Coating
These two substances will never allow the paint to stick to the surface. So, you have no choice but eliminating them thoroughly. Here, we have a manual that illustrates the appropriate techniques to deal with oily or greasy epoxy garage floors.
- First, make a washing solution using alkaline detergent or commercial concrete degreaser. . Heres a guide on how to choose the best cleaner for an Epoxy floor.
- Spread the liquid all over the place and let it soak for 3 to 5 min.
- Keep the surface wet during the whole procedure and apply more liquid if its drying.
- If the spills are too sticky, start scrubbing them using a mod or long-handled brush. .
- Now, use a bucket of lukewarm water and rinse the area several times to see that the substance is fully removed.
- Repeat the procedure in case the spills are still covering the surface.
- Finally, let the base completely dry before moving onto the next phasepainting.
Looking for a way to get rid of greasy stuff on your base? Heres a manual on how to clean oil spill on Epoxy garage floor .
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How To Prep Your Floor For An Epoxy Coating
Home » Blog » How To Prep Your Floor For An Epoxy Coating
So youve decided to get an epoxy flooring for your brewery. Now all you need to do is apply the epoxy flooring properly. While this is a simple task, there are several things that need to be done to guarantee your floor comes out just the way you envisioned it.
Why Polyaspartic Floors Vs Epoxy Floors
We clearly hadnt been impressed with our old epoxy floors. So, when Hello Garage mentioned they had an epoxy floor alternative, we wanted to hear more. Unlike most garage floors, Hello Garage uses a polyaspartic garage floor coating. I thought Id share a few of our favorite characteristics of this alternative garage floor option that helped us make the decision to go this direction. Hello Garages polyaspartic garage flooring is a garage floor coating with a granite-like look and durability that can be installed in just one day! And, unlike epoxy it:
- Is environmentally friendly
- Resists peeling
- Not susceptible to hot-tire pickup
- Lasts 4-5x longer than epoxy
- Comes with a limited lifetime warranty!
Add in the fact that its easy to clean and would completely give us a new look, we were sold pretty quickly!
Although we worked with the local Hello Garage team, they do have franchises in many states around the country. They offer free bids and consults for those that may be interested. You can see all their locations here. Their experts are incredibly knowledgeable, friendly and helpful and we really enjoyed working with them throughout this process!
After an initial consult with one of the Hello Garage gurus, we picked out the flooring options and storage/organizational components we thought would best meet our needs. We then set the wheels in motion pretty quickly!
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Prep Your Garage For Epoxy
Once the garage has dried from the etching process, youll want to prepare for the epoxy process itself. This is optional, though a good way to ensure no unwanted damage happensplace tape along with the trim of the wall where it meets the floor. You may also choose to tape paint covers along the walls to prevent any marks from splashing.
What Garage Flooring Is Right For Me
We hope the above gives you some insight into the garage flooring options available and what will match your needs.
In our opinion, epoxy garage flooring is the best garage floor coating. It delivers on the following:
- Durable hard-wearing with good abrasion resistance, and can cope with traffic
- Resistant to chemicals
- Attractive many people covet the look of car showrooms and professional garages, this is achievable with garage floor epoxy
- Value for money
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How Long Does A Garage Epoxy Floor Take To Dry
For a garage floor, the epoxy drying time depends on several factors such as temperature, humidity, and ventilation. Remember that you need to wait at least 12 hours between coats.
When all coats are applied, it can take a few days to become fully dry. Its usually walkable in 24 48 hours but we recommend leaving it a week before returning your vehicle. It can take up to a fortnight for an epoxy garage floor to fully cure and reach its maximum strength.
How To Apply The Epoxy To The Garage Floor
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Upgrade Your Clients Basement With Epoxy
Thereâs a wide range of options to finish your clientâs basement that doesnât include classic vinyl or carpeted flooring, which makes epoxy a great option for alternative finishings.
Though a big project to undertake, epoxy floors are great for at-home gyms, play areas for kids, workrooms for artists or hobbyists.
If you found this article helpful, check out our other informative guides on flooring finishing, upgrades, and product guides.
What Is The Best Type Of Epoxy For Concrete Garage Floors
The key considerations for choosing an epoxy product are ensuring that it is 100% solids, not water based, and that it is an Aliphatic type. 100% solids means that there are no additives which will simply evaporate after painting the concrete. 100% of the product is solids that will stay down on the floor as opposed to high solids which means some percentage of the product will not remain after cure. It is okay for primers or top coats to be not be 100% soilds but make sure that the main application is.
Water based epoxy is not as strong as 100% solids but it is usually easier to apply and does not give off as many VOCs or volatile organic compounds. If epoxy is to be applied on a concrete surface inside of a home be sure to consider water based for that application to prevent air pollution. Popular brands sold in big box stores which are marketed to DIY homeowners for their garage floors may be water based.
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Benefits Of Epoxy Floors For Garages
Garage epoxy floors are a popular and practical choice, both residentially and at a commercial level. For starters, epoxy is resistant to oil, petrol, transmission fluid, cleansers and other chemicals that are often found in garages. Its also easy to wipe clean and keep dust-free.
Epoxy floors are also attractive. A reflective gloss look is relatively easy to achieve and appealing for those looking to show off their cars. The combination of aesthetics and practicality is a winning one.
Our Garage Floors: Before
Our garage has always been one of those spaces weve known we need to work on, but honestly, it felt overwhelming. Any attempts we had made to improve or organize the space in the past seemed to quickly be erased, because we never actually did it properly.
Weve also known for some time now that we were going to have to address our garage floors. The epoxy that was applied before we moved in was deteriorating badly in some places and completely gone in others.
From farther away, our floors could pass as simply dirty.
However, upon closer inspection, you could see the existing epoxy flooring was peeling and cracking rather significantly in many places. The problem seemed to get worse with each passing year.
With the sections that were cracking, you can see it was also allowing water to get under the surface, further causing issues to the overall durability and adhesion.
In some areas that the epoxy was essentially just floating on the concrete and I could literally pull it off with my hands.
Not only that, our garage had become an embarrassment when people came over. Garage organization is clearly not a talent that Kurtis or I possess, so we knew we needed to address that, as well. Our garage is the main entrance to our home used by friends and family and where we store pool drinks in the summer months. It was time to tackle the chaos! You will be blown away when I share how much our garage has changed from the image below, taken just a few short months ago!
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How To Prep Your Garage Floor For Epoxy
Your garage floor is subject to a lot of use and abuse. An oil spill here, a paint splatter there its evident when your space has been well-loved. And the more time you spend there, the more damage your concrete flooring might incur. The abrasions, dust, and cracks that collect over time can be quite the eyesore and may even be dangerous if not properly taken care of.
Luckily, epoxy offers a beautiful way to restore your worn-out garage floor. There are plenty of reasons to choose an epoxy garage floor. But what are the next steps once you make the decision to install an epoxy floor in your garage?
Here Are Some Epoxy Garage Floor Before And After Results
Ourepoxy garage floor before and afterpictures show the difference that epoxy flooring can make in any Houston garage that our clients have. As you can see, epoxy floor coatings can make a dramatic difference in the appearance of your garage. Not only will your garage look better, but it will also be protected from stains and other damage that would normally occur in that area. If you’re looking for a way to improve the look of your home, epoxy floor coatings are a great option to consider. Our improvedepoxy before and afterresults will shock you, and we guarantee your garage to stay like this for many years to come!
The Houston area is no stranger to extreme weather, and your garage floor takes a lot of abuse from the continuous movement of your vehicles. Over the years, we have worked on countless garage floors that have seen better days because the people of Houston have trusted us to restore their garage floors to like-new condition, which can be seen in ourepoxy floor before and afterpictures.
Whether your garage floor is cracked, stained, or just in need of a refresh, we can help. Our team of experienced professionals will work diligently to restore your garage floor to its former glory. We use only the highest quality materials and methods, so you can rest assured that your garage floor will look great for years to come. Don’t let a damaged garage floor ruin your day -the experts at Houston Garage Floors today!
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