Epoxy Flooring Myths. What You Need To Know
Remember that garage epoxy floor coatings are not like conventional floor paint and that not all epoxies are created equal.
What are epoxy floor coatings? It is generally two part solids, solvent or water based. Like epoxy glue, epoxy flooring has a Resin and a Hardener component. Normal garage floor paints are oil or water based. Either oil or water based, high grade epoxy floor coatings are not all same. Saving you time, money and grief.
Epoxy Flooring: What You Should Know
If you are like most people, you have never worked with epoxy paints and think it is just another kind of paint like semi-gloss or enamel. Comparing epoxy flooring to regular garage floor coatings is like saying a Volkswagen Beetle and a Ferrari are the same automobile. A floor that doesn’t look correct straight after installation or that wears and fails quickly due to a lack of knowledge about paints and epoxies. That means you’ll have to grind the filth off your floor again. Not worth the few bucks you may have saved or spent on a lesser brand. Learn how to apply epoxy flooring from private garages to the most demanding military industrial applications.
Epoxy floor coatings are generally a two-part mixture rather than a single component. Think epoxy glue type adherence versus duct tape adhesion. With a very high gloss surface that no regular paint can match, your floor will be waterproof, mould and mildew resistant. Cleaning a good epoxy floor coating is akin to cleaning a Teflon pan. Our epoxy coatings come in a variety of colours, including bespoke hues for bigger floors. You may also add artistic colour flakes to the epoxy for a granite effect. Best of all, ArmorGarage epoxy flooring is straightforward to install and may last up to 20 years! On this page, we share what we’ve learned in over 25 years of being the biggest epoxy flooring installation in the Tri-State region. We’ve done every sort of floor with every type of product ever made, so we know what works and what doesn’t.
At the bottom of the page are links to our most popular epoxy floor systems so you may order directly without having to fill out forms or assemble individual items. But, and we cannot emphasise this enough, know what you’re purchasing before you purchase, whether it’s our stuff or not!
What Types of Epoxy Floor Coatings Exist?
Yes, and the finest floor epoxies are solid based, aliphatic 100% solids. So, what? It implies you get 100% paint with 100% solids, so you get exactly what you put down. In epoxies that aren’t 100% solids, the paint evaporates as it cures. Solvents evaporate from solid paints, whereas water evaporates from water-based epoxy paints. For example, a 50% solid epoxy indicates that 50% of the coating will evaporate when it cures. The lower the solids percentage, the lower the quality, with water-based paints having the lowest quality. Except for primers and topcoats, which have a reduced solids content because they are designed thinner to penetrate the concrete’s pores, and urethane, which displaces particles. So lower solids primers and topcoats are OK, but avoid using any water based chemicals. Water-based products have WB in the name or component number. To prevent hot tyre lifting while employing chips, 100% solids epoxy is required. Polyurea coatings are comparable to low solids epoxies in performance. Consider them glorified concrete sealers.
Finally, high solids epoxies are not as excellent as 100% solids epoxies. Never has been, never will be, and only as a primer. Even if labelled as 100% solids, Cycloaliphatic Epoxies are just a cost-saving Hybrid Epoxy that wears prematurely, bubbles on application, and yellows quickly. Lifetime Guarantees don’t cover wear, dulling, staining, or application bubbles, they’re simply a marketing gimmick. Nobody else guarantees against wear!
One-Part Epoxy Coatings & No-Prep Epoxy Coatings
We know that all of the one-part epoxies we’ve attempted have failed. They are thin, difficult to deal with, and not recommended for colour flakes. These thin coatings are made thinner by the addition of flakes, which displaces part of the epoxy underneath them, leaving a thinner coating on the concrete. Heavy flake applications might sink into the concrete, leaving little to no epoxy on the concrete. Hence, no colour flakes in our industrial coating. The base coat is supposed to soak into the concrete and it works beautifully for that purpose. That’s bad since we don’t want flakes displacing any of the coating. We use thick and viscous epoxies in our Ultra Military, Armor Chip, and Armor Granite. When you throw chips on them, they remain on top of the epoxy covering.
We’re puzzled by epoxy floor coatings that need no floor prep. Preparation is crucial for epoxy flooring. Prepping a floor is essential, and you should do the same. Every year, a new miracle potion with unbelievable claims appears on the market. Lately, “High Solids Epoxy” suffice. We answer NO, most companies’ epoxies don’t even match our primers, much alone their high solids epoxies. Primer epoxies contain high solids. We produce what has worked in the past and will work in the future. If you succumb for marketing hype, we wish you luck.
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