Epoxy Flooring
Do you have any special occasions in the near future? A birthday, anniversary or seasonal celebration? Are you looking for that special gift? Well, we have the perfect idea. Get your spouse a refurbished living space with epoxy flooring. Convert your garage or basement into a man-cave, she-shed, workout room, game room or home office. Create a space where your significant other can be alone, be with friends, watch sports, exercise or indulge in their favorite hobbies.
Transform Your Space
Epoxy flooring can be installed in any space, but because garages and basements can be so unsightly, these rooms are good places to start. Stained, cracked concrete or old carpeting sound familiar? You just don’t want to spend time in these spaces. But by transforming your garage or basement into a warm and inviting room, you’ll increase your home’s livable space and increase your home’s equity too!
Start with the Floor
Installation of epoxy flooring is the first step in transforming your garage or basement into a true extension of your home. But don’t think of that old gray epoxy flooring from back in the day. Epoxy flooring has come a long way. Now there’s an unlimited selection of floor styles and colors to choose from.
Concrete Coating Product Types
Modern concrete flooring systems use a variety of product types in their multi-layered systems: epoxies, polyurethanes and polyurea-polyaspartics. Why? Because each product type possesses distinct advantages and disadvantages. The trick to creating the perfect concrete coating system requires that you choose the right combination of product types for each customer’s unique space.
Using only epoxies in each layer of the coating system can be problematic because epoxies amber and chalk when exposed to UV light (they’re lousy topcoats if exposed to the sun). But using only polyurea-polyaspartics in each layer of a coating system can be equally problematic. Polyurea-polyaspartics are poor primers (they’re not spec’d to go direct-to-concrete) in the presence of medium to high concrete moisture, so they peel over time. (This is exactly why 1-day polyurea contractors never full warrant “moisture-related issues”). However, polyurea-polyaspartics are excellent as clear topcoats!
The best concrete coating systems (the industrial-grade ones) use the best properties of epoxies, polyurethanes and polyurea-polyaspartics to produce the thickest, highest-quality coating systems. Look for installers who have all coating types at their disposal.
Concrete Coating Systems
Concrete coatings consist of several layers – a primer coat, color coat (if needed), a layer of flakes (if a flaked system is being installed) and one or more clear top coats. Together, these layers form the “coating system”.
Multi-layered concrete coating systems fall into one of several categories: solid color, partial flake, full flake, and metallic coating systems. Although the seamless classic, solid-color floor coating systems are still around, “flaked” epoxy flooring seems to be the most popular. In “flaked” systems, thermoplastic flakes (and in higher-end coatings, mica stone flakes) are broadcast into the uncured epoxy primer coat to provide added color and contrast. The added flakes increase the thickness of the epoxy flooring, and in turn, increase its durability. For example, our full-flake epoxy flooring (like our Ultra, Bagari SE and Vintage Mica series) can be over 35 mils thick. (A “mil” is a unit of thickness equal to 1/1000 of an inch). Comparatively, 1-day polyurea systems are less than 20 mils.
Check our solid Classic system, partial-chip Premium system, and our popular full-chip Ultra, Bagari SE and Vintage Mica systems. Our glass-like metallic systems are popular as well, especially in basements and commercial spaces where our customers are looking for a real visual impact.
Once you’ve selected your style and color, installation of your epoxy flooring will take two days on average (not 1 day…quality installations take more time).
Concrete Preparation
After deciding on a specific coating system, color and style, the concrete substrate must be assessed and prepared. A moisture assessment must be taken to determine the % moisture content of the substrate. The state of the concrete must also be assessed. Is there cracking, pitting, staining, etc.?
Grinding
Once the assessments are complete, the next step involves grinding using powerful diamond grinders. These grinders produce a concrete “profile” that enables the proper binding of the epoxy primer coat. A poor “profile” and/or the use of a polyurea-polyaspartic direct-to-concrete (a trick used by “1-day” installers) will lead to peeling over time.
Final Installation
Once concrete grinding is complete, application of the moisture-mitigating epoxy primer can begin. (Remember, polyaspartics are not meant for direct-to-concrete application). The primer coat is typically followed by the application of a color coat in solid or partial-flake systems…either an epoxy or a polyurea-polyaspartic…although our moisture-mitigating 100% solids epoxy primer can be applied so thickly that a color coat isn’t typically used.
In flaked systems, PVA or mica flakes are then broadcast into the uncured coating. On Day 2 of the installation, the flakes are sanded down, the floor is vacuumed, and one or more clear coats are then applied (a polyaspartic is used if the space is exposed to UV light and/or vehicular traffic).
The Wrap
Whether you want your garage or basement to be a man cave, she-shed, workout room, game room or home office…or simply a more beautiful space…epoxy flooring is the perfect gift. Talk to an authorized GarageFloorCoating.com epoxy flooring specialist for your free quote. Call us at (469) 229-0091 or send us a message here. The perfect gift is but a click or phone call away. Just choose your price range and style and let us do the rest.