When it comes to a great-looking, durable floor coating for garages, chances are you’ve heard of epoxy.
These floor coatings were and remain common among homeowners and DIY weekend warriors looking to get a clean, durable finish for their garage floor.
But epoxy has its weaknesses, and your garage may not be the best spot for epoxy. Here’s why.
First, What Are The Benefits of Coating A Garage Floor?
From salty water dripping off your car to spilled oil on your garage floor, a concrete coating can be a great way to protect your concrete and create an easy-to-clean durable finish for all of the dirty work that happens in the garage.
Coating your garage floor reduces dust, prevents stains from spills (which soak into concrete), and helps prevent deterioration over time. And done right, a floor coating can revitalize aging concrete and provide a sleek look for your space!
Epoxy is one option when it comes to garage floor coatings. Epoxy is a two-part resinous compound that, when mixed, fully cures in 5 to 7 days and creates a hard, seamless surface. It can be colored, and flakes can be added to create a more unique look.
It goes on thick and dries incredibly hard, and because it’s available from large home centers like Lowe’s or Home Depot, many people gravitate towards epoxy as an elegant and affordable garage floor coating option.
Epoxy’s Strengths and Weaknesses On Garage Floors
Epoxy is much stronger and harder than traditional floor paints for concrete. It has a better bond, is much more durable, and is less prone to scratching or denting.
It’s often an affordable option and can be an approachable project for weekend warriors and those who like to save money by doing it themselves.
But epoxy has characteristics that make its use in garages problematic.
Epoxy can lose stability over time when exposed to heat, which is common with garage floors when hot tires roll into the garage during the summer months. Over time, this repeated exposure to heat in one spot – where you park your car – can weaken epoxy’s bond and lead to fading, chipping, or delamination in the areas exposed to high temperatures.
Epoxy is also not UV stable, meaning that with bright sunlight – like in many garages with large garage doors – it can yellow and fade with time.
While epoxy is incredibly hard, that also creates an inherent flaw in garages, which are exposed to fluctuating temperatures throughout the year. Concrete naturally expands and contracts in minute amounts over the course of 40-80-degree temperature changes with the seasons. This process can lead to epoxy losing its bonding capabilities because it’s just so inflexible.
Finally, epoxy can take as long as 7 days to fully cure, which can be time-consuming for many homeowners.
Combined, these epoxy characteristics make it a little lacking for use on most garage floors, where sun and temperature exposure can quickly make its greatest strength – an incredibly hard surface – its greatest weakness.
Still, epoxy can be great for indoor, climate-controlled concrete floors, like basements and rec rooms, where it can create a solid, clean, and beautiful surface for family fun and entertainment.
What’s a Good Alternative to An Epoxy Floor Coating?
Polyaspartic floor coatings have quickly replaced epoxy as the go-to floor coating for concrete garages among professionals.
Polyaspartic coatings offer unrivaled strength for all of the reasons epoxy fails in spaces where temperature control can’t be achieved, like garages:
- Polyaspartic floor coatings are incredibly durable and can actually outperform epoxy in high-impact settings, with reduced risk of chipping compared to epoxy.
- Polyaspartic coatings are 100% UV stable and will not fade or yellow with exposure to sunlight over time.
- Polyaspartic coatings are flexible, meaning they work well on concrete surfaces that may shift, contract, or expand gently with the changing seasons and temperatures. That same flexibility also performs well by allowing for dents or scratching under extreme impacts rather than chipping and cracking, like epoxy.
- Polyaspartic coatings cure within 48 hours so you can get back into your garage quickly.
At Duramax, of course, we’re partial to the highest quality materials for our projects because we want our customers thrilled with the outcome – today AND years down the road! Our tendency is to embrace polyaspartic coatings in most scenarios aside from some indoor settings where its limiting characteristics won’t be an issue.
If you’d like to learn how Duramax can create an incredible garage floor for you, and get a free quote in no time, call or email today to set up a hassle-free appointment.
Common Questions About Coating A Garage Floor
How long does it take to coat a garage?
We can usually coat a two-car garage in one day.
You can walk on your floor the following day, and you can move vehicles back in on the day after that.
How do you maintain a coated garage floor?
It’s quite easy. Just use water and a squeegee to clean your floor annually or as-needed. A mild detergent and bristle brush can be used for tougher dirt. Stains won’t penetrate the coating, meaning a good cleaning can restore the look of your floor to like-new!
How long do polyaspartic coatings last?
We provide a 10-year warranty on our garage floor coatings, but we actually expect it will last 20 years. If it peels or has delamination in the first ten years, we’ll be back to make it right.
Get a Free Floor Coating Quote
Duramax would love to help you make your garage clean, beautiful, and clutter-free.
Call today, or fill out our Contact form, to schedule a free appointment and get your garage to picture-perfect status.
