Garage floors need to be tough spaces, more so than almost any other floor in the home. On a regular basis, they need to handle the weight of vehicles weighing hundreds or even thousands of pounds and also be capable of absorbing the brunt of leaking oils, gasoline and other highly toxic chemicals. Then of course there is the sheer use many garages take in terms of tools and tool boxes moved around or large objects being dropped.
Even if your garage floor is a solid slab of fully cured, professionally installed concrete, sooner or later, it’s going to start wearing out. At the very least, its rather absorbent concrete surface will slowly turn into a landscape of stains and cracks that ruin visual uniformity.
There are solutions though, and they’re robustly durable, highly protective and easy to install. One of the most recent and notable of these is called polyaspartic polyurea coating.
What is polyaspartic polyurea?
Prior to polyaspartic polyurea, one of the most common garage floor coating substances was epoxy resin cured with polyamine hardener. It’s tough, durable and thermosets to a long-lasting corrosion-resistant finish. However, it offers certain difficulties and weaknesses.
As a superior alternative, polyaspartic polyurea has entered the market. This hard-setting resin is derived from polyurethane instead of epoxin, and is also formulated for application through a 2-part mixing process that creates a rapidly setting liquid.
Polyaspartic polyurea can be used on concrete garage floors of any kind or size for rapid coverage in a densely protective layer of long-lasting material. It can also easily be leveled out to cover imperfections in existing floors. The polyaspartic polyurea resin itself is 100% UV light resistant as well, which makes it ideal for sun rooms, pool edges, outdoor concrete floors or garages that get exposed to lots of natural sunlight. It can also be applied effectively to other heavy-use spaces such as commercial kitchens, gym floors and storage basements.
What makes polyaspartic polyurea coating superior?
Polyurea is sometimes more expensive than epoxy, but there are several good reasons for this. This hard-setting floor coating is over 4 times stronger and up to 98% more flexible than epoxy. polyaspartic polyurea Also happens to be as much as 300% more elastic, which makes it ideal for application on concrete that expands or contracts a lot due to temperature changes.
Another major benefit of polyaspartic polyurea is that it offers superior resistance to chemical attack from corrosive substances that easily reach your garage floor. These include lubricants, fuel mixes, gasoline, battery acid, salt and de-icing liquids. Epoxy also resists such chemicals quite well but unlike polyaspartic polyurea, it’s much more prone to becoming stained by regular spills from these substances.
Even in terms of heat and UV resistance, polyaspartic polyurea is a stronger performer. Epoxy coatings resist ultraviolet light quite well, but they can fade over time. Polyurea will not. Furthermore, a common problem of epoxy floor coatings in garages is their tendency to leave deposits of film on hot tires passing over them. Polyaspartic coatings resist this kind of slow damage much more rigorously.
Finally, while polyaspartic polyurea has to be applied professionally due to its extremely fast setting time, it can be applied very quickly and will be ready for use after just one day. A trained professional can coat your garage floor with two to three coatings that are fully firm for use the next morning. By contrast, epoxy requires several days to fully cure.
The flexibility of polyaspartic coatings also extends to when they can be paid down: While epoxy can’t be applied in cold below 55 Fahrenehit, polyaspartic polyurea presents no problems with being blended and placed between ambient temperatures of -30 Fahrenheit and up to 140 Fahrenheit.
Aesthetic Flexibility
On a final note, polyaspartic polyurea can be formulated to take on a wide range of colors and textures. Uniform natural-looking color blends such as greystone, brownstone, terrazzo and other tones are just some possible choices, while epoxy flakes can also be added for unique textures and color blends. For an estimate that’s carefully tailored to your specific floor coating needs, contact Texas Diamondback Concrete Resurfacing.