Epoxy Flooring

The best gifts are the ones that keep on giving. Why not treat yourself, or your significant other, to a renovated space with epoxy flooring. A man-cave, she-shed, gym, hobby room, reading space or entertainment room. Someplace to share with friends or to enjoy some solitude. Transform your basement or garage with our epoxy flooring by turning your ugly gray concrete into a beautiful, livable space.

Revamp Your Garage or Basement

Epoxy flooring can be applied to any concrete substrate inside and out – patios, walkways, driveways, bathrooms, kitchens…or any retail or commercial space. But refurbishing the unattractive (and dirty) concrete flooring in your garage or basement adds some usable square footage to your home (while enhancing your home’s market value!). Did you know that much of the dust and dirt in your garage originates from the concrete floor itself? Concrete breaks down over time, creating a fine dust that gets tracked into your otherwise clean home.

Start at Ground Level

If you’ve decided to update your home’s basement or garage (or any other concrete substrate), start at ground level. You can add drywall, paint, cabinetry, furniture, and other accessories once the flooring has been installed. The solid color epoxy flooring of yesteryear has come a long way.

Coating products have evolved over time – there are standard epoxies, water-borne epoxies, moisture-mitigating epoxies, polyurethanes, and polyurea-polyaspartics. And the coating systems (a system is multiple coating layers) have evolved too – there are partial and full-flake coating systems, metallic coating systems, coating systems that mimic polished concrete…and many other options. You’re spoiled for choice, with an endless array of designs and hues to pick from.

Types of Concrete Coating Products

Contemporary concrete coating products generally fall into 3 categories: epoxy, polyurethane, and polyurea-polyaspartic coatings. Each category has its own unique set of benefits and disadvantages. Epoxies deeply penetrate concrete and are excellent primer coats; however, they amber and chalk when exposed to UV light, so they aren’t great top coats. Conversely, polyurea-polyaspartics are excellent, quick-curing top coats, providing extreme UV and stain resistance; however, they don’t penetrate concrete as well as epoxy (and cure so quickly) that they make for poor primer (“direct-to-concrete”) coats.

Industrial-grade concrete coating systems use the superior attributes of each coating type – epoxies, polyurethanes and polyurea-polyaspartics – to develop the most durable and highest-grade coating systems. Choose contractors that have all coating types at their disposal (“1-day” installers use quick-cure polyurea-polyaspartics only…and direct-to-concrete; this is a disaster in the making). When selecting a contractor, ask to see their warranty. If they have warranty exclusions to “moisture-related issues” (like high hydrostatic pressure) or exclusions to staining, find another contractor!

Concrete Coating Systems

Concrete coating systems are made up of several layers. This typically includes (i) an initial prime coat (a coating that goes direct to concrete), (ii) in some cases a 2^nd layer called a “color coat” (in the case of metallic systems, this could be a metallic color coat), (iii) in flaked systems, a layer of flakes that have been broadcast into the prime coat or color coat (either a partial flake or full flake broadcast), and (iv) one or more clear coats to create the final “coating system”.

Coating systems can be categorized into one of several types: solid color, partial flake, full flake, metallic or sealing systems. While solid-color floor coverings (like our Classic coating system) are still in demand, epoxy flooring with “flakes” seems to have gained maximum popularity. In these “partial-flake” or “full-flake” systems, thermoplastic polyvinyl acetate (PVA) flakes or a mix of PVA and mica mineral flakes, are scattered into the uncured base coat of epoxy.

Our Deluxe, Premium, Stone Silicate, Diamond Effects and Liquid Minerals coatings systems are examples of our partial-flake collections. (The Liquid Minerals series is actually a partial-flake metallic coating system). Our Ultra, Earth Effects, Bagari SE, and Vintage Mica are examples of our full-flake coating systems. The Ultra consists of thermoplastic flakes only, while the other full-flake systems incorporate mica mineral in their blends for added reflectivity and beauty. The full flake systems, once installed, measure over 35 mils in thickness (one ‘mil’ is one-thousandth of an inch).

Our metallic systems, Liquid Art and Liquid Mineral (a partial flake metallic system), incorporate a metallic pigment in the color coat that produces a 3-dimensional, flowing, “glass-like” quality. These systems are in demand where clients seek to create a strong visual impression.

Evaluating & Preparing the Concrete

Once you’ve selected a particular coating system and color, we’ll begin the evaluation of your space to be coated. This includes concrete moisture measurements (with a moisture meter). Additionally, an evaluation on the condition of the concrete is performed: Are there cracks, pits or stains? Once the evaluations are finalized, the installation is scheduled.

On the scheduled date, we’ll bring in the propane diamond grinders (and hand grinders for the peripheries) to create the perfect concrete “profile”. The grinders are attached to HEPA-filtered vacuums to mitigate dust. Grinding the concrete ensures proper adhesion of the epoxy primer coat. An inferior “profile”, or applying a poorly penetrating polyurea-polyaspartic direct-to-concrete (as is done by ‘one-day’ installers), is a recipe for future delamination.

The Coating Process

After concrete grinding, the moisture-mitigating epoxy primer is applied. (Note: polyureas simply aren’t designed for direct to concrete application). In flaked systems, this is followed with the broadcasting of PVA or PVA-mica mineral flake blends. Based on the selected coating system, the broadcast may vary from a medium flake spread through to a full-flake spread.

On Day 2 of installation, these flakes are buffed down, vacuumed and topped with one or more clear topcoats (for garages, this would consist of 2 clear polyaspartic topcoats…not one coat like “1-day” coating systems).

Dreams Do Come True

Are you dreaming of transforming your garage or basement into a man cave, she-shed, gym, gaming room, home office…or just enhancing its appearance? Then epoxy flooring is the ideal gift (to yourself or significant other).

At GarageFloorCoating.com (Tucson), we’re expert installers of quality, industrial-grade concrete floor coatings (no “1-day” systems here). Call us for your free estimate at (520)-434-6077.  Your dream garage or basement is just a click or phone call away.