Because of Roman concrete, many structures built during the Roman Empire are still standing today. But experts have yet to discover the secret of this ancient material. So your garage floor is probably made of ordinary modern concrete.
This concrete should last only a few decades. Do you want it to last longer? If so, you need to coat your garage floor in one of a few long-lasting floor coatings.
Your choices are epoxy, polyurea, and polyaspartic coating systems. What is polyaspartic coating? This article will tell you all about it.
Read on!
Why Your Floor Needs Polyaspartic Coating
Concrete is a strong material on its own. If it wasn’t, humanity wouldn’t use it as a primary component in several building styles.
However, concrete doesn’t last forever. Many environmental components can cause it to break down. Polyaspartic coating can protect your concrete floor against these environmental factors.
Water
Concrete is a porous material. That is, it is riddled with holes. Any water that falls on concrete floor surfaces can flow into the holes in the floor.
During freezing temperatures, this water can then turn to ice. When water becomes ice, it expands. During this expansion, the ice will push against the concrete.
Eventually, cracks will start to form on your concrete floor surface. You can prevent this from happening by adding a polyaspartic coating to your concrete floor. Polyaspartics are waterproof.
Stains
The porous nature of concrete also makes the material vulnerable to stains. When oil spills onto a concrete surface, the stain can quickly become permanent. With enough oil stains, your concrete garage floor can become very unsightly.
A polyaspartic coating won’t absorb oil like a concrete floor will. Any oil that spills should stay on top of the polyaspartic flooring. You can then easily wipe it off.
Damage Marks
Wheels and foot traffic can wear away concrete floor surfaces over time. They can also cause scratches, divots, and other marks to appear. Combine that with the damage marks caused by dropped tools, pet nails, etc., and that floor will become ugly over time.
Polyaspartic coatings can get scratches and divots, but these are harder to see. This is especially the case with the more colorful and decorative varieties.
Weight
In addition, the weight of people, vehicles, and other objects put pressure on concrete floors. The floors will bend under this weight until they crack. These cracks not only look ugly but can also become a tripping hazard for anyone who enters the garage.
A polyaspartic floor coating acts as a barrier against these attacks. As this coating is more flexible, it will bend without breaking.
What Are Polyaspartics?
Polyaspartic esters or polyaspartics are polymer materials. They’re grouped as a subset of the material polyurea. This is because polyaspartics are modified polyurea materials known as aliphatic polyureas.
Polyaspartics and Manipulation
Why is a modified polyurea necessary? One advantage that polyaspartics have is reaction manipulation. Thus, formulators can modify the rate at which these materials cure.
Because of this, coating installers can work with polyaspartic coating systems for a longer time than polyurea. But the polyaspartic coating can still cure rather fast.
Polyurea Cures Fast
In contrast, pure polyurea components have extremely fast reaction speeds. Coating installers can only use plural component spray equipment with them. This equipment mixes two or more coating materials and sprays them onto an object or surface.
What Is Polyaspartic Floor Coating?
Polyaspartic coatings have been available for decades. It’s only recently that people have started using them to coat floors. Before this, people used them to coat piers, ships, bridges, and railcars.
Two-Part Coating Systems
Floor coatings with polyaspartic components typically consist of two-part coating systems. One part of the system is a resin. The other part is a catalyst that will cause the curing process.
Epoxy and Polyurethane Alternative
Most floor coating companies will use polyaspartic coatings as alternatives to epoxy and polyurethane coatings. Many experts say that polyaspartic coatings have the best properties of epoxy and polyurethane coatings.
The Benefits of Polyaspartic Floor Coating
What are the properties that make polyaspartic coatings great epoxy and polyurethane alternatives? You can learn more about these in the sections below.
Fast and Flexible Installation
Epoxy coatings can take around half a week to install. Then they will take the other half of the week to cure.
This isn’t the case for polyaspartic coating systems. You can walk on polyaspartic floors a few hours after installers put down the material. It will only take a day or less after that to be ready for vehicles.
No Temperature Issues
Any temperature changes during installation can affect the quality of epoxy coatings. As a result, coaters can only install epoxy coatings during certain times of the year.
Polyaspartic coatings don’t struggle as much with this. They can maintain their quality levels in a wide temperature range. Installers can even install some polyaspartic coatings in sub-zero temperatures.
Level Installation
There’s also the matter of the smoothness and levelness of the floor. Polyaspartic floors end up far smoother and more level than epoxy floors on average. This is likely due to how malleable the material is while it cures.
Epoxy floors don’t have this quality.
Healthy Air Installation
When technicians install epoxy floor coatings, the coatings release harmful chemicals into the air. These aren’t as much of a problem once the material cures. But you have to heavily ventilate your garage while an epoxy floor cures.
Plus, epoxy floorings often leave a foul odor in the air after their installation. Luckily, polyaspartic coatings don’t have this issue.
Furthermore, most polyaspartic floor coatings have no harmful materials. Still, coaters will advise you to leave your garage door open during the curing process.
UV Resistance
One major downside of epoxy is the material’s failure to resist UV rays. UV rays are types of radiation that exist in sunbeams. They’re responsible for sunburns and fading the colors of certain objects.
After the sun blasts epoxy floorings with UV radiation for some time, the flooring’s color changes. The finishes of epoxy floorings break down. This causes them to fade, lose shine, and turn a yellowish color.
In contrast, UV rays do not affect polyaspartic garage floors. These floors will keep their original aesthetics for years after the original installers put them down.
Durability
As mentioned, polyaspartic floorings can get scratched. However, they won’t scratch easily. Divots also don’t form easily on this tough and flexible flooring.
The same happens with any form of wear. Polyaspartic floor coatings were first used in high-traffic commercial areas such as hospitals and airports. All this foot traffic didn’t wear down the surface of this coating easily.
Epoxy floors don’t have this level of durability. They’re much more vulnerable to peeling, chipping, and abrasion.
Easy to Clean
Polyaspartic floors have a certain degree of water and chemical resistance. The latter one is especially important. Certain chemicals can cause reactions that can wear materials down.
This coating type’s resistance also makes it easy for you to wipe the surface of it down. Dust mopping and spill spot treatments should be all you need to keep your floors nice and shiny.
Moreover, many polyaspartic floor coloring options are made with complex colors, textures, and even flakes. These variations in color can actually help hide the appearance of dirt or spills that you find on your floors.
Great Bond to Concrete
Epoxy floor coatings don’t form the strong bonds to concrete that polyaspartic floors do. When this material gets hot, it slightly melts. This allows car tires to pick up sections of this coating material as they roll over them.
Experts call this effect hot-tire pickup. Many homeowners have to put rubber mats down to prevent it. Luckily, if they get a polyaspartic coating, they won’t have to perform this action.
Polyaspartic coatings create chemical bonds with the concrete below them. Because of this bond, polyaspartic coatings shouldn’t experience hot tire pickup. These coatings should stay where they are throughout the time that homeowners have them.
Shifting and Expanding
Epoxy coating systems can also react to temperatures after they cure. Changing temperatures can cause epoxy materials to shift, shrink, and expand. This can cause the floor to change its appearance and performance over time.
With polyaspartic floorings, all the features will remain locked in place. Changing temperatures won’t cause them to shift easily. What you get after installation is what you’ll continue to have for several years.
Get Polyaspartic Flooring From Garage Force
So what is polyaspartic floor coating? It’s a coating made from polyaspartic polymers. It maintains the same features and aesthetic of its first day over the years.
If you want a polyaspartic floor coating for your garage floor, hire us at Garage Force. We’re the leader in floor coating installations across the country. Find a location close to you by using the tool on this page.
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