If you’re a homeowner, there’s a roughly 63% chance that your home has a patio. Patios are a crucial outdoor space, perfect for everything from a poolside family cookout to having an exercise area.
Most patios have concrete flooring, favored for its low cost, resilient nature, and customizability. But how can you ensure your concrete is protected and safe for your family to play on?
One of the best ways is with a polyurea concrete coating. If you’re curious about concrete patio coatings, we’re here to help. Read on for a thorough guide on polyurea, its benefits, and some of the other options you’ll encounter while researching.
What Is Polyurea?
Polyurea is a floor coating that’s most commonly used on concrete flooring. It’s effective for indoor and outdoor areas, and you’ll most frequently find it in garages or on patios. It’s also common in floorings of large structures, such as superstores, warehouses, and the like.
Polyurea is waterproof, which is one of the primary reasons it’s useful for concrete. It also adds an aesthetic benefit by removing the “raw concrete” appearance.
Polyurea is applied as a liquid coating which will bond to the concrete. After bonding, the polyurea forms a durable barrier that will protect the concrete. It’s essential for improving the lifespan, safety, and integrity of any concrete flooring.
In the home, polyurea concrete coating products are great for a variety of reasons. These can range from increasing home value to improving safety.
If you’re curious about polyurea, Garage Force has countless examples of our stellar work to examine. Our most popular option is the Full Chip, or Decorative Chip, system.
Benefits of Polyurea Concrete Coating
Now that we better understand polyurea as a product, we can look at some of the many benefits. Here are the primary benefits of polyurea concrete coating.
Resistant to Slipping
As outdoor areas, patios tend to get wet. Whether it’s rain, garden sprinklers, or water from the pool, there’s always a slipping hazard.
On raw concrete, this isn’t as much of a problem. The abrasive surface is less slippery than others like tile.
Still, there’s a risk of slipping on wet concrete. The issue is made worse in situations where mold or algae grow over the concrete, which can make footing more hazardous.
Slipping on concrete is more than embarrassing. According to the National Floor Safety Institution, falls account for over 8 million hospital visits annually. In the workplace, 11% of job-related fatalities for men and 5% for women result from falling.
A polyurea coating on your concrete patio will help provide a better grip. By doing so, you’re dramatically reducing the chance that you or a guest will fall on your concrete surface.
Improved Safety
Concrete provides more risks to safety than falling. One issue with concrete is that, over time, it’s likely to crack and separate.
When this happens, it’s more than just an aesthetic problem. Concrete cracks can cause an elevation difference, which can cause a tripping hazard.
Severe cracks can also cause fragments of concrete to separate from the rest of the concrete patio. The result is sharp, jagged rocks in your outdoor space. If people are walking barefoot, this can swiftly become a trip to the emergency room to have a shard of stone removed from your foot.
A polyurea concrete coating will prevent all of these issues. The concrete will stay at a uniform elevation while also remaining contained beneath the coating.
Protects the Outdoor Area
What if the primary concern for your patio isn’t safety for guests but aesthetic value? Such is often the case if your patio is mostly a garden where you’ll always wear shoes.
In this situation, cracks and breaks in concrete can ruin the aesthetic. Your sleek and beautiful garden will look overgrown and unmaintained.
A polyurea exterior will protect your concrete from issues that often cause cracks. These are most often the weathering effects of pressure and weight, as well as direct sunlight or severe cold.
Waterproof Concrete Patio
One crucial weathering effect that often ruins concrete is water. Water is the bane of concrete, from the moment it begins setting to every time it rains.
Unsealed concrete lets water drip in through pores in the surface. The water will corrode the concrete over time, especially during cold weather. During cold snaps or winter, the water inside the concrete will freeze and expand, cracking the concrete from within.
Polyurea concrete coating is a waterproof solution. With this coating, your concrete is safe from water on the surface.
One issue this causes is that water will no longer sink into your concrete to drain. As such, you should consider other ways to drain water. Doing so will avoid puddles or flooding.
Better Aesthetics
There’s more to improving your aesthetics than avoiding damage. Polyurea is not an invisible, apply-and-forget material.
Polyurea concrete coating is the best way to spruce up the appearance of your concrete floorings. For garages, this is one of the main reasons it’s so popular, as it breaks out of the monotony of a standard garage.
On your patio, there are plenty of ways to improve the appearance of your flooring. Some polyurea floor coatings have color variations, while others have designs. These are perfect for drawing the aesthetic of your outdoor area together.
Our full-chip system is our most popular, but Garage Force offers plenty of other choices. The Medici system is our suggestion for your outdoor areas.
The Medici polyurea color coating system consists of a base coat, a decorative coat, and then a clear top coat. These are resistant to salt, oil, gas, grease, and UV exposure.
Easier Care and Cleaning
Concrete is difficult to clean, particularly with some hazardous stains. Oil stains, for example, are common in garages or in some patio spaces.
On a patio, the most common stains will likely come from things like grills. Rust stains also might appear depending on what you keep on your patio.
For unsealed concrete, these stains can take scrubbing, soaking, and more. That’s because these materials will sink down into the concrete, making it difficult to reach them beyond the surface.
With concrete you sealed using a polyurea concrete coating, stains cannot penetrate into the concrete. The surface is also easier to clean, as it’s smoother without the porous nature of concrete. You’re able to mop and sweep much easier than unsealed concrete.
Better Property Value
If you’re a homeowner, keeping tabs on your home’s property value is critical. Should you intend to sell, having features that improve the resale value will help you earn more on your sale.
A sealed concrete patio is one of the best ways to improve your home’s value. The same is true for a polyurea exterior in your garage or other surfaces.
Low-Cost Maintenance
Another way your polyurea coating will help you financially is by lowering the investment in maintenance. Raw concrete requires considerable maintenance, from sweeping it to keep away concrete dust to repairing any cracks.
Polyurea coatings will help make maintenance significantly easier, as well as reduce the cost of repairs. Given that polyurea can sometimes feel like it has a high price tag, considering these lowered costs is a great way to think of the true value.
Between the lower cost of maintenance and the improved value of your home, polyurea coatings pay for themself. You can spend the time you save on enjoying your patio instead of cleaning it.
Alternatives to Polyurea
Polyurea floor coatings are not the only available option on the market. Here are some of the other coatings you may hear about during your research.
Polyaspartic
Polyaspartic is similar to polyurea, so much so that some people often confuse them. However, there are some key differences.
Polyaspartic takes longer to cure, which means you can apply it over a longer period. It’s also a more affordable alternative to almost any other option.
It also is more susceptible to corrosion from acid and is not fit for outdoor areas. Mostly, this is because it cannot be installed if there’s moisture present. That means waiting for the perfect weather just to install the material.
Epoxy
Epoxy is another common competitor to polyurea and polyaspartic. Epoxy adheres well and provides great aesthetics, but has many drawbacks.
One primary drawback is that epoxy is slippery when wet, while polyurea has slip resistance. As such, epoxy is terrible for outdoor areas, as it becomes a hazard.
Epoxy also doesn’t have the same durability. While it’s cheaper and provides aesthetic value, it’s generally seen as inferior to polyurea in terms of quality.
Mastering Your Floor Coatings
Installing a polyurea concrete coating will improve the safety, aesthetics, and value of your concrete patio. Whether you’re making your poolside area safer or redoing your garden, a polyurea exterior will improve your space in every way.
When it comes time to install your polyurea exterior, trust Garage Force to deliver the quality you need. Our polyurea concrete coating comes in multiple forms, so you can fine-tune the approach to what most benefits you. Contact us today to discuss improving your property.
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