55% of Americans surveyed said they use their garages for hobbies for one to two hours a week. If you’re one of these Americans, you probably want to keep your garage flooring in its best shape. Divots in floor coatings are serious tripping hazards.
In addition, divots can also damage your car. Therefore, you need to get your garage floor repaired and coated. And the next time you thing about getting this done, you should use a polyurea coating.
Why should you do this? Read on to get ten answers to this question.
What Is Polyurea Coating?
Polyurea coating is a material from a subgroup of the material polyurethane. It’s a 2-part compound made by combining two separate chemical ingredients that creates a chemical reaction and cures to a solid product.
The coating’s main purpose is to protect garage floors by coating and sealing them. It bonds to the garage floor’s surface and then creates a hard barrier. This ensures that the concrete below stays safe from UV rays, scratches, weather issues, etc.
Types of Flooring Coating Color Options
Polyurea can enhance the aesthetic of your garage as well. Garage floor coating technicians can apply the coating with all different colors and patterns.
Usually, you’ll choose from among a wide variety of colored chips, or flakes, to produce a floor that matches your home. The flakes are usually multicolored pieces of materials, but other systems use smaller granules such as quartz. When garage floor technicians apply them to a coating, it creates a mesmerizingly beautiful finish.
What Are the Benefits of the Polyurea Coating Options?
Regardless of the color and/or pattern, all polyurea garage floor coatings share most of the same benefits. These will ensure that your garage remains a safe and aesthetically pleasing place for the next several years. In addition, you should also find it doesn’t take much effort to get a polyurea coating installed in your room.
1. Polyurea Coating Cures Quickly
To prepare the garage floor for a polyurea coating, the contractor has to make the concrete surface ready to be coated. This will mean using a mechanical tool, such as a shot blaster or diamond grinder, to scour the surface. Then the contractor will begin filling in all the cracks, pits, and other imperfections.
This description makes the process seem complex. However, it only takes an expert a few hours. Afterward, the contractor will apply the first layer of polyurea coating to the floor.
What Is the Curing Time of a Polyurea Floor Coating?
It will take around a day for the polyurea coating to cure. It may take slightly less time if the air is very humid. Once the curing is done, you can start using your garage again.
It may seem that a day is too long to wait. However, compare this curing time to the five days that it takes epoxy coatings to cure. You can see why the curing time of polyurea floor coatings is a benefit.
2. Polyurea Is Water-Resistant
All polyurea coating options are water-resistant. This means that water does not easily penetrate the layers of coating and coloring. Thus, the water cannot reach the concrete below.
This is a very important quality for polyurea floor coatings to have. Water can cause a lot of damage to concrete.
How Does Water Damage Concrete?
To start with, rainwater is often acidic. This property can cause concrete to turn back into the sand and rock it comes from. As a result, the concrete foundation will become unstable.
Mold
Also, water that gets into the cracks of concrete can facilitate mold growth. This fungus can create an acid that will break the concrete down over time. This can also cause the foundation to become unstable.
Ice
Water in the cracks of concrete can also freeze during cold weather. When water freezes, it swells. So ice will push the pieces of concrete further apart.
3. Polyurea Is Chemical Resistant
The phrase “chemical resistance” refers to how a material resists an ‘attack’ from a chemical. If a material has low chemical resistance, a chemical reaction will take place between the chemical and the material.
A good example of this is how many metals react to water. Rust forms on iron and copper when the two metals are exposed to water. So iron and copper have low chemical resistance to water.
Other materials may swell and/or soften when exposed to certain chemicals. However, polyurea coating options display incredible chemical resistance.
How Do Polyurea Coatings Demonstrate Chemical Resistance?
Manufacturers have tested the reactions of polyurea garage floor coatings to different chemicals. These tests found that polyurea coatings were resistant to several chemicals. These included oils, salts, and many other common household chemicals.
Therefore, you don’t have to worry about spilling any chemicals on the floor. They won’t ruin your polyurea coating.
4. Polyurea Is UV Resistant
Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a type of electromagnetic radiation that is present in sunlight. Objects exposed to too much UV radiation often sustain certain damages. For example, sunburns form on the surface of human skin when it is exposed to sunlight for a long length of time.
This ability that UV rays have to damage things could also damage polyurea. However, polyurea is much too durable. It is not affected by UV exposure.
How Could UV Rays Damage Polyurea Types of Flooring?
For one example of how UV rays could damage some coatings, one can look at epoxy coatings. Epoxy floor coatings have one major downside. They tend to turn yellow after they are exposed to too much UV light.
However, polyurea coatings do not have this weakness. They stay the same color throughout their lifespan.
5. Polyurea Is Flexible
Even when a concrete floor doesn’t get invaded by water, it still shifts over time. This usually happens because of the natural movements of the ground below it.
Concrete also tends to shift in reaction to different temperatures. It expands when the air becomes hot and contracts when it becomes cool.
How Does Shifting Concrete Affect Polyurea Garage Flooring?
If polyurea coating options were like epoxy, they would crack as the concrete floor shifts below them. However, polyurea coatings are more flexible than epoxy. They can stretch and flex as the concrete floor slightly shifts without automatically cracking.
6. Polyurea Can Be Slip-Resistant
As mentioned, polyurea garage floor coatings can make a garage floor safer by covering up divots and preventing trips. However, the smooth surface of a polyurea floor can pose another danger. If a smooth floor gets wet, it can become slippery and dangerous rather quickly.
However, this doesn’t have to be the case with polyurea.
How Can Polyurea Coating Options Become Less Slippery?
Rather than leaving the coating as-is, a garage floor technician can lay down vinyl chips before applying the last layers of coating. These chips will create a texture that isn’t as smooth as a plain polyurea coating. The traction created by this texture will make it less easy for people in the garage to slip. In addition, expert installers can use some more aggressive anti-slip aggregate in a top coat for even more protection.
7. Polyurea Doesn’t Release Dangerous Chemicals
Many experts feel concerned about one particular danger that occurs while floor coating options are curing. This process tends to release harmful chemicals into the air.
Some flooring coatings can even release chemicals throughout their lifetimes. These hazards can pose a health risk to humans and the environment.
Do Polyurea Floor Coatings Release Harmful Chemicals?
Luckily, this hazard isn’t an issue for polyurea floor coatings. Polyurea floor coatings have a very low volatile organic compound quantity, meaning there is little to no danger.
8. Polyurea Is Easy to Maintain
The resistance abilities that polyurea coatings have to water and chemicals make these garage flooring types very easy to clean. You can just use water and simple floor-cleaning products. Your polyurea floor will then be shiny and spotless.
Also, some other floor coatings need frequent refreshing. That is, garage floor technicians often need to add another coat of material onto certain types of flooring. This stops the coating from wearing down.
This isn’t the case with a polyurea floor coating. It’s durable enough that it doesn’t need any refreshing.
9. Polyurea Doesn’t Fall Victim to Hot Tire Pick Up
Hot tire pick-up happens when a hot car tire touches a coated surface. This can cause some patches of the floor coating to stick to the tire. The tire will then pull the coating off.
Polyurea also has great temperature resistance abilities. This makes it far less likely to become a victim of hot tire pick-up.
10. Polyurea Is a Beautiful Alternative to Concrete
Along with all the more practical benefits, there’s also an aesthetic one. Polyurea coatings, especially when they’re colored, are far more beautiful to look at than plain concrete.
Let Us Install Your New Garage Floor Polyurea Coating
In sum, polyurea is a highly durable and beautiful floor coating that is easy to install and maintain. If you want the perfect floor costing for your garage, polyurea is it.
Do you want a new polyurea coating installed on your home garage floor? We’ll work hard to achieve perfect satisfaction from you. Book an appointment with us on this page.