As I get older, the gear that I use to pursue my outdoor activities seems to multiply each year. Along with this gear, there is a whole other subset of tools and materials used to maintain the gear and even more necessary equipment and appliances (like freezers and gun safes) that I use to store my valuables. Where does all of this equipment go? The garage, typically. Coolers, tractors, UTVs, and boats tend to leak fluid, and boots and tires tend to hold on to stubborn mud and clay, and over time, a garage floor becomes a collection of all of your adventure’s nastiness. I recently completed a move and before I organized all my gear into my garage, I decided I wanted a nice finished floor that I would be able to easily clean up. There are a lot of potential solutions for this on the market, but where I settled was on an epoxy garage floor.
The Guide To Garage Floor Epoxy
Something else that has come with age is my understanding that my time is the most valuable asset I have. Building a family and trying to excel in a career doesn’t leave much left in the day for DIY projects if I want to continue to get outdoors and pursue game and fish. One of the most frustrating things in my life currently is having to spend a lot of time redoing someone else’s shoddy work (or my own). Understanding this means I tend to look at new projects from a mindset of “What can go wrong?” before I start. Troubleshooting problems before they happen has started to save me a lot of headaches and led me to purchase different products than I otherwise would have if I hadn’t approached things with this mindset.
Before my move, I knew nothing about epoxy garage flooring. The problem for neophytes is that they don’t know what they don’t know. Salesmen know this and they can easily tell you what they want you to know, and not what you need to hear. When I’m new to a subject or skill, I look for a guide who is honest about the ups and downs of the process and can help me see around corners. If a salesman can’t articulate the cost/value equation of his product in comparison to other options, it’s usually a good indication that you need to do more research.
I found one such guide in Will Rieben. Will is the owner of GarageExperts of the Florida Panhandle, but equally as important, Will is a neighbor. Because I knew Will personally, I knew that I could trust him to give me straight answers because he’d have to stare at me driving by regularly! GarageExperts of the Florida Panhandle is a franchise of the larger GarageExperts, a nationwide installer of epoxy flooring, cabinets, and storage. Before I decided on which epoxy garage floor to install, I sat down with Will to learn the pros and cons of the various options and the common pitfalls of installation so that I could be sure I was making the right decision.
Why Garage Epoxy Flooring?
“Epoxy, or concrete coatings in general, are an excellent investment in your home, retail, and industrial spaces. Most folks refer to concrete coatings as ‘epoxy,’ when it’s really a multistep process with different products,” says Will.
He adds, “There are three big reasons for coating your concrete. The first is protection. A quality concrete coating should have a non-porous topcoat, so you will avoid the ugly stains on your garage, pool deck, or patio. Second, it makes the surface much easier to clean. Blow it off, mop it, vacuum, spray it out. Your choice. Finally, it just looks awesome. I am a firm believer that you should make your garage or patio look as good as the rest of your home. The garage is the last thing you see when you leave for work, and the first thing you see when you get home.”
Options in Epoxy Garage Floors
There are several kinds of products used for concrete coatings, but it’s important to understand that it isn’t just the epoxy that makes the garage floor coating stand the test of time.
“GarageExperts uses a combination of Epoxy and Polyaspartic,” explains Will. “After our mechanical grind and surface preparation, we use epoxy as the base. This provides a moisture vapor barrier three times greater than the competitors, and we also have the strongest adhesion strength, meaning the GarageFX epoxy bonds better to concrete. We have over 140 different flake blends and an infinite number of custom flake blends. On top of the flake, we use an ultra-high solids polyaspartic. So it’s the best of both worlds. The epoxy has the highest adhesions and highest moisture vapor barrier in the industry, and the polyaspartic topcoat provides an incredibly hard, UV-stable clear coat.”
Common Problems With Epoxy Floors For Garages
I’m all ears to hearing how a new product can benefit my life. But the devil is often in the details. I’ve seen coatings peel and flake, so I wanted to be sure that I could get what I wanted and it was going to last. Before I tackle any job, I always ask what kind of problems might be encountered. There are some challenges involved in getting it right.
“Every concrete slab is different. Some concrete is very hard, some is soft. The hard concrete takes a while to grind and prepare, and the soft concrete will produce more dust during the surface preparation. We have vacuums attached to our grinders for dust mitigation,” Will explains. ”Other challenges are with stem walls, or the vertical pieces of concrete around the perimeter of your garage. Our products are incredibly dense, so they are a challenge working in the vertical plane. Often we will do a double coating on stem walls to ensure good flake coverage.”
Is It Worth It To Buy A Garage Floor Epoxy Kit?
You might be considering doing this project yourself. I love the satisfaction of a job done right. Now, a professional installer wants to earn your business, because if you do the work yourself, there’s nothing there for them, but Will’s answer made the most sense to me with regards to having the right tools.
“The DIY kits fill a specific piece of the industry, certainly. They have a single coat of a much lower quality epoxy and a tiny bit of decorative flake. Also, the DIY kits do not come with tens of thousands of dollars of surface preparation tools. Surface preparation is critical to the longevity of any application. DIY kits do not have the adhesion strength or moisture barrier that our GarageFX products do. Hot tires will pull them right off the concrete and they tend to peel off in high moisture areas.”
How To Epoxy Garage Floor – A Professional’s Process
Installation is a multi-step process. At my home, the installation technicians arrived, introduced themselves, and went over what they were going to do. Their first step was to mechanically grind the concrete.
“This profiles the concrete and opens up the pores of the concrete,” Will says. “The grinders look like overgrown floor buffers. They are hooked up to industrial vacuums to help control the dust.”
I can second this. I make more dust with weekend woodworking projects than they did with my concrete.
There were quite a few cracks and divots in my 20-year-old slab, and I watched as the team corrected these issues. The next step is to roll out the epoxy.
Says Will, “The epoxy has a special fusion technology that wicks into the concrete and fuses inside the slab, giving it the highest moisture vapor barrier and the highest adhesion strength in the industry. Of special note, GarageExperts makes all our liquids. We have chemists on staff who make each batch with tight quality control. This fact really sets us apart.”
While the epoxy is penetrating, the installers throw out the flake. A note about the flake, they have so many options, it will make your head spin. I just let my wife choose! Dealing with epoxy is smelly, sticky work, and I was glad to see the installers had all the proper PPE and I wasn’t involved in this part!
“After the epoxy cures, we scrape the floor as flat as possible, then roll out the ultra-high solids polyaspartic topcoat. This polyaspartic creates the scratch-resistant, abrasion-resistant, UV-stable, non-porous surface,” Will says.
I can back up this claim. I have a 900-pound gun safe that my wife and I had to shimmy across the garage floor after the installation was complete. I was sure this was going to scratch the coating but to my surprise, we couldn’t see any indication that we had abused the floor as we did.
What Influences Garage Epoxy Floor Cost?
As with all purchases, the cost/value equation must be assessed. We’ve all done something cheap and then ended up paying more (and dealing with problems) in the long run than we would have if we had just had it done right the first time. With epoxy coatings, several factors can influence the cost.
According to Will, “Price depends on a few factors, such as the location of the application – inside or outside; quality of concrete; the vertical stem walls; and the client’s flake choice. For outside surfaces, we use an upgraded moisture vapor barrier epoxy to stand up to the increased evaporative effects of the groundwater. Although most of the industry tries to limit their flake choices to make their logistics easier, we do a lot of customized and upgraded flake blends.”
What To Look For In Epoxy Garage Floor Installers
There are a lot of competing installers out there and an epoxy garage floor is hopefully the kind of thing that you only do once. With an installation of a product you are not familiar with, I wanted to know what you can ask to help you compare options. Will brings up some good questions to ask to make sure you are taken care of before, during, and after installation.
- What are the products being used? Not all products are created equal. There are many variances within product categories such as epoxies, polyureas, urethanes, and polyaspartics. Technical Data Sheets will indicate performance characteristics for comparison.
- What is the method of surface preparation? A lot of untrained companies will try to acid etch the surface but that doesn’t provide the correct surface profile level for optimal coating adhesion and longevity.
- Do you have any referrals? Referrals are a great way to verify the company’s quality of work and customer satisfaction.
- What is your warranty? Are they providing any warranty on their work or products used? GarageExperts provides a lifetime adhesion warranty on all garage applications for as long as you own your home. I’d say that’s peace of mind.
My Epoxy Garage Floor Experience
GarageExperts of the Florida Panhandle was recommended to me by a neighbor. I got to see the finished product in their garage and learn how happy they were with the finished product, and that made me a lot more comfortable to reach out. Now that I’ve had a chance to see the entire process from consultation to installation to harsh use, I can truly say that I am very pleased I decided to upgrade my garage floor to a finished coating. Spills have been easy to clean, debris has been removed with little effort, and the look makes my garage feel more like a living space and less like an outdoor space. If you’re in the Florida panhandle and you’re considering a garage floor coating, all you have to do is visit garageexperts.com or call 850-999-5582. They will get you set up for a free in-home estimate, show you the samples, discuss the process, and take measurements for an accurate estimate.
