For years, high quality decorative floor coatings consisted of an epoxy base coat, flake and a polyurethane topcoat (now polyaspartic). In the past few years, some companies have been promoting all poly floors which typically consist of a pigmented polyurea base coat and clear polyaspartic top coat. These floors are said to be superior to hybrid floors which consist of an epoxy base coat and polyaspartic top coat. Why the change? Is a polyurea base coat really superior to epoxy?

Here’s some information to help you decide what is the best choice for your floor:

It’s important to know that all epoxy is not the same. There are very low quality epoxy kits (Home Depot & Lowes) and there are very high quality industrial grade epoxies. Companies that strictly apply polys will often misleadingly compare low quality epoxy floors (that are notorious for flaking and peeling) with their product in order to distinguish theirs as far superior. So just to be clear, here we are comparing modern, high quality, high solids, industrial grade epoxy base coats with polyurea base coats.

That being said, what material serves as the superior base coat?

When using polyurea as a base coat there are a couple very important things to know:

Unlike epoxy, polyurea isn’t designed to penetrate deep into the concrete, in fact it doesn’t have time to since it dries so fast (30 minutes compared to 2 hours for epoxy when using an accelerator).

It doesn’t possess the same moisture blocking properties that are built into high quality, industrial grade epoxies. The epoxy we used is equipped with 8 lbs of MVE (moisture vapor emissions) blocking power. Most polyureas that are used as a base coat block approximately 3 lbs of MVE.

Moisture is what ruins most floor coatings. Vapor transmission through slabs leads to blistering, delamination. The more moisture blocking power the better.

So why have all poly floors become popular?

It really comes down to one thing…SPEED.

Floors with polyurea base coats are much faster to apply, as polyurea dries much much faster than epoxy. This eliminates the need to wait at least 2 hours for the base coat to dry before moving on to the next application steps, allowing very large floors to be completed in a single day. More completed jobs translates into more profit.

With 12 years of expertise and tremendous success applying garage floor coatings, our recommendation is a hybrid floor coating consisting of an epoxy base coat with a polyaspartic top coat.

Epoxy is chemically formulated to be applied as a base coat.  Polyaspartic is chemically formulated to be applied as a top coat.

Countless people have bought DIY kits from Home Depot, Lowe’s and other home improvement stores. These kits consisted of a very low quality epoxy and a tiny amount of flake that was applied to a concrete surface that was not prepared properly to receive the coating.  Typically in these scenarios, no clear coat is applied. All of these very low quality “epoxy” coating installations will eventually fail.

So when a company claims that polyaspartic is “X” amount stronger than epoxy, they are no doubt using the above mentioned low quality coatings in their comparison.  In that sense, polyaspartic is stronger than epoxy.

The problem with the above comparison is that we’re not comparing apples with apples. High quality, modern epoxies, applied to a properly prepared concrete surface, are superior to polyaspartic as a base coat.

As far as the top coat is concerned, polyaspartic is the only choice since epoxies aren’t used for the top coat.

Most of the time it’s companies who only apply polyaspartics that make claims about the superiority of polyaspartic over epoxy.  The fact is that an epoxy base coat combined with a polyaspartic top coat provides the highest quality floor coating.

(See our FAQ “SOME COMPANIES SAY EPOXY IS BAD, THAT AN ALL POLYASPARTIC FLOOR IS SUPERIOR. IS THAT TRUE?”)

They are absolutely stunning. Aside from aesthetics, they are extremely durable, stronger than concrete, easy to clean & last for a very long time.

There are two reasons why this may happen: (1) Little or no concrete surface preparation & (2) low quality materials. We will professionally prep your floor and use the highest quality industrial grade materials. Our floors are guaranteed to never detach from the concrete slab.

We guarantee that your garage floor coating will never flake, peel or delaminate from the concrete slab. In very rare situations, a floor may fail due to excessive moisture in the concrete. The warranty is not valid in these situations. Many potential moisture issues are visible to the eye. If there is a concern with possible moisture issues, a moisture test can be done to determine if your floor is a good candidate for an epoxy / polyaspartic coating. If it isn’t, we’ll be upfront with you.

Most installations take 1-2 days. Your new garage floor coating can accept light foot traffic 24 hours after completion and light weight items may be placed on the floor after 48 hours. It can be fully used / driven on just 72 hours after completion.

Not under normal circumstances. However, any completely sealed surface could possibly be slippery when very wet. If slip is a big concern (especially porches or lanais that may be exposed to the elements), grit can be added to the polyaspartic clear coat to reduce risk.

Specialized equipment is required to properly prepare the concrete for a floor coating. Industrial grade materials are challenging to work with. There are a litany of things that could go wrong in the process. While applying an epoxy garage floor coating certainly isn’t rocket science, there is a lot to know in order to produce a near perfect result. But, if you want to give it a shot, we wish you all the best.

The floor area will need to be completely cleared prior to installation. Items stored on shelves or hanging on the walls may be left there. Some of our customers rent a POD to store other items. We are happy to help you move any heavy items that you can’t move yourself.

We suggest that you compare apples to apples. Not all garage floor coatings are the same. If a price is very low compared to others, that is a definite red flag. On the other hand, franchises typically charge more per square foot than others. We are not a franchise. We are local and family owned. We are very confident that we will give you the absolute highest quality floor at a very competitive price.

Yes. There may be a small additional cost.

No. We will carefully go around whatever is on the floor.

Credit cards, checks, cash or Zelle.

No shortcuts, ever. We would rather lose money than give you a less than rock solid, beautiful garage floor coating.

Industrial grade, high solids, moisture blocking, direct to concrete epoxy and ultra high solids, low VOC polyaspartic.