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Why Polyaspartics Beat Epoxies For Garage Flooring

The coating you use for your garage flooring can affect everything, from how durable it is to how easy it is to maintain. Obviously, with a space like your garage, you're probably going to want something that's tough, able to withstand wear and tear, and simple to keep clean and strong.

When it comes to concrete coating systems for garage flooring, two types reign supreme: epoxies and polyaspartics. While people have used epoxies for years to protect garage flooring and other hard, heavy-duty floors, a lot of homeowners have started coming around to polyaspartics as the superior option. Here are a few reasons why:

Durability and Longevity

Both polyaspartics and epoxies protect floors to some extent, but polyaspartic concrete coatings surpass epoxies in damage resistance and durability. Polyaspartic coatings are several times more durable than epoxy when it comes to abrasion and impact resistance. While epoxy floors can start to become scratched and dull over time, polyaspartic floors maintain a tough, flawless finish for years at a time. Polyaspartic coatings are also renowned for their exceptional durability, allowing them to expand and contract with concrete through temperature changes. Epoxy, on the other hand, is more rigid and can start to crack and split from this movement over time.

On a final note, polyaspartic concrete coating systems have far more UV resistance when compared to traditional epoxy coatings. While epoxies start to yellow and fade after long-term exposure to the sun, UV-stable polyaspartic coatings maintain their like-new appearance without incurring UV damage, making them ideal for use on garage flooring and outdoor hardscaping.

Maintenance Needs

This really comes back down to durability and longevity again. Epoxies are more likely to crack, yellow, chip, and wear down with age and wear. This means more intensive cleaning and upkeep, and the floors will likely have to be recoated within a few years. However, because polyaspartic coatings are very damage-resistant, they need less hands-on maintenance to keep their appearance in perfect condition. With polyaspartic floors, there's no need to buff, wax, or polish them; basic mopping and sweeping will usually suffice for most cleaning needs.

Eco-Friendliness

If you want to install eco-friendly flooring or are worried about using harsh chemical coatings in your home, then you'll want to pick a coating with a lower VOC content. VOCs, or volatile organic chemicals, are harmful chemicals that evaporate into the air, contributing to pollution and potential health risks.

The exact VOC content of epoxy or polyaspartic coatings can vary a lot depending on their type and manufacturer. However, in general, epoxy's solvent-based formulations often lead to them having a higher VOC content than polyaspartics. Floor Shield's concrete coatings in particular have low to zero VOC content, making us the safer, more eco-friendly option on average.

Curing Time

Last but not least, curing time: aka, the amount of time it takes for the coating to fully set and dry so you can move into your space again. Polyaspartics dominate epoxies in this area. While exact curing times vary based on the epoxy type, the space it's applied to, how many coatings there are, etc., it usually takes about 24 hours for epoxy floors to cure enough for move-in again, with a full curing time of around seven days. By contrast, polyaspartics usually only need about 5-6 hours before they're move-in ready, fully curing within roughly 24 hours.

High-Quality Aspartic Coatings for Your New Braunfels Garage

If you're going to opt for polyaspartic garage flooring, make sure you're investing in quality. With top-quality polyaspartic concrete coating systems backed by our 15-year warranty, Floor Shield of Southwest Texas is New Braunfels' premier provider of durable garage flooring and more. If you're interested in what we can do for you, call us at 409-781-7943 for a free estimate today!