Aesthetics matter, even for your garage.
Only 11 percent of homeowners say that they’re satisfied with their garage. It’s no surprise that people would want to improve their garage since 55 percent of homeowners use the garage as the main entryway to the house.
How do you make the garage look nice? If you ask your neighbors, most will probably say that you should get epoxy garage flooring.
Why epoxy? Because for the longest time, it’s been the go-to option for garage floor coating. However, you should take their answer with a grain of salt.
Epoxy has had its time in the sun but it’s no longer the best garage flooring, not by a long shot!
Why shouldn’t you use epoxy as a coating for your precious garage floor? Here are the top reasons why.
1. UV Causes Epoxy to Fade
Talk about fading under the spotlight!
Sure, your garage floor will look nice and shiny after a fresh epoxy coat, but over time, it’s going to yellow and fade. Unless your garage is located underground, there’s no way to prevent the floor from UV exposure.
The sun doesn’t just discolor the coating. The UV rays can outright degrade the epoxy and cause it to “chalk out.”
2. Epoxy Coatings Are Prone to Fail
Epoxy is far from the title of best garage floor covering if it fails for a variety of reasons.
Here are some examples of why epoxy coatings fail:
- poor surface preparation
- presence of contaminants in the concrete such as fatty acids, acrylics, and silicone
- weak adhesion overpowered by the pull strength of the concrete
- weak or old substrate/concrete
- excessive moisture or humidity
- insufficient “wet out” or wicking
To be fair, some of these can be rectified by hiring a professional for proper installation. Still, the so-called “best” shouldn’t come with so many shortcomings.
3. Epoxy Is Sensitive to Changes in Temperature
On a hot day, the epoxy can stick to the tires of your car. When you drive off, so does the coating! Hot-tire pickup is a common pitfall of using epoxy for the floor of your garage.
What if it’s cold instead of hot? You might not be able to apply epoxy at all! Epoxy doesn’t cure well in cold temperatures, so tough luck if you live in an area with cold weather.
4. Lots of Downtime Before You Can Enjoy Your Epoxy Garage Flooring
We just mentioned that it takes perfect weather for the epoxy to cure well. Not only that, but it also takes multiple days (five days minimum) for it to cure.
That’s too much downtime before you can use that space. Where would you park your car?
5. There’s a Better Alternative
You also shouldn’t use epoxy for your garage floor is that there’s a better alternative: polyurea.
When comparing polyurea vs epoxy, there’s no question that polyurea is better. Polyurea isn’t sensitive to UV or temperature changes. It’s flexible, strong, durable, and only takes a day to cure.
You Deserve the Best!
While an epoxy garage flooring is decent, it’s far from the best. You can choose a garage floor coating that’s superior to epoxy.
For your garage floor, you deserve only the best and that’s polyurea. Let us tell you all about it! Contact us today.