Your Guide to Choosing the Perfect Epoxy Flooring for Your Garage
In 2019, the global floor coatings market was worth about $2.6 billion. However, experts expect this market to grow at a rate of about 8% per year until 2027 at least. With that kind of growth, people will then be spending closer to $4.7 billion on floor coatings each year.
That is an incredible amount of demand for epoxy flooring and other types of floor coatings. When you realize how enormous the market for epoxy flooring is, it makes sense that there are so many different kinds of epoxy flooring.
At the same time, that means that it can be difficult for a layperson to figure out which type of epoxy is right for their garage. Read on to learn all about the most important things to know to help you choose the right epoxy floor for your situation!
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What Is Epoxy Flooring?
Epoxy flooring is made out of a special liquid resin. This resin is then combined with a chemical hardener to turn it from liquid to solid. The end result is a thin layer of epoxy that covers your whole garage floor.
In most cases, you will still be able to see the underlying floor through the layer of epoxy because it is transparent. At the same time, the surface of your floor will have a smooth sheen from wall to wall. Epoxy flooring provides many benefits for garage floors and lasts for years.
How Epoxy Can Protect Your Garage Floor
Having an epoxy or urethane floor coating installed will provide an extra layer of protection for your floor. Concrete floors are brittle, so they have a tendency to chip if they are struck with a hard force. They also have a tendency to develop scrapes and smooth spots that can ruin the regularity of the floor.
These irregularities can also make it more likely that people will slip or trip while walking on the floor. Epoxy flooring can help with all of these problems.
It provides a strong surface with excellent traction. On top of that, this surface will resist all kinds of damage, so it will not become slippery and lose traction.
An epoxy or acrylic floor coating will also make your garage easier to clean. The tiny crevices in concrete tend to collect dust that can be almost impossible to remove. In contrast, the smooth surface of a floor coating is easy to sweep or wipe clean.
Epoxy floor coatings are also resistant to stains, so your floor will stay cleaner in the long run.
Some people are concerned that they might damage their epoxy floor. However, no matter what you do in your garage, an epoxy floor will be up for the challenge.
Epoxy floors resist chemical damage, water damage, heat and cold damage, and physical damage. However, the specific kind of epoxy floor you choose will determine what other advantages your floor coating might provide.
Different Garage Floor Coating Types
There are many kinds of epoxy floor options for a garage. Some people wonder which of these options is the best, but there is no one best option. Instead, each kind of epoxy coating comes with its own special advantages.
Understanding these different options will help you decide which epoxy floor coating option is right for the way you use your garage.
Solid Epoxy Garage Floors
Solid epoxy flooring comes in many different colors. People often use this kind of flooring in restaurants and even for kitchens and driveways.
Flake Epoxy Options
Flake epoxy flooring comes with many tiny acrylic chips in its resin. These chips come in many different colors. After your installation, they will be embedded all throughout the transparent epoxy coating.
That will create a multicolored surface with many tiny variations in its appearance. Many people consider this to be an ideal choice for a garage that is going for a more decorative feel.
However, the advantages of flake epoxy flooring do not stop with their unique appearance. The flakes in this kind of flooring also add extra traction to your floor.
That can make them a great choice if you are concerned about the possibility of slips and falls in your garage. That might come in handy if your garage sees a lot of foot traffic or if people ever walk through it while the floor is wet.
Metallic Floor Coating Options
Metallic epoxy flooring is made of regular epoxy resin combined with metallic additives. These metallic components help provide a shinier surface with a distinctive metallic sheen.
You can also choose to add a metallic finish to the top of solid epoxy options. You can choose between options like ruby, gold, copper, and more to add a splash of color to your flooring.
Self-Leveling Floor Options
If your garage floor has a lot of damage on its surface, then the right option for your situation might be a self-leveling epoxy flooring option. This kind of flooring is ideal for smoothing over irregular surfaces.
Even if you have serious cracks or other kinds of damage in your concrete floor, this flooring will be up for smoothing it out. In fact, if you have this kind of damage, then your garage floor may not be suitable for any other kind of flooring.
Using a self-leveling epoxy flooring option can be the most efficient way to smooth out a damaged concrete surface while also providing it with an extra layer of protection.
Polished Concrete Epoxy Flooring
Some people prefer to avoid changing the essential appearance of their garage. In such cases, a polished concrete floor might be the right choice.
During the installation process, your flooring contractors will first polish the concrete floor. This will still maintain the standard gray appearance of concrete.
After that, a coating will go on top of the concrete to provide extra protection and seal the surface. That will also prevent silica dust formation in your garage. That will make your garage easier to clean as well.
Epoxy Paint Garage Trends
You may have heard about epoxy paint as an option for garages. However, it is important to realize that epoxy paint is not at all the same thing as real epoxy flooring.
Epoxy paint is a paint with a tiny amount of epoxy mixed in it. Because it has epoxy in it, this paint enjoys superior adhesion and durability. However, it is still only a type of paint and not a type of flooring.
Choosing the Right Service for Your Garage Makeover
Installing a quality epoxy coating is a complicated process requiring the skillful management of the epoxy resin, the chemical hardener, and topcoats and sealers. No matter how great the epoxy floor product you choose, you will not get the most out of it if you receive a shoddy installation. That is why it is vital to make sure to find the right company to install your epoxy garage floor.
Because epoxy floor coatings are as popular as they are, you may have many different options for installation services to choose between. One way to help you sort through some of your options is by looking online for overall ratings.
If past customers of a service have given it poor ratings, then you might want to steer clear. However, looking only at overall ratings may not be enough to help you narrow down your options to a single candidate.
For your installation service options with good overall ratings, you can learn more about them by reading through their written reviews. You might discover that a company with amazing ratings is not as good a choice for your situation as it seems.
For example, if a flooring company has amazing reviews because customers love how they install kitchen flooring, then those positive results may not be indicative of how skillfully the company will install epoxy flooring in a garage.
Reading the written reviews will help you find the company that has the best track record of installing garage floor coatings.
Choose the Perfect Epoxy Flooring for Your Garage
The more that you know about the different kinds of epoxy flooring, the easier it will be for you to choose the option that is right for you. Once you have chosen the right option, you can schedule an installation and enjoy the benefits of epoxy floors for years to come. Since you will live with your choice for so long, it is vital to understand your epoxy flooring options before picking one.
To learn more about how to find the right service to install epoxy flooring in your garage, get in touch with us here at any time!
