Epoxy Garage Floors: What to know and what to avoid

Concrete Epoxy Garage Floors

Residential concrete epoxy garage floors have become increasingly popular, because many people use their garage as their main entrance to their house. Epoxy floors are easy to clean and minimizes the amount of dirt entering the house. As a result, more and more people want to know what it costs to have an epoxy concrete floor installed.

Not all epoxy garage floors are created equal, neither are the installers.

The cost to have an epoxy garage floor installed varies, and with over 15 years of experience, we can shed some light on why. There are several different factors that affect the potential cost of an epoxy garage floor.

The biggest reason costs will vary so much is because epoxy varies so much! Epoxies typically come in either "solids" or "water-based." Epoxies sometimes have solvents or other components added to them that can evaporate into the air, and some epoxies yellow almost overnight. Some epoxies will fail due to hot tire pull off.

Preparation

Here are a few simple things a homeowner can look for when shopping for an epoxy garage floor. Most importantly is preparation. Make sure the company you are looking to hire diamond grinds the concrete floor. If the floor is not diamond ground, you are almost guaranteed hot tire pull off. You then need to consider getting Gypsum Floor Underlayments to ensure the floor is level and capable of handling a lot of weight.

Even brand new concrete should be ground. Concrete needs to have a profile so the epoxy can "bite" to it. This can not be achieved by just acid etching alone, and
grinding also removes contaminants that could be bond breakers. Something as simple as an oily salad dressing or the grease from a pizza could interfere with the epoxy bonding process, and diamond grinding ensures the surface will be clean.

Before laying an epoxy floor, it could be beneficial to get pest control done to remove rodents and insects. The garage can be one of the places in a house that can easily get pest infestation due to cracks in the flooring or unnecessary clutter. And from there, these insects can spread into the house as well. You can hire an exterminator in alabama or in your location to resolve the issues.

Epoxy Contents

Next is the solids content of epoxy, and just like anything else, manufacturers will dilute epoxy with solvents and other additives to keep costs down. This can be seen in the solids content on the container. A quality epoxy will have 100% solids vs say 80% solids. That means if 1 gallon of epoxy is put on the garage floor when the epoxy dries one gallon will still be on the floor. If you have 80% solids that means 20% of that gallon will evaporate into the air.

Final Considerations

A water-based epoxy really has no place in a garage with vehicular traffic. However, some installers will use water-based epoxy because it has a high coverage rate and is cheaper than quality epoxy resin.

If polished concrete may make sense for your restaurant give us a contact us call today and see what all can be done.