Garage Floor Coatings

Garage floor coatings are one of those small, often overlooked ideas that add a great deal of value (both aesthetically and monetarily) to a home. Coatings range from a simple seal on the concrete surface to keep out oil and other fluids, to intricate floor murals. A few hours work can pay off for years to come.

Measure twice, cut once

Planning ahead and knowing how you want the floor coat to look is the second most important part of installing a floor coating. The most important is patience, but that comes later. Because a coating is applied in three to five layers, depending on the look desired, foresight is essential. If a contractor is hired, they have samples for you to look at. Colors and patterns are chosen, whether mixed with paint chips or quartz for more visual flair, or grit in the top sealant layer to give a more sturdy walking surface. Make these choices during the initial planning stages.

Mix it up

Almost all garage floor coatings are epoxies of some kind; that is, they paint on as a liquid but harden to an almost steel-like quality. Underneath the actual epoxy is a base coat so the epoxy can grip to the garage floor more durably. The epoxy is either clear (to show off the original garage floor) or many various colors. Professionals can do tiles of different colors and often mix quartz chips or paint chips into the epoxy to give a more interesting visual look. The volume of chips mixed in depends on how much you want to hide the concrete underneath. Over all that, goes the sealant, which repels vehicle fluids of all kinds, and is often mixed with a gritty substance that gives the top a sandpaper like texture to make staying upright easier when knee-deep in engine oil.

The reality of floor coatings is that they take time to install. Each part of the process must dry before the next is applied, with over a week of waiting until the surface is finally ready for use. Still, after all that work, you get a beautiful garage floor, and the reward is worth waiting for.

Each part of the process must dry before the next is applied