Epoxy garage floor coatings are all the rage. Long gone are the old browns and grays that used to be associated with any type of garage floor paint. Today's garage floor finishes are often a shiny red, or sometimes even clear. Any time you see really eye-catching garage floors on TV, if they're a solid color, or only have flecks of color, then you're most likely looking at epoxy. Nearly all garage floor coatings nowadays will include the words epoxy, acrylic, and resin, but most people don't really know what these terms mean. In this article, we'll take a look at epoxy, what it is, and why it's used in practically every modern garage floor coating.
What Is Epoxy?
You may have used "superglue" or epoxy to glue together something you would have not expected to ever have fallen apart on the whole. Now, if there was any mixing at all, then it was most likely epoxy. The reason for this is because the definition of epoxy is technically a mixture including both epoxide, where the term is derived from, and polyamine. When both of the chemicals are mixed together and then cured, the resulting compound creates a rockhard adhesive that we familiarize with epoxy. The curing phase for epoxy is varied regulated by its application or use. For garage flooring, it normally takes a few hours for the curing process of epoxy, in comparison to the adhesive epoxy, which only takes a few minutes to mix up.
Why Does Epoxy Makes The Most Powerful Coat Of The Garage Floor Coatings?
Epoxy is the most dependable and the most powerful of the assorted garage flooring alternatives. Epoxy, in its nature, withstands almost all liquids to the UV rays, and you can also count on it to withstand any or all chemicals coming from cars or whatever in the garage. But, because of its density, it is not very comfortable to sit on as mats and tiles would be, even though it's easier on your back and your knees that just a plain ol' concrete garage floor.
Comparing Other Garage Floor Coverings To Epoxy
If you take a look at the various garage flooring options, you'll see some garage floor paint is labeled as water or acrylic based. These are usually also epoxy coatings, and they may or may not be mixed a bit differently with slightly different balances than those garage floor coatings that more clearly show themselves to be epoxy based. For whatever reason, it seems that some companies want to lead consumers away from thinking their products are the same as the other guys, even if they basically are. Notice that the big guys like RustOleum and Quikrete garage floor pretty clearly say that all of their coatings are epoxy.
Epoxy Is Probably The Future Of Garage Floor Coatings, Too
Although the technology has been around for a while, epoxy is quite capable of resisting even the most destructive of chemicals. Even brake fluid, which is capable of eating clothes if left alone, will flow right off of an epoxy garage floor coating. Eventually we will probably come up with something that is so volatile that it can even destroy epoxy (battery acid from some future electric or hybrid car, maybe?), but we're not there yet. For now, epoxy is the only garage floor coating you should need.
Check out Sweet Garage Floor for more information on garage floor coatings.
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