Garage floor coatings significantly limit the beating your concrete floor takes, preventing cracks, chips, and pits from forming. Professionally installing a concrete coating can keep your surfaces damage-free for years to come.
Unfortunately, finding the most durable coating can be less straightforward.
This article analyzes some of the standard garage coating options, helping you determine which coating lasts the longest.
The Importance of Garage Floor Coatings
On top of everyday pedestrian and vehicle traffic, your concrete garage floors also have to deal with dust, dirt, grease, chemical spills, automotive fluids, road salt, and hot tires.
In no time, an unprotected concrete surface will start to show clear signs of damage, such as:
- Stains from leaks and spills
- Pitting
- Cracks
- Chips
- Spalling
- Uneven surface color
Fortunately, installing a strong, durable coating can prevent this damage from occurring.
What Is the Most Durable Garage Floor Coating?
You must consider multiple factors when searching for the right garage floor coating, from strength and appearance to cost and installation process. While all these factors are essential, your coating’s durability heavily determines how cost-effective the upgrade will be.
To help make your choice easier, we’ve compiled a list of long-lasting garage floor coatings, starting with the least durable.
Floor Paint
If you are looking for a cheap and quick way to make your concrete surfaces look good, then floor paint is perfect. However, this solution only offers a temporary boost and does little to protect or enhance your floor’s longevity.
Floor Sealers
Roll-on floor sealers are a popular product for homeowners looking to protect their garage floors. They are affordable, easy to apply and come in various types.
The product provides your concrete floors with a seal that can protect them from water damage and stains. However, this seal is mainly ineffective against hard impacts and harsh chemical stains.
Additionally, they do not bond to the surface well and tend to wear away quickly.
DIY Epoxy Kits
While DIY epoxy kits are a slightly better alternative, they are still not the most durable concrete coating.
These kits do offer some measure of protection and damage resistance. However, they will begin showing signs of wear and tear within months of application. In most cases, you will have to re-apply the coating once or twice a year.
Not only is this not ideal, but costly as well.
Concrete Resurfacers
In your search for garage floor coatings, you’ll probably come across concrete resurfacers.
Resurfacers consist of a mixture of polymer materials, sand, cement, and additional additives and are applied using a brush or squeegee.
Unfortunately, while they do offer some durability, concrete resurfacers are only ideal for floors with light damage, such as minor cracks and pitting. In fact, this option is more of a cosmetic fix for surfaces in need of a refresh.
Floors with more significant problems like deep and wide cracks or extensive pitting need extensive repairs before you can use a resurfacer.
Epoxy Floor Coatings
Epoxy coatings are much more durable than floor paint and DIY epoxy kits. They are also strong and offer beautiful, sleek finishes that are sure to match your stylistic preferences.
Unfortunately, these garage floor coatings are not UV-stable and will be yellow when exposed to direct sunlight for long periods. They are also vulnerable to certain signs of wear and tear and will need re-application every few years to retain their longevity.
Polyaspartic Coatings
Polyaspartic floor coatings provide the best protection for your garage’s concrete surface. This high-performance coating option consists of professional-grade materials that promise to deliver the long-lasting performance you desire and deserve.
Polyaspartic coatings penetrate deep into your concrete surface, creating a robust foundational barrier. This barrier makes your concrete floor moisture-, stain-, abrasion-, and chemical-resistant.
Unlike epoxy, this option is UV-stable and will retain its finish for years, even with prolonged UV-ray exposure.
The best part is that polyaspartic coatings don’t take much to clean and maintain. All you’ll need to do is mop your floors with soap and warm water to have them look as good as new.
Long-Lasting Garage Floor Coatings in Iowa City
Reach out to us at Revival Concrete Coatings today and enjoy the unmatched durability our polyaspartic flake coatings provide.
From its impressive strength and high-quality finish to our 15-year and lifetime warranties on chipping and UV stability, respectively, you can never go wrong with our polyaspartic flooring services.
Call our Revival Concrete Coatings team at (515) 850-7192 to request your free quote on our Iowa polyaspartic garage floor coatings.