There is not going to be a better time to have a professional garage floor coating installed than right now. Waiting is not a good idea. While that may seem bold or misleading, I’m going to explain several reasons why this is likely true for you, regardless of whether building a new home, updating an older home, or considering a DIY epoxy kit.
Staying in your current home? Make better use of the garage.
Having a professional, commercial-grade epoxy floor coating applied to your garage floor makes more sense now than ever before as people are staying longer in their homes. The past couple years of volatility have made many homeowners realize now isn’t the time to change homes. So, instead, they are updating and improving the home they already have.
Adding the floor coating to the garage increases the usability of the room significantly. It makes the garage not just a place to park the cars, but a multi-use room for entertainment, a home gym, hobby space or a Get It Done projects room. On those cold or rainy days, a finished garage can even be the place parents tell the kids to go play.
Protecting the concrete surface with an epoxy coating also makes great sense because of the longevity of living in the home. You don't want to have a surface that's being eroded and damaged, so the garage floor coatings are a protective layer too. Granted, for most, the beautifying aspect of the coatings is probably just as important as the protective aspect.
Building a new home? Coat the garage floor before you move in.
Chances are the garage is already getting wired, lighted, drywalled and painted. Same applies to every other room, except they also get flooring appropriate to the room’s use. The same can be true for the garage with the scheduling of the floor coatings before move-in.
Before coatings can be applied to a concrete surface, the concrete mix must cure to 85% of the intended compressive strength (decreasing the water ratio). As a rule, this takes about 30 days. But most times the garage concrete is poured 60 plus days before the home is complete. Therefore, epoxy can be applied near the end of the construction and prior to move-in.
That way, the floor coatings are applied to a concrete surface that has no contaminants (oil, silicones, etc.). Plus, the epoxy coatings can treat every square foot of the floor – before installation of cabinets, shelves, appliances or other permanent items.
It also makes sense to have the coatings installed before you move in to ease the transition. The garage is ready as a staging area for all the homes contents. Some stuff may sit there for quite some time - weeks to months. Those contents are not sitting on raw concrete or in the way for coatings installation. Everything in the garage is sitting on a finished floor. It's a room ready for every use that you're going to have for it during the move-in, right after and much later in the future.
Finally, pre-move-in installation of the floor coatings prevents the surface from future staining (from grass/mowers, spills and overspray), chemical attack from ice-melts and road-treatments and abrasion (the typical wear being the tire paths into each bay).
Waiting on prices to drop? That’s extremely unlikely. Prices will only go up.
Chemicals, fuel and labor are only going up in price. Since 2019, some professional grade (epoxy, polyurethane and polyurea) chemicals have gone up more than 50% in price. In the over 18 years we have been in business, we have yet to see anything but fuel drop in price (that being temporary as there is always some reason it goes back up too).
What this means for the homeowner is that the price per square foot of a professionally installed, garage floor coating is not going down. If price is your only consideration and you want it done right, then waiting isn’t going to help achieve your desired result of a easy-to-clean, aesthetically pleasing garage floor.
Thinking of applying a DIY kit? Think again…
In past articles, we have covered this topic from numerous perspectives. Here are a few:
- Professional Garage Floors Epoxy – Skip the Paint Kit & Frustration
- 5 Things to consider before you DIY Concrete Floor Coatings
- Surface Preparation for Floor Coatings: DIY vs Professional
- Materials & Maintenance of Garage Floor Coatings: DIY vs Professional
- 7 Reasons Why Epoxy Coatings Fail
In general, the DIY kits from big box stores are going to fail in a normal use, residential garage. They are a waste of time and money. When they fail, it either takes more of your time and money to re-apply or pay extra to a professional to remove the mess that is already on the floor before having it done correctly.
Conclusion
Unless you really don’t want a professional garage floor coatings or plan to live in your current home only for a short period of time, then the time to schedule your coatings is now.
