The Stronghold Floors Blog

One of the defining factors in professionally applied garage floor coatings is the surface preparation.  While DIY kits are often applied after just broom cleaning or acid etching the concrete, professional coatings are generally applied after mechanically diamond grinding or shot blasting the concrete floor surface.  So which surface preparation process do we use and why?

After talking with a few booth visitors today about garage floor coatings, I walked around the 2017 Pennsylvania Home Show today.  I am always curious to see what new companies are presenting.  Today, I found something new some of our customers would probably enjoy – temporary storage via a steel shipping container.  

Every year we interact with homeowners in many states who do not realize we can apply garage floor coatings year round. Everyone assumes we suffer from the same restrictions as shared by common paint and Do-It-Yourself garage epoxy kits.  This always leads to several questions:

I was recently asked why we have so many Home Improvement Contractor numbers on our paperwork.  I explained that our two locations of Stronghold Floors (Baltimore, MD and Mechanicsburg, PA) allow us to easily service areas of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia.  As such, we must hold active licenses or registrations in each state.

On November 14^th, we (Dave, Kim and I) attended the Grand Opening ceremony for the Environmental Center & Classroom at the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum.  We were honored to be invited to this ribbon cutting ceremony - as our Baltimore crews had coated the floors in the Environmental Center and classroom earlier this year. 

Several years ago, we were contacted by Ken, who owns and operates All Shine Detailing in Hummelstown.  He wanted coatings for his garage, which is the operational center of his business.   Unlike most residential homeowners, Ken did not want our decorative chip floor coatings.  He needed a floor that didn’t hide what was on it.   He needed a solid color coating that would hold up, look good and make detailing easier.

We installed a multiple layer, epoxy & polyurethane coating in a medium gray color.   Afterwards, we followed each other’s business on social media.  One day, I got thinking about Ken’s business and checked out his website (which had grown over the years).   I decided to reach out to him to learn more about his business.

There are a lot of products that are used with concrete.  One newer item that causes some confusion is concrete densifiers.  Are they a sealer?  Are they the same as epoxy?  Just what is a densifier?

Concrete Densifiers Explained

Concrete densifiers are chemicals that are applied to the surface to:

1)      Fill in the pores at the surface

2)      Increase surface density

3)      Improve the wear resistance

4)      Reduce dusting

The title is not talking about the floor being green in color (although we have installed a few of those).  Instead I wanted to answer a recent question about whether we used “green” (or sustainable) products and processes.  Stronghold Floors tries to utilize products and processes that reduce the overall environmental impact of the services we provide and enhance our employee’s work environment.