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?

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:

The purpose of this blog is to deal with questions we get so often when it comes to epoxy floor coatings. Since these questions most often come from residential homeowners concerning their garage or basement floors, I’ll concentrate our answers to this audience.   A fair amount of the information is applicable to the commercial environment as well.

Here in part 1 of this blog, I’m tackling some of the common questions concerning cracking of the concrete surface. Next week in part 2, I’ll get into the types of joints used in residential construction and how they impact the installation and performance of the coating system. 

Why did my concrete floor develop cracks?

These are the top 5 myths I’ve heard over the past 10 years working in a garage floor coatings business.  Some from customers, some from people in the industry. Here we debunk the top 5 most common garage flooring myths. 

Myth #1 – Professional Garage Floor Coatings are VERY expensive!

Well, if you call some of the shadier garage makeover businesses in our service area, you will get quoted a very expensive price.   Some of our customers got quotes from our competitors who wanted to charge $8 - $12 per square foot to coat their garage floor.    That’s almost criminal.

A professionally installed, epoxy/Polyaspartic decorative chip floor coating need not cost any more than $6 per square foot for a two car garage with good condition concrete.    Our warrantied, easy to clean decorative chip floors are even less than that. I admit it’s not cheap. But neither was that SUV that will look better on a beautiful (well done) garage floor coating.

And, don’t get fooled by the # of layers some other companies talk up, the math doesn’t always add up (see Garage Coatings Math: When 3 is Greater Than 5).

Our team gets asked all the time about why floor coatings fail.   Sometimes it’s for a garage floor that was painted with a big-box store’s epoxy kit.   Other times it’s a commercial service garage where the epoxy just won’t stick.   The reasons can vary, but I’m going to attempt to describe the most common reasons why epoxy coatings fail (this will typically hold true for other types of coatings such as polyaspartic or polyurea). 

Improper Surface Preparation

Too often, an epoxy paint kit from a big box store will instruct the DIY user to just clean the floor or etch it with muriatic acid.   Cleaning along is NEVER enough.   Acid etching, while a valid preparation method, will only work if the concrete’s pores are open enough to allow the acid to react and remove the laitance (the thin cement paste on the very top).  Acid etching will also not suffice for areas of the concrete which are sealed, oil stained, painted or contaminated (with wax, tire shine or other chemicals).

To ensure a proper concrete surface profile (CSP 2 or 3), we normally utilize our shrouded concrete grinders. On rare occasion, we may also shot blast the concrete.  For more information:   Epoxy Floor Coatings: Concrete Surface Profiles Explained

We are now in the home stretch. So far, we have covered:

So far, we’ve evaluated the current garage floor condition and determined the coating’s performance requirements.   Now, we move on to the aesthetics.   What is our desired look?

Garage floor coatings are not “one size fits all”. The coatings can reflect the homeowner’s sense of style. They can just show off the homeowner’s favorite color. They can even be tied to a favorite brand or team colors. Since so many choices are available in garage coatings, we’ve listed out some things to consider.

What do I want my garage floor coating to look like?

Last week, in Garage Floor Coatings Criteria Part 1 -Evaluating the Current Floor Condition, we reviewed the different problem conditions that may apply and their impact.   No garage floor coating works well if the surface is not in good condition or placed back into good, structural condition before the coatings are applied.