Concrete is a popular flooring choice across every commercial industry and for a variety of home projects. Ensuring that you’re using the right concrete floor coating for the job is critical – both for your budget and for the sake of the lifespan of your floor. In our years serving customers’ concrete coating needs, Runyon has heard questions ranging from the straightforward and broad to the niche and specific. As you prepare to apply a coating to your concrete surface, consider reviewing the following FAQs.
What Is the Best Coating for My Garage Floor?
While you would be hard pressed to find a coating that won’t work for your garage floor, the typical choice for contractors and homeowners when coating garage floors is epoxy. Epoxy coatings are durable, easily bonded with concrete, and they can withstand heavy equipment.
If you were to go with polyurethane or polyaspartic coatings, you would still have a durable and attractive coat. However, these tend to be thinner and more apt to decay with chemical spillage. Of course, polyurethane and polyaspartic will have their own benefits, like excellent color retention and stain resistance. As you search for the right coating for a garage floor, you may want to default to epoxy and adjust according to the needs of your project and the intended use of the garage.
How Long Do Concrete Coatings Last?
As long as you’re performing due diligence in your surface’s upkeep, your concrete coating should last several years, if not a decade. Making a point to avoid chemical and oil spillage and regularly mop your floors can help elongate the life of your concrete coating. Furthermore, the right surface preparation will serve to create a lengthy coating lifespan – this includes using quality products and thorough applications upon installation**I would also add how well you keep the coating clean of debris and spills
Are Concrete Coatings Expensive?
The price you pay for coating your concrete will vary depending on the demands of the project. Will you need additives? Are you adding color? If you’re looking for a simple clear coat, the cost will primarily be dictated by the surface area you are covering. That said, even in cases where you need more than one product to properly cover your concrete surface, there are plenty of great products available for a competitive price.
What Type of Coating Is Best for Color Retention?
For some industries, color retention may not be the most important factor in a coated concrete floor. But for others, especially businesses who have branding and aesthetic concerns to adhere to, color retention is among the most vital factors considered when seeking the right concrete coating.
Surface coating installers tend to go with polyurethane coatings for an excellent gloss and color retention. With serious abrasion and chemical resistance, polyurethane coatings are also great for preventing scratches and other surface marks that commercial property owners may be concerned about.
Can Any Paint or Pigment Be Used for My Concrete Floor?
How you color your concrete floor will depend on the purposes of the surface itself, along with the type of coating you use. You want to avoid using just any old paint or dye for the job, as it will not hold up well or come out the way you may hope.
At Runyon Surface Prep, we have Key Resin pigment packs available, as well as Spartacote Polyaspartic Pigments which come in 14 standard colors. They are UV stable, perfect for exterior uses, and provide excellent retention. We also offer concrete dyes for polished or exposed concrete surfaces.
How Can Concrete Coating Help Give My Floors Traction?
On their own, polished concrete floors will give you quite a bit of good traction. However, if you are coating a surface that will be heavily used or experiences regular spills and other slipping hazards, there are additives available that you can work into your coating process. We carry Spartacote surface traction additives like the Diamond Topp traction additive, a high-performance top coat additive meant for heavy-duty environments that require maximum abrasion resistance. This additive can be incorporated over any Spartacote concrete coating system. Once complete, it leaves a lightly textured matte finish.
Runyon – Surface Prep and Beyond
At Runyon, we offer an array of concrete coating products and surface preparation equipment. We carry Key Resin and Spartacote coating products, as well as additives, dyes, burnishers, grinders, and numerous other products you may need for the job. We also have rental services for our equipment, and we offer technical training on trowel polishing, concrete polishing and edging, floor coatings, and much more. Connect with us today to learn more about how we can help you get started on your concrete flooring project.