The garage floor is one of the areas in your home to which you may not give much thought. However, with the traffic and weight it handles, you may need to care for it the same way you do the other floors in the house.
Your garage floor can easily deteriorate from exposure to varying temperatures, oil spills, chemicals, and moisture. Coupled with a lack of protective material and maintenance, cracks, stains, and uneven surfaces can develop. But, you don’t have to let your garage floor grow into an eyesore.
The flooring materials discussed below can help protect your garage floor and give it a unique look.
Epoxy Floor Coating
Using residential epoxy flooring on your garage floor helps protect it against friction, chemicals, chipping, and moisture. In addition, epoxy flooring adds an eye appeal to your garage floor. You can enhance its color by adding flakes of various colors.
The polyamine hardener that’s added to epoxide resin improves the epoxy strength. This hardener protects your garage floor from heavy loads, which would otherwise accelerate its depreciation. To make it non-slippery, you can add slip-resistant flakes, which give your epoxy flooring an extra grip when wet.
It’s important to note that hot-tire pickup can cause your epoxy floor to delaminate. Epoxy delamination occurs when the tires cool off and contract, thereby pulling the flooring with it. Therefore, to avoid this problem, ensure you get a solid epoxy that’s usually thick. You can look at a manufacturer’s warranty provisions to guide you on the quality. In most cases, a solid epoxy manufacturer can provide at least 15 years warranty.
Floor Sealers
Even though they may not be as durable as epoxy floorings, floor sealers provide good protection to your garage floor, too. Floor sealers are mostly in three different forms. You can use urethane, acrylic, or latex. These floor sealers help protect your floor from friction and abrasion due to garage traffic. They also protect against spills, water damage, and stains.
However, you should note that latex and acrylic are vulnerable to chemical spills and may tear out easily. On the other hand, urethane provides better protection than the two. If your garage floor gets exposed to sunlight sometimes, then urethane can be your option. Aliphatic polyurethanes contain an agent that makes them resistant to the sun’s ultraviolet rays.
Additionally, the elasticity of the floor sealers makes them ideal to use if you live in areas with fluctuating temperatures. In most cases, floor sealers are clear, but you can get tinted ones, too. Therefore, if you have prior flooring damage or stains, it’d be better to attend to them first before using the floor sealers.
Polyaspartic Floor Coating
As with epoxy, polyaspartic coating is a 100% solid coating that’s fast-curing and helps prevent corrosion and erosion. Due to its aliphatic polyurea component, it protects the flooring from ultraviolet rays, too. This component also makes the polyaspartic coating more flexible, thus, can withstand high-impact drops and weights. Additionally, polyurea polyaspartic coating contains low to zero volatile organic compounds, making it more durable.
The polyaspartic coating penetrates the concrete flooring, thereby providing a stronger bond and longer-lasting protection for your garage floor. Apart from the strength, other notable pros of a polyaspartic floor coating are high scratch and abrasion resistance, high stain and chemical resistance, and high tolerance to heat.
The heat tolerance quality of the polyaspartic coating makes it resistant to temperature fluctuations and the effects of hot-tire pickup. This quality also means that, even if you live in a colder location, you can apply the coating any time of the year instead of waiting for warmer months.
Garage Floor Tiles
Depending on your location and budget, you can choose between interlocking tiles and peel and stick tiles. These tiles can be made from heavy-duty rubber and vinyl, or resistant polyvinyl chloride (PVC). However, it’s important to ensure that you properly level the garage floor to achieve desired protection.
Interlocking tiles protect your garage floor from abrasions and further damage from garage traffic. Some garage floor tiles can require mortar and adhesives to install, while others have interlocking teeth. The interlocking ones work by interlocking or snapping together to form the protective layer for your garage floor.
One major advantage of garage floor tiles is that, for any repair, you can easily replace them individually. This especially applies to the interlocking tiles where you can detach the damaged tile and replace it with a new one. Garage floor tiles also have different color varieties; therefore, you can choose as per your preference.
Conclusion
Like other floors within your home, you can care for and protect your garage floor, too. Apart from the original concrete flooring, you’ll have various garage floor materials you can choose from. You can install garage floor tiles or epoxy coating depending on your preference. Alternatively, you can opt for polyaspartic coating or garage floor sealers. Overall, all these can help protect your garage floor, while adding to its aesthetic appearance.