I'm going to say that for the money I know we have the best coatings available for the DIYer. But another vendor will come along and make the same claim. In the end you'll have to do your own due diligence. Read the user reviews here and elsewhere, check out the specs, do the math where required, read the MSDS and product data sheets, etc.
And review the manufacturers claims - just realize that all of us, obviously myself included, have a vested interest in tooting our own horns - and judge them accordingly.
With that warning, here's me tooting my horn...
...what is the top of your line product and how much?
Our "top of the line" has infused titanium, goes down over 250 mils thick, weighs a ton, is blast proof, and cost over $300 per square foot. Installation is extra.
Clearly that's a coating for strictly extreme commercial environments, in fact I'd guess that over 97% of Wolverine's output goes to commercial contractors for industrial and commercial uses - floors, tank linings, pipe linings, secondary containments, etc. That's good for our DIY floor products because our do it yourself home owners and small business owners benefit from that research, high end raw materials, and experience. The products available to you and other DIYers are some of the exact ones that make up a good percentage of those commercial sales.
Many of the over 1,000 coatings in the WCC catalog are top coats for varying environments, but underneath most all of them is a coat of BondTite 1101, the same primer we spec for garage floors.
One downside to the commercial nature of most of our sales is that a lot of our products aren't packaged for smaller orders, and due to package sizing sadly 300 square feet is the exact opposite side from our pricing sweet spot.
For an area 300 ft2 you would need 1.5 gallons of Bondtite 1101 primer, a 100% solids epoxy. Next, the top coat would be LiquaTile 1184, and finally the clear coat 1.25 gallons of EduraShield 2254. Our specs call for a minimum combined coating of 21 mils, but due to packaging sizes 300 ft2 would be coated at 30.07 mils (wet without waste factored in). 300 feet has the distinction of being the thickest system at spec, which means that at $570 for the coatings it's $1.90 per square foot, our priciest $/ft2 point (other areas sizes get down to $1.29/ft2). The upside is it's also the thickest coating.
Besides just the thickness there's also the composition of the materials to consider. I've mentioned that the BondTite primer not only mechanically adheres to concrete, but it also penetrates and actually chemically bonds to the concrete. In fact it's also extensively used to prime metals, including stainless steel.
The common wisdom is that prep is everything. And yes, preparation is key. But there are plenty of posts here about people who prepped well, but still their coating failed. On the other end there are at least two users who have posted that with their projects some BondTite seeped onto parts of the floor that had zero preparation, not cleaned at all. Later they went to remove the B ondTite, and they both had to chisel it off, and even then it came up with chunks of concrete still attached. So while prep is important, a quality primer will help insure long term success even if a spot or two received less than ideal preparation.
Keep in mind that with pretty much all coatings the preparation and application is really almost all the same. Clearly a 3 coat system is one coat more work than a 2 coat system, but the preparation, mixing, masking, measuring and application are very similar, the exact times, depths etc may vary some, but at the core all 2 component coatings are very similar in application. Some manufacturers do seem to simplify their instruction, no doubt to not scare away DIYers who might be intimidated with detailed instructions. All that aside - always read and follow the instructions that came with your product.
LiquaTile is also a top notch product. When you look at that Quikcrete product you mentioned it weighs 9 lb per gallon (note that 54% of that is water, which will evaporate into thin air), in contrast LiquaTile 1184 weighs about 12 pounds per gallon (all solids - 100% of what you buy and apply protects your floor), some of that extra heft is due to ceramic content. Even mediocre epoxies are hard, but just as glass is hard epoxy can also be, just like glass is, brittle, which makes them chip and crack. LiquaTile's ceramic content allows the LiquaTile to be very hard, but remain a bit flexible, even years after it's fully cured. So when something is dropped, or even a heavy object moved or dragged across the coating, the LiquaTile absorbs some of that shock, impact, and movement, diffusing it before it impacts the concrete. The result is less chance of concrete chip outs, divots and dings, and less chance of the epoxy failure lifting at the concrete line. If your work environment has an extreme amount of floor punishment (high ton forklift, abrasive wheels, skid traffic etc.) we do have LiquaTile varieties with even higher concentrations of ceramic content - just ask.
Is this overkill for a home garage? Could be. But flaking and lifting can happen even with nothing but foot traffic, or even with no traffic at all. But ultimately just like buying a car or a pair of shoes you need to weigh all factors - cost, your time, the effort required, and decide on a solution that works for you.
Finally there's an ingredient that's not listed on the MSDS or discussed in the Product Data Sheet - Customer Service. Hopefully everything goes well and you won't need to call customer service, but if you do need to call, it's good to know someone's there to help.
