Decision time Epoxy, Poly, any others?

[Racer023]

I have been trolling for a while on the board. I am getting ready to do my 400sqft 2 car garage here in Michigan. I was about 80% convinced that I wanted to go with a Epoxy-Cote epoxy floor. We just did my father-in-laws 300sqft shop floor 2 weeks ago. Diamond ground, great prep job. Bad part is that the base coat bubbled after we left for the night. I hear we should have stayed to watch the floor and go over it with a leaf blower when it bubbled due to the chemicals off-gassing.

Like I mentioned, I was pretty set on the Epoxy system. Until today when I ran into an installer at the gas station and started to pic his brain about Epoxy, Polyasparitic. His choice was neither! What gives? His opinion is that tile is the only way to go in Michigan.

I think I am getting a case of too much information. There is a ton out here, but one post said that to search all the threads for the answer is pretty difficult.

Plan is to diamond grind the sealer off my floor the either Epoxy or Polyasparitic.

Any recommendations good Poly?
Any epoxy system better and less costly than Epoxy-Cote? Want base flakes and clear coat. Really want a high shine area. Not concerned so much as to parking on the floor. It might happen occasionally, but not going to let the wife used to it. Also have concerns about a floor jack rolling over the floor along with jackstands..

Thanks in advance!
Kris

 

[BRIANBB]

If an installer says tile, that would be good enough for me.

 

[rugerlady]

I wonder how much this "installer" really knew or if he was a real installer. We have installers that have been with us for over 15 years. We have been in Michigan for over 30 years. We have a VERY good success rate.

 

[retfr8flyr]

I have been trolling for a while on the board. I am getting ready to do my 400sqft 2 car garage here in Michigan. I was about 80% convinced that I wanted to go with a Epoxy-Cote epoxy floor. We just did my father-in-laws 300sqft shop floor 2 weeks ago. Diamond ground, great prep job. Bad part is that the base coat bubbled after we left for the night. I hear we should have stayed to watch the floor and go over it with a leaf blower when it bubbled due to the chemicals off-gassing.

Like I mentioned, I was pretty set on the Epoxy system. Until today when I ran into an installer at the gas station and started to pic his brain about Epoxy, Polyasparitic. His choice was neither! What gives? His opinion is that tile is the only way to go in Michigan.

I think I am getting a case of too much information. There is a ton out here, but one post said that to search all the threads for the answer is pretty difficult.

Plan is to diamond grind the sealer off my floor the either Epoxy or Polyasparitic.

Any recommendations good Poly?
Any epoxy system better and less costly than Epoxy-Cote? Want base flakes and clear coat. Really want a high shine area. Not concerned so much as to parking on the floor. It might happen occasionally, but not going to let the wife used to it. Also have concerns about a floor jack rolling over the floor along with jackstands..

Thanks in advance!
Kris

I don't know what the installer was smoking but he was in La La land. There hundreds of epoxy floors doing just fine in Michigan. I don't think you will find any quality product less than the Epoxy-Coat system, as they don't advocate a primer coat, it's less expensive. There are many products better then their system but they all will cost you more.

You will need a poly urethane or Polyasparitic clear coat to really be durable to jack stands and floor jacks. A good epoxy system, self installed, will be about the same price as self installed tiles, if you get them at a good price. If you can't find tiles at a really good price then it will be more expensive than a good epoxy setup. I just finished my garage floor with the Wolverine Epoxy system from Alpha Garage and couldn't be happier with the results.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Tile is a choice. Many here will endorse it.

However a good primer coat might have kept those bubbles from occurring.
You shouldn't have to stand watch over a coating for bubbles.

 

[KPSquared]

Tile. Start reading. It's damn near bulletproof. I've yet to read any "tile failure" threads on here but there are COUNTLESS epoxy failure and disappointment threads.e

Tile will become the new standard in garage floors. . . it's just a matter of time.

The salesmen will tell you different but that's because they don't sell tiles. . .

Plastic or harder than concrete. . .seems like a no brainer to me.

 

[bdamico]

Meh. Start reading.

 

[Shea]

If you do some research you will find that very few 100% epoxy, polyaspartic, polyurethane, or porcelain tile floors fail due to bad product. It almost always is the result of either loor or how it was installed/applied. I know of many tile floor failures due to poor installation practices and had nothing to do with the brand of tile. All you have to do is read a bit of the John Bridge forums to see all the problems people are having. It's almost always installation errors.

As Scotty from Legacy said, a primer coat usually keeps those bubbles from appearing. Even if they do, the primer coat is the sacrificial coat that the base coat covers. If your floor prep was good, it may have been environmental issues that caused the bubbles (humidity and temperature changes as an example - always good to check the weather before applying epoxy). Either way, any of the the above mention floor choices are quality systems when installed properly.

Any epoxy system better and less costly than Epoxy-Cote? Want base flakes and clear coat. Really want a high shine area. Not concerned so much as to parking on the floor. It might happen occasionally, but not going to let the wife used to it. Also have concerns about a floor jack rolling over the floor along with jackstands..

I don't know if you are going to get better than that for less money. You wanted a good floor, right? If you put down a primer first and use a polyurethane as your top coat, you can't get much better for the money. I believe that Epoxy Coat sells polyurethane as well, but I'm not positive. With that kind of floor, rolling floor jacks, jack stands, and creepers are not an issue.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Tile. Start reading. It's damn near bulletproof. I've yet to read any "tile failure" threads on here but there are COUNTLESS epoxy failure and disappointment threads.e

Tile will become the new standard in garage floors. . . it's just a matter of time.

The salesmen will tell you different but that's because they don't sell tiles. . .

Plastic or harder than concrete. . .seems like a no brainer to me.

Kp, for the record, I love porcelain tile. My house is 80 percent porcelain tile.
I just love epoxy more, in the garage anyway.

 

[KPSquared]

Dammit...I almost added an "except scotty" in my post. Apparently I should have!

 

[thegarageguy]

Tile will become the new standard in garage floors. . . it's just a matter of time.

HAHAHAHA

 

[Racer023]

Thanks for the good information guys, I have started looking at roll-on-rock an epoxy base and a poly clear.