Durability of Polyaspartic Floors

[pj629]

I'm thinking of having a polyaspartic coating installed for my garage floor (20x30ft). For anybody with these floors - what are your thoughts on their durability? Do they stand up well to scratching (say, heavy boxes dragged around with grit on the floor), impact (dropped tools), and weight/indents (heavy wheeled cabinets or car jacks)? Or, do you find that you need to treat them gently to avoid damage?

One thing that's nice about my current bare concrete floor is I don't really care about dropping or dragging things on it.

Also - rainy/snowy climate here, so there is often lots of water on the ground from the car. How slippery do these floors get when wet? I was thinking of getting a flake pattern which I understand helps to add traction?

Any other pros/cons, or regrets with polyaspartic garage floors?

 

[acr89]

Interested in peoples comments as well, I’m debating this floor covering versus tiles.

 

[Tradeguy]

I've put a deposit down on a floor with this coating, should be done in March sometime....the floors I've seen firsthand that were several years old still looked like new. My installer has a lifetime guarantee with no questions asked. We'll see, I guess.

 

[Shea]

I'm thinking of having a polyaspartic coating installed for my garage floor (20x30ft). For anybody with these floors - what are your thoughts on their durability? Do they stand up well to scratching (say, heavy boxes dragged around with grit on the floor), impact (dropped tools), and weight/indents (heavy wheeled cabinets or car jacks)? Or, do you find that you need to treat them gently to avoid damage?

One thing that's nice about my current bare concrete floor is I don't really care about dropping or dragging things on it.

Also - rainy/snowy climate here, so there is often lots of water on the ground from the car. How slippery do these floors get when wet? I was thinking of getting a flake pattern which I understand helps to add traction?

Any other pros/cons, or regrets with polyaspartic garage floors?

Polyaspartic wears extremely well. It's highly abrasion resistant, chemical resistant, and is U.V. stable (won't yellow tint). It's a great clear coat or top coat option as well.

Keep in mind that any coating can't be treated as if it was bare concrete. If you drag something sharp enough or gritty enough (weighted boxes) across the surface you are going to incur some scratching. You cannot indent the coating unless it was hundreds of pounds applied to an extremely small surface area - less than half the area of pencil eraser for example. Heavy rolling tool boxes and etc. will be more than fine.

Polyaspartic is arguably the glossiest of finishes, so it will also be the slipperiest as well. I would highly recommend having anti-slip media applied with the final coat due to the climate you live in.

There are a couple of things to be aware of with polyaspartic systems. First is the fast cure rate. Polyaspartic systems are offered because they allow for a one day turn around. This reduces labor costs and increases profit for the installer. It also makes customers happy to only be without the garage for a day.

Concerns by some in the industry (installers and coating companies) that have been raised with this type of system is that polyaspartic applied direct to bare concrete does not have enough time to properly penetrate into the substrate to get the best adhesion due to the fast cure rate. This is why proper prep via grinding is so important. It's also not as moisture tolerant.

These same people have claimed a higher call back rate for adhesion problems and eventually decided to use epoxy instead as the base color coat or apply an epoxy primer first before the polyaspartic color coat. It's not a highly reported problem, but it does happen. Most people are genuinely happy with the performance.

This article here is an example of this concern: https://www.concretenetwork.com/polyaspartic-floor-coatings/comparison.html

The other thing to be aware of is that most polyaspartic systems are considered thin compared to an epoxy coating system. Again, not as much of an issue for a standard garage, but could be an issue for a highly busy one with lots of projects going on.

This article here gives an explanation of polyaspartic systems and lists the pros and cons. https://allgaragefloors.com/polyurea-polyaspartic-coatings/

 

[Andy Smith Jr.]

Polyaspartic wears extremely well. It's highly abrasion resistant, chemical resistant, and is U.V. stable (won't yellow tint). It's a great clear coat or top coat option as well.

Keep in mind that any coating can't be treated as if it was bare concrete. If you drag something sharp enough or gritty enough (weighted boxes) across the surface you are going to incur some scratching. You cannot indent the coating unless it was hundreds of pounds applied to an extremely small surface area - less than half the area of pencil eraser for example. Heavy rolling tool boxes and etc. will be more than fine.

Polyaspartic is arguably the glossiest of finishes, so it will also be the slipperiest as well. I would highly recommend having anti-slip media applied with the final coat due to the climate you live in.

There are a couple of things to be aware of with polyaspartic systems. First is the fast cure rate. Polyaspartic systems are offered because they allow for a one day turn around. This reduces labor costs and increases profit for the installer. It also makes customers happy to only be without the garage for a day.

Concerns by some in the industry (installers and coating companies) that have been raised with this type of system is that polyaspartic applied direct to bare concrete does not have enough time to properly penetrate into the substrate to get the best adhesion due to the fast cure rate. This is why proper prep via grinding is so important. It's also not as moisture tolerant.

These same people have claimed a higher call back rate for adhesion problems and eventually decided to use epoxy instead as the base color coat or apply an epoxy primer first before the polyaspartic color coat. It's not a highly reported problem, but it does happen. Most people are genuinely happy with the performance.

This article here is an example of this concern: https://www.concretenetwork.com/polyaspartic-floor-coatings/comparison.html

The other thing to be aware of is that most polyaspartic systems are considered thin compared to an epoxy coating system. Again, not as much of an issue for a standard garage, but could be an issue for a highly busy one with lots of projects going on.

This article here gives an explanation of polyaspartic systems and lists the pros and cons. https://allgaragefloors.com/polyurea-polyaspartic-coatings/

Great info Shea!

 

[pj629]

Thank you for the detailed reply - really appreciated!

 

[Armorpoxy]

Another comment (since we sell both Polyaspartics and Epoxies) is that generally speaking a polyaspartic floor is not as thick in mil thickness than a 100% solids epoxy on a primed floor. Polyaspartic can't be laid down as thick and has higher coverage rates/gallon. This can lead to not as great chip resistance.