Solid White polyurea (with white flakes?)

[vlocci]

I'm kicking off a new garage build totaling about 1000 sq/ft.

This will be below grade and without windows/skylights, so keeping it bright is important. This is a hobby shop with automotive and woodworking.

I would like to do a while polyurea floor for light reflection, costs and reparability. I'll be doing it myself and have found polyurea easy enough to work with.

Some questions:

-Has anyone done a solid white floor, and if so can you share pictures and your experience re: maintaining it? Is it slippery when wet?

-If traction is a problem, how about white chips in a white floor? Toringal seems to offer solid color white flake. if going this route, I would simply go full broadcast.

-How about quartz? Same as above, Toringal seems to sell it but I have not heard of anyone on here using it

Looking forward to anything you can share.

Vin

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

I'm kicking off a new garage build totaling about 1000 sq/ft.



This will be below grade and without windows/skylights, so keeping it bright is important. This is a hobby shop with automotive and woodworking.



I would like to do a while polyurea floor for light reflection, costs and reparability. I'll be doing it myself and have found polyurea easy enough to work with.



Some questions:



-Has anyone done a solid white floor, and if so can you share pictures and your experience re: maintaining it? Is it slippery when wet?



-If traction is a problem, how about white chips in a white floor? Toringal seems to offer solid color white flake. if going this route, I would simply go full broadcast.



-How about quartz? Same as above, Toringal seems to sell it but I have not heard of anyone on here using it



Looking forward to anything you can share.



Vin

Solid color chip floors generally look terrible imo.

Epoxy makes a better receiver than Polyurea for any type of full broadcast, Polyurea kicks too fast.

Place anti-skid in your last coat.




Sent from my iPhone using Garage Journal

 

[rjacobs]

-If traction is a problem, how about white chips in a white floor? Toringal seems to offer solid color white flake. if going this route, I would simply go full broadcast.

Chips are for decoration, not traction...

As Scotty already said, your traction additive(silica) goes in your top coat(color or clear).

If you want white base, I would do a color flake like a blue/grey/white mix(Legacy system 9) or something else with a little color + grey and white flakes. IMO it will still be plenty bright and you can flake lighter just to get a little contrast.

I personally dont think you would be happy with a solid white floor... just my personal opinion.

 

[vlocci]

That was quick!

Is (white) polyurea without flake or antiskid generally too slippery? I assume two color coats followed by clear.

If so, is this as simple as adding some non-skid sand type coating and skipping the chips entirely. To be blunt, I really don't want a full broadcast floor.

Happy to call if easier as I expect you have answered this 101 times.

 

[rjacobs]

That was quick!

Is (white) polyurea without flake or antiskid generally too slippery? I assume two color coats followed by clear.

If so, is this as simple as adding some non-skid sand type coating and skipping the chips entirely. To be blunt, I really don't want a full broadcast floor.

Happy to call if easier as I expect you have answered this 101 times.

color doesnt matter... I wouldnt do any floor coating without some form of anti skid... unless you plan on NEVER getting it wet.

And just because you have some flake, doesnt mean you have to have a full broadcast floor. You could use half the flake that comes in a partial flake kit and just have a little color to break up the all white.

As far as layers, Scotty can talk to that better. I did their 3 layer floor(primer, polyurea, clear), but mine is colored so not sure how they handle the layers with white. Nohr-S is a fantastic product IMO. Easy to work with.

 

[wags999]

I would think a solid white floor in a shop would be a nightmare. Every drop of oil, every chip will stand out, even from a distance. Adding just a small amount of colored chips would break that stark floor up and hide any imperfections or damage. JMHO

Good luck.. post pics of whatever you decide.

 

[HAULNSS]

The glow in the dark chips are white when the lights are on, and have a nice green glow when the lights are off. I agree that some color is needed to break things up a little.

I added the glow in the dark for fun.

Randy

 

[vavet]

I have a solid white Armorpoxy floor. There are a few spots that are damaged, one is where I dropped a brake rotor from about 5 feet and iirc, I dropped a lawn mower blade about 3 feet at the other. The floor itself is chipped, not just the epoxy,
It’s never going to look like a showroom. I know that and I’m ok with it. I have a gray floor with flake in my attached garage. I can’t find small parts that I drop. With the white floor in my workshop, I can find nuts, washer, rivets, etc that I drop. It might look better with a light gray flake in it, but then I’m back to the issue of being able to find small parts. You just have to evaluate if you will be ok with it always looking dirty.
I added the traction additive in the last coat, basically sand. I don’t have any issues with it being slippery when wet.

 

[vlocci]

Thank you! This is exactly the feedback I hoped for.

Vin

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

 

[Garage Flooring]

Here is another one to have a look at
https://www.garageflooringllc.com/2017/05/15/white-garage-floor-coating-polyurea/

and here is one with flake
https://www.garageflooringllc.com/2019/04/11/justins-polyurea-garage-floor/

(no relation to me)

 

[Armorpoxy]

Why not go with a light gray or off white epoxy floor? It's thicker, easy to repair and an non skid additive can be added to reduce slippage. Our light gray is like a pewter and is very light. White is tough to keep clean.

We don't love the way white one part polyurea covers and hence don't like to recommend it, a better choice would be a coat of our Spartacote 2 part industrial grade polyaspartic in white if you want white. Super durable, easy to work with, non-yellowing and non skid can be added.

We would not recommend a single color either flecks or quartz, it's not a great 'look'.

 

[SPaikmos]

Hi Vin,

Like you, I wanted to keep the garage as bright as possible. I'm finding that as I get older, my eyes need more light.

To answer your questions:

I did a pure white polyurea floor with a clear finish coat. You can read about my experience which has a couple of pics in it.

The color of the polyurea doesn't affect its slipperiness. Whether you do white or black or any other color, the friction will be the same.

I was concerned about the slickness of the floor so I used Legacy's HD grip soft skid. I highly recommend you get this (or any other) skid / grip / etc. The polyurea coating is fine when dry, but it is somewhat slippery when wet. I wear sandals / flipflops in the garage, and when the floor is wet, these tend to slide a little, similar to a wet concrete pool deck. My boots and shoes have been fine, but IMHO the skid should be mandatory. Living in Boston, you're going to be tracking wet snow / slush into the garage (I lived in Cambridge / Somerville for 15 years) so get the skid.

As others have said, flakes aren't for traction. I like the pure white look, but I wanted a little bit of something to break it up so I added silver glitter into the top gloss coat. The glitter I got was small, similar to a fine sand. It looks great when it's hit by sunlight, but you can hardly see it with just the garage lights. If I were to do it again, I would try to find "larger grit" glitter, but dunno if that exists.

One note you should know: The white shows all the dirt and dust that you may not have noticed on a bare concrete floor. The day I did the flooring, it looked pristine and you could eat off of it. The very next day, it rained (Seattle) and my car tracked in some muddy water and we've got brown spots everywhere. It's easy to mop up and clean, but you will notice all the dust and dirt on the white floor. I still like it, but I imagine others might prefer a light grey tint to make it less noticeable.

Also, it's probably getting cold there. Unless your garage is heated, you'll need to pay attention to the directions to make sure you have warm enough weather to apply the coating.

PM me and I can send you more pics.

 

[vlocci]

SPaikmos,

Thanks for the very thoughtful reply.

I'm torn, as I love the look of a white floor (when clean) but I am a total OCD type. I'm not sure I can tolerate the constant cleaning, and am considering a light gray.

the comments on anti-slip were very on point. Thank you for those.

You bring up a very valid point on temp. My project is dragging a bit and I am unlikely to have things ready to go with sufficient outside temps. HVAC will come later as this is part of a bigger house remodel and I want to get the plumber through once and not multiple times.

Sadly, flooring looks like it may get bumper to spring.

I would welcome any pics you can share and will shoot you my contact details in a PM.

Vin

 

[SPaikmos]

SPaikmos,
I'm torn, as I love the look of a white floor (when clean) but I am a total OCD type. I'm not sure I can tolerate the constant cleaning, and am considering a light gray.

I don't have much experience with flooring, but my intuition is that you'll have similar problems with any solid color. The broadcast flakes hide dirt and flaws because it works similar to camouflage.

The light gray may help a little, but I'm guessing if you track in mud / slush you'll still see a lot of dirt. Someone who has a different color could chime in and help.

Regardless, I'm happy with the white. It makes the garage much brighter, and I'm all about function over form.

SPaikmos,
You bring up a very valid point on temp. My project is dragging a bit and I am unlikely to have things ready to go with sufficient outside temps. HVAC will come later as this is part of a bigger house remodel and I want to get the plumber through once and not multiple times.

Sadly, flooring looks like it may get bumper to spring.

It is what it is. My project is a long series of delays, and you must accept them instead of forcing a bad decision, like trying to do flooring outside of the recommended temps. Others can speak to what happens if the material is too cold, but I'd rather be safe than sorry (i.e. re-doing the flooring 6 months later because it's f'd up). IOW, I'd rather not find out the hard way what happens if the temps are cold. You could contact the manufacturer directly and get more details.