Suggestions for DIY Polyurea vs Epoxy etc for an ASAP install

[socaldaniel]

Just got the keys to my first home and looking to coat the garage floor. It's a brand new build and confirmed with the builder the concreate in the garage is uncoated/cured. I'm assuming i should still acid etch, but the main question I have is for a DIY one man show would it be better/easier to use polyurea over epoxy? The garage is 21x20.5 so roughly 431 sq ft. I'm pretty handy and as stated the garage is empty and clean so before i actually start moving in I would like to get this done (before end of November). Any advice on solutions that would work or avoid would be appreciated! The home is in Sonoma County, CA so while I dont have to worry about the silly rules in LA Metro its still California and im sure there are some products I cant use. Anyways thank you all in advance

 

[FJ4FUN]

Just got the keys to my first home and looking to coat the garage floor. It's a brand new build and confirmed with the builder the concreate in the garage is uncoated/cured. I'm assuming i should still acid etch, but the main question I have is for a DIY one man show would it be better/easier to use polyurea over epoxy? The garage is 21x20.5 so roughly 431 sq ft. I'm pretty handy and as stated the garage is empty and clean so before i actually start moving in I would like to get this done (before end of November). Any advice on solutions that would work or avoid would be appreciated! The home is in Sonoma County, CA so while I dont have to worry about the silly rules in LA Metro its still California and im sure there are some products I cant use. Anyways thank you all in advance

At 431sf either the epoxy or polyurea is an easy project for one person. The main differences as far as the actual application is concerned would be return to service and recommended preparation considerations. A single coat of Polyurea can typically we walked on within 6 hrs of application a more reasonable two coat application can be completed in one day (not accounting for any required prep) whereas our quickest return to service high-build epoxy system, the CFLC System, needs a minimum of 2.5 days (again, not accounting for prep) due to longer curing time required between coats. With regards to prep, for our epoxy systems we consider diamond grinding to be the Gold Standard but, for new uncoated concrete a degrease and properly neutralized acid etch will do fine. I think that most polyurea suppliers recommend chemical etch at a minimum.

A big deal is made about the complexity/risk involved with mixing 2K products and, for sure, it is more complicated than applying a single component polyurea or house paint for that matter, but, for anyone who is even marginally "handy" it will NOT be a problem.

 

[Imatk]

It's not a technically hard thing to do a polyurea floor. It's just the grinding and floor prep that's probably the "hardest" part. With a garage that size it should be fairly quick and easy.

 

[FJ4FUN]

It's not a technically hard thing to do a polyurea floor. It's just the grinding and floor prep that's probably the "hardest" part. With a garage that size it should be fairly quick and easy.

Same could be said for a quality epoxy system.

 

[dcg9381]

I've done both. I prefer polyurea and feel that it's "easier" to deal with than epoxy (as Alpha Garage mentoned). Some say it's a better coating, but I've found that either is acceptable. Historically been less expensive as a coating - and may still be, but if you're doing flake (epoxy look) over solid color polyurea - by the time you get a few coats on there it may cost near the same per sqft. I do it as a clear over a water based stained floor... It's slick if wet, so get some anti-skid in there!

 

[FJ4FUN]

Won't get into which is better because that is totally dependent on user's expectations/intended use (and abuse...). For application over stained concrete it's really tough to beat polyurea. If there are concerns with MVT, lots of dings and dents, or other repair issues or, your looking for a very smooth finish such as in a solid color or partial flake floor, quality high build self-leveling epoxies can't be beat.

For ease of use, yes, on large projects I'd give the nod to polyurea but really, just slightly. Return to service, no doubt Polyurea wins here as well.

U.V. performance is another common point made in support of polyureas but even in this instance, advanced "true" cycloaliphatic epoxy chemistries (like Wolverine Coatings'... ) are remarkably U.V. stable. Wolverine has a 2"x2" cube of their optically clear Bondtite 1115 clear epoxy sitting on a south-west exposed window sill in their lab and it is just now starting to show detectable signs of a color shift, 13 years later! (it may be more, I just know that I first saw it in 2010). This is one of the reasons that we don't hesitate, in the slightest, at specifying this as a flood coat for our Chip Floor System or as a body coat in our VCT Solution (which, BTW, does really well over stained concrete).



Finally, when comparing costs a full flake polyurea system is typically just as, or slightly more, expensive than our comparable full flake Chip Floor System but it gets much more expensive when you consider it from a dollar per mil basis. Considering that you'll end up with somewhere in the range of 32-36mils DFT with our 100% solids epoxy system compared to +/- 23mils for a polyurea floor when you adjust for the fact that they are usually only in the 70% solids range which, brings us to VOCs.... but that's another story...

 

[socaldaniel]

I've done both. I prefer polyurea and feel that it's "easier" to deal with than epoxy (as Alpha Garage mentoned). Some say it's a better coating, but I've found that either is acceptable. Historically been less expensive as a coating - and may still be, but if you're doing flake (epoxy look) over solid color polyurea - by the time you get a few coats on there it may cost near the same per sqft. I do it as a clear over a water based stained floor... It's slick if wet, so get some anti-skid in there!

Any particular polyurea brands you can recommend? Im leaning toward solid grey no flake with the antiskid

 

[dcg9381]

Any particular polyurea brands you can recommend?

@FJ4FUN appears to be a supporting vendor and his post above is FAR more informative and has better information on the comparison of products than mine. I'd ask him if they have a polyurea product (I took a look, didn't see one). If not I'm happy to share which supporting vendor that I've used - or DM me.

 

[FJ4FUN]

If you are considering a solid color system then, of course, I'm gonna recommend our CFLC System! You will LOVE it!

But, I get it... buying a home stretches the budgets. We are currently looking at a polyurea product but have a couple of other coatings priorities in front of that. Either the Legacy Nohr-S or SPGX from Armorpoxy will do you fine, just check to make sure that they are available to ship to CA. Also, with the onset of colder weather be very aware of application temperature requirements for any of the polyurea chemistries (it goes for epoxies as well but the downside risk exposure is much higher for polyureas than 100% solids epoxies).

Looking forward to seeing whatever you end up selecting!

 

[Armorpoxy]

Hi, our www.armorcladepoxy kits are ideal for this application. We also now carry a unique primer called No-Prep which eliminates etching or grinding. Easy one person job and we sell tens of thousands of these kits per year with outstanding results and customer support. Email us for GJ discount!