This Forum makes me more confused

[billyjk7]

I am building a new house and will be having a 1300 sq ft garage. I know that I want to either do epoxy or polyaspartic. I do NOT plan on doing it myself. I plan on living there a long time and have done epoxy floors myself. Now i want a warranty and to see somebody else do it. The more i search, the more i get confused. I like the lower cost of the epoxy but the warranty isnt as good as the polyaspartic but it is more expensive. How do I decide. What is important to me is that the floor looks nice and glossy and easy to keep looking like a new car showroom. I do some work in my garage but nothing super heavy. I like to detail my stuff more than anything in there. Help Help Help....which way to go? Is the thickness and durability/adhesion/ability to stretch that mych more important with the polysapartic to justify the cost?

 

[Jeff Ivers]

How you poor the slab for the garage is critical to the success of any floor coating. Unless you are in an arid climate, you probably need a vapor barrior under the slab. I epoxied my garage floor and then we had an extrememly wet year and the coating started peeling. I now have Race Deck.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Best of both worlds.
Epoxy base system with a polyaspartic clear topcoat!!

 

[Falcon67]

I'd ask experts in your area. I used some no-name "Lowes" two part gray epoxy on my last floor. No vapor barrier under the slab. No top coat or flakes. I etched and dryed the floor and applied the paint about 45 days after the pour and stretched 400 sq/ft of coverage to 480. I used a regular short nap roller. That was in 1997 and when we moved at the end of 2010 you could still spray it with carb cleaner and it would just shine it up pretty like floor wax. Yes it was discolored by car paint overspray and had rubber from slicks that needed to be scraped off, but it never peeled. That's all I want from the next floor - one coat, gray, stick and stay.

 

[thegarageguy]

Hey Billyjk7,

Don't concern yourself so much with the products but with the installer you choose. Check references. See work that is more than a few years old. Most honest contractors have the same warranty regardless if they use epoxy-poly or all polyaspartic. Any contractor who doesn't is shady in my opinion.

Google "epoxy flooring (city & state you live in)" and you'll get results. Call them, get free estimates and make an informed decision. Good luck!

 

[billyjk7]

This is all good info. Since the house is still 6 mos from completion, I have plenty of time to research the installers and check up on their work. Since I know that I am going to be coating it, should I insist on a vapor barrier? Is there any special "finish" on the concrete and seams that I should tell the contractor that I want?

 

[csp]

The need for a vapor barrier depends on your soil and moisture conditions.

Vitrually nobody uses a vapor barrier around here because of our dry climate.

 

[AlphaGarage]

If your environment requires you to have a vapor barrier do insist one one. Having done a few spec homes it's my experience that you really need to monitor that work, almost every time we've contracted a VB, the install was sub-standard and had to be fixed, not a lot of additional work, but critical work. Maybe we were just unlucky, but they tried to go ahead with tears, poorly taped seams, holes etc. So I suggest you go over the work with a fine tooth comb before you sign off and allow the pour.

As far as the coating - go with a reputable contractor who guarantees the work. Do check their references and get in writing the exact materials they'll be using and final dry depth of coatings etc. Sad to say it's not unheard of for contractors to say they'll install product ***, but then apply product ZZZ. Happens more often than it should, even on large jobs.

Reminds me of a school district in California that had a contractor come in and install a fire sprinkler system. A few years later they went to replace some ceiling tiles and lo and behold... all those nice sprinkler heads weren't attached to any pipes! Talk about form over function.

 

[Cruzin90]

Epoxy: There are LOTS of epoxy products and they are not the same. There are only two resins, bisphenol A and bishenol F, bis-F is superior to bis-A. In addition, there are MANY hardeners that can go with the resins and each hardener can give the epoxy various physical properties. (Generally, a cycloaliphatic hardener is very good). So, you have to shop for the right epoxy product that will suit your needs and budget. Most good epoxy installs include a polyaspartic or other urethane topcoat because they are more durable than epoxy.

Polyaspartic: Fortunately, polyaspartics do not vary as much as epoxy products. All contain aliphatic polyaspartic polyurea. The main difference between products will be whether or not they contain solvents (which evaporate away). A polyaspartic will be superior to most epoxy products.