Urethane/ Poly Urea and Chip Size

[OldNeons]

Looking to do my second epoxy shop floor in the next week. Did first one with grind, prime, colored epoxy base, light chip, and epoxy clear (rust oleum industrial products). Turned out pretty good for my first time - but not as durable as I hoped. This time looking at grind, prime, urethane color, full chip, urethane clear topcoat.

Wondering if you anyone can explain difference between urethane and poly urea please?

Also, do you recommend 1/16, 1/8, or 1/4" chip for full chip - and why? If it's just which look I like or if chip size will affect durability or other factors.
thanks for any input!!

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Short version:Urethane has a long pot life and is much easier to navigate for a DIY .
Choose whatever chip size you like. 1/4" is by far the most popular and a little easier to use, according to our installers.

 

[thegarageguy]

Cchip size has no performance value, it's an aesthetic choice for the client to decide. A good diamond grind, a well cleaned slab of dust and oils, a good penetrating primer, a poured and self leveled epoxy with full broadcast and finally a good high solids polyaspartic sealer would ensure maximum durability and performance in your garage for years.

Polyurethanes need an epoxy primer to bond to and has to go paper thin for it to perform properly. Polyureas - Polyaspartics generally do not need to be primed with epoxy, can go on much thicker like epoxies and cure much, much faster and are typically 2 to 3 times more expensive than epoxies.

 

[OldNeons]

thanks for input, so the poly urea and poly aspartic are very similar and both have short pot life? The utherane has a longer pot life and is easier to work with - but still better/stronger than regular epoxy topcoat? No issues using epoxy basecoat and urethane top coat?
thanks

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

OldNeons:

Urethane, as GarageGuy mentioned, is to be used a topcoat to an epoxy system, not stand-alone.

Epoxy Primer, Epoxy Base Coat(broadcast chips), Urethane Topcoat (2x for full chip).

We install this system everyday and it works and looks awesome.

 

[OldNeons]

thanks Legacy - that is what we were planning - grind, prime, epoxy basecoat, full broadcast chip, urethane clearcoat. Are you suggesting that we do 2 coats of urethane topcoat? Any other suggestions. thanks!

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

If you go polyaspartic or polyurea you can do in one shot. That is one reason an installer will do it that way, one less day on the job.

Urethane is very thin, so you may want to do two coats.
The full broadcast/chip creates a lot of nooks and crannies, so the double shot may pay off for you, IMO.