If you decide to redesign your garage floors, you are now probably stuck choosing between paint or epoxy. Which is the right choice? The paint is practical. However, it is not as durable as Epoxy Floor Coatings. The clear choice for durable and high functional spaces is garage floor epoxy.
An epoxy floor coating includes these benefits:
- Easy to clean
- Creates protective surface
- Water-resistant
- Stain-resistant
- Damage-resistant
- Ideal for high traffic areas
- The best flooring for forklift areas and industrial floors
Paint or Epoxy: The Definition
First, get answers to all your essential epoxy or paint concerns. You do not need to dial 411. All these are defined for you here.
Epoxy. Epoxy is a super adhesive material used often among constructions. It puts two dense surfaces together and allows them to bond for a lifetime. With epoxy, your materials will be like conjoined twins that you can never separate, or else one part will suffer.
The durable feature of epoxy is all thanks to its two major components. These are the resin and hardeners. Resin is a synthetic plastic material. It begins in a liquid state then becomes solid. When the hardener mixes on it, the materials become even more durable.
Paint. PAintmaterials for covering and coloring various types of surfaces usually contain acrylic latex. This compound is a water base material. It is suitable for coating metal surfaces or other types of slabs to prevent corrosion or oxidation.
Since it is washable by water, it requires multiple coatings over the years.
The Comparison: Which is Good for the Garage
Garage Epoxy Floor. Epoxy floor coatings are excellent material to coat the garage floors. When you think of the garage, the first thing that you picture is greasy and messy floors. Oil stuck on the tiles or chemicals burning the concrete flooring.
Epoxy makes the garage floors resistant to stain. First, the floor coating adheres to the concrete surface creating one solid unit. Then the surface appears glossy, seamless, and smooth.
When the garage floors acquire dents from heavy tools, you can use a self-leveling epoxy to coat the entire surface in no time. Then the next awesome thing that happens is the slurry-like substance crawls into hard-to-reach spaces and gaps. The result is uneven, polished flooring.
Garage Paint. The two common types of paint – latex and acrylic are suitable materials. Latex acrylic becomes elastic. They can cover hard surfaces. With the latex acrylic combo, the floor coating that uses paint will also stand against heat.
Below is a list of factors you should consider when choosing the materials to coat the garage flooring.
- Garage area size
- Required number of days for curing
- Design requirement
- Maintenance requirement
The Concrete Verdict: Epoxy Garage Floor
Here is your honest and straightforward verdict answering, “should I paint or epoxy my garage floor.”
Design. Epoxy floor coatings offer custom designs and innovative color combinations. You can have different variants, too, such as flake, chipped, and metallic. These offer you more options to provide stale and care for the garage floor.
The paint is easy to use. You can have more creative control using paint, unlike epoxy that requires the help of an expert flooring contractor in Orange County to make sure the coating finishes seamlessly.
Paint will, however, wear out fast with constant exposure to damaging factors.
Curing. Epoxy is known as the fast-install or one-day flooring. No matter how thick the epoxy film is, the materials become a solid surface once it touches a concrete spot. It is also true that you can walk over the epoxy in just a day after pouring it.
Latex acrylic paints are ideal for a more massive garage, especially if you need one quick to dry. A 2 car to 3 car garage size will dry the paint even faster. However, the challenge with paint as thin as the layers is that you need around three days or more to dry the paint coating thoroughly.
Why should you epoxy the garage floor?
Epoxy is the best choice for the garage. Paint is functional. You can opt to use it for temporary coating. But, if you are looking for the most scratch-resistant floors. It is an investment that is worth every penny. Nothing goes to waste. Once you install it, you will not require recoating.
