Garage Floor Epoxy: Is it Worth the Investment?

In the current market, homeowners are beginning to upgrade their garages by investing in new garage flooring using epoxy, which enhances durability and aesthetics. These epoxy garage floor enhancements offer significant benefits to traditional concrete floors and provide more colors and features.

Garage floors see a lot of use from constant foot traffic, automobiles, and other mechanical equipment. These surfaces need to withstand this abuse without chipping, cracking, or wearing away. Where concrete floors are susceptible to this kind of degradation, epoxy floor coating offers greater durability and strength to defend against these harsh conditions.

How To Epoxy a Garage Floor

In the past, contractors used epoxy flooring primarily for industrial or commercial properties. However, home builders and remodelers have begun to install this surface in garages due to its positive qualities. They are using epoxy floor coating instead of concrete because it has greater strength, durability, color options, and textures.

Contrary to popular belief, epoxy flooring is not a simple spray-on paint product. Unfortunately, many homeowners believe that applying epoxy floor coating is a simple do-it-yourself project they can complete on a Saturday afternoon. However, nothing can be further from the truth.

Epoxy garage floors require installation from a trained professional to look their best. If you are considering a new epoxy floor, contact local flooring professionals. They have the experience, expertise, and equipment to perform the installation without worrying about potential mistakes.

This experience ensures that your new epoxy garage floor will have the color, texture, and thickness you want.

What Is Epoxy Floor Coating?

Epoxy floor coating is a unique combination of resin and hardener that creates a durable surface. When installing this flooring, it needs to be cured. This is in contrast to the notion that it simply needs to dry, like paint.

As epoxy garage flooring is not paint. It requires a thermosetting process to set correctly and develop its durable structure.

The strength and durability of epoxy flooring are down to the chemical reaction between the main components. Epoxy garage floors consist of a mix of polyamine hardener and epoxy resin that undergo a chemical bonding process to create a flexible yet durable surface. The mixture must cure for the chemical bonds to strengthen and develop structural integrity.

When done curing, this flooring becomes the colorful, durable surface homeowners love.

Why Epoxy Garage Floor Coating?

Epoxy flooring has many attributes that have made it popular with homeowners. These attributes are:

Durability

Homeowners love the durability of epoxy garage floors. Garage floors take excessive abuse from foot traffic, oil leaks, tire tread, and other mechanical leaks. Unlike concrete, epoxy floors can withstand this abuse without chipping, cracking, or staining, which substantially improves traditional garage floors.

Protection

An epoxy floor offers significant protection from oil spills, damage from dropped heavy objects, and exposure to other damaging chemicals like salts and solvents. Further, when spills occur on an epoxy floor, it is much easier to clean than traditional concrete garage floors.

Property Value

While epoxy flooring offers significant advantages in aesthetics, strength, and durability, it also helps improve your home’s value. These reasons are why epoxy flooring has become so popular with homeowners and home remodelers, as these attributes help raise home values.

Safety

Epoxy garage flooring offers a massive improvement in safety over its concrete counterpart. Epoxy floors are fire-resistant, slip-resistant, damage-resistant, and they are extremely easy to clean if spills occur. These attributes ensure that you and your family stay safe when spending time in the garage.

Defects

Laying down an epoxy floor is an excellent method to fix cracks, holes, or other imperfections found on the concrete floor. Epoxy can fill in gaps up to half an inch deep, which makes it ideal for improving the structural integrity of the concrete floor.

Aesthetics

While we have discussed the durable attributes of epoxy flooring, another benefit homeowners love is the color and texture options they have. Unlike traditional concrete floors that are gray and dank, epoxy garage floor projects offer homeowners the opportunity to add life and vitality to their garage floors.

Minimize Dust

Concrete flooring degrades over time, creating a fine dust that can settle on everything in the garage. However, an epoxy garage floor acts as a top sealer and is not susceptible to the same type of degradation. This fact means your garage will be a dust-free space that will not require the same level of cleaning.

Moisture Resistant

Another phenomenal attribute of epoxy floor coating is its ability to withstand high levels of moisture exposure. Concrete exposed to high moisture levels will degrade faster. Epoxy flooring can withstand constant exposure to moisture without degradation.

Further, the epoxy garage flooring is less slick when wet than concrete, making it significantly safer when exposed to water.

How Much Is It to Apply Epoxy Flooring?

Now that you know all of the great benefits of an epoxy garage floor, there is one final question all homeowners want to know. How much does it cost to install a new epoxy garage floor in my home? Well, that question is somewhat tricky to answer.

The cost of this project depends on many factors, including:

• Square footage of the garage space
• The quality of the product used for the project
• Length of floor prep time
• Choosing the color and texture for the floor
• Adding special design features like flakes or speckles
• Professional contractor labor costs
• The number of coats required to finish the job

Due to the many factors involved with the cost of applying an epoxy garage floor, it isn’t easy to provide a specific dollar amount for these projects. However, on average, these projects range from $1,100 to $3,500. This price tag may seem high, but it is crucial to remember that applying an epoxy garage floor increases your home’s value.

So, spending the money on a new garage floor coating is less an expense and more of an investment. For more information on your new epoxy garage floor project, contact the professionals at Smart Concrete Coatings in Mattoon, IL, at (217) 343-5965 today!