Garage Floor Coating in Just a Day

We all love the look of a brand-new garage floor — especially when it’s been coated to give it a shiny, granite-like look. But there are so many different options out there. So, what’s the best way to get that dream garage?

One option is simply to cover it in floor paint, but that won’t give you the look of beautifully polished stone. Plus, paints tend to peel fairly quickly, necessitating a re-do every year or so. And nobody wants to haul everything out of the garage, store it in the house and put it back every year.

So that leaves us with several other heavier-duty options, including epoxy, polyurethane and polyaspartic coatings.

Epoxies are chemical-resistant, but they’re less resistant to abrasion and can yellow with time as they’re exposed to UV rays. Epoxy coatings also take two days or more to fully cure — something to keep in mind if you’re making plans for the weekend.

Polyurethane coatings are more abrasion-resistant than epoxies and are UV-stable too, but they can take even longer than epoxy to cure — sometimes up to a whole week. Which isn’t great if you’ve pulled everything out of your garage and have it sitting around the house in piles.

That leaves polyaspartic coatings. This technology has been around for several decades and was initially used in industrial applications. That means it’s extremely hard-wearing, which is great for a garage floor. Like polyurethane coatings, polyaspartics are also 100 percent UV-resistant and extremely chemical- and abrasion-resistant.

But here’s the best part: unlike polyurethane coatings, polyaspartics can be installed in just a day and cure in less than 24 hours. That means you get full use of your garage much sooner than you would with other coatings, plus you get the highest level of chemical- and abrasion-resistance. It really is a win-win.

So, what’s the catch? (There’s always a catch, isn’t there?) Well, polyaspartic coatings really require expert professional installation if they are to look great and last for years. One reason for this is, to achieve a long-lasting bond with the garage’s concrete slab, its surface must be adequately prepared. This not only requires an experienced installation crew but also expensive industrial tools that simply aren’t available to the average homeowner.

The bottom line is, you can get a brand-new garage floor in just a day with a polyaspartic floor coating. But if you want professional results, you really need to hire a professional team to install it.