You are being MISLED about EPOXY GARAGE FLOORS...

One day garage floor companies are misleading  you about epoxy garage floors and I'm going to   show you how they're wrong. They will always tell  you about how bad epoxy is they say poly is four   times stronger than epoxy that epoxy turns yellow  in sunlight and that hot tires peel it off of the   concrete. These are all the main talking points  for epoxy garage floor companies and I'm going   to go through these point by point so you can  make a decision about which way is better. Okay,   first here's a little background about the  different competing garage floor systems.   When we first started 20 years ago we would  do an epoxy primer with a full broadcast of   flakes. We'll let that cure overnight and then  we come back and clean the flakes. Then we top   coat that with epoxy. The problem with this  system is that the clear epoxy was exposed to   UV light and eventually it would turn in amber  color. It wasn't a big deal for floors that were   brown people hardly ever noticed it actually  but it was really obvious on gray floors. We   would always come back a third day to apply a  urethane top coat and the idea was that urethane   would slow down the ambering process but in the  long run it was still a problem. And then once   professional garage floors grew in popularity, DIY  stores brought out a DIY garage floor system. The   DIY system is the same process as the original  but it's meant for DIYers. The materials are   water-based which means they're cheaper and easier  to use but they're also thin and they don't hold   up for very long. They still have issues with the  top coat turning an amber color but they also have   the added problem of hot tires pulling them off  of the concrete. This issue only really affects   DIY water-based kits. We've never had this happen  on any of our professional floors. These kits can   be good for homeowners that don't mind if the  floor isn't perfect. They're also used to cover   an ugly garage floor when a homeowner is trying  to sell their house. A lot of painters will buy   these kits and attempt to do garages with them but  no legitimate garage flooring business would ever   use this type of material. Hey my name is Tim  with Decorative Concrete of Virginia. If you're   enjoying this video and you want to see more  like it make sure you hit the subscribe button   down below. That brings us to the third system...  the polyaspartic floor. Everyone knew that amber   epoxy was a problem but people were willing  to deal with it because that was all that was   available... but the industry innovated and they  eventually came up with a UV stable polyaspartic   urethane top coat. This is a similar system to  what we did before we're still doing the epoxy   primer... we also swapped out the traditional  epoxy primer for moisture Vapor Barrier epoxy.   Moisture can cause coatings to develop bubbles  over time and the vapor barrier epoxy prevents   that from happening. So we would do the new Vapor  Barrier epoxy and we would broadcast flakes into   it and then we would clean the flakes and top coat  it with a polyaspartic coating. This was great for   three reasons... number one... we no longer have  to worry about moisture vapor coming through the   concrete. Since the epoxy is only used under  the flakes we also don't have to worry about   it turning in amber color anymore. Then, number  three, we only need to use one top coat since   our polyaspartic urethane is UV stable... so this  actually saved us a whole day and an extra trip   to the job site. We've been installing this new  system for about 10 years now we haven't really   had any problems with it... but in the past 3 or  4 years the garage floor industry has exploded   and just like any industry people are always  trying to find an edge on their competition.   Which brings me to the fourth type of garage floor  system, the one day floor system. A one-day garage   floor has the exact same top coat that I mentioned  before which is a polyaspartic top coat. The only   difference is in the primer. One day companies  will use a polyurea or a polyaspartic coating   as a primer because it will dry in a couple of  hours and that allows them to prime and apply the   flakes to a floor before lunch. Then they'll let  that cure for 2 hours and they'll come back after   lunch and put on a top coat. The biggest benefit  to this system is that the entire job can be done   in one day. If you're thinking about starting a  decorative concrete coating business I just want   to let you know that I've created online courses  that will teach you literally everything you need   to know. I've also made a spreadsheet that I'm  giving away that will help you calculate how   much material you might need for a job how much  you're going to spend and how much you can make   on any given project. If you want more information  about that I'll leave it in the first link in the   description down below. Okay I wanted to explain  the four types of systems to you before I explain   how one day floor companies are misleading  you. If you see any of the one day floor ads   for epoxy garage floors you see some variation  of the following complaints. Ads will say that   epoxy turns amber it'll claim that hot tires peel  the epoxy off the floor and their biggest thing   is that they say poly is four times stronger than  epoxy. So the question is... does epoxy amber? The   answer is obviously yes... which is why the entire  professional industry switched over to using a   polyaspartic top coat. Number two... do hot tires  hurt epoxy? Again the answer is yes. Water-based   epoxy DIY kits get destroyed by hot tires but this  was never an issue with professional high solid   systems. This is especially irrelevant because  one day companies and 2 day floor companies are   using the same polyaspartic top coat and hot tires  don't hurt either of them. And the third marketing   pitch is that poly is four times stronger than  epoxy. That's just a confusing statement. Yes it   might be four times more flexible than epoxy, but  why does it matter since the epoxy is completely   buried under flakes and then we're all using  the same polyaspartic top coat? Poly Coatings   are not four times stronger than epoxy when it  comes to holding down moisture vapor though.   Non-vapor barrier coatings only hold down 3 lbs of  pressure but vapor barrier epoxy typically holds   down between 10 and 20 lbs of pressure. We've  been installing garage floors for 20 years now   and in the past 10 years we've been using an  epoxy vapor barrier primer with a polyaspartic   top coat and we haven't had any major failures in  that time. Durability for homeowners is literally   a non-issue. I actually had a one day flooring  installer make a comment on one of my videos the   other day and it's particularly relevant here. In  a moment of candor he admitted exactly what I'm   trying to tell you. "Epoxy is strong doesn't mean  poly isn't stronger does the average homeowner   need that? not necessarily... but it's still  sells." And that's my point here is that it's   all one big sales pitch to scare you away from  competitors. The fact of the matter is that there   are a lot of different coatings for a bunch of  different circumstances if you're in a hurry and   you do a vapor test and you know moisture is not  an issue then a one- day floor might be a good   option. We actually offer one- day floors for very  specific scenarios. Fast cure primers aren't some   unique products that are only available to a few  people. The problem is that even with testing you   can't know for sure that moisture is not an  issue because the amount of moisture passing   through the concrete can change over time. I'm  not telling you that because it's my opinion... If   you read the instructions for most of these floor  primers it will usually tell you the same thing,   which is that a slab on grade requires a moisture  barrier. There's a reason they required that. It's   important for you to know this... if you take a  moisture test of your concrete... just because it   measures low now doesn't mean it won't measure  higher tomorrow or next month or next year and   when it does rise you're going to have issues like  this. Eventually fast cure primers will catch up   and someone will come out with a coating that can  hold down moisture... but until then unless you're   just in a hurry and you can't wait one extra  today I don't really see much of an advantage to   switching to polyurea primers. If you're thinking  about doing a garage floor and you picked out a   one-day garage floor company and you're thinking  about using them I'm not telling you not to use   them. It is admittedly a rare case to have a  moisture issue on a garage floor so if you found   a contractor that you that you trust and they have  a proven track record of doing a good job then by   all means you should use them. I'm just saying for  me personally I do not think that the benefits of   doing a one-day floor system outweigh the risks  that come along with it and the only reason I made   this video was to address all the marketing that  demonizes the entire epoxy industry, If you want   to learn more about epoxy garage floor coatings  I made a playlist right here. This is going to   cover the difference between DIY and pro kits it  also is going to show you the difference between   one and two day floors so be sure to check that  out. Thanks for watching, I'll see you next time.

Channel: TimDCVA

Views: 172,383

Keywords: epoxy flooring, epoxy garage floor, garage floor epoxy, garage floor coating, garage floor, garage flooring, diy epoxy floor, how to epoxy a garage floor

Id: Vc0_mkfeYRI

Length: 7min 16sec (436 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 22 2024