What products are used to create a chip look on a garage floor?
Where can I find epoxy and chip products for garage floors?
How do you apply an epoxy and/or chip floor for a garage?
Is there a lot of prep work involved in getting the concrete ready to apply an epoxy chip garage floor?
Have you ever asked any of these questions? Well you are not alone. Let's talk for a moment about what an epoxy and chip garage floor coating is.
First and foremost let me say that there are a lot of products out there to choose from. Many are similar. Some are just plain NOT the right products for the job. Here's a good way to distinguish the impostors from the pros.
What is a good epoxy?
The highest quality epoxies are two-component systems: a Part A that is mixed with a Part B just before the floor coating is applied. Why the two parts? That's a question that gets asked a lot. The answer is simple. The Part A component contains all of what you can consider the 'meat and potatoes' of the coating, the color, the solids content (the actual product that is left behind on the floor when the coating dries) the delivery system (solvent or water) and other key components. Think of this as all the stuff that actually makes up your component: the color, the build, the durability, etc.
The problem is that in order for this all to work properly it must be 'catalyzed' or made to react. This is where the Part B comes in. The Part B contains all the components that initial the catalyzation of the end product, in other words, when the two come together they go to work...
...and they usually do this immediately! Why can't the Part A just come with the Part B in it? Because once the two components combine they 'become' the actual product you want to use. Without each other they are useless. The downside (if you can call it that) is that all two-component products have what is called a 'pot life' associated with them. This is the amount of time the blended product remains usable in the bucket. At the end of the pot life the product literally heats up and becomes a solid, useless mass. Getting solid and durable is a very good thing – just make sure this happens on your floor and not in the bucket! Most labels have the pot life clearly indicated. Pot lifes vary from several hours to just 20 minutes.
In short, a catalyzed, two-component epoxy will chemically key in and bind with the concrete surface very very well, which will keep your coating on the floor for a very long time to come. It is very difficult to achieve similar success with a one-component system.
Do I have to use an epoxy primer?
Simply put... yes. While many systems are sold as a one-coat process, industry experts will tell you time and time again that the most successful epoxy chip garage floor coatings start with a reputable primer. Why? The answer is not as difficult to imagine as you may think. We've already stated that epoxies are very very good at 'keying' in and hardening on concrete surfaces. They lock in with the exposed (properly prepped) concrete very very well. But do urethanes achieve the same success?
While urethanes stick very very well to epoxies, they do not stick so well to raw concrete. So why use urethanes in the first place? Isn't the epoxy good enough? Epoxies are great for priming the surface of raw concrete. But a commonly overlooked technical detail comes into play...
...the sun. ALL epoxies will eventually degrade and discolor in the presence of UV light (light from the sun) even in a shaded garage. If you open your garage door at all (and who doesn't) then you will need to seriously consider using some kind of urethane in your system. This is usually the coat that goes down AFTER the floor is primed with epoxy. This is a color coat that decorative chips can then be broadcast into to achieve the desired chip look on your garage floor. As a urethane (yes, another two-component system with a pot life) the exposed color of your garage floor (the spaces in between the chips) can shine through in all its glory, practically impervious to the damaging effect of UV and of chemicals!
Do I have to prepare the concrete surface before I apply an epoxy chip garage floor coating?
Of course, to do this all the right way you will FIRST need to properly prep the concrete surface. How do you achieve this?
Luckily for you we've written this all down in a book, The Book of Decorative Concrete Coatings. This book shows you step-by-step pictures of how to successfully prep a concrete surface to receive a coating. Don't be fooled, you WILL need to prep the floor, and there are different methods of achieving what is known as a 'profile'. If you don't create a good surface profile, all of you hard work (and your money) will be for nothing.
The Book of Decorative Concrete Coatings: Visit the website today to view a sample chapter!
TheCoatingsBook.com