Epoxy floors can withstand heavy machinery and forklift traffic, making them an excellent choice for areas requiring durable flooring. Furthermore, these surfaces are easy to maintain and highly customizable – an added benefit!
One drawback of epoxy flooring is its long curing time and risk of pinholes caused by air bubbles in its coating.
Easy to Install
Making your garage floor look its best takes some practice, starting with cleaning off any oils or dirt on the concrete surface. Prepping is key to ensure epoxy forms strong chemical bonds with concrete; otherwise, coating may delaminate and become unsightly over time.
Clean the floor thoroughly to remove dust particles, then vacuum the surface using an industrial strength vacuum to pick up any dust or debris that could cause bubbles or other flaws in the finished product.
When applying vinyl color flakes, begin as soon as you finish back rolling the last batch of epoxy. Mix small quantities at a time so that each batch can be backrolled within its work window.
Versatile
Epoxy floors come in various designs that can be customized to suit individual needs, including metallic designs which add a splash of color to any space, and flake flooring which utilizes colored vinyl flakes mixed into wet epoxy to achieve desired looks.
Quartz-filled epoxy flooring can also be a fantastic choice for high traffic areas, providing an array of epoxy colors that make finding a match for any space easy.
For a rougher finish, an orange peel epoxy coating may be an ideal choice; commonly found in high traffic areas and industrial facilities. Furthermore, this type of resin also serves to smoothen existing concrete surfaces.
Durable
Epoxy flooring is highly resilient and water-resistant, making it the ideal choice for commercial and industrial spaces. It can withstand heavy traffic, impacts and chemical spills – and features non-porous surfaces which make them watertight – making it perfect for areas subject to flooding or spillages.
However, the durability of epoxy depends on how it’s being used – more traffic and heavier machinery equal faster wear down.
Before applying a coating, it is also vital that the substrate be appropriately prepared. Poor or incomplete substrate preparation is the leading cause of coating failure – like installing expensive windows into a house that lacks adequate foundation support, it will fail and should therefore always be handled by professionals.
Low Maintenance
Epoxy flooring solutions, unlike others that can be damaged by liquids or chemicals, is impervious to damage from spillage or flooding – an advantage in areas that regularly experience such conditions. This makes epoxy an excellent option for areas prone to this kind of activity.
Proper maintenance routines will extend the lifespan of an epoxy floor for years. This involves routine cleaning, timely spill removal and protective measures.
As it can cause deep scratches and gouges to your floor coating, it is also crucial that heavy equipment, furniture and pallets do not drag across it when moving them – this should be avoided at all costs! When moving these items it would be wiser to use a mat or plywood as protection from them damaging it further. Regular inspections help identify potential problems early, enabling timely intervention as well as uncovering underlying causes causing harm to an epoxy coating system.
Easy to Clean
Epoxy flooring is easy to maintain even under heavy foot traffic conditions, with regular sweeping and mopping routinely being all that’s necessary. Furniture should also be removed to facilitate thorough cleaning; soap-based cleaners must be diluted with water as they may degloss the epoxy surface over time if used directly; Simple Green or diluted ammonia may also work effectively when cleaning epoxy surfaces.
Chemical spills do not affect epoxy flooring directly, however it is wise to clean up these substances as soon as they fall, since certain substances may erode and damage concrete if left for too long.