company news about Epoxy, Polyurea or Polyaspartic: Which is the BEST garage floor coating?

Today I’m going to explain you how we did two epoxy garage floors in two days, and I’m going to explain why we like to use an epoxy primer with a polyaspartic top coat.

The first step is to grind the concrete. Once we get the floor ground and clean, we're ready to apply our epoxy. A lot of garage floors have hairline cracks. So before we paint the floor, we will patch all the shots. First, we always like to use what's called a high-solids epoxy primer. High solids mean that there is little solvent in the epoxy. Most DIY kits you can buy are low-solids and water-based, meaning half of that material evaporates into the air, which is why it's less durable than our high-solids epoxy.

Some other companies like to use a polyaspartic or a polyurea primer. The epoxy sets up a lot slower than a polyurea coating, and that extra time gives the epoxy more time to penetrate the concrete, which creates a much stronger bond and gives us more time to do a good job.

Once we get the floor painted with epoxy, it's time to broadcast the vinyl chips. We always completely cover the bottom and vinyl chips. This is commonly called broadcasting to rejection. Using epoxy on a garage floor is that it's not UV stable. But we can completely cover the epoxy with chips, so it will never have any UV exposure.

The first thing we have to do is clean up the excess chips. We will clean the floor before putting any top coats on. Then we're going to cleave well off, and we're going to put the clear top coat on both of them. We like to use a polyaspartic coating for the clear coat. Polyester coatings are polyurea but generally have a slower set time. This slower set time allows them to penetrate deeper into the surface and the material to self-level a little after we roll it.

Polyaspartic urethanes are great because they don't turn yellow like some clear epoxies. So this is our final coat. In the past, we would always do a three-coat system. We would do epoxy primer with a broadcast of chips, then top coat with clear epoxy, and then try to keep the clear epoxy from turning yellow. We would top-coat it with urethane. So now we're eliminating that clear epoxy. We don't have to worry about it turning yellow. We're going straight to a UV-stable polyaspartic urethane. This shows another reason we don't like using a fast-setting polyurea when using material that sets up in 20 minutes. You only get to roll it once, but since we're using a slower-setting polyaspartic coating, it gives us time to move the floor many times, and the more you can move the layer, the more evenly it's going to be spread across the floor.

Our industry has pushed to use polyurea on every garage floor, and the sales pitch is that contractors can get in and out in one day. But for us, the benefits don't outweigh the downsides.

Feiyang Protech has successfully developed two new types of polyaspartic resin, F524, and D2925. The basic properties of F524 resin are similar to F420 (equivalent to NH1420), but the difference is that when reacting with HDI Trimer curing agent, the gel time is more than 50min. The compatibility with silicone additives is much better than F420, and the film's appearance is greatly improved. F524 and F520 resins are roughly matched in the ratio of 1:1. As a high solid and low viscosity coating; it has the best performance. Its construction activation period is 2-3h, and the drying time is one h, which solves the construction problem of polyaspartic acid ester coating.

D2925 resin is a polymeric macromolecular poly aspartate compound with 60% solids. It has a longer gel time and better flexibility and is suitable for an elastic coating in combination with an elastic curing agent. Good addition can improve the film's physical and mechanical properties and workability.