by wz507 » Thu May 23, 2019 11:19 pm
2-part epoxy floor coatings have been the workhorse of the industry for many decades. That said, more recently 2-part polyurea floor coatings have made a significant entry into the marketplace, as these materials are known for their toughness and tenacious adhesion to clean concrete surfaces. Polyurea coatings are often top-coated with an aspartic ester coating (another polyurea coating variant), especially when a colorless clear coat is applied over color flake.
The most important part of a successful application of any floor coating on concrete is the preparation of the concrete surface. The concrete surface needs to be free of all contamination – oil, grease, glycol, wax-based sealers, salt, stains, excess moisture, concrete scale, etc. Removal of contaminants is accomplished via abrasion - typically rotary grinder or shot peening. The floor is then cleaned/vacuumed to remove any debris remaining after the cleaning process. This is an absolutely filthy job (you should wear a respirator or at a minimum a damn good dust mask) and everything in the garage will be likewise filthy, so be sure to remove as much from the garage as you possibly can before undertaking this activity. I have seen floors cleaned with rotary grinders that made a huge mess, i.e., dust cloud that looked like a white-out snow storm, and operators that likewise were snow men, and I have seen floors shot-peened with a device employing full time vacuuming, which resulted in a dramatically cleaner process where the operators didn't even wear respiratory protection. Either way be ready for a serious mess.
The above couple paragraphs provide a general introduction to the subject. You can Google some of the key words and read ad nauseum more than you’d ever want to know about all the chemistry along with conflicting pros and cons offered by the myriad vendors of the various coatings. There are many small compounders/formulators out there that tweak each chemistry, thus it is nearly impossible to compare the products of vendor A to vendor B to vendor C etc. Good luck and let us know what you find out.
I personally have polyurea/aspartic ester floor coating with color flake in it that is about 7 years old and holding up fine(concrete was cleaned by shot-peening). I also have friends that have beautiful color flake floors that were prepared via rotary grinding that are likewise holding up well. In all cases oil spills simply wipe up cleanly with no penetration whatsoever.