Garage Floor Paints
Get the Low Down on Garage Floor Paints
Most people like to paint their garage floor to make it look neat and clean and give it an appealing look.
The paint coatings on the garage floor may fail due to a number of reasons. Floor is usually not clean enough to receive a coating. It may have years of grime and grease that is not completely cleaned before painting to accept the paint. There can be other reasons too. The paint is not able to withstand the heat of the tires rolling on it particularly in summer. The moisture vapors from the floor can be another cause to peel off the paint film. The moisture badly reacts with alkyd paints forming soap and paint goes off. For this reason, alkyd paints should not be used on garage flooring.
Special purpose garage floor paints have been formulated to overcome the potential problems in the garage floor paints.
When you decide to paint your garage floor, it should be thoroughly cleaned to remove grime and grease using proprietary cleaners and solvents. It is better to clean the floor with pressure and you can rent the equipment. You can also buy some grease-cutting detergent. A steam cleaner can also be used as an alternative to a pressure washer.
If there are heavy water leakages in garage floor, or it has cracked badly, there is no use of painting it with garage floor paint.
The best choice for garage floor paints is using the epoxy systems which have high resistance to wear and can bear extreme conditions. Three types of garage floor epoxy systems commonly used:
Water Based System: These are less costly and not durable as compared to solvent based and solids epoxy paint. However, these are more users friendly.
Solvent based systems: These contain about 50 % solids. Solvent-based systems are more toxic and stronger than water based paints. These are two parts systems to be mixed together. They need more care in applying them.
Solid base epoxy systems: They are high quality epoxy floor paints. They are also the most durable, strongest and most expensive. Solid base garage floor paints are hardest and the most chemical and wear resistant. These paints are the most toxic and must be installed by the professionals only.
Comparison of different garage floor paints:
Single Components System:
The one part epoxy system comes in the ready to apply form and no mixing is needed. The do-it-yourself garage floor paints compare in performance to the two part systems. Moreover, they are durable and resistant to heat of tires, tire marks, oil stains, chemicals and spills. These are also resistant to UV rays but may not seal the moisture. These paints are sensitive to moisture and need to prepare the surface perfectly for a better and lasting adhesion. You may have to do yearly maintenance, if you use these paints.
Breathable System: – Most of the epoxy garage floor paints are resistant to moisture and prevent moisture to escape from the concrete. The paint can easily peel off due to dampness with high moisture emission.
There are breathable quality epoxies that allow the moisture vapor escape to some extent. They need a curing for about a week after application to the floor.
Fast setting systems: Most epoxies require a long time to dry and cure. There are special fast setting epoxy paints that will cure and dry in about 12 hours. The polyaspartic polyurea epoxy coatings come in this category. They are also highly durable.