Polyaspartic Garage Floor Is Better Than Epoxy Is Just Not True

Polyaspartic garage floors are better than epoxy, polyurea, or anything else are simply FALSE statements made by people or companies with little or only basic garage floor knowledge.  Statements like this are made in advertising to get attention, but really only have their best interests in mind, and not that of the homeowner.  Epoxy, Polyaspartic, and Polyurea can be fine products and certainly have their uses in residential garage floors. 

Such broad and basic statements are not fully factual and are normally shouted by marketing departments or to gain the consumers attention.  Statements like this are not made be anyone with a technical understanding of these products, and not one of these single three product types will produce an excellent garage floor system for your home.

POLYASPARTIC GARAGE FLOOR IS BEST-is a FALSE statement

POLYUREA IS BEST FOR GARAGE FLOORS-is a FALSE statement

EPOXY IS BEST FOR GARAGE FLOORS-is FALSE statement

Don’t Just Epoxy Your Garage Floor-Is a TRUE statement

Polyaspartic Garage Floor Myth-3 Quality Products For Garage Floor Systems

Epoxy is the oldest of these three types of products, but certainly still holds a valuable space in a high quality garage floor system.  First, you must understand that there are thousands of formulations of epoxy.  The best concrete primers are water-based epoxies.  These are installed to create a moisture/vapor barrier, so epoxy will not separate from the concrete substrate surfaces if water penetrates the slab.  Failures to install a moisture barrier can cause catastrophic failures of epoxy.  Moisture may not be a large issue in garages, but it can be in some situations.  If no primer is installed, it is recommended that moisture testing be done and a satisfactory product be installed for conditions that are present.

epoxy flooring installation
Water based epoxy primer installed

Polyaspartic is likely the best of the 3 product types for the topcoat of a high quality garage floor system.  This topcoat is your seal and the wear coat of your garage floor system.  Polyaspartic is typically 3-5 the hardness of most epoxies.  It is far more chemical resistant as well as being UV stable (won’t amber or yellow) in the sun.  These are the 3 primary advantages of polyaspartic in your garage floor.  It is however, difficult to install due to its fast curing time, and difficult for even knowledgeable and practiced installers to install in some weather conditions.  Due to these fast curing characteristics, polyaspartic is not a good choice as it lacks time and properties to adhere to concrete well.  It lacks time to penetrate the concrete substrate as it begins curing so quickly.  Polyaspartic is not a product that a do-it-yourselfer should ever try to install due to its rapid cure times.

Polyurea has its place as it is another fast curing product that has many of the same advantages and disadvantages of polyaspartic.  Polyurea’s primary advantage is that it can be installed at lower temperatures than epoxy.  Like polyaspartic it cures quickly and lacks penetration time into concrete.  Another disadvantage is it strong odor that tends to remain in the garage with most formulations for weeks and more in some cases.  It does bond well with rough concrete surfaces or in deep areas with lots of surface area.  Tire bleed (black spots) will not occur from tires sitting on your floor, and it can occur with some polyaspartic blends.  Polyurea can be an excellent topcoat for durability, chemical resistance, UV stability, and tire bleed factors in a high quality garage floor system.  Don’t just take my word-look here to see more about poly garage floor failures on the Concrete Network.

Polyaspartic Garage Floor Reality

Now with this basic understandings of the three products that are currently installed in garage floor systems for residential use.  You can see that not one of the statements made is fully true for the garage floor that most would like to have in their home.  You don’t want an epoxy floor that will scratch and yellow on you in the next few years.  You don’t want a polyaspartic or polyurea floor that peels up when it gets a little moisture or you concrete shifts a little and cracks, due to low adhesion and very little flexibility.

polyaspartic garage floor
polyaspartic garage floor

There is NO silver bullet in the garage floor world!  Epoxy has long been the standard in the garage flooring industry, but it does lack certain characteristics that Polyurea and Polyaspartic exceed epoxy.  What if there was a garage floor system that incorporated the use of all 3 products?  Using all 3 products and their strengths for the best garage floor system.  Well, there is and it’s AMAZING!  Amazing Garage Floors® has been doing this and installing this garage floor system in 2009.  We actually started installing floors in 2007 and made all the polyaspartic/polyurea problems in our first 2 years.

Portion of Garage Floor SystemEPOXYPOLYUREAPOLYASPARTICWINNERAMAZING GARAGE FLOORS SYSTEM
Adhesion-with proper prepExcellent / OutstandingCAN PEELCAN PEELEPOXYYES
Low Odor-base coatYESNO NOEPOXYYES
Abrasion Resistance-TopcoatNOT RECOMMENDEDYESYESPOLY’sYES
Chemical Resistance-TopcoatNOT RECOMMENDEDOUTSTANDINGOUTSTANDINGPOLY’sYES
Tire BleedCAN STAINNO StainCAN STAINPolyureaYES
UV StableSELDOMYESYESPOLY’sYES
Cure Time-Return to Service-VehicleSLOWFASTFASTPolyaspartic12 Hours
DIY InstallationPossiblenot recommendedNeverEPOXYN/A
Kansas city garage flooring

AMAZING Garage Floors® System is Better than Polyaspartic Garage Floor

The Amazing Garage Floors incorporates all 3 of these product types utilizing all the advantages of these in our garage floor system.  We install a water-based epoxy primer on every installation.  Our epoxy base coat is more flexible over the primer allowing for minor movement in your concrete and elongation superior to other epoxy products.  We then use our very unique polyaspartic/polyurea blend over a full broadcast of flake/chips.  Our system utilizes all 3 not just one 2 of the best products in our garage floor system.

For our Kansas City location visit Amazing Garage Floors-Kansas City

Professional installation polyaspartic coating and concrete coatings