FAQ's
Here Are A Few Of Our Commonly Asked Questions…
Enhanced Durability: Concrete coatings provide a protective layer that shields concrete from moisture, salt damage, road chemicals. This can extend the lifespan of your garage floor and prevent spalling and other forms of deterioration.
Improved Appearance: A concrete coating can significantly enhance the aesthetic appeal of your garage floor. You can choose from a wide range of colors, patterns, and textures to achieve the desired look.
Easier Maintenance: Coatings create a smooth and non-porous surface that is easy to clean and maintain. Spills, stains, and dirt can be quickly wiped away without penetrating the concrete. Regular sweeping and occasional mopping are usually sufficient to keep the floor in good condition.
Chemical Resistance: Our concrete coatings have excellent resistance to chemicals, such as oil, gasoline, solvents, and household cleaners. This is particularly beneficial in garages where these substances are commonly encountered. The coating acts as a barrier, preventing the chemicals from seeping into the concrete and causing damage.
Increased Safety: Our garage floor coating can improve the safety of your garage floor by adding a textured or non-slip surface. This can reduce the risk of accidents caused by slipping or falling, especially in areas prone to snow melt and water on the garage floor.
Dust Reduction: Uncoated concrete tends to produce dust, which can be a nuisance in a garage. Coating your garage floor can minimize dusting, creating a cleaner and healthier environment.
The garage floor coating process typically takes two days to complete. This duration allows for proper preparation, application, and curing of the coating to ensure optimal results. We recommend that you follow a one, two, three day rule for return to service eg. first day after installation you can walk on the floor, the second day you can return your garage items into the garage,
and you can drive in your automobiles on the third day.
If you’re shopping for a new epoxy coated garage floor in the Minneapolis area, you’ve found a lot of options. Two things that set us apart from other concrete coating companies in the Twin Cities are:
- Experience – We’ve been installing our garage floor coating system for nearly two decades. We know what works, and have learned from what didn’t (one day garage floors, for example). We’ve navigated the myriad of concrete coating options out there and have built a system that gives our customers the most durable, reliable concrete floor coating available in the Minneapolis, St. Paul area.
- Reputation – We’re known across the Twin Cities for doing quality work. In fact, nearly 20% of our business is either repeat business, or referral-based. The reason for this? Being available. Standing behind our products. If there’s an issue, we take care of it, and we’re fair at all points in time. From our honest, up-front pricing, to our support after installation, you can count on our team to deliver an exceptional experience.
- Quality – If you review our concrete coating installation page you’ll learn about our no-shortcut methodology to concrete floor coatings. Not to be confused with an epoxy floor covering, we’re proving a resinous flooring system that offers the best possible characteristics for your garage floor. Yes, we use epoxy, but our combination of professional concrete surface preparation, our epoxy base coat, 100% broadcast flakes and the best polyaspartic urethane topcoat, makes our floor coating the best, more reliable and most durable garage floors in the Twin Cities.
Yes, our garage floor coatings are known for their excellent resistance to chemicals and spills commonly found in garages. Epoxy coatings create a strong and durable barrier on the concrete surface, offering protection against various substances such as oil, gasoline, solvents, household cleaners, and other chemicals that can potentially damage the floor.
While our garage floor coating provides excellent resistance, it is still recommended to clean up spills promptly to maintain the longevity and appearance of the concrete coating. Regular maintenance, such as sweeping and occasional mopping, will help preserve the protective qualities of the epoxy coating and ensure its effectiveness in safeguarding your garage floor against chemicals and spills.
Regular Sweeping: Use a broom or dust mop to remove loose dirt, debris, and dust from the surface of your coated garage floor. Regular sweeping will help prevent scratches and maintain its appearance.
Gentle Cleaning: For routine cleaning, mild soap or a pH-neutral cleaner mixed with warm water can be used. Avoid harsh or abrasive cleaners that may damage the coating. Apply the cleaning solution to the floor and scrub gently with a soft-bristle brush or mop. Rinse thoroughly with clean water and allow the floor to air dry.
Spill Cleanup: Promptly clean up any spills on your coated garage floor. Wipe them away with a cloth or paper towel to prevent stains or potential damage to the coating. Avoid using acidic or corrosive substances that may harm the coating.
Tire Marks and Stains: Tire marks and stubborn stains can be removed using a specialized garage floor cleaner or a mild degreaser. Follow the product instructions and test in a small, inconspicuous area before applying it to the entire floor. Scrub gently with a brush or mop and rinse thoroughly.
A concrete floor treated with a resinous flooring system can have a significantly extended lifespan compared to untreated concrete. The exact duration of your garage floor coating lifespan can vary depending on several factors, including the type of resin used, the quality of installation, the level of maintenance, and the specific conditions your garage floor is exposed to.
However, with proper installation and maintenance, a well-applied resinous flooring system can typically last anywhere from 10 to 20 years or even longer.
This is why choosing the right garage floor coating company is so important.
Retail epoxy coatings can be suitable for certain small-scale projects or temporary improvements. However, higher-quality standards, and long-lasting performance, requires a professional floor coating company and our resinous flooring system offers a superior solution.
By choosing our resinous flooring system, you’ll benefit from professional-grade materials, customized options, expert concrete floor coating installation, long-term durability, and additional support through our 10-year warranty. The end result for our customers is an exceptional flooring solution that surpasses the capabilities of off-the-shelf epoxy floor coatings typically found at retail stores like Home Depot, Lowe’s or Menards.
Yes, It Is!
Why epoxy is still the best material for your garage floor coating system.
Epoxy is still the best material for your concrete garage floor coating system. I get asked “why epoxy” often by customers looking into a coating system for their garage floor. And, if they don’t get to me first to ask about it, many folks are looking for this answer online. Let me tell you my experienced take on this answer.
Our experience is that the “new” polymer technologies other coating contractors may pitch you on were not developed for the customer. They were developed so that the installer could install more quickly, saving them time…in installation and in “windshield” time. The thinking…if they could accomplish the installation in one day, they could be more price competitive. So, the “new” polymer technologies are unlike epoxy and don’t get our vote. Epoxy, as the best material for your garage floor coating system earns our vote, as it as been developed for the customer, not the contractor.
We tried the low viscosity polys early, like ten years ago. We found that the materials were thin (consistency of water) and did not deliver a floor with the heft that an epoxy floor does. It was the only time that we ever had to remove a coating system and install the products that we now use. We also found that epoxies simply had better adhesion to floors, especially when damp. This is the performance we expect, and you should, too, from a garage floor coating system.
The new technologies usually include substantial solvents (about up to 25%) known as Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s). These VOC’s “flash” off or evaporate and are used to expedite the curing process of the product, thus allowing the installer to get back on the floor for the next step. VOC’s, however, are suspected to be carcinogens and thus are not healthy for the installers or the environment or you!
Our competitors admit that there will be significant odor during their installation process, and for a few days later on their websites. This tells you that their products include VOC’s.
Look in the bucket. The poly “whatever” products have a water like consistency. This is known as viscosity, specifically low viscosity. Our products are high viscosity, comparable to Karo syrup.
The formulators (the companies that create the formula for the product) recommend the application of their products at given number feet per gallon. If applied differently, they will not perform. Their application rate for the poly ”whatevers” approximates 200 to 350 feet per gallon. So, they are spreading one gallon of material over up to 350 feet.
For comparison, a gallon of our products are spread over 120 feet. Thus, we deliver 13 mils to the floor (a measure of thickness) while they deliver approximately 3 plus mils. Even if two coats are applied, the result is approximately seven mils.
The choice should become obvious if you want a more substantial, long wearing floor. Epoxy is the best material for your garage floor coating system.
Our products are what is known as 100% solids, with no VOC’s. Therefore, what we apply, all remains on the floors. Thus, you get all of the product that you are paying for with no “flash off” or evaporation. More coating results in more durability and strength of the coating system itself.
Our epoxy cures more slowly. Time allows the epoxy to “sink” or migrate into the capillary like surface of the concrete that results from careful preparation. We let it cure overnight to allow that cure time.
Along with our epoxy product, we do use a Polyaspartic product as our topcoat. It has the advantage of technology that is more abrasion and UV (ultraviolet) resistant than epoxy. The Polyaspartic that we use is high viscosity. It is designed to be coated at a heavier rate for more durability.
Thus, we take advantage of the two technologies: Epoxy for its excellent adhesion capability to concrete and Polyaspartic for its excellent capacity to resist abrasion and ultraviolet light. Again, the coverage of our top coat is at 120 square feet per gallon, yielding another 13 mil of coating to the floor.
Our epoxy and polyaspartic products are formulated by the largest chemical corporations in the business world wide. We do not believe in “home brew” approach to the development of excellent products. We rely on technologies of companies who have a staff of chemists and physicists who are studying epoxy and urethane technologies to come up with products that their companies can stand behind.
Architects and major project engineers continue to specify epoxy and urethane technologies that we use as the most reliable coating systems available. The specifiers, who represent major companies, must have the confidence to sign off on the specification in the projects that they manage. We get the benefit of that technology confidence in our applications to garage floors.
So, is epoxy still the best material for your concrete garage floor coating? Without question, “yes!”
An example: US Bank Stadium has 128,000 square feet of the same materials that we use on your garage floor installed in the stadium.
Does the “good stuff” cost more? It does, but we are willing to pay the price to provide the best. It’s the only way we can feel confident in putting our name on your garage floor and your project. I have every confidence that you, too, will agree, now that I have explained the differences between the new technologies you may hearing about and the true best material for your concrete garage floor coating system, hands down, epoxy.