Garage flooring: DIY or pro?

By Ken McEntee

That graduation party or other big event may prompt you to finally replace your pocked, chipped and cracked garage floor with a rugged epoxy coating.

“Our FLEXCore hybrid polymer floors offer so many advantages over concrete,” insists Mike Padden, owner of Encore Garage. “Looking great is just the beginning. They also are durable and designed to last a long time.”

That, however, may not be the case with all garage floor coverings, Mike says.

Q: Aren’t all garage floor coatings the same?
A: No. Especially the do-it-yourself kits you can buy at a big box store.

Q: What’s the difference?
A: The two main differences are the quality of the coating and the quality of the installation. We have the proper equipment, and we’ve been installing our coatings for 10 years. We prepare the concrete surface by scoring the concrete and cleaning and refining the top surface to open up the pores, allowing our base coat to penetrate deeply for excellent adhesion. It is far superior to the acid etching in the DIY kits. Because epoxy is affected by temperature, we use laser-thermo guns to monitor the floor temperature. Our trucks incubate materials in cold weather and refrigerate them in hot weather. Quality control ensures a quality installation.

Q: What about the flooring materials?
A: DIY kits usually come with a diluted, water-based epoxy coating and a minuscule amount of color flakes intended to provide traction and a quality appearance. The DIY material deteriorates quickly—usually within a year—recognizable by hot tire peel up, blistering, cracking and fading. We get a lot of calls to fix floors that homeowners have tried first to do themselves. In the end they’ll have spent more time and money than they needed to.

EncoreGarage of Ohio offers advanced polymer floor coatings, cabinetry and organization systems in the Akron/Cleveland areas. Call 330-922-4411 or visit EncoreGarageOhio.com.