Concrete Floor Coating

Nowadays, a concrete floor has perhaps more finishing options than any other type of floor.

The color, texture, and finish can be made to exactly suit your taste, and whether it's made to look like stone work or whether it's polished to a high sheen, concrete floors are the most durable floors you can get.

Recent advances in concrete tools, dyes, stains, textures, and patterns make concrete flooring the most durable, versatile, and cost effective material available today.

For concrete surfaces that are already nice and level, and that won't have to cope with mechanical abuse, and where skid resistance is not necessary, there are grades of floor coating that are thinner than epoxy and that cost less too.

Please know that these coatings will not even out dips or bumps, but two coats will be about 7 mils thick, and the coating cures in seven hours or less.

It is easy to work with and relatively fast flowing.

A two gallon supply of light duty coating for concrete floors will cover up to 800 square feet.

These coatings come in a variety of colors. Epoxy floor coating is used on concrete floors that require the following:

• Resistance to damage from falling objects
• Resistance to damage from equipment like forklifts
• Maximum resistance to skids (such as around pools)
• Filling-in of irregularities
• Repair of deep cracks or holes

These heavy duty epoxy coatings are very durable and can be strengthened even more by adding colored quartz chips.

A two coat application is typically 20 mils thick.

Epoxy coatings take up to 14 hours to cure, and can be used to level and fill holes. Before coating a concrete floor, it should be prepared properly for best results.

Preparation of the concrete floor surface that you want to coat is perhaps the most important part of the process. It must be de-greased and cleaned thoroughly, and there are chemicals designed to do this.

It should also be determined beforehand if the concrete you want to coat contains curing compounds because these can interfere with the adhesion of the coating.

Do not use coatings on concrete floors with any moisture in them.

If your concrete floor has a chronic problem with moisture, you need to have it fixed and the source of the moisture removed before painting. To ensure proper adhesion of your epoxy floor coating, using acid etcher is necessary. The best surface for taking a coating will feel like medium sand paper.

After the acid etching is done, the entire floor surface should be washed to remove any acid residue. After the floor dries, it's time to start adding the coating. Epoxy based paints make the concrete floor surface easy to clean and maintain.

If silica sand has been added to the epoxy to create maximum skid resistance, the surface will be more difficult to clean.

A glossy finish that resists abrasion and other chemicals, however, can be achieved using two coats of epoxy based concrete floor coating.

Properly caring for your concrete coating is the key to its lasting for a long time.

Ideally, a daily cleaning with a dust mop is recommended for floors that get heavy objects on them regularly (like a garage, where car tires can scratch the finish).

A thorough cleaning once a week will help keep your floor looking great for as long as possible. The use of concrete in residential flooring has grown in popularity in recent years.

Not only can concrete floors lend a sort of "industrial chic" look, they can be colored, finished, and polished to look every bit as gorgeous as the most beautiful marble, and they can be customized with stamping, etching, or painting.

Basically... the versatility of concrete floors is amazing.

Perhaps the only thing more oustanding than concrete's versatility is its outstanding durability.

Concrete Floor Coating Related Reading

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