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Why are so many people having resinous floors installed in their garage?
Garage, basement, and shop floors are strong, hard, durable, and ugly. These floors are great for heavy traffic spaces, but both concrete and wood floors are prone to staining, discoloration and damage, and interior flooring options just aren’t up to the task. Resinous flooring provides protection that fully bonds to the original floor, adding beauty and resilience to shop, garage, or basement floors, for a lifetime of worry-free use.
Builders finish every floor in the home with one exception, the garage. These spaces are left unfinished with a bare concrete floor that is:
Porous — Because these surfaces are not sealed, a dropped popsicle, an oil drip, or pet accident becomes a permanent part of the concrete. No matter how often you sweep and pressure wash, you can never get all the dust off the floor. If you have ever walk across a garage floor sock-footed, you know what we mean.
Brittle — Concrete makes a very strong surface, one capable of handling thousands of pounds of pressure per square inch; but drop something heavy and you are likely to take a divot out of the floor. If that drop happens to be near one of the stress cuts in the floor, and a chunk of the concrete is likely to be broken off. Though concrete floors are very structurally strong, the surface of the concrete is very brittle and prone to unsightly damage.
Ugly — The concrete of a garage floor is often finished out with greater care than the driveway, but even at their best, the surface is nearly always inconsistent in color and very plain and often left with stains and discolorations from the builder’s supplies and processes.
With resinous flooring, all three of these shortcomings of the bare concrete floor are addressed. A finished floor is completely sealed, strong and beautiful. A finished garage floor is:
Sealed — Virtually impervious to nearly all household substances that can be thrown at it. What used to stain the concrete now wipes off with a paper towel. Something sticky falls on the floor, it won’t stick, and even bleach, acids and automotive chemicals and lubricants won’t even leave a mark. The sealed floor is easily cleaned with a broom and microfiber dust mop.
Durable — With impact ratings well above those of bare concrete, dropped tools, soup cans, weights or car parts will just bounce off the floor. No more divots, dings, dents or missing pieces of the floor, even with heavy drops.
Beautiful — With hundreds of colors and 6 size profiles, there are thousands of options to choose from ranging from mild grays that look like a garage but help hide the dirt, to custom color blends to accent a classic car, man cave or highlight the team colors, or a create a custom stone look, to fluorescent, reflective, and glow-in-the-dark colors. When it comes to the potential for unique finishes, the imagination is about the only limit to what a new floor can look like; mild to wild, “every day” to “never seen anything like it before”, there is a style, look and feel to fit every situation.
Installation of a resinous floor requires a clear, clean, and prepared surface. Once a floor is ready to finish, the actual installation only takes a few days, so many installs happen right after closing and before moving in and packing the garage full of life.
When selecting an installer, there are some key points to understand. Many of them as important, and maybe even more important than the price.
- Good preparation is vital, and not all contractors prepare the same. The finished floor will only be as strong as its bond to the floor underneath. Diamond grinding and vacuuming with industrial grade tools are vital steps. Don’t be fooled with a pressure wash and acid etch. Acids cannot be completely removed and are far inferior to a quality mechanical grind, and they add days to the project.
- There are many grades of product available that differ in cost and durability. These products range from water-based and one-part products with a 5-10 year life expectancy in a residential garage to heavy duty, commercial products designed to last decades on warehouse floors, with lots of options in between. You don’t always get what you think you are paying for, so make sure you ask about the products being used.
- Customer service is key. With the construction booms and the hot housing market of the recent past, there are dozens, if not hundreds of resinous flooring installers, and they are not all the same, nor does Idaho regulate or have a license for the service. Independent reviews like those on Bing, Google and social media like Facebook and Nextdoor are not controlled or edited by contractors and are often good sources of real experiences with a contractor. Avoid paid review sites like Yelp, Angi’s List, and other private companies where contractors pay to subscribe and can have reviews edited or even removed. Even the BBB edits content based on contractor subscriptions and memberships. Also, remember that the warranty is only as good as the company standing behind it.
- Resinous flooring is a unique product with very specific installation processes, timings, and tools. When choosing a provider, a company that is dedicated to resinous flooring will be more efficient and will most often leave the best result. The phrase that comes to mind with multi-tasking companies like concrete, cabinet or painting companies that also do resin floors is ‘jack of all trades, master of none’. Some services just call for specializing.
This posting is part one of our four-part conversation on epoxy and resinous flooring. Next quarter’s post will discuss the differences in the products available to finish out a concrete floor.
Summit Epoxy Floors is a locally owned and operated, factory trained installer specializing in resinous flooring. We are proud affiliate members of BRR and have a REALTOR® exclusive program that allows REALTORS® to provide a $200 gift card towards a new floor as a buyer housewarming gift, with no expense to agent.
If you would like to learn more about resinous flooring in general, Summit Epoxy Floors in particular, or our BRR-exclusive offerings, please contact us directly.
www.SummitEpoxy.com
208-789-1771
info@summitEpoxy.com
Disclaimer of Endorsement: Any reference obtained from this site to a specific product, process, or service does not constitute or imply an endorsement by Boise Regional REALTORS® of the product, process, or service or its producer or provider. The views and opinions expressed in any advertisements do not necessarily state or reflect those of Boise Regional REALTORS®. This advertisement is part of BRR’s Targeted Marketing program.