Know Your Coating Types & Pick the Right One for the Job

Know Your Concrete Coating Types & Pick the Right Coating for the Job

With new concrete coatings constantly being developed, keeping track of coatings like epoxy, polyaspartic, polyurethane or polyurea can be confusing. Let’s scratch the surface and clear up that confusion.

Why so many by continuously options? developing new Why can’t we have technologies to meet one coating to serve all Deco-Crete Supply the requests of installour needs? Things are not ers. With all the options quite that easy. available, things can get a bit con- pretty exclusive to stamped concrete.

One of the challenges for a concrete fusing, and keeping track of coatings We measured things with a tape coating contractor is the wide variety of like epoxy, polyaspartic, polyurethane measure and "1/4 in." was a really small situations that you might find yourself or polyurea can be hard enough on its measurement. in from day to day. Metallic epoxy, own. Then, you have all the different After getting into concrete coatings, broadcast floors, high-build flooring, variants of each specific coating—most however, I started to realize that things one-day garage floors, or a grind-dye- manufactures will offer three or four are measured in Mils not inches and coat system could all require different formulations of just polyaspartic alone. that 1/4 in. would equal 250 mils (an coatings to get the job done. Some jobs incredibly thick coating). Most of might even require multiple types of HIGH-BUILD FLOORING the coatings systems that I have dealt coatings on the same floor. This may SYSTEMS with are applied anywhere between seem overwhelming at first, but as you Thickness is the star of the show for 6-30 mils. We would consider anything start to understand the characteristics high-build flooring systems. Whether over 15 mils a high-build coating. Not of each coating things will make more the floor needs some additional all concrete coatings will be suitable sense. This article will scratch the leveling, or if the situation calls for an to build up that thick in one coat. surface on a few of the scenarios you extreme wear layer to handle heavy Polyaspartic, for example, should never might encounter and what type of industrial use. First off, it’s important to exceed 8 mils per coat. coating could help solve the problem. understand the scope of the term “high- The coating of choice in most high-

The popularity of concrete coatings build” in the world of concrete coatings. build situations will be 100% solids has been on the rise for the last decade My first five years of involvement in epoxy. This stuff has been around for or so, and the industry has responded the decorative concrete industry were a long time and is still one of the most

Spreading out a fast setting coating. Garage floors in the 500- to 1,000-sq ft. are perfect for this type of concrete coatings.

Deco-Crete Supply

used concrete coatings on the market. You will definitely find a wide range of formulations that will affect flowability, pot life, UV stability, and cure time. 100% solid epoxies are the go-to for creating metallic floors. Work with your supplier to ensure you are using the right epoxy.

The other thing that polyaspartic coatings, as well as some urethanes, will do is resist hot tire lift. This can be a big selling point for garage floors.

Deco-Crete Supply

PECORA-DECK HB1000

FAST CURING, LOW-ODOR, INDUSTRIAL GRADE POLYURETHANE COATING

PROTECT YOUR INVESTMENT

SUN WATER SNOW/ICE CHEMICALS

FAST CURE ALLOWING FOR QUICKER RETURN TO SERVICE HIGH IMPACT AND ABRASION RESISTANCE FOR USE IN HEAVY DUTY VEHICULAR AND PEDESTRIAN AREAS HIGH-MIL APPLICATION WITHOUT OFF-GASSING, BUBBLING OR SWELLING OF THE COATING UPON CURE LOW-ODOR MEANS IT IS SAFE FOR INTERIOR APPLICATIONS WITH ADJACENT OCCUPIED SPACE FIELD TINTABLE OPTIONS ARE AVAILABLE COMPLIMENTS THE EXISTING PECORA-DECK LINE OF PRODUCTS

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT YOUR PECORA SALES REPRESENTATIVE PECORA.COM FAST SETTING SYSTEMS

Speed is everything with fast setting types of coatings. This will allow the installer to complete jobs in a single day, saving on labor and transportation costs. A go-to coating for one-day jobs is polyaspartic. This type of coating should be tack-free and ready to recoat in 1-4 hours depending on the formulation and temperature.

The biggest challenge with a fastmoving coating like this will be usability. As the cure time of a coating speeds up, the installers will also have to work faster. We would consider a fast cure polyaspartic (1-hour dry time) to be an advanced system and recommend a slower formula (3-4 hour dry time), at

least for the first few jobs. Garage floors in the 500- to 1,000-sq. ft. are perfect for fast setting coatings. Smaller jobs can be completed all in one day. Bigger jobs may require a day of prep work, and one day to apply the coating. In our experience, broadcasting some sort of media into the coating will yield the best results. Vinyl paint chips are most common, but there are a wide variety of other options available. This would consist of a two to three coat system depending on the solids content of the polyaspartic.

Topcoats

This coat will be the final product— some might refer to this as the "money coat." It’s the coat that makes the job look like a million bucks, but this also means the job is done and it’s time to get paid. There are two main things to consider here, aesthetics and durability. No matter what coating you may have used to create a high-build, broadcast into, or even that one of kind metallic epoxy floor will all need some sort of topcoat. The durability of the topcoat is important for the obvious reason of this being the final wear layer. 100% solid epoxies give you a ton of freedom when it comes to things like high-builds, flowability, and extended working time on the floor. What they are not that great at, however, is abrasion and chemical resistance. Generally, polyurethanes and polyaspartics are the better choices for this coat as most of them are incredibly resistant to chemicals, abrasion, and UV rays. Make sure to check the specs on whatever urethane you might be considering, but there are some great options out there that will be comparable to or possibly even more durable than polyaspartic.

Broadcasting some sort of media into the coating should yield great results. Vinyl paint chips are most common, but there are a wide variety of other options available.

Deco-Crete Supply

MUD DOG CB-1600

Metallic epoxy on the floor Cavs team shop. For this type of coating, the smoother the surface is, the harder it will be to hide flaws in the topcoat.

Deco-Crete Supply

CONCRETE BUGGY

BUILT FOR CONCRETE CONTRACTORS

RELIABLE•SAFE•EASY TO OPERATE

sales@tamarack-ind.com 800-661-0304

The other thing that polyaspartics as well as some urethanes will do is resist hot tire lift. This can be a big selling point for garage floors.

Which one you should use will depend on a few things. First: speed. If you need this topcoat to be ready for use the next day, look into polyaspartic as an option; most urethanes will require at least 48 hours of cure time before full use. The next thing would be ease of application. If you are top coating that one-day broadcast floor, things should be pretty easy to manage due to all the texture that will deflect light and help hide roller marks or other imperfections. Metallic floors or any other glassy surface will be a different story. The smoother the surface is, the harder it will be to hide flaws in the topcoat. Urethanes by nature will have more flow and working time than polyaspartics. This gives the installer more time to back roll as well as providing some self-leveling properties

on its own. Moisture cure urethanes can also be a great option for topcoats. These urethanes are single-component and do not require mixing.

LOW ODOR SYSTEMS

In the past, low odor meant water-based (WB). While there are some great uses for WB coatings, you will lose a lot of freedom if you have to use WB products exclusively. Fortunately, things have come a long way in the past few years.

There are now a variety of solventbased options that will still give the look and performance you are used to, without all the harsh odors. This can be crucial for jobs that have low odor requirements. Beyond that, low odor products are a great way to make your job sites more friendly to employees and the end-user. I am truly amazed by the performance of some of the low odor polyaspartics and urethanes that have been developed in the last three or four years.

Hopefully, this was helpful in your quest to create the highest-end decorative concrete possible. There is certainly a lot more to this and to say that we are just scratching the surface here would be an understatement. The best advice we can give is to never stop learning. As technology continues to progress in the concrete coatings industry, it’s important that installers keep up with the changes—just because something wasn’t possible five years ago, doesn’t mean it can’t be done today.

Jeff Hershberger is a training and store expansion lead for Deco-Crete Supply. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions on concrete coatings or anything else that might pertain to decorative concrete.

Find this article at

ForConstructionPros.com/ 21415687.

IT’S EASY WITH LAVINA.

BEST IN CLASS EQUIPMENT AND TOOLS

superabrasive.com