Why should I apply a clear topcoat to my garage floor coating?
This is an understandable question that pops up from time to time for the typical house owner wanting to save some cash. The real concern, nevertheless, ought to be, why would not you apply a clear coat? After all, there are many benefits to adding a clear topcoat over the garage floor’s color coat.
Anybody who has installed a garage floor coating correctly will tell you that the most laborious and time-consuming part is prepping the floor for the coating. Using the coating goes fast, and for numerous, it is the fun part of the job. So, after all that work of getting the concrete all set, why wouldn’t you want to invest a little bit more time and money to guarantee a longer-lasting and even more stunning floor coating?
With multiple clear coating options to select from, epoxy, polyaspartic, and polyurethane are the most typical choices. The exact same benefits can apply to making use of all three mentioned floor finishes. So to respond to these questions, let’s take a look at the top 10 reasons that you should apply a clear topcoat to your garage floor.
1. ADDS DURABILITY AND WEAR
A clear coat will add sturdiness to your garage floor coating and make for a longer wearing surface. The additional coat also includes thickness to the floor coating, removing hot tire lift and soaking up effects better.
2. PROTECTS THE COLOR COAT
Due to the fact that the clearcoat functions as a sacrificial layer, the epoxy color coat will be secured. Without it, the colored epoxy coat can lose its radiance from wear. Though resistant to the majority of chemicals, some oil spills or leakages allowed to sit for long periods can blemish the coating depending on the quality of epoxy you applied.
3. SAFEGUARDS THE COLOR FLAKES
If you used paint chips or color flakes to your floor, the clear coat would safeguard them from peeling up and collecting dirt. Considering that the color flakes are partially embedded into the epoxy, dirt and grime can gather in and around the flakes’ edges, making it more difficult to keep tidy depending on the number of colors flake was applied.
Cleaning of the floor and other activities can likewise trigger color flakes to bring up or chip away. When a clear coat is added, the color flakes are protected by the clear layer over them.
4. IT IS EASIER TO CLEAN
With a clear coat over the color flakes, the floor is likewise much easier to clean up. Dust mops can slide over the floor without capturing color flakes as it goes. This is particularly true if you have heavy flake protection on your floor. It likewise enables aggressive scrubbing if essential without the worry of losing color flakes or dulling the color coat.
5. ADDS DEPTH TO THE FLOOR COATING
The additional layer of a clear leading coat includes depth to the appearance of the garage floor. This creates a richer looking surface that appears more luxurious and much thicker than it is.
6. DEVELOPS A GLOSSIER LOOKING FINISH
Depending upon which kind of clear coat you select, the clear will include a shiny shine to the floor that will reflect light much better than the color coat. Polyurethane finishes are sometimes offered in different levels of gloss.
This is a great choice for projects in the garage or working on cars merely because it develops more light. It might also indicate that you will not have to incorporate more overhead lighting like you believed you may require.
7. IT HIDES SCRATCHES BETTER
All garage floor finishings will develop microscopic and in some cases bigger scratches on the surface of the coating. A clear topcoat helps conceal or camouflage most of these scratches, so they are less noticeable and do not detract from the floor’s looks. This is because the clear leading coat will function as the sacrificial layer and prevents the color coat from being damaged.
8. IT’S A GOOD MEDIUM FOR ANTI-SLIP ADDITIVES
Anti-slip ingredients are concealed better in a clear coat. Because a lot of additives are translucent in color, they will not stand apart. Without a clear topcoat, they are contributed to the color coat rather. This makes the anti-slip granules a lot more noticeable as little bumps resembling sandpaper on the garage floor.
9. CAN BE RECOATED TO LOOK NEW AGAIN
After several years of use, an epoxy garage floor coating can start to show its age depending upon how much activity it has seen. If it had a clear topcoat of epoxy or polyurethane, it might easily be roughed up with sandpaper and have a brand-new coat of clear used.
The old topcoat’s sanding removes any acnes, scratches, and other flaws that the floor coating obtained throughout the years. As soon as the new clear coat is used, your garage floor coating will look brand new once again.
10. IT JUST LOOKS AWESOME!
When you compare a color layered epoxy garage floor with a top coat of clear to one that does not, there is no question about which looks better. The clear coat is what provides the garage floor that extra depth and showroom shine that screams, “take a look at me!”
So if you’re on the fence about whether or not to add a clear topcoat to your garage floor coating, consider all the benefits it will provide in the long term. Yes, it will cost a bit more money, and yes, it may indicate another day of being without your garage. However, as soon as you do, you will be rewarded with a garage floor to be happy with for several years to come, and you will be glad that you did it.
If you are unsure of what type of topcoat to incorporate into your floor project, we recommend going with a product called ArmorFloor. Its produced by ArmorThane and is a two-part polyaspartic. To learn more about using this product, check out this article on applying it.