DIY vs. Prestige Floor Coating

Understanding the Limitations of DIY Floor Coating Kits

The technicians and installers at Prestige Floor Coating regularly receive questions about the discount floor painting kits sold at big box home centers. These stores sell (relatively) inexpensive epoxy floor coating kits from manufacturers such as Rustoleum and Behr. While this may seem to be an easy, affordable solution for people who are looking to repaint or refinish their floors, we often advise against their use and recommend professional floor coating services.

While we do not want to call out specific brands or products for being of poor quality, we have found that they do not provide the durable, long-lasting solutions customers are looking for. DIY floor painting or coating kits generally cannot provide coatings that will withstand ongoing use in garages, commercial businesses, or industrial facilities. Cars being driven across or parked on these surfaces, regular foot traffic, exposure to water or chemicals, and other issues can cause damage to these coatings. In addition, the stress of the region's weather can cause the concrete substrate of a floor to expand and contract, causing paint or coatings to crack, wrinkle, or peel. DIY products also cannot fill any existing cracks or imperfections in concrete floors, and a floor may have irregularities even after these coatings are applied.

Some commercial providers of floor coating services may use discount kits sold at big box stores in order to reduce costs or complete jobs more quickly. Low bids or estimates for concrete floor refinishing or resurfacing may raise suspicions that inferior products will be used. If you are concerned about whether floor coatings provided by a professional flooring company will meet your needs, you will want to verify information such as:

• The brand of paint or epoxy coating that will be used.
• Where floor coating products will be purchased. To ensure that epoxy coatings will provide the necessary durability and protection, they should be purchased from specialty supply companies or directly from the companies that manufacture these products.
• The methods the flooring company will use to prepare concrete floors for bonding with epoxy coatings.
• A list of references from previous customers.

When inspecting floors that have previously been painted or resurfaced, we have found that discount products or DIY floor coatings often fail well before their expected lifespan ends, and in many cases, they may begin to peel or show damage within the first year after they are applied. There are two reasons why these issues often occur. The first problem is the failure of adhesion between concrete and coating. When epoxy coatings do not bond correctly with concrete floors, they will be more likely to peel or chip, exposing the underlying floor. This is why proper preparation is crucial. At Prestige Floor Coating, we will diamond grind your surface, opening the pores of the concrete, allowing our product to enter the concrete, seek out the moisture, and molecularly bond with the moisture in the concrete, creating an impermeable bond.

A second reason for failure is that the coatings may not be able to flex or shift with the concrete during climate and temperature changes. Concrete is always shifting and expanding, and a floor coating needs to be able to expand and contract as well. Otherwise, cracking, peeling, and other forms of damage are likely to occur. The custom blend of products we use include 1/3 poly-urea for durability, and 1/3 rubberized membrane for elasticity. This mix is custom-tailored to each individual application after performing a moisture test, hardness test, and acid test. What we put in your garage could be completely different from what we put in your neighbor's garage, and that is what will make it last. Our solutions are not "one size fits all," and they will be uniquely formulated to provide the best possible protection in each individual situation.

Case Study: DIY Floor Kit

The garage shown in this picture was coated with an inexpensive two-part system from one of the big box stores. As you can see at the entrance, the clear coat has come completely off, along with the chips in a large area and spotting in other areas. The clear coat that has remained has turned yellow, showing that it was not UV stable. The customer stated that this floor was coated 4 months ago.

This photograph of the same location shows that there is no chip uniformity. There is a very heavy spread in some areas and virtually no chips in other areas. Chip placement is truly an art, and if you are unfamiliar with it, this is unfortunately what it will look like.

This photograph shows a close-up of the same floor. As you can see, the coating has loosened from the concrete below and will continue to chip away, revealing a larger and larger gap in the coating.

This last "before" picture shows a crack that went across the entire garage. This was just one crack of many. A garage should not have any cracks after being properly coated.

Due to the failure of the original kit coating system, the entire floor had to be ground down to the concrete underneath–at a greater expense to the customer.

After the floor was completely prepped, two coats of a custom blend specific to that concrete were applied, and chips were then scattered on top.

This is the completed, final product by Prestige Floor Coating. The cracks have been filled and sealed, and an industrial-grade product has been applied. We provide a LIFETIME warranty for residential applications, and more importantly, we always ensure that our customers are satisfied. More pictures can be seen from this job in our image gallery. Please contact us at 443-519-2628 if you have any further questions or if you would like to receive a free estimate for your floor coating or refinishing project.