Buying a home with a garage floor coating already installed is a great perk. It shows that the previous owner maintained the house and didn’t just stick to the default bare concrete floors that most garages have. Proactive movements also imply that the previous owner regularly looked for ways to improve the property and invested in small details that will make your house a great home for years to come. 

But older garage floor coatings didn’t have the precise technology and chemical composition available today. Older epoxies don’t offer the same degree of protection, and residential floor coating installations didn’t always start with the same attention to the condition of the underlying substrate. This means that garage floor coating may have a few vulnerabilities that will start to grow over time. If you inspect the garage floor for signs of developing wear and damage, you can catch gaps in the protective layer before they compromise your garage floor. You can also tell if the floor coating is an epoxy material or polyurea and decide if it’s time to upgrade it to the stronger polyurea coating. 

Are there signs of hot tire pickup?

Hot tires can start to pull up epoxy coating. The treads get too hot from friction after long drives, such as your commute, and the rubber can grab onto old epoxy or sealant. Water-based epoxies are especially vulnerable to hot tire pickup because they aren’t built to withstand the hot temperatures. That means the flooring protection isn’t where you need it most: by your car.

Professionally installed polyaspartic floor coatings aren’t just stronger than hot tires. The installation process involves deep cleaning the concrete substrate so the coating adheres to the surface and is much harder to pull away.

Are there patches of faded or yellowed coating where sunlight hits the floor?

Epoxy isn’t as UV stable as polyureas or polyaspartic floor coatings. UV radiation can start to weaken the floor coating just like any other material that’s exposed to direct sunlight for too long, even if the damage is much slower. But if your flooring is starting to turn yellow, or the dark colors have signs of faded color, then UV damage has already set in. Polyaspartic floor coatings are much more resistant to sun damage.

Is the surface delaminating?

Delaminating, or peeling, can happen whenever there are layers of epoxy. Many floors may have several epoxy layers designed to strengthen the floor or to keep the protection whole regardless of impact damage or potential chipping. These layers can start to delaminate and separate from each other. Even single layers of epoxy can start to peel away from the underlying concrete floor. 

The damage may have started to form right after installation. If the concrete floor is sufficiently cleaned, including having contaminants pulled out of the concrete, then the epoxy may not have fully adhered to the substrate. But the same delamination can occur over time because of water vapor. Moisture will start to pool between the surface of the concrete and the epoxy layer over it, and that will make the material pull free.

A floor coating with some signs of wear doesn’t mean the previous owner wasn’t maintaining the property. It may just mean the floor coating was added long ago or that it was a DIY project that did its job as well as it was able to. Replacing the failing floor coating with PolyTek Surface Coating’s polyaspartic materials and professional installation process is a step that can keep your new home even better protected. Go to our site here to see how fast and easy the process can be.