“Don’t put epoxy on your garage floor or you will regret it.” “I followed the instructions exactly but the coating still peeled up where the tires sat.” “I thought it would be durable but it wore through in places.” “I wish I never applied epoxy to my garage floor.” Does this sound familiar?
You most likely have read or heard comments like these if you are thinking about applying a coating to your garage floor. We could list many more examples. But if floor coatings seem so popular, why do there seem to be so many mixed reviews and complaints about them? Who are you to believe?
We can understand why bad reviews may throw you off and create suspicion. Especially when coatings are by far the most sought-after garage flooring option. And to further add to the confusion, we can attest that many of these complaints are legitimate.
What??
However, there is an understandable and very good reason for this. If you want to get to the truth about epoxy coatings and the bad reviews, then this article is for you.
The Birth of DIY Epoxy Garage Floor Coatings
We’ve all seen them. The eye-catching pictures of a nice garage with a professionally installed garage floor coating. The typical gray or tan hues, optional multi-colored flakes, and glossy finish look terrific. Who wouldn’t think about having such a floor for their garage?
These commercial quality garage floor coating systems are known to last for years. Many installation companies offer warranties of 10 – 20 years. In addition, they have overwhelmingly positive reviews in most cases.
The problem though is that professionally installed coatings are not always affordable for every household. The cost typically starts at approximately $4 per square foot for an epoxy system. That’s $1600 for a smaller 400 ft² 2-car garage. Polyurea and polyaspartic coatings usually start at $6 per square foot.
This expense is just one example of why the Do-It-Yourself homeowner culture has become so prominent over the years. People have learned that with the right materials and a little bit of research and know-how, they can save a lot of money by completing a variety of home projects themselves.
There is a complete industry now that is tailored specifically toward the DIY and home improvement crowd. Besides the how-to side of things, this industry includes large retail companies, home improvement centers, and manufacturers with large marketing budgets.
They are also the predominant suppliers of materials for this vast DIY consumer market. And this includes garage floor coatings.
It wasn’t until sometime in the 1970s that the first contractors started to install epoxy coating systems on garage floors. Word began to spread over the years about the benefits and appearance of this new type of flooring. As it did, people began to visit their local paint and hardware stores asking about this tough new 2-part “paint” coating.
Of course, the requests about epoxy coatings began to get back to the paint companies and corporations that manufacture and sell paint products. As a result, they went about creating their own “home consumer” version of these coatings.
These paint companies were well aware that the average consumer didn’t know much about how epoxy coatings worked and the concrete preparation that was required for application. As a result, they set about to develop coatings that were easier to apply and more forgiving to the less-than-stellar concrete preparation that may occur.
Many of these earlier versions were solvent-based epoxy coatings. The use of solvents was more common then. They allowed for better penetration into the concrete, created a glossy finish, and a reasonably durable surface for a single coat application.
However, solvent-based epoxy coatings create VOCs. As environmental regulations began to clamp down on VOCs, manufacturers began to phase out the use of solvents and use water instead.
And this is where things began to go bad for the reputation of epoxy garage floors.
The problem is that water-based epoxy has a lower solids content than solvent-based epoxy. This results in a thinner coating that does not adhere as well. In addition, the finish is more of a semi-gloss at best and is not as durable to abrasion (wear) or chemicals.
For a better understanding, we highly recommend reading our article that explains the differences between coatings and paint. It will provide a good foundation for how coatings work.
In addition to this, many of these kits come complete with an Eco friendly, safe-to-use, citric acid etch solution. Etching the concrete is required for the application of epoxy. It provides the proper profile for it to achieve the tenacious bond it is known for.
The issue is that the concrete etching solutions in these kits are barely strong enough to etch the concrete properly. Stronger etching solutions are not provided since these large companies do not want to deal with the possible legal headaches of people injuring themselves when using something stronger.
Furthermore, not all concrete is created equal. The hardness and density of a concrete surface will vary from home to home. As a result, it’s not uncommon for a smoother or harder garage floor surface to not have a rough enough profile after using the supplied etching solution.
As a result, the epoxy can experience peeling and more commonly, hot tire pick-up, from not being adhered properly to the concrete surface.
Regardless, these home consumer epoxy garage floor coating kits slowly evolved into the mostly water-based epoxy kits that people are familiar with today.
They include national brands such as Rust-Oleum EpoxyShield, H&C Shield-Crete, Quikrete, Epoxy-Seal, and so on.
Newer formulas for water-based epoxy that increase performance, gloss, and adhesion have been developed over the years. We recently highlighted one of these newer water-based coatings that we recommend. The article explains the differences and why they are better.
However, most of the kits offered by these national brand companies and others still use the same, old epoxy formulas, that are upwards of 30 years old.
Why? One reason is cost. They want to keep costs down to make these kits as attractive as possible. The other has to do with how well their marketing works on the public.
Deceptive Marketing Practices for Epoxy are Misleading
Large companies have significant marketing budgets. They advertise and reach a national audience. In addition, the ability to mass-produce allows them to provide their DIY garage floor products to big-box stores, supercenters, and other large retail chains.
They also promote the illusion of professional-looking garage floor coatings. They do this with their websites, brochures, and marketing on the boxes of the coatings they sell. And this is where they get away with using what we consider deceptive marketing practices.
As an example, Rust-Oleum EpoxyShield, one of the most popular national brands, promotes some of the following features and benefits of their water-based epoxy. They include statements such as “Glossy Finish”, “No hot tire pick-up”, and “5x Stronger than 1-part Epoxy”.
They include photo-enhanced images in their brochures and the packaging on the boxes. It includes images of garage floor coatings with a mirrored glossy finish that reflects the image of a car parked upon it.
Unless you were somewhat knowledgeable about coatings, why wouldn’t you think that this type of epoxy should perform well on your garage floor? The problem with this is that it’s very misleading. We will explain.
Rust-Oleum EpoxyShield and other water-based epoxy kits do not have a glossy finish – at least what most people consider glossy. Technically, a coating needs to rate 60% or greater with a gloss meter test to be considered a gloss coating.
However, they do not provide this information in their technical data sheets for EpoxyShield. Relatively speaking, the coating may have more gloss than standard paint or 1-part epoxy paint, but it’s not what is considered glossy for a garage floor coating. It will not reflect like a mirror either as the images in their literature suggest.
One of the more common questions we get from people who apply water-based epoxy coatings like this is, what kind of sealer or clear coat can they apply to make it more glossy? In other words, they are not happy with the not-so-glossy appearance of the coating.
The statement of it being 5x stronger than 1-part epoxy paint is something we would not dispute. We’re confident they tested to confirm that.
However, 1-part epoxy paint is not an epoxy coating and is not very strong when compared to coatings. It’s an acrylic latex concrete paint with a little bit of epoxy resin added to make it more durable than standard paint.
As a result, the 5x stronger statement is purposely misleading. It leads the consumer to believe that it’s stronger than it is by not providing the information in the proper context.
One could argue that the statement may be helpful to someone who is considering an epoxy coating over 1-part epoxy. However, many do not know the difference between the two. They both are described as epoxy. To those to don’t know any better, it creates an illusion that EpoxyShield is stronger than most other epoxy coatings.
Lastly, “No hot tire pick-up” is very misleading as well. Of all the complaints about national brand DIY water-based epoxy kits (not just EpoxyShield), hot tire pick-up is number one on the list.
They may have conducted some type of test in a lab to support the statement if ever challenged. Regardless, it’s very well-known that a significant number of the installations of water-based epoxy will suffer hot tire pick-up at some point during its life. Many sooner than later.
Budget Coatings and High Expectations Make Bad Epoxy
If you were to look at a comparison of epoxy concrete coatings for a garage, water-based epoxy kits are on the low end of the scale. They don’t come close to the glossy appearance, wear, durability, and performance of the commercial quality coatings that are available to the DIY public.
Just as one example, water-based epoxy has an average dry film thickness of 2.5 – 3.5 mils for a single coat. Higher solids, commercial quality epoxy available to the DIY public averages 9 -12 mils thick per coat. That’s over 3x the thickness.
And this doesn’t include the higher abrasion ratings (longer wear), chemical resistance, impact resistance, adhesion, and multiple other specifications. Just compare the technical data sheets to confirm.
However, the average DIY consumer is not aware of this fact. The advertising budgets that these national brands have to promote these kits, the marketing practices that we just outlined, and the exposure of these products to all the major retail outlets would suggest otherwise.
So, it’s not unreasonable for someone who purchases one of these kits to have high expectations. They believe that they are applying a high-performing epoxy coating to their garage floor that should look glossy, not peel from hot tires, and last many years.
When these high expectations collide with a budget coating that does not perform as they believed it would, bad reviews are the result.
It wouldn’t be that big of a deal if these coatings were just a small segment of the DIY garage floor coating market.
However, they are by far the largest segment of this market, including professionally installed coatings. When this many people are purchasing and applying a lower-performing coating like these, bad reviews are going to be much more prevalent. It can easily lead to people believing that all epoxy coatings are bad.
So, let’s take a break for a moment to make something clear. We are not stating that Rust-Oleum EpoxyShield or other national brands that offer water-based DIY epoxy kits are bad products.
They are much better than concrete paint and 1-part epoxy paint. In addition, you will find many people who are happy with these types of coatings. They do a fair job for the price as long as you know what to expect. After all, these are budget coatings.
Moreover, Rust-Oleum does a good job with its customer service and wants happy customers. We have referred a great handful of our readers to Rust-Oleum Customer Service after they contacted us to help diagnose a coating issue. On many occasions, Rust-Oleum has helped to fix an issue by sending them a replacement product.
However, as with most things you get what you pay for – and this is especially true for concrete floor coatings.
There are other national brands that use similar marketing tactics. We used EpoxyShield as an example because it is arguably the most well-known brand. It is commonly found at just about any retail establishment that sells garage floor coatings.
We even published an article about the bad reputation these kits get. However, we explained why they are not bad if you have a reasonable expectation of what you are buying.
Garage Floor Coating Reviews Provide Bad Epoxy Information
Another issue that only worsens the high expectations of these DIY kits is the horrible and sometimes irresponsible reviews on the internet for garage floor coatings. They provide absolute garbage information at times.
And we aren’t referring to someone who posted a YouTube video from home or the pop-up “Best Product” websites dedicated to Amazon purchases. We are talking about websites with trust. This includes Forbes, This Old House, Bob Vila, and Car and Driver, to name a few.
These large websites use copywriters who have no actual experience or knowledge of coatings. They write articles about the “best garage floor coating” or “top recommended garage coatings” etc.
These are revenue-producing articles that link to and discuss products from Amazon only. This greatly restricts options. All they do is rehash the product information for these coatings and then rank them – many times incorrectly.
We talk about this more in our article about fake epoxy reviews. You can’t blame a consumer for being upset about a product that is touted as the best by such publications but doesn’t perform like it.
To be completely transparent, we have our own article about the best epoxy garage floor coatings. However, we discuss the best type of garage floor coatings and coating systems to use. We don’t recommend one particular brand.
We also have articles with reviews of top coatings and other garage flooring products. Some have links that go to Amazon and many others with links that refer elsewhere.
However, we always educate our readers on the topic with high-quality evaluations. And our articles typically cover a particular type of coating, sealer, or flooring with the pros and cons of using it. Some of these products we have tested ourselves.
Where to Purchase High-Quality Epoxy Coatings
If you’ve made it this far, then we bet you are asking yourself where can you find and purchase better quality garage floor coatings. And why don’t home improvement centers and large retail chains carry them?
The large majority of DIY commercial quality epoxy and other floor coatings are purchased online through garage floor and concrete floor coating vendors. Many of these coatings are the same products that are used by professional garage floor coating companies.
In addition to providing better products, these companies are floor coating experts and extremely knowledgeable about their applications. They provide much better instructions and help for the DIY consumer.
This article here has a list of companies that sell commercial quality epoxy and coatings. You can find them under Our Sponsors. They are not the only ones that sell quality coatings, but they represent a good number that does.
We also have an article here about what we consider one of the best DIY floor coatings. It doesn’t discuss one particular brand. Instead, it discusses a type of coating and recommends a variety of vendors who sell it.
There is a reason why you won’t find high-quality coatings at home improvement centers and other large retail establishments. The companies that sell them do not have the advertising budget nor the ability to provide their coatings on such a large scale.
The market is flooded with advertising for budget epoxy kits by national chains. The smaller companies that sell and/or produce commercial quality coatings can’t compete. Plus, they are naturally more expensive.
In addition, selling better quality coatings requires knowledgeable customer service to ensure that customers have a successful experience. Home improvement centers lack this knowledge and prefer to sell epoxy kits that require less attention given to the customer.
Final Thoughts
So, is epoxy a bad choice for a garage floor? No. Epoxy garage floor coatings can be a great choice. Particularly if a high-quality coating system is installed. It’s the reason they are the most popular garage flooring option.
In addition, water-based epoxy kits have their place in the market. They can be the logical choice for those on a budget who want to improve the looks and performance of their garage floor – as long as they are realistic about expectations.
The reason epoxy tends to get a bad reputation is the simple fact that the market is flooded with low-cost kits that create and promote the illusion that they are better than what they really are. This results in unhappy customers. And unhappy customers are ten times more likely to tell someone about their bad experience.
If you are considering an epoxy or similar type of garage floor coating, we highly recommend that you take a little bit of time to research and learn about coatings in general. Knowledge is power. It will provide the information you need to make a more educated decision and help to ensure that you will be satisfied with the outcome.
Great article. I have an epoxy garage floor which I love, except for the hot tire marks. Is there any way I can patch them. Simple and inexpensive for sure!
Hi Carol. Do you have tire marks on the surface or areas where tires have pulled up the epoxy?
I have same problem. Tires pulled up the epoxy.
Hi Assd. That is a sign of either poor concrete prep or a lower quality coating – sometimes both. Those areas can be recoated, but it stands out because coatings do not blend together well like paint does on a wall. In addition, it would require purchasing the entire kit just for those areas. The lesser expensive DIY coatings do not have touch-up kits.
Great article. Unbiased and well written.
Thank you, Syliva.
Very informative. I ran into one of the sites you suggested doing my D&D looked at the others you suggested some good info.
Thank you.
We glad it helped you out, Jerry.
I bought an epoxy paint, used it for a minute and could tell it was crap. Had to throw it out and went back to my original plan before the salesman changed my mind. I used an oil based paint in the past on my old house garage and it worked awesome for years. Etch the floor and sprinkle silica sand on top as you go to prevent slipping. That is a must as the floor will be ridiculously slippery when wet if you don’t. Environmental impact aside, old school oil is still my choice.
Hi Taylor. Yes, oil-based concrete paint will perform better than the multitude of water-based acrylic latex concrete paint sold today. It also has a glossier finish. However, oil-based is getting harder to find and it’s not manufactured in the same formulations (less durable) as it was 15 – 20 years ago due to environmental concerns. It’s still a paint though and not a true coating. It will not seal the concrete and provide many of the other benefits that a quality coating will provide.
Hi I have installed several kits to different clients I’ve had over last 2 years , I have learned that the preparation of flooring is very important , and I’ve learned that not all people use there garages for there cars , so there low traffic or not much wieght on floors , so the water base type so far is and has work well on them . Now the high traffic use garages , cars , trucks , children with there toys and bikes . The oil base kits seem to be much better for floor and durability. Also I found out to do new concrete etching is better to use Murata acid , it neutralizes the calcium in the concrete , in fact it actually helps in the cleaning and prep for a much better bonding of the apoxy. So far in 2 years and about 20 garages I’ve done not one complaint, only 2 have ask about the shiny part , then I simply offer option to put a clear coat over . I enjoy doing them , and I do them at a great price no one else will do . Only takes me average of 2-3 hours tops . I charge by the kit . lol
Where do you work from David?
Excellent article – very informative
Question:
Our Curling Club has an Epoxy finished
concrete floor – industrial application.
We are considering using the Club in the summer months for the sport of pickleball. How well do you think the finish would hold up while playing this sport. Balls are very light but, of course, there would be lots of foot work. Your opinion would be really appreciated.
Hi Dorothy. The epoxy floor will handle all the traffic from pickleball just fine. Commercial applications are designed for heavy vehicle traffic. Foot traffic should not have any effect. You might get the occasional mark on the surface from contact with a paddle, but those should clean up. Just be aware that if someone gets a sweat going, the liquid on the surface can get slippery.
I’m getting an estimate from a company that does floor coatings but have heard 3800-4200 for double stall garage. Floor is in bad condition lots of pitting from salt & chips from when my dad chopped wood in there. Is this a good thing or should I pass?
Hello Greg. It all depends on the exact coating products being used and what materials and processes are used to repair the pitting. We would need more info. If done correctly, the problem would not reoccur and the floor would look great for many years.
Hi Shea,
I had an appt with that company & they never showed! I guess that should be a sign. I don’t want to do it myself. The pitting is near the garage door from when 2 vehicles were parked in this garage & in winter they had salt on them. There is a couple deep Cracks. The chips are in various spots all over the floor. Can I submit pictures on here?
Hi Greg. You can submit pictures to the info@ email address that the comment notification comes from.
I’m in the process of epoxying and sealing my garage and driveway. I purchased all that I needed from Home Depot. I did not do any etching, I cleaned area, epoxied using a roller, add decorative sprinkles. I’m now in the process of using 2 coats of clear sealer. I didn’t care for the glossy look so I opted for sealer protector. My project looks very good. People are stopping to ask what I’m doing, what I’m using.
Hi June. Hopefully, it’s not an epoxy coating you are using and instead a 1-part epoxy paint (not a coating). This article here discusses the difference between the two. ALL EPOXY COATINGS need proper concrete preparation. This means etching at a minimum. We have an article here that discusses why. Did you use anti-slip media for the driveway? We only ask because coatings can get slippery when wet. You are welcome to come back with a progress report of how it holds up.
Hi Shea, thank you for your reply. I asked about anti skid at HD but was told I didn’t need it. I added my second coat of protector. I’m waiting a few more days to drive on my driveway. The sealer I used beads when the driveway gets wet, for example, rain.
Hi Jane. If it was clear penetrating sealer applied to bare concrete, then an anti-slip media is not required. Penetrating sealers don’t form a film at the surface and the concrete will retain the same slip resistance when wet. If it’s a film-forming coating that covers the concrete, then that will get slippery.
Great ifno, and lots to digest-Thanks!
I have a new garage, cement is about 8 months old. Still very clean, and quite a rough surface. I expect it will take 1.5 -2 times as much as manufacturer claims to get adequate coverage.
Is it necessary to etch this? I will have to power wash of course.
Hello Vanha. Yes, you still need to etch if the manufacturer requires it. This article here explains why.
Can you paint over epoxy painted floor
Hi David. Yes, you can apply paint over epoxy. It requires that you sand the surface first with 120-150 grit sandpaper to provide the proper profile. Just keep in mind that paint will peel from car tires and is not nearly as durable as an actual coating.
I think it may not turn out well or last if the job is done by using a home kit on your own.
If you get it done by a professional, chances are it will be done right and last a long time. That comes with a price, and well you get what you pay for. My 2 cents.
Hello Benjamin. Yes, professional installations should always be of quality materials and very long-lasting. However, what many in the general public are not aware of, is that there are numerous concrete coating vendors that sell commercial quality DIY kits available to the general public. Many of these coatings are the same as what professionals install. Unfortunately, the home improvement store, single coat, and budget floor coating kits are what most are familiar with. These are the ones that garner all the poor reviews.
Hi guys, is there an association or resource I can use to locate garage coating installers in my home area?
I don’t think I can DOY this & rather in eat in a pro install.
Hi Victor. No, we don’t have such a program. However, we do have an article we highly recommend that you read about choosing garage floor coating companies or contractors. You can find it here. Just do an internet search for “garage floor coating companies ‘your city'”.
Thanks Shea for that article.
Amazing u understood what I was asking despite my typos.
Cheers!