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Why should I apply a clear top coat to my epoxy garage floor coating? This is a reasonable question that pops up from time to time for the average home owner looking to save some money. The real question however ought to be why wouldn’t you apply a clear coat? After all, there are many benefits to adding a clear top coat over the color coat for a garage floor.
Anyone who has installed a garage floor coating properly will tell you that the hardest and most time consuming part is prepping the floor for the epoxy. Applying the epoxy goes fast and for many, it is the fun part of the job. So after all that work of getting the concrete ready, why wouldn’t you want to spend a little more time and money to ensure a longer lasting and even more beautiful floor coating?
With various clear coating options to choose from, epoxy or polyurethane is the most common choice. The same benefits can apply to the use of polyurea or polyaspartic floor coatings as well. So to answer these questions, let’s take a look at the top 10 reasons why you should apply a clear top coat to your epoxy garage floor.
1. Adds durability and wear
A clear coat will add durability to your garage floor coating and create for a longer wearing surface. The additional coat also adds thickness to the floor coating which helps to eliminate hot tire lift and absorb impacts better.
2. Protects the color coat
Because the clear coat acts as a sacrificial layer, the epoxy color coat will be protected. Without it, the colored epoxy coat can lose its luster from wear. Though resistant to most chemicals, some oil spills or leaks that are allowed to sit for long periods can discolor the coating depending on the quality of epoxy you applied.
3. Protects the color flakes
If you applied paint chips or color flakes to your floor, the clear coat will protect them from peeling up and collecting dirt. Since the color flakes are partially embedded into the epoxy, dirt and grime can collect in and around the edges of the flakes making it harder to keep clean depending on how much color flake was applied.
Cleaning of the floor and other activities can also cause color flakes to pull up or chip away. When a clear coat is added, the color flakes are protected by the layer of clear that is over them.
4. It is easier to clean
With a clear coat over the color flakes, the floor is also easier to clean. Dust mops can just glide over the floor without catching color flakes as it goes. This is especially true if you have a heavy flake coverage on your floor. It also allows for aggressive scrubbing if necessary without worry of losing color flakes or dulling the color coat.
5. Adds depth to the floor coating
The additional layer of a clear top coat actually adds depth to the look of the garage floor. This creates for a richer looking surface that appears more luxurious and much thicker than it really is.
6. Creates a glossier looking finish
Depending on which type of clear coat you decide on, the clear will add a glossy shine to the floor that will reflect light even better than the color coat. Polyurethane coatings are sometimes available in different levels of gloss.
This is a great benefit for projects in the garage or for working on cars simply because it creates more light. It may also mean that you will not have to purchase more overhead lighting like you thought you might need.
7. It hides scratches better
All garage floor coatings will develop microscopic and sometimes larger scratches in the surface of the coating. A clear top coat helps to hide or camouflage most of these scratches so they are less noticeable and do not detract from the looks of the floor. The reason for this is that the clear top coat will act as the sacrificial layer and prevents the color coat from being damaged.
8. It’s a good medium for anti-slip additives
Anti-slip additives are hidden much better in a clear coat. Since most additives are translucent in color they will not stand out. Without a clear top coat they are added to the color coat instead. This makes the anti-slip granules much more visible as little bumps resembling sandpaper on the garage floor.
9. Can be recoated to look new again
After many years of use, an epoxy garage floor coating can start to show its age depending on how much activity it has seen. If it had a clear top coat of epoxy or polyurethane, it can easily be roughed up with sandpaper and have a new coat of clear applied.
The sanding of the old top coat removes any blemishes, scratches, and other imperfections that the floor coating acquired over the years. Once the new clear coat is applied, your garage floor coating will look brand new again.
10. It just looks awesome!
When you compare a color coated epoxy garage floor that has a top coat of clear to one that does not, there is no question about which looks better. The clear coat is what gives the garage floor that extra depth and showroom shine that screams “look at me!”
So if you’re on the fence about whether or not to add a clear top coat to your garage floor coating, think about all the benefits that it will provide in the long term. Yes, it will cost a little more money and yes, it may mean one more day of being without your garage. However once you do, you will be rewarded with a garage floor to be proud of for years to come and you will be glad that you did it.
Update – Please read
There is one important note to make. Clear coats are designed for application over 2-Part resinous coatings and some single part moisture cured resinous coatings. Do not confuse garage floor paint or 1-Part epoxy paint as a floor coating. These are latex based paints that will not form a chemical bond with a resinous coating.
Technically, you could rough up the finish of dried floor paint and apply a water based epoxy as a clear coat. It will have a limited increase in durability of the floor coating however due to the fact you are limited by the initial properties of the base paint underneath. Most other clear coats are not suitable due to their solvent base. They can actually soften these paints upon application and cause them to pull up from the concrete.
I just painted my new shop floor with Rust-Oleum EpoxyShield with color chips. The concrete was poured 6 months ago so no issues with that. I cleaned and prepared the floor before painting with the etching as directed. The finished look has blotchy areas where the epoxy dried heavier and roller marks where it was too thin. Some areas are shiny and some not so much. The floor temperature was only 50 degrees when applied. Could this be a reason for the dried look? Also, can I just apply a sealer over top this without sanding to give it a clean and clear finished look? What would you recommend? Thanks
Hi Jeff. Roller marks are typically caused when pressing too hard or pressing to stretch the epoxy out. This will also result in the epoxy being too thin in areas and creating color tone and gloss issues. Coatings should never be stretched and the roller should always remain wet and somewhat heavy with material. Also, the instructions clearly state not to apply it and let it cure in temps lower than 60 degrees. Are you sure it has cured? Assuming it has, the only way to fix it would be to degloss and rough up the surface with 120 grit sandpaper and apply another color coat. A clear coat will not fix the issue. If anything, it just highlights the problems.
Hey Shea, I just bought a new home and it’s coming with an epoxy floor installed by the builder. However at first look and feel the clearcoat on top is so thin at first I didn’t even think it was there. I haven’t done epoxy floors in the past it makes me believe that either cut it with some solvent or xylene it can’t be a build thickness more than 1 mm it really feels rough enough chips just flake right out, But I can tell if someone’s on there because it pulled in the cracks and it has a very very late sheen. My question is can I go back over and now having been done probably five or six months ago and put it on there nobody’s ever pulled into the garage or used the garage I’m wondering if I could just sand it up a little bit mop it and vacuum it out and then apply a poly top coat and get good adhesion. Do you think I can go back over this with a couple coats? If so what steps would you advise.
Hello Matt. If you are certain that the coating is adhered well, then you can apply more coatings over it. If it’s not adhered well, it doesn’t matter what you apply on top because it will still peel up and expose bare concrete. We have an article here that discusses the prep required.
Thanks Shea, what a great article.
Is there any ‘Go-To’ top coat you like best for a 2-part epoxy install with full-chip broadcast floor? I was looking at Rexthane as a possibility.
Hi Matt. Rexthane is a polyurethane coating that has to be applied thin. When going with a full color flake floor, you will need a minimum of three coats if you want to smooth out some of the rough texture of the flakes. We really like single-part polyurea. It’s over twice as thick than Rexthane once cured. Two coats on a full flake floor makes for an excellent clear coat. In addition, it wears much better than Rexthane. We are assuming you are applying the flakes into a high solids epoxy or other coating with a minimum dry film thickness of 5-6 mils? If not, all those color flakes will not adhere very well because the coating is not thick enough to accept them well.