Due to the numerous emails, comment questions, and some unfortunate mistakes made when purchasing clear top coats for garage floor coatings, we have decided to post this article to help clear things up (no pun intended). Our objective here is to prevent some of the confusion, disappointment, and poor results some people have encountered when choosing a clear coat.
As a refresher, clear top coats have many advantages when applied to a garage floor coating. Besides creating a nice, semi-gloss to glossy finish to your color coat, clear coats lock-in and protect the color flakes and act as a sacrificial layer that protects the underlying base color coat.
The problem, however, is that some people are unknowingly purchasing the wrong product, poor product, or trying to apply a clear coat to paint.
No Clear Coats for Garage Floor Paint
The first mistake is purchasing latex acrylic garage floor paint or 1-Part epoxy paint for your garage floor with the intention of applying a clear coat to it. Paint for concrete is designed as a one-and-done product.
Technically, paint is not a coating. Unfortunately, marketing practices by the large companies that produce these products intentionally do not make that very clear, especially when they call it epoxy paint. Coatings actually seal the concrete of your garage floor while paint does not. Read here for more information about the difference between paint and coatings.
The main reason that most clear coats will not work with paint is because the majority are solvent based or has some form of solvents in it. The moment that you apply it to your water based latex garage floor paint, the paint can soften and sometimes even bleed into the clear as you are applying it.
Technically you can rough up the surface of latex paint after it has dried and apply a water based epoxy clear to it. The issue though is that it doesn’t make much sense to do so in most cases. Water based epoxy clears are generally three times more expensive than paint. If you are going to spend the money for an epoxy clear coat, you should also apply an epoxy coating to the concrete initially and not paint.
Some of these paint companies do offer an acrylic clear that can be applied to paint. Do not use it! These acrylic clear coats are water based and inferior for garage use. They are designed for foot traffic such as patios and walk ways. They will soften, smudge, and peel the moment you spill any gasoline or brake fluid on it. Most petroleum based products such as oil or transmission fluid can cause it tor break down if it sits on it for more than a small length of time as well.
Unfortunately we have seen some online vendors of actual 2-Part epoxy garage floor coatings offer what they call a “clear glaze coat” for a clear coat. This is an acrylic product as well and people often complain of the poor performance. Again, we recommend not to use it.
Home Improvement Centers Don’t Sell Clear Coats
With some exceptions, home improvement centers and hardware stores do not offer the proper clear coats for concrete coatings. They do a good job of carrying the traditional DIY epoxy garage floor kits, but most do not carry the manufacturer’s optional clear coat to go with them. Rust-Oleum EpoxyShield and Quikrete are good examples. You generally need to special order the clear coat from the stores or purchase them from vendors on line.
We have noticed that this trend is slowly changing however. Home Depot, for example, has started carrying RockSolid’s new Polycuramine garage floor coatings and some sell the optional clear coat to go with it. Lowes sells the Valspar line of garage floor epoxy kits with the optional clear epoxy as well.
What they don’t carry at all is the commercial quality polyurethane and polyurea clear coats as well as the high solids commercial quality epoxy clear coats. We suggest reading our article on how to choose a clear top coat to get a better idea about the difference in clear coats and which type may be best for you.
As a rule, home improvement centers in general are not the best place to start your search and gather information for garage floor coatings. While they may have the product that you ultimately decide is best for you, do not rely on the information that they may provide. This article will help to explain why.
Don’t Buy Polyurethane For Wood Floors
This is an unfortunate mistake that we’ve received quite a few emails about. While we applaud the fact that these people took the time to research and learn that polyurethane has many advantages over epoxy, they didn’t take the time to read the product label of the polyurethane that they purchased and applied to their garage floor coating.
Can you guess where these polyurethane coatings were purchased? You got it — home improvement centers and hardware stores. The polyurethane we are referring to are the water based and oil based polyurethane for wood floors and furniture. Varathane and Minwax are good examples.
This type of polyurethane is not compatible with epoxy and certainly not compatible with concrete for that matter. If applied to epoxy during the recoat window, you will end up with a yellow tinted mess that you will need to scrape up off the surface. If you are lucky, it will not have contaminated the epoxy color coat in the process.
Where Can I Buy A Clear Top Coat For My Garage Floor Coating?
If you want a clear top coat and are thinking of purchasing a traditional garage floor epoxy kit from a home improvement center, verify first that the clear coat is available from them. If not, here are some epoxy clear coat examples from Amazon that are available.
The higher performance clear coats such as polyurethane and polyurea are generally purchased through concrete coating vendors online. Many of our sponsors are good examples. These vendors specialize in concrete coatings and carry a wide variety of quality products. They specialize in garage floor coatings and are a great source of information as well.
Sherwin Williams is another source if you are looking for a brick and mortar store to purchase from. They won’t sell their best commercial quality product to the general consumer, but they do carry some good quality epoxy and polyurethane coatings for residential use.
The reason you will not find commercial quality epoxy and clear coatings at home improvement centers and hardware stores is for the simple fact they require some attention to detail to apply properly. They cannot provide the type of assistance and information required for applying these types of coatings. Most kits offered by major retailers are designed to be easily applied. This is why the quality isn’t the best when compared to product offered by the specialty vendors.
Final Tips
If you are considering a particular type of garage floor coating and are unsure about your clear coat options for that product, take advantage of the toll free number that the manufacturer provides and ask for assistance.
Stay within the manufacturer line. For example, if you apply a garage floor coating by Rust-Oleum, then the Rust-Oleum clear coat will work with your coating. This insures that you will not have any compatibility issues with your clear top coat.
If you opt for a higher performance clear coat such as polyurethane or polyurea, contact the vendor you are interested in and ask about compatibility.
If you are considering the higher performance garage floor coatings available from online vendors, take advantage of their knowledge and experience. Give them a call or email them for information. They can help qualify you and provide options based on your needs. Plus, they are great for assisting you with questions about application and concrete preparation.
Finally, if you ever have the slightest doubt about your clear top coat options, compatibility, or application, make sure to seek help from the vendor or manufacturer before you make your purchase. That way you are insured a successful outcome instead of a poor and potentially costly experience.
I am using Rustoleum Professional epoxyshield for our garage floor. It’s a three car garage and the cost is really adding up. I am looking for a lower cost clear coat to use instead of the Rustoleum epoxy clear coat as it is really pricey. Is there another brand that I could use that would work? Or maybe the Rustoleum concrete sealer wet look as it is a third of the cost of the Rustoleum epoxy clear coat. Maybe a lower cost Polyurethane product instead?
Hello Sara. The Rust-Oleum clear is about as cheap as you are going to find. One thing you do not want to do is try to save money on materials when doing a garage floor coating. You get what you pay for and will regret it after it is done. The Rust-Oleum concrete wet look sealer is a water based acrylic and we do not recommend it. It’s much thinner, it will scratch easily, it will not cover the optional color flakes very well, and it will soften and create a mess if exposed to solvents such as gasoline. It’s more for foot traffic such as walkways and patios.
Hello – I just recently put on Behr, 1 part Epoxy Garage/Floor Slate Gray paint on a garage floor. I noticed that hot tire pickup are leaving tracks on the garage floor. Would putting the Rustoleum Clear Coat epoxy prevent the hot tire pickup from occurring? Thank you –
Hello Clayton. Hot tire pickup is when the tires pull up chunks of the paint where they were parked after the tires have cooled down. If that is what you are experiencing, then a clear epoxy coat will not help. Paint is thin and does not adhere as well to concrete as traditional epoxy does. The paint will still peel up from the concrete no matter what you put on top of it.
I am going to do the Rust Oleum Epoxy Shield to my garage floor this weekend, brand new floor about 2 months old. How long after i apply the epoxy shield should i wait to do the Rust Oleum Clear Top Coat.
Hi Jason. You need to wait a minimum of 10-12 hours, weather dependent, before you can recoat. Press your thumb to the coating and if it doesn’t leave a print then it will be ready. You generally have a recoat window of 48-76 hours. After that, it requires deglossing the coating by roughing it up with 120 grit sandpaper before applying another coat.
Hi Shea, Im looking for an epoxy or polyurethane I can use on new commercial vct tile
Hello Ronnie. We had already answered this question for you when you asked in the comments section of this article here. Just scroll down and you will see it.
Hello I just put on my exterior patio the rust-oleum decorative concrete coating slate color and sprinkled the decorative color chips but would like to seal the chips down with a gloss clear coat. Which clear coat can I use?
Hello Eddie. The Rust-Oleum Decorative Concrete Coating is an acrylic textured coating. It’s designed as a U.V. stable coating that will provide slip protection. We checked the data sheets and it is not designed to have color flakes added, nor a clear coat. You might be able to add one of their acrylic clear coats, but keep in mind that if you do it will loose some of the texture that provides anti-slip protection. We suggest giving Rust-Oleum Customer Service a call or email and ask them.
Hello,
I am so frustrated. I am painting my concrete basement floor with the 1 part epoxy paint from Lowes. I applied the clear seal on top and have an area that is staying white as well as areas that look like they were never covered. Help
Hi Wendy. What is the exact name of the clear you applied?
Just last week I applied two coats of dark grey Rustoleum Professional, followed by a coat of Rustoleum Clear.
After reading your awesome website I found out that the Rustoleum clear isn’t UV stable. There is about two inches of the garage slab that extends outside the garage door that will get sun daily.
I called Rustoleum for a UV stable solution with little help.
Can you recommend a Clear coat I can apply that will protect all the hard work I have invested in the floor so far.
Thanks for your time and the great site!
Hi Tony. There are clear coats that are U.V. stable, but they are not going to solve your problem. Though these U.V. stable clear coats will not amber, they will still allow some U.V. light through the coating (because it is clear) which will cause both the Rust-Oleum clear and color coats underneath to amber. Your best solution is to just live with the small strip outside the door that will amber. Another option is to rough up that section with some 100 grit sandpaper and color match with a good concrete floor paint (no, you can’t clear coat it). Concrete paint is an acrylic latex and will not amber. Because you will only drive over that strip and not park on it, it will hold up fairly well. Plus, it’s not difficult to repaint it if necessary.
Thanks so much! I’ve learned so much from your website and from doing my first floor!