Polyaspartic Vs. Polyurea Floor Coatings: Deciding What’s Best for Your Garage

When it comes to different garage floor coatings, we’ve done our research. From polyurea and epoxy to paints and polyaspartic, we've had decades of experience working with different suppliers, testing out the top of the line materials, and seeing the end result of various floor coating systems.

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As you begin to narrow down your choices in garage floors, it's important to make an educated decision on what is right for your home. Polyaspartic and polyurea concrete coatings have become a popular choice for many homeowners. They are both highly durable, long-lasting, and have a lot of the same benefits. Let's explore further to understand which flooring system is is best for your garage.

About Polyurea: Benefits & Risks

Polyurea is a subgroup of polyurethane, and a 2-part compound (like epoxy). It is a coating that bonds to the moisture in your concrete garage floors to create a protective barrier that prevents scratches, stains, and other threats to your garage floor. It is a very durable material that is used to coat and seal garage floors. Because it is so durable, it lasts longer than traditional coatings, is scratch-resistant, great for protecting against spills. 

Benefits of Polyurea Floor Coating

Polyurea concrete coatings have many benefits that make the coating long-lasting. The chemical makeup of polyurea means that there can be variables in the flooring benefits, but the consistent benefits include: 

• Coating can be installed very quickly
• Floors cure to an incredible level of hardness
• Forms a long-lasting chemical bond with concrete
• Extremely durable and flexible
• Resistant to fading, chipping, and cracking

Risks of Polyurea Floor Coating

Due to polyurea’s two-ingredient combination, there are a lot of differences amongst marketed polyurea products. These differences can impact the performance of the coating. The advantages of polyurea are dependent on the variety, or purity, of the polyurea product. Different products have very different physical properties and life spans, which impacts the risks that include:

• Certain varieties of polyurea (aromatic plolyureas) are not UV stable
• Without proper preparation, polyurea won’t correctly bond with your concrete leading to poor adhesion
• Polyurea’s fast curing process requires expertise and an understanding of the material to get the product’s best performance, meaning professional installation is required

Many of the assumed risks of polyurea are due to a lack of understanding the variety of polyurea products that exist on the market. Overall, polyurea concrete coatings are a great choice if you are willing to invest more money upfront for a type of coating that will last long-term.

About Polyaspartics: Benefits & Risks

All polyaspartics are a polyurea, but not all polyureas are polyaspartic. A polyaspartic is a polyurea with a slowed-down cure rate. A polyaspartic floor system consists of a colored base coat, vinyl flake layer and a clear top coat for shine and durability. The surfaces are layered by spraying, painting or plastering to prevent corrosion and erosion. 

Benefits Polyaspartic Floor Coating

Polyaspartics have benefits that lend themselves to certain applications, including:

• A slowed-down curing rate that allows the coating to be applied over a longer time frame and in a more traditional manner 
• Coating is more affordable than alternatives 
• The end result is scratch and impact-resistant
• Consistently UV stable
• Low VOCs mean their fumes will not linger much longer past application

Risks of Polyaspartic Floor Coating

Polyaspartic mixtures function well for a topcoat application, but there are limitations when used as a basecoat. These risks include:

• Polyaspartics applied directly to raw concrete (as a basecoat) cure too quickly and only form a surface bond. Over time, a surface bond will fail because of the natural cracking of the concrete. 
• Floors are highly susceptible to corrosion from acid.
• Cannot be installed in areas where there is moisture present
• Known to be slippery when wet due to their lack of texture. This is because the coating is a smooth, glossy surface that does not provide adequate grip, often a non-slip additive is added to the coating before it is applied.
• Treated floors are very hard and tough which enhance protection but may hinder repairs and modifications.

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Polyaspartics are highly durable, and both impact and scratch-resistant. These floor coatings are highly resistant to chemicals and abrasion due to the product's chemical makeup.

Webfoot’s Polyaspartic Polyurea is the Best Choice

Webfoot’s pure polyurea concrete coating is composed of an aromatic polyurea as a basecoat and a polyaspartic aliphatic polyurea as a topcoat. Our product is high-cost, but high-performance. This type of coating utilizes the hardworking benefits of the aromatic polyurea basecoat, the UV stability and high-gloss aesthetic of aliphatic polyurea, and the slowed curing rate and longer pot-life of a polyaspartic. 

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More About Polyurea Concrete Coatings

Problems with Polyurea Floor Coatings

Webfoot’s product is a pure (100%) polyurea concrete coating that we get directly from the manufacturer, Penntek Industrial Coatings. As a pure polyurea, it differs from competitors who offer polyaspartics and other watered-down polyurea blends. Our pure polyurea is the strongest and most durable form of polyurea. Webfoot is Addressing 7 Problems with Polyurea Floor Coatings so you can feel confident when you choose our multi-layered pure polyurea system.

Polyurea Garage Floor Coatings

In comparison to epoxy systems, there are many reasons that polyurea comes out on top. Explore the comparison of Garage Floor Epoxy vs. Polyurea Garage Floor Coatings to understand what makes polyurea the right choice for your floor.

Polyurea Floor Coating Installation

Professional concrete coatings deliver professional results. We’re supporters of a good DIY project, but when it comes to concrete coatings we make it look easy because we’ve mastered the art. We’ll resurface your floor following a 5-part process: grinding, mending, basecoat application, chip system broadcasting (optional), and topcoat application. We’ll do all of that in just one-day.

Polyurea Concrete Coating Cost

Polyurea concrete coatings are a great choice if you are willing to invest more money upfront for a type of coating that will last long-term. The overall total cost of your project will vary based on the 5 Cost Factors of a Concrete Coating Project.

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