A practical walkthrough of choosing a system, preparing the slab, estimating materials, and getting the cure right — written for the contractors and homeowners who buy these products from us in Ottawa.
Almost every garage or shop floor is a build-up of two or three products, not one. Getting the combination right matters more than any single product choice.
Epoxy is the foundation. It is high-build, bonds hard to prepared concrete, and is the most economical way to put real thickness down. Its one weakness is ultraviolet light — left exposed, an epoxy surface will amber over time. That is not a defect; it is simply what epoxy does, and it is why epoxy usually lives underneath something else.
Polyaspartic is the topcoat that solves it. It is UV-stable so it stays clear, cures fast enough to return a floor to service the same day, and stays flexible at low temperatures — which matters a great deal in Ottawa, where an unheated garage slab swings through a wide range every year.
Polyurethane sits in similar territory as a topcoat, typically chosen for abrasion resistance and chemical exposure in commercial settings.
For most residential garages the answer is an epoxy base coat with a polyaspartic topcoat, with flake broadcast between them. Browse the epoxy systems, polyaspartic coatings, and polyurethane coatings to compare data sheets.
Coating failures are almost never the coating's fault. They are adhesion failures, and adhesion is decided before a single pail is opened.
Bare concrete needs a mechanical profile — diamond grinding or shot blasting — so the coating has something to key into. A smooth, power-troweled slab will not hold a coating no matter how good the product is. Acid etching is a distant second best and is not adequate for most of these systems.
Test for moisture before you commit. Concrete that looks bone dry can still be driving vapour up from below, and that vapour will push a coating off the slab months later. If the slab is on grade, has no vapour barrier underneath, or tests high, start with a moisture control system rather than hoping for the best.
Fill and repair before coating, not after. Cracks, spalls and pitting want patching and filler products first — a coating follows the shape of what is underneath it and will telegraph every defect you left behind.
Coverage is published per gallon at a stated film thickness. Our 100%-solids epoxy base coats run roughly 200 sq ft per gallon at 8 mils. Work from that and then adjust.
A two-car garage of about 400–500 sq ft therefore needs in the region of 2 to 2.5 gallons for a single coat, and most floors get a base coat plus a topcoat. Order both in one go so your batches match.
Then account for reality. Porous or freshly ground concrete drinks more than the published rate, so a prime coat can consume noticeably more than the arithmetic suggests. Build a slurry or trowel-down system and the rate drops sharply — filled systems at heavier thicknesses cover a fraction of what a thin finish coat does. Always buy a margin; running short mid-pour is far more expensive than a spare kit, because you cannot pause a chemical cure.
Every product page lists its own coverage figures at each thickness. If you would rather have someone check the math against your slab, send the dimensions through and we will work it out with you.
Flake does three jobs at once: it hides slab imperfections, adds slip resistance underfoot, and gives the floor its character. It is broadcast into the wet base coat and then locked in by the topcoat.
Chip size changes the look substantially. At 1/32" and 1/16" the blend reads as a fine texture rather than distinct pieces. At 1/8" — the most common residential choice — individual chips are clearly visible with balanced coverage. At 1/4" and above the effect is bold and decorative.
How heavily you broadcast matters as much as the size. A full broadcast to refusal gives a dense, uniform surface and uses considerably more material than a light accent scatter over a solid colour. Decide which look you want before ordering, because the quantity difference is large.
We carry 97 named blends — browse the full flake range, or pair a solid base with pigments for a metallic or solid-colour finish instead.
These are chemical products, and chemistry is unforgiving about conditions. Typical application windows for our systems are 15°C to 30°C with relative humidity at or below 85%, with the substrate itself at least 15°C — not just the air.
Pot life is the clock you cannot argue with. Once the two components are mixed, the reaction has started whether or not you are ready, and warmer conditions shorten the working time. Mix only what you can place, and never mix a second kit into a batch that has already begun to thicken.
On cure: at roughly 20°C, expect foot traffic after about a day, light traffic in around three days, and full cure at seven. Cold slows all of this down considerably. Vehicle traffic should wait for full cure — parking hot tires on a floor that has not finished curing is one of the most common ways a good installation gets ruined in its first week.