Coating Durability Essentials: What Truly Determines Coating Longevity

What Factors Affect The Durability Of Concrete Coatings? 

What really determines how long your concrete coating will last? The answer might surprise you. David Nanninga, president of Mile High Coatings, reveals that durability depends more on the concrete substrate than environmental factors. For optimal results, concrete needs to cure for 28 days to reach 95% hardness before any coating application. This crucial waiting period creates the foundation for long-lasting results.

Temperature plays a significant role in successful installations. While most coatings require temperatures between 35-40°F, the polyaspartic formulations used by Mile High Coatings offer remarkable flexibility—technically installable down to -30°F (though you'll never catch their team working in such extreme conditions!). This versatility enables year-round installations for interior spaces like garages and basements, with only outdoor projects being seasonal in Colorado's variable climate. Surprisingly, fall emerges as the ideal season for coating projects, balancing perfect temperatures with minimal environmental interference.

The sun stands as the universal enemy of all coatings. UV exposure gradually breaks down even the highest quality polymers over time, similar to how car paint fades without protection. Other environmental challenges include falling leaves embedding in wet coatings and the occasional insect creating unwanted texture. While garage floors require minimal maintenance beyond basic cleaning with dish soap or degreasers, outdoor applications may need more attention depending on sun exposure and surrounding conditions. Each project demands a customized approach to maximize longevity. Whether you're transforming your garage, basement, patio, or commercial space, understanding these factors helps ensure your investment stands the test of time.

Ready to elevate your space with expert guidance? Mile High Coatings offers free consultations to help you navigate these considerations for your specific project.

To learn more about Mile High Coatings visit:
https://www.MileHighCoatings.com
Mile High Coatings
970-314-1023

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Mile High Coatings podcast, where we
elevate your spaces to a newpeak in quality.
Hosted by David Nanega,president of Mile High Coatings,
this podcast explores howexpert residential painting,
concrete coatings and epoxyflooring can transform garages,
basements, patios and commercialspaces across Colorado's front

(00:25):
range.
So grab your favorite beverage,sit back and dive into the
world of high-quality coatings.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Not all coatings are created equal and not all
surfaces are ready for them.
David Nanaga shares the keyfactors that impact how long
your concrete coating lasts,from prep work to product
selection and beyond.
Welcome back everyone.
I am Millie M, co-host andproducer.
Back in the studio, davidNanica, president of Mile High
Coatings.
How are you, david?

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Good, how are you?

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Doing well, doing well.
Durability is everything, sowhat environmental factors
affect the durability ofconcrete?

Speaker 3 (01:07):
coatings.
So usually the things thataffect the durability are more
related to the concretesubstrate than the surrounding
environment.
So usually all manufacturers ofcoatings want the concrete to

(01:31):
be cured for 28 days before acoating is placed.
At 28 days concrete reaches 95%cure hardness and at that point
you can, you know it's safe toto apply a coating With respect
to, you know, the environmentitself.

(01:52):
Of course there's, there's atypical window, you know, an
operating window fortemperatures for most coatings
typically those are kind of your, you know, maybe 35 to 40
degrees and rising.
You know, if we get, you know,on the high end, you know you
generally probably don't want tobe direct sunlight when it's,

(02:15):
you know, 90 degrees or whateveryou know.
And so, with that said, aproduct that we use, probably
the most, called polyaspartic,is very tolerant to temperature
and it can actually be installeddown to negative 30 degrees.
Now that's obviously prettyextreme and we would never

(02:36):
really install it when it's evenclose to that, mostly because
the guys would probably befrozen solid If they're.
You know it'd be, I mean youcan imagine.
So even on days when it's goingto be at maybe a high of 20
degrees, we might punt on thatday and say, okay, let's you

(02:57):
know, let's look at a day that'sa little bit nicer outside and
I'm kind of referencingsomething like a garage board
coating.
Obviously, when it comes topatios and outdoor types of
projects, we need generallywarmer temperatures because we
don't want it to freezeovernight and cause dew.

(03:23):
We don't want moisture toaffect the curing process.
The other thing that's alwaystricky from an environmental
perspective when installing thecoating is certain times of year

(03:43):
fall, you get leaves startingto drop, you know you get a
burst of wind and all of asudden you know you're applying
a wet coating on a patio andyou're gonna burst the wind and
it blows a bunch of wet but abunch of leaves on the wet
coating.
So these are probably going tostick to.
It causes issues there.
There's been a few times overthe years where we've had bugs,

(04:05):
you know, walk across or flyland, whatever into the coating.
So those are just of course,things that you just inherently
can't control at the end of theday.
But sun exposure is probably,you know, UV is just kind of the
killer of coatings, kind of nomatter what If you really think
about it, the sun just wearsdown everything.

(04:29):
I mean, the coatings arepolymers, they're essentially
plastics, for lack of a betterword, and so, at the end of the
day, repeated UV exposure, longterm, is going to degrade pretty
much anything.
I mean, if you think about it,the sun, the sun beats down

(04:50):
everything.
It doesn't matter.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
There's a lot of things, including like your car
paint, if you're not Exactly.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
Coating or not, I mean it just does a number, yep.
And so, just straight up, sunexposure over time will
eventually cause degradation ofeverything, including coatings,
and so that's something ofcourse to be aware of.
So we install coatingsyear-round, we do garage floors

(05:21):
year-round, obviously, we can dobasements.
Those are indoors, so we dothose all the time, and about
the only thing we don't do inthe winter is, you know, outdoor
stuff driveways and patios andwalkways and things like that.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
So, yeah, Well, it's reassuring to know that you know
you don't have to put yourproject off, because I was
thinking maybe because of severeweather concerns there might be
a season where you mightsuggest someone put off their
flooring, but you say youinstall all.
Is there a season that justworks better for you, that you
enjoy more as far as theinstallation because of the

(05:58):
climate out there in Colorado?

Speaker 3 (06:00):
For sure.
I mean, you can't beat abeautiful Colorado fall yeah it
is for sure, but yeah, we umyeah it's, it's.
It's so beautiful, I mean fallis pretty ideal for a lot of
things, definitely including, uh, installing um coatings, you
know springtime can be good too,but then you know, springtime
can of course be a littlevolatile, I mean especially here

(06:22):
in colorado.
You never know um, you know itcan be.
Um, you know sunny and nice andyou get a.
You know it can be.
You know sunny and nice and youget a.
You know it can be 70 degreesone day and you get a snowstorm
literally the next day.
It happens.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Snow in the spring.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, for sure.

Speaker 3 (06:43):
So I think probably ideally, you know, kind of your
spring, summer, fall months, butagain, we do them year round.
And I say probably, you know,ideally those months, the warmer
months For people that live intheir homes and have to move
stuff, say out of a garage, youknow, a lot of times people will

(07:05):
put stuff in their driveway.
We have other options that wecan help with or suggest.
People don't want to just leavetheir stuff out, you know,
outside.
So of course in the wintertimethat's not very appealing, and
so oftentimes in the winter,where you know the garage floors
that we're coating are maybenew homes or a home that someone

(07:26):
just purchased and they haven'tmoved in yet so they have the
benefit of having an alreadycleared out garage.
And so of course we can go inand coat the floor, even if it's
, you know, dead winter, youknow middle of winter or
whatever, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
So it's like the inconvenience of winter has
nothing to do with the floor andeverything to do with us, the
work in the homeowners?
Yeah, for sure.
So how do you educate clientson maintaining their coatings
over time, whether that beweather-related or otherwise?

Speaker 3 (07:57):
Yeah, so typically the coatings you know in a
garage floor really don't needmaintenance from a reapplication
of a clear coat over time.
From a cleaning perspective,they're, you know, they're meant
to be easy to clean and so dishsoap simple, green or any kind
of basic decreasing soap,cleaner, is usually going to be

(08:21):
good and make cleaning the floorpretty easy.
So from a maintenancestandpoint, outdoors, depending
on the application, there's alot of variations, a lot of
different applications.
Depending on the level of sunexposure and kind of what, the
you know what kind of theimmediate environment of that

(08:44):
particular house or project,whatever, will kind of determine
what level of maintenance youmight need or expect.
So so that's so it, kind ofcase by case, it can vary
sometimes, you know, you mightlook at a reapplication every
couple years if it's maybe astamped concrete patio, which
which are a different type ofcoatings than we would do, um

(09:06):
you know, versus maybe adriveway or just regular
concrete.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
Sounds like that's a one-on-one conversation that
they should have with you Winter, spring, summer, fall.
David's your guy Mile HighCoatings.
That was packed with practicalinsight.
Thank you for helping usunderstand what really makes a
coating last, and we'll catchyou next time on Mile High
Coatings podcast.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
Really makes a coating last, and we'll catch
you next time on Mile HighCoatings Podcast.
Thanks for tuning in to theMile High Coatings Podcast.
Ready to give your space afresh, durable finish, visit
milehighcoatingscom for a freeprice quote or call 970-314-1023
.
At Mile High Coatings, we'renot just painting walls.

(09:51):
We're setting a new peak inquality.
Until next time, keep yourstandards high and your coatings
higher.