Why Pros Choose Polyaspartic Flooring Over Traditional Epoxy

What Is Polyaspartic Flooring, And How Does It Differ From Epoxy?

The battle between concrete coating materials has a clear winner, and in this episode, David Nanninga reveals why polyaspartic has become the gold standard for quality flooring solutions. Developed initially in the 1950s as a steel coating, polyaspartic technology has evolved into the premier choice for concrete surfaces across residential and commercial applications.

David walks us through the compelling advantages that convinced Mile High Coatings to switch almost exclusively to polyaspartic systems. Most striking is the dramatic difference in cure time – you can walk on polyaspartic floors after just 2-4 hours compared to epoxy's 8-12 hours, with full curing happening significantly faster than epoxy's seven-day timeline. For homeowners and businesses alike, this translates to minimal disruption and faster project completion.

Beyond practical considerations, polyaspartic delivers superior performance characteristics that justify its slightly higher cost. Unlike epoxy, it's completely UV stable, meaning it won't yellow or amber with sun exposure. Its exceptional hardness provides superior scratch and scuff resistance, maintaining that showroom-quality gloss finish for years longer than traditional epoxy systems. For those seeking an exceptionally smooth surface, David explains how combining epoxy's self-leveling properties with polyaspartic's durability creates the ultimate flooring solution.

Whether you're considering options for your garage, basement, patio or commercial space, this episode offers invaluable insights into modern concrete coating technology. David even shares how clear polyaspartic sealers can enhance natural concrete for those wanting a minimalist aesthetic without sacrificing protection. With Mile High Coatings' lifetime warranty on garage floors, it's clear they stand behind the remarkable performance of polyaspartic systems.

Ready to transform your concrete surfaces with the industry's most advanced coating technology? Visit Milehighcoatings.com for a free quote or call 970-314-1023 to discover how polyaspartic flooring can elevate your space to new heights of beauty and durability.

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 (00:40):
Polyaspartic flooring is turning heads as a
high-performance alternative toepoxy, but what sets it apart?
In this episode, we dig intowhy it's becoming a game changer
for garages and commercialspaces.
Welcome back everyone.
I'm Millie M, co-host andproducer.
Back in the studio with DavidNanega, president of Mile High
Coatings.
How's it going, david?

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Going well.
Today we have a beautifulFriday.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yes, excited about that and also excited to dive
into the pros and cons ofpolyaspartic.
Sounds like it's giving epoxy arun for its money, so what is
polyaspartic flooring and howdoes it differ from epoxy?

Speaker 3 (01:15):
So polyaspartic has certainly become, I would say,
probably the gold standard atthis point.
We started installingpolyaspartic coatings in 2011
and really never looked back.
Prior to that, we were usingepoxy and when we first started
in 2011, we still used epoxy upuntil around COVID.

(01:37):
But just to kind of give alittle bit of a background on
polyaspartic, it was developedin like the 1950s by Bayer and
they had a patent on it and thenit was originally developed and
used as a coating for steel toprevent corrosion on steel, and
I believe the patent expired inthe early 90s and then it became

(02:00):
sort of redeveloped, if youwill, and chemists realized that
the coating I guess thechemistry of the coating could
be manipulated and reformulatedin ways that were beneficial for
concrete.
So you know you've got curetime, which there's a huge

(02:23):
difference in cure time betweenpolyaspartic and epoxy.
For instance, you can walk onpolyaspartic after a few hours,
so typically two to four hourwalk on time, whereas epoxy you
might be eight to 12 hours and,as far as actual cure time,
epoxy could be seven days.
Another benefit to polyasparticover epoxy is that it's UV

(02:47):
stable, so epoxies will amberwith light UV exposure over time
and polyaspartic does not dothat, which is which is a huge
advantage.
Another advantage is theabrasion resistance and
durability that polyasparticexhibits over epoxy.
So when I say abrasionresistance and durability that
polyaspartic exhibits over epoxy.
So when I say abrasionresistance, think of, you know,

(03:10):
scratching or scuffing thecoating.
So the hardness of polyasparticwill resist scratching and
scuffing much more than epoxywill.
Epoxy is essentially softer andso it's going to scratch and
abrade much easier and that alsotranslates to gloss retention.

(03:31):
So you start out with a shinycoating and as you abrade it and
scratch it and scuff it, itbecomes dull over time over time
.
So polyaspartic, being harderand having better abrasion
resistance, is going to maintainits gloss for much longer than
epoxy will.

(03:51):
So those are probably maybesome of the key differences.
Polyaspartic is more expensivethan epoxy.
However, since COVID especiallyit was either, I think, in 21,
we really saw a big run-up inthe cost of epoxy resins.
I think that summer of 21,.
Epoxy resins jumped like 40%,so it really closed the gap in

(04:15):
the cost difference betweenepoxy and polyaspartic.
It was kind of around that timethat we kind of just said you
know what?
There's really no advantage atthis point to using just epoxy
along with polyaspartic and sowe kind of switched to just
doing a full polyasparticcoating system.
We do a lifetime warranty onour garage floors and it's
certainly kind of the creme dela creme of coatings.

(04:37):
You know it's used withindustrial spaces, heavy, heavy
manufacturing equipment, storage.
Yeah, it's just a great allaround coding and and I think
that's reflected also becausepractically all you know, most,
most if not all competitorcompetitors are using

(04:58):
polyaspartic anymore.
So, like I said the beginning,it's kind of the gold standard.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
So Well, it sounds like it's just a stronger, more
durable product, and, especiallyif the prices are comparable,
you might as well go with thehigher quality products, and I
can see this as being somethingthat's great that cure time
being faster for investors andeven for home remodels to get
things going a little bit faster.

(05:22):
So what makes quality asparticbetter suited for like cold or
variable climates.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
You know, it doesn't really matter, temperature
doesn't affect it too much.
Another consideration ismoisture or humidity, rather,
and so it's used across thecountry.
I mean, certainly here inColorado, you know, along the
Front Range, we install, youknow, 10 to 15 garage doors a

(05:49):
week and we very rarely, if everever, have any issues, you know
, related to temperaturescertainly in a extreme cold
environment.
It's going to take longer to dryand cure, but it still will.
The chemistry, will you know?
It's a part a and a part b andare mixed together and they it

(06:12):
creates a chemical reaction.
That chemical reaction stillhappens regardless of the
temperature.
It just might be slower whenit's, you know, 10 degrees
outside, and so what I typicallytell people is you know, if
it's, if it's going to be a highof, say, 20 degrees or
something, if it's going to bepretty cold that day, we may
want to look at potentiallydelaying, you know, an install

(06:36):
of, say, a garage floor coating,mostly not because of the
coating that can't handle it,but the guys will get cold and
it's bundled up and it's justnot to do your job when you're
freezing.
It doesn't tend to work as well,so there's just kind of some
challenges on that side.
But yeah, I mean you know hot,hot weather too.

(06:58):
It's fine.
I mean, our guys we installedthis year round.
It's a great effective coatingin all sort of temperatures and
climates.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
You got to keep your guys comfortable for sure.
Quickly.
Are there any drawbacks tousing polyaspartic instead of
epoxy, Because it seems like thepolyaspartic is winning on all
fronts.

Speaker 3 (07:21):
I would say there's maybe one or two drawbacks.
One might be if someone'slooking for for, say, a really
just flat sort of smooth I guessfor lack of a better word floor

(07:42):
epoxy is going to have anadvantage.
There you can do what's called100 solids epoxies, which get
applied fairly thick, and sothat's going to have a quality
of self-leveling.
So that's going to have aquality of self-leveling.
Because the epoxy doesn't cureas fast, it stays wet longer and
it'll level out and so thatthickness will help kind of

(08:10):
bridge.
You know waves and undulationsthat you might see, you know, on
a concrete floor for instance.
So epoxy I'm sorry, polyasparticbecause it cures so fast it
doesn't necessarily have time tolevel out.
In that same way we use a reallyhigh solids polyaspartic, but
because it cures fast it doesn'texhibit the same sort of
characteristics that epoxy wouldin terms of leveling.
So in that case what we do forpeople that really want that

(08:34):
just really smooth, flat look,we'll use an epoxy as like a
base coat or a primer coat andget that build and get that you
know, that flatness, and then wecan still top coat it with
polyaspartic.
So you still get the benefit ofthe UV stability, you still get
the benefit of the performanceof the polyaspartic coupled with

(08:55):
the sort of the flatness thatthe epoxy will give you, and I'd
say that's maybe the oneadvantage that epoxy might have.
I mean, it's a little bitcheaper, I guess, per gallon,
but you end up using more epoxy.
So really the cost, you know,end up being kind of even so,

(09:18):
and people don't realize that ifthey're comparing a gallon of
epoxy and it's half the price ofa gallon of polyaspartic.
But if you're using twice asmuch epoxy, then your costs are
the same.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
The's been the same about.
That sounds like the best ofboth worlds to use the
polyaspartic and the epoxy.
So excuse my ignorance, but Iknow there was a trend at some
point of people going with justbare concrete floors.
So do you use that epoxy on theinside as well as that
polyaspartic to get, I guess, asmoother finish if someone
decides to do just plainconcrete floors on the inside?

Speaker 3 (09:56):
So we can do a couple different things For people
that want just a regularconcrete finished floor, that
you're probably going to startexploring polished concrete,
which we do polished concrete aswell and that's almost a
completely different type ofapplication.
I was just asking.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
You said level and I was like, oh well, people do
concrete on the inside.

Speaker 3 (10:18):
So I thought maybe absolutely, and we do have a an
application for people that thatwant the finished concrete look
.
They want the look of polishedconcrete, but we can use
polyaspartic as a clear coat sogive a nice shine.
Of course it seals the floor.
We call that a grind and seal.

(10:39):
So when we prep a garage flooror really about any concrete
floor we do we use a diamondgrinder which is like a sander
for concrete, so it's not likesuper duper aggressive or
anything like that, but it prepsthe floor adequately and
properly for for the coating,for adhesion purposes, and so
for people that want a finishedconcrete floor but they want it

(11:02):
to just look like concrete, wecan do a grind and seal and so
we prep the floor with thediamond grinder, clean it all up
and then we apply a clearpolyaspartic sealer over the top
so you still get the advantagesof of it being sealed.
You know chemicals and waterand whatever other potential

(11:22):
contaminants aren't going tosoak into the concrete at that
point, and so that's a niceadvantage over something like a
polished concrete, wherepolished concrete can be
susceptible to staining andcertain contaminants.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
So see, I knew you could could use polyaspartic on
the inside.

Speaker 3 (11:41):
You got it.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yeah Well, thank you for that deep dive.
David Polyaspartic clearly hasits place in elevating concrete
surfaces.
We appreciate your insights andwe'll see you on the next
episode.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
Sounds great.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
Thanks for tuning in to the mile 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.
We're setting a new peak inquality.

(12:18):
Until next time, keep yourstandards high and your coatings
.
We're not just painting walls.
We're setting a new peak inquality.
Until next time, keep yourstandards high and your coatings
higher.