11 Great Reasons To Add Clear Top Coat On Epoxy Garage Floor
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Epoxy Coating is the most popular paint system for garage floors, mainly because it is very hard and durable. The point to note here is that an epoxy garage floor is a system. It is achieved by a series of processes and layers of coatings, including a clear top coat on the epoxy garage floor, to get the final desired look and performance.
The clear top coat on epoxy garage floor is the final layer. It is an extremely important part of the epoxy garage floor coating system.
You may be tempted to skip it but you should not.
Should you Apply Clear Top Coat on Epoxy Garage Floor?
The answer is YES. Here are the 11 reasons why applying a clear top coat over an epoxy garage floor is beneficial. The clear top coat on epoxy garage floor
- Enhances durability and wear resistance
- Preserves color integrity and protects against fading
- Facilitates easy cleaning and maintenance
- Creates a high-gloss, seamless finish
- Conceals scratches and imperfections
- Locks in decorative chips for a polished appearance
- Seals and protects against physical and chemical damage
- Protects from tire marks
- Serves as a medium for anti-slip additives
- Allows for easy refreshing and recoating
- Results in a luxurious finish
Rust-Oleum EpoxyShield Premium Clear Coating
- Low odor, low VOC formula
- Ideal for use on epoxy garage floor coating
- Two part, 100% solids epoxy
- Excellent adhesion, durability, chemical resistance and resistance to hot tire pick up
- Results in show room quality floor that lasts
- Heavy duty coating is walk ready in 24 hours, vehicle ready in 72 hours
11 Reasons to Add a Clear Top Coat to an Epoxy Garage Floor Explained!
1. Enhances Durability and Wear Resistance
Adding a clear coat to epoxy garage floor coating enhances its durability and wear resistance, ensuring the longevity of the flooring.
This protective layer acts as a shield, safeguarding the surface from daily wear and tear caused by foot traffic, vehicle movement, and other activities.
the complete garage floor coating system becomes more resilient to abrasion when the epoxy coating is reinforced with a clear coat,
2. Preserves Color Integrity and Protects Against Fading
The clear coat on epoxy garage floor coating helps preserve the integrity of colors and protects them from fading.
The clear coat is usually fortified with UV resistant properties that act as a shield against direct or indirect sunlight. As a result the colors remain rich and vibrant for much longer.
3. Facilitates Easy Cleaning and Maintenance
Adding a clear coat to epoxy garage floor coating significantly eases cleaning and maintenance tasks. The smooth, sealed surface created by the clear coat prevents dirt, stains, and spills from penetrating the epoxy layer.
Regular cleaning becomes a breeze as the clear coat provides a protective barrier against oil spills and grease marks.
4. Creates a High-Gloss, Seamless Finish
The clear top coat on the epoxy coating results in a high-gloss, seamless finish that enhances the floor’s overall aesthetic appeal.
The high gloss, seamless finish is visually striking and will give your garage floor the polished and professional looks of a car showroom.
5. Conceals Scratches and Imperfections
The clear top coat helps in concealing scratches and imperfections. The additional, protective layer over the epoxy, helps minimize the visibility of scratches, dings, and other surface flaws.
Your epoxy garage floor is able to maintain a smooth and flawless appearance, even in high-traffic areas, for much longer.
6. Locks in Decorative Chips for a Polished Appearance
The color flakes, also known as decorative chips, add texture and visual interest to the flooring. Without a clear coat, these flakes can become loose or dislodged over time.
The clear top coat helps lock in the decorative chips securely into the epoxy, preventing them from shifting or wearing away. Basically the decorative chips get sandwiched between the clear coat on top and the epoxy coat at bottom.
7. Seals and Protects Against Physical and Chemical Damage
A clear top coat over an epoxy garage floor effectively seals and protects the surface against both physical and chemical damage.
Physically, it acts as a resilient barrier, protecting the epoxy coat against abrasions, scratches, and normal wear & tear.
Chemically, the clear coat increases resistance against various substances such as automotive fluids, oils, and chemicals. The fluids are prevented from seeping into the epoxy and causing damage.
8. Protects from Tire Marks
A clear top coat over an epoxy garage floor protects against tire marks by forming a barrier between the tires and the epoxy coating. The resilient clear coat prevents rubber residue from tires from adhering directly to the epoxy surface. Instead, tire marks stay on the clear coat, making them much easier to clean and remove.
9. Serves as a Medium for Anti-Slip Additives
A drawback of Epoxy Coat garage floors is that they are slippery, especially when wet. To make the floor safe you must add an anti-skid agent in the epoxy coat.
However, if you plan to over coat the Epoxy Coat with an Epoxy Clear Top Coat, then it is better to add the anti-skid agent to that. The Epoxy Clear Top Coat will hold the anti-skid agent a lot better, as it is 100% epoxy resin.
10. Allows for Easy Refreshing and Recoating
Epoxy Floors are pretty resistant to scratches, abrasion and spills but wear & tear does take a toll. Moreover, you can not rule out a few minor mishaps on the way. You may drop something sharp and heavy on the floor and nick it. Or inadvertently you keep something really hot on the floor and it melts and distorts at that spot.
Recoating a part of an epoxy floor is tough because it is very difficult to match the color. So the patched up area stands out like a sore thumb. However, if your epoxy coat had an epoxy clear top coat then touch up with a clear coat is rather simple & straight forward.
In fact, if you like, you could just apply a new layer of epoxy clear coat on the entire garage area and the floor will start looking as good as new.
11. Results in a Luxurious Finish
Application of an Epoxy Clear Coat does wonders to the aesthetic appeal of your Epoxy Coat Garage Floor. And it’s not just about a more glossy finish.
The Clear Epoxy Top Coat has a dry film thickness (DFT) of 2.5 – 5.0 mils (62.5 – 125 microns). Because the coating is clear it adds a depth to the floor. The way a glass sheet adds depth to a rosewood or mahogany writing desk.
The result is a rich & luxurious look that you will take pride in. You can show off your garage floor to your neighbors and friends.
Technical Explanations for Some Benefits of Top Coat
Why Does Clear Top Coat Enhance Gloss
Epoxy Clear Top Coats will give you a much higher gloss level as compared to an Epoxy Pigmented Coat. For example if you compare the Technical Data Sheet (TDS) from Rust-oleum EpoxyShield you will find that
EpoxyShield® Water-based Epoxy Garage Floor Coating dries to a Gloss Finish while EpoxyShield Clear Finish Floor Coating dries to a High Gloss Finish.
The reason for this is that the solids in EpoxyShield® Water-based Epoxy Garage Floor Coating is 62.6 – 63.3% by weight, while the solids in EpoxyShield Clear Finish Floor Coating is 100% by weight. So basically the Clear Coat is just all epoxy resin.
References:
EpoxyShield® Water-based Epoxy Garage Floor Coating (TDS):
EPOXYSHIELD® WATER-BASED EPOXY GARAGE FLOOR COATING (POUCH KITS)
EpoxyShield Clear Finish Floor Coating (TDS):
EPOXYSHIELD® CLEAR FINISH FLOOR COATING KIT
Why Does Clear Top Coat Result in Smoother Finish?
Most Epoxy Floor Coatings including EpoxyShield® Water-based Epoxy Garage Floor Coating will not dry to a perfectly smooth finish. It could be one of many reasons.
Epoxy coating takes time to dry. While it is drying, dust in the garage can settle on it and get embedded. This means both loss of smoothness and loss of gloss.
Another problem can be that some air may get trapped in the liquid epoxy during mixing and before application. The air may leave pin holes as it tries to escape when the epoxy dries, resulting in a rough surface.
Direct sunlight and very cold temperatures can also lead to pinholing. Pinholing can also be a result of high porosity or high moisture content in the concrete.
Most likely you are also sprinkling decorative color chips on your Epoxy Coat. Not all chips will fall flat on the paint film. Many will be at an angle, sticking out of the epoxy coat surface.
And this is not even a complete list of what can go wrong. The application of an Epoxy Clear Top Coat gives you a chance to cover up the smoothness issues. Because the Epoxy Clear Top Coat is 100% Epoxy resin (with no pigmentation) it has a better flow. Moreover it dries faster.
How Does Clear Top Coat Lock in Decorative Chips?
To give a unique look to your epoxy coat garage floor you would sprinkle decorative colored chips on the still wet epoxy coat. The idea is that these chips stick to the epoxy and become a part of it. However, there are two problems with this.
The decorative color chips are not going to fall absolutely flat on the epoxy surface. They will fall at all sorts of angles. The chips are light and due to the surface tension, they will stay at the top. A lot of them will not even be flat. The chips could therefore break or get dislodged with vehicular & foot traffic.
The Clear Epoxy Top Coat with a dry film thickness of 2.5 – 5.0 mils (62.5 – 125 microns) will pretty much lock them in within the epoxy coat garage flooring system.
Why Does Adding Clear Top Coat Increase Protection?
The Clear Epoxy Top Coat will add another layer of protection to your Epoxy Coated garage floor. The recommended dry film thickness (DFT) build up of EpoxyShield® Water-based Epoxy Garage Floor Coating, for example, is 3.0 – 3.5 mils (75 – 87.5 microns).
The recommended dry film thickness (DFT) build up of EpoxyShield Clear Finish Floor Coating, on the other hand, is 2.5 – 5.0 mils (62.5 – 125 microns). By applying the additional Clear Coat, the combined dry film thickness (DFT) will be 5.5 – 8.5 mils (137.5 – 212.5 microns).
Naturally, higher film thickness means higher strength & protection.
Thank you very much for reading the post. I do hope you found it informative and useful.
