When you are dealing with an environment where the floors are wet for a longer time.
Polished concrete garage floor vs epoxy.
Epoxy flooring and other resinous finishes when correctly selected and properly installed routinely outperform stained and polished concrete in terms of chemical acid and solvent resistance abrasion and stain resistance cleanability and the low level of required maintenance slip resistance ability to withstand thermal shock and extreme.
In this project the grinding process was very extensive to allow it to expose some of the colored aggregate river rock.
Here s an overview of what s available.
While polished concrete can be a viable option for a number of commercial settings it does present a significant list of limitations that s where epoxy flooring systems come in.
Garage floor coatings like epoxy paint or concrete stain or coverings like snap together tiles or floor mats instantly improve your garage.
If you have a concrete surface whether exterior or interior there s a good chance you ll need to get it treated with some sort of sealant or coating.
If you want your concrete floor to look like concrete or at least an embellished version of concrete opt for polishing.
In summary this is what you are looking at.
The main difference between a polished concrete floor and an epoxy floor is that polished concrete reveals the concrete itself while epoxy is a continuous coating over the top of the concrete.
Polished concrete can also include dyed concrete stained concrete and engravings such as the picture above showing where we dyed and polished the newly poured concrete floor.
With the information provided above you should be able to make an educated decision by now.
Like epoxy floors polished concrete floors are excellent in high traffic facilities as well as in spaces where reducing allergens is a priority.
Typically it can between 3 to 5 years.
The lifetime of epoxy depends on the traffic and the volume it has to withstand.
We are back where we started epoxy floor vs polished concrete.
Not only is it subject to cracking as it cures untreated concrete can be affected by vehicle traffic corrosive chemicals and freezing water.
Or if the floors will have spills such as chemicals.
Concrete is a remarkably durable building material but it s not damage proof.
Polished concrete flooring uses no harsh chemicals and produces little to no toxins during installation making it a safe and appealing option for many different types of applications.