Improve Your Largest Room: the Garage

Owning my garage flooring company in Austin, TX has been really exciting. I learned this skill many years ago when using a cheap paint to paint my garage. At first, I was excited. But, after doing some research, I realized my floor could have looked MUCH better if I had done better research. It could have been a nicer color, not just dull gray.  It could have had a showroom shine with good reflection.  And, it could have been much thicker and lasted much longer without peeling.  It was only after realizing all this that I obtained further professional instruction and became an authorized installer for a high quality, commercial grade, showroom finish garage epoxy company. With this knowledge, I set out to start my own garage floor epoxy company, Tough Tops, LLC.  Today, this company has been successfully serving the garage epoxy flooring needs of residential and commercial customers in Austin, Dallas and Houston Texas.  Each year, I am doing more floor and gaining more and more referrals. 

Epoxy floor coating provides a sanitary and skid-proof surface even when wet; it is dust-free and resistant to acids and therefore suitable for all the chemicals and spills that your garage may be exposed to. Epoxy floor coating adheres well to the surface such as concrete, (old or new, metal, tiles, wood, etc.) and has a high resistance to abrasion and chemicals such as alkalis, gasoline, greases, thawing salts and solvents. By adding colored chips, an epoxy floor becomes very attractive.

When my company started professionally installing high quality garage floors, we used the traditional 3-4 layer systems (primer, epoxy, polyurethane topcoat). Our prep work has always been grinding, in conjunction with acid washing.  After 6 months, I received phone calls from two different customers regarding their floor. Their floor had peeled. These calls were in the same month and concerned me. In this business, epoxy floors cannot peel. The customer gets upset and it takes me time to go back and fix it.  After researching my process fully, I came to an interesting conclusion. I had done optimal prep work.  However, it was made clear to me that having various layers of product allows for these layers to peel from one another.  It was at this point that I turned to a new company to provide state-of-the-art epoxy.  This epoxy not only took only one day to install (not 4-5), but it had all the qualities of a 3-4 layer system built into one thick, high quality, commercial grade, 100% solids epoxy. After obtaining training on this application, I have used it solely and with 100% success. No peeling, highest shine ever, beautiful solid or chipped look.  I am extremely happy with my product. Just like gadgets in the marketplace, technology allows all type of products to improve over time. We use the latest epoxy, the best… definitely cutting edge; not the old epoxy used of yesteryear.

When looking to lay an epoxy garage floor, always make sure to find a 100% solids, Cycloaliphatic epoxy. You can lay these yourself, but it is very tricky. Once you mix A with B, you only have about 5 minutes before the epoxy becomes very very hot and will harden like a rock in the bucket. Thus, you have to mechanically stir it extremely well  and pour it out onto the floor quick.  Then, once it’s on the garage floor, you got about 30 minutes to get it squeegeed and then back rolled perfectly.  Also, all edges must be done by hand around the entire garage first.  Basically, if you're not skilled and prepared with all the little tools of the trade, you could find yourself in a real nightmare.  If the epoxy hardens and you haven't finished getting it evenly laid, your garage won't look good and you would have to diamond grind the hard epoxy off and start over.

Tough Tops epoxy is 100% solids Cycloaliphatic epoxy, making it ideal for garage floor coating, basement floor coating, patios, brick pavers, driveways, pool decks, industrial or commercial concrete or wood floors. 100% solids epoxy is a term used to describe the volume solids in a coating system. It's what is left over after the epoxy floor coating dries. 100% solids will yield 100% dried material after the floor coating fully dries. 50% volume solids will yield 50% of the thickness after the floor coating fully dries. Most epoxies are 30% - 40% volume solids. If you wish to compare the thickness after dried application between Tough Tops epoxy and normal epoxies you would need 2.5x the gallons to equal exactly the thickness of 1 gallon of Tough Top epoxy Floor Coating.

What is Cycloaliphatic epoxy? It is a type of epoxy. Just like there are types of automobiles that perform differently (and vary in costs) so do epoxies. Not all epoxies are the same. If you wish to apply a high performance floor coating to your concrete or wood floor, you would want a 100% solids epoxy. If you want the highest grade of 100% solids epoxy you will want a Cycloaliphatic epoxy. Only Tough Tops epoxy can achieve a thickness suitable for proper aesthetics and durability, a high abrasion resistance, a product that would be resistant to yellowing or fading over time, high gloss, highly chemical resistant, impact resistant, 0 VOC's (Volatile Organic Compounds), no odor in VOC sensitive environments. Most floor coating epoxies are not Cycloaliphatic 100% solids, which happen to be the most expensive to manufacture. They can cost up to 4x the amount of other floor epoxies to manufacture. Tough Tops epoxy is the same quality epoxy used in the most demanding industrial / commercial floors. In fact approximately 60% of industrial and commercial floors use a less quality Aliphatic 100% solids epoxy in their applications.

Epoxy flooring is relatively affordable compared to hardwoods, even carpet and other flooring types. You can expect to pay anywhere from $2.75-$4.25sq/ft for a good quality, showroom garage floor.  A typical two garage is around 450sq/ft and a three car is around 700sq/ft.  Tough Tops charges $3.00/sq.ft.

If you are interested in a high quality, showroom garage floor at a reasonable price, I invite you to visit my website at www.TexasToughTops.com.   I always warranty my floors and you will always have my direct cell number.   Should you ever have a problem, just call me and I will ensure your garage is fixed free of charge, of course!  Or, if you have already made if your mind that you want a floor installed, call me direct at (512) 636-3766  (Austin, Dallas, Houston areas only)  I am prompt, courteous, professional and knowledgeable. You will like working with me and better yet, you will really like my epoxy garage floors. Tough Tops!

Seth O. Thompson - Owner,  Tough Tops, LLC