The Garage Floor Epoxy Dilemma
As the person responsible for running a garage flooring company, I spend a considerable amount of time looking at various forums related to the industry. On any one given day I can find a myriad of posts related to issues with garage floor epoxy and garage floor coatings. Many consumers are not really worried about what their garage floor will look like. They are just looking for a cheap paint and would never invest in high end garage flooring. BUT, there are a good number of consumers, considering the epoxy route that are looking for a high end product for their garage floor.
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A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from a customer stating that after weeks of fighting with the contractor who installed his floor, his contractor threw up his hands, said it was a moisture issue, he couldn’t fix it and “the check is in the mail.”
Just yesterday I was on one of the more popular garage forums and dealing with two different posts from two different people about their garage floor epoxy that failed. The question becomes is garage floor epoxy a bad product?
NO. Let me say that again. NO! There is nothing wrong with garage floor epoxy. Lets look at this in a different light. Lets assume you were driving a 2010 vehicle of your choice. You have no experience with cars other than your kind of handy and took a shop class once. Lets assume you go online and find an engine and put it in, and a couple weeks later the engine fails. Which of these circumstances would you say are more likely:
- The engine was bad
- The directions were bad
- Your and idiot
- You don’t have the right tools or the right experience and the information that came with the product was geared towards a professional.
While all of these items are possible (understand, I do not know you personally) the last one is likely the most accurate. In one of the examples from the forum the customer had acid etched his floor, neutralized it and done (almost) all the things people say to do with an epoxy floor. BUT if he was a professional, or if he knew the right places to look, or if the person who sold it to him offered the information, he would have known that for his floor (and most floors) a mechanical floor prep is a much much better solution.
In another example, the customer stated that he wanted an affordable way to do his floor and that he did not want to spend the money necessary to do the necessary floor prep. Now, I’m going to go against the grain and I know that. We live in a world where the customer is always right if even if they are wrong they will get on every forum and say how awful XYZ companies epoxy is. Perhaps, just maybe, if were going to sell floor coatings to the DIY customer, we as an industry need to say as nicely as possible “I understand you do not think this is what is necessary to do the job correctly, but I’ve been doing this for a long time and if you don’t want to do it that way, I don’t want to sell you the epoxy!”I’ve been selling garage flooring going back to 2001. I would prefer to loose a sale telling the truth than have a customer implement a solution that will likely fail. If you are absolutely, convinced you want an epoxy than Hire a professional or at a minimum do three things: (1) Use a high solids epoxy with a quality aliphatic urethane top coat (2) Find a dealer who is willing to give you good, honest advise (including telling you to rent the right equipment) and (3) follow each and every direction to the letter and if you don’t understand, ask.
Or if your like me and you just want some great garage flooring at an affordable price, check out our website and give us a call! If you found this article helpful we would appreciate if you would add us to your “likes” on Facebook
