What Difference Does Percentage of Solids Make for a Garage Floor? It makes all the difference in the world!
Have you ever gone to the grocery store and purchased a nice big bag of chips — only to get it home and find out that most of the bag was just air? That’s what happens when you buy a garage floor epoxy that is a lower percentage of solids.
If the garage floor epoxy you purchase is 70% solids, 30 percent of what you have purchased evaporates into thin air! The higher the percentage of solids the more epoxy you get per gallon and typically the thicker the build.
Let’s assume you purchase 1 gallon of 100% solids epoxy and apply it and your neighbor buys 60% solids. You both use the same roller and the same spread rate. If you roll the epoxy on at 10 mils thick you end up with a 10 Mil coating. If your neighbor rolls it on at 10 mils thick they wind up with a 6 Mil coating.
The worst part is that is generally a bad example. Why? Because garage floor epoxy with a lower percentage of solids tends to spread at a much thinner rate. Usually less than 3 mils. When you consider that a sheet of copy paper is 4 mils thick, is that what you want on your floor?
The Upside to Lower Solids
Products like TrueLock DIY High solids kits are about 90% solids. This makes them easier to install while still maintaining a quality product. Some of our best products are 70% solids, but they are polyurea-based. Polyurea garage floor coatings are a completely different animal. They roll on easily and have virtually unlimited pot life while outperforming epoxy in many cases.
