Disclaimer: Nohr-S® is a trademark of Legacy Industrial. We do not sell Nohr-S products and the information provided below is for comparative purposes only. All Weather Floors® (AWF) Is a registered trademark of Garage Flooring LLC of Colorado and All Weather Floors, LLC. This information is accurate to the best of my knowledge as of 08/20/20.
The Best Polyurea?
First, let me say that Legacy Industrial is a stand-up company with outstanding customer service and great products. If I was not in this business, they are likely who I would source product from. The purpose of this article is not to knock them or their product but to set out a clear set of differences in the two products.
The simple truth is this. If you were to buy a single can of NOHR-S or our AWF Polyurea and spread it on the same floor at the same thickness, you would not see any difference in performance or appearance. If you were to review the specifications and safety data, you would have a hard time distinguishing between them. So how can we say our Polyurea is the best polyurea garage floor coating? If we were just talking about a gallon versus a gallon, we couldn’t.
The Best Polyurea Garage Floor Coating Kits
As previously stated, the answer is in the math. Let’s start with the Polyurea itself.
Both products are 70% solids by volume. This means if you took 1 gallon of either and spread it over 100 square feet you would have a wet film of about 16 Mils. When it drys, you lose 30% of that –70% solids means 30% goes away– so you are left with a dry film of 11.2 Mils. For the sake of simple math, we will call it 11 Mils. At a spread rate of 200 Sq. Ft. per gallon that means you get 5.5 Mils per coat and after two coats you are back at 11 Mils.
So how thick does Polyurea need to be? We posed that question to the technical liaison who works for the facility that formulates much of the Polyurea you see on the market. He did not hesitat®e. The answer was about 4 Mils per coat with a minimum of two coats — with at least one of those coats being clear.
Let’s break down two kits
Let’s take a 750 square foot garage. The All-Weather Floors kit we sell includes 4 gallons per coat. That works out to a spread rate of 195 sq. ft. per gallon. But for the sake of simple math lets say 200 Sq. Ft. per gallon in reality it would be a bit thicker. based on the information above that means you have over 11 Mils of Polyurea on your floor when you are done.
Nohr-S® has a kit that fits the range as well. They include 3 gallons per coat or roughly 25% less material. That equates to a spread rate of 250 Sq. Ft per gallon. That equates to a mil thickness of 4.2 Mils per coat or 8.4 Mils of Polyurea on the floor. Nohr-S has a net Polyurea thickness of roughly 25% thinner based on their advertised kits.
But how does that price out? To be fair I backed the primer out of the NORH-S coating and added in the anti-skid. That priced out to $1153. Our kit prices out to $1146. For roughly the same price (a little less) we are offering 25% more polyurea. But there are other differences as well:
Our kit includes high-end roller covers at no additional charge. Our kit includes 7.5 pounds of flake while theirs includes 4. Our kit includes what amounts to about 4 lbs of anti-skid and from what we can tell theirs includes 1.
It is flat out that simple. Apples to apples our kits include more polyurea, more flake, and the roller covers you need for the same or less money.
But what about primer?
Remember to keep all things equal, we backed the primer out of our system. Primers are thin, water-based epoxy products. We would be happy to add some to your kit but based on our experience and our conversations with the people that make the resins, in the vast majority of cases you are way better off with more polyurea.
