Those of us in the garage flooring industry can sometimes be guilty of using industry jargon and not explaining the difference or benefits of one system over another. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. The image above shows a ‘full broadcast’ system while the picture below shows a random broadcast. Both systems can be achieved using a variety of our garage floor coatings products. The system above was done using Rust Bullet.
Full Broadcast System
Full Broadcast means that the garage floor epoxy, polyurea, or other garage floor coating is completely covered by flakes. When you look at your floor, the color of the coating becomes almost irrelevant. What you see is a flake system that many say looks like granite or stone. A properly installed Full Broadcast system is more durable in nature than a comparable random broadcast system. You basically have a three-layer floor –base coat, flake, topcoat. For a flake system, we suggest square footage / 5 to estimate the flakes for a DIY customer or square footage divided by 6 for a professional applicator
We have different epoxy resins that we use for a full broadcast of flake, versus quarts or mica. After a primer is installed, the appropriate base is applied and the media is broadcast into the base. In some systems a second epoxy coat and second broadcast is done. After each broadcast is dry, it is important to scrape and vacuum and loose media. A top coat is then applied. In many cases two layers of epoxy or urethane top coat is used. For many systems doing one clear epoxy top coat followed by a clear urethane is the best system.
Random Broadcast System
Random Broadcast floors as the name may suggest are a layer of garage floor epoxy, polyurea or other base garage floor coating with flakes “peppered” in for decoration. While some argue that the flake in this system provides a function such as traction, the flakes are there for appearance and to hide imperfections in the floor.
Your next question is which system is better? I always answer questions like that the same way. No system is perfect for every application, but if I were doing a garage floor coating on my garage floor I would do a Polyurea system or a high-solids epoxy.
