Color stains, bright polishes, and epoxy coatings for concrete are wonderful ways to improve your floors. They bring vibrancy, durability, and safety to your property. These solutions for improving and protecting concrete, however, do not work magic. If someone says they can work with any concrete floor under any circumstances, they are using a bit of “slight of hand.” What makes us say so? Experience and manufacturer recommendations make it quite clear that adding a stain or coating on concrete floors with certain issues would be a waste of time and resources — not to mention your money. So, what kind of concrete floors do not qualify for coating improvements?
Uneven Concrete
For epoxy coating to do its job properly (and look good while doing it), a concrete floor needs to be level. If it has dips or depressions — ones that collect pools of surface water, for instance — the coating will not fill in those large dips. The floor needs to be leveled first, and then permanently sealed with epoxy or stain. West Coast Epoxy can arrange for this fix.
Cracked Concrete
Many concrete floors develop cracks over time. Depending on the width of the cracks, an epoxy coating might be able to cover it over. But if one side of the crack is higher than the other, or it’s wide enough to be a tripping hazard, it will also be a source of failure for any epoxy coating. Indeed, significant cracks might be a symptom of an unstable foundation! That needs to be addressed before any coating is applied.
Soft Concrete
A concrete floor needs to be stable, solid, and reliable. If the mixture was cured, laid or finished improperly, its strength and cohesion will be compromised. Sooner or later, it might appear like the epoxy coating is chipping or peeling off. With soft concrete, further examination shows that the epoxy has kept its integrity, but the concrete underneath it has broken apart. Simply putting broken pieces back in place won’t make your flooring look or function any better. It’s the concrete that must be addressed and improved; then the epoxy coating will seal that improvement in place for years to come.
At West Coast Epoxy, we take great pride in our work and want our jobs to always benefit our customers. If we decline a project, it is likely due to underlying issues that must be resolved first. We can certainly help you or point you to professionals that can resolve problems with concrete. Once those issues are fixed, we can proceed with improving your floor via concrete coatings. And with our various options of color, texture, pattern and combinations thereof, the only limit is your imagination!