If you’re having your garage floor coated, you’re probably thinking about things like the color you want and how well it’ll hold up to daily use. The name on the buckets your flooring contractor brings with them probably isn’t high on the list.
A finished floor is often made of several products working together. The primer or base coat bonds to the concrete, decorative materials or finishes create the look you picked out, and the topcoat helps protect everything underneath it..
Which products we use depends on the condition of your concrete and how you use your space.
What are Resinwerks Floor Coatings?
Resinwerks is a company that manufactures professional resinous flooring products and systems. Its coatings are designed to be applied over concrete to create a finished surface that can stand up to foot traffic, vehicles, spills, chemicals, and other kinds of everyday wear.
Rather than being a single type of floor coating, Resinwerks is the brand behind the materials used to build the finished floor. Depending on the system, multiple Resinwerks products might be applied in layers, with each layer serving a different purpose.
Multilayer Flooring: How Resinwerks Floors Come Together
A finished garage floor might look like one solid surface, but there’s quite a bit going on between the concrete and the coating you see on top. Most systems are built in layers, with each product handling a different part of the job.
Primers and Base Coats
This is where the coating system meets your concrete. After the floor has been prepped, the primer or base coat is applied directly to the surface. Depending on the kind of system you’re having installed, it might also be the layer that holds the decorative flakes in place.
Decorative Flakes and Finishes
Those little colored chips you see in some garage floors are called flakes. To install them, your flooring contractor will add them to the wet coating.
Designed to add texture to an otherwise smooth floor, flakes are available in a variety of different colors and blends to suit your tastes.
Polyaspartic and Other Topcoats
Once the flakes have been applied, a clear topcoat layer seals the surface. This is the layer that needs to put up with daily life, which might include everything from shoes and spills to whatever gets dragged across the floor.
Resinwerks makes topcoats with different performance characteristics, so the product used can vary by flooring system.
Epoxy vs. Polyaspartic Floor Coatings
If you’ve spent any time researching concrete floor coatings, you’ve probably encountered two terms over and over again: epoxy and polyaspartic. They’re both types of resinous coatings, but they have different characteristics that make each useful for different parts of a flooring system.
But that doesn’t mean you have to choose between them. A single Resinwerks floor can incorporate both epoxy and polyaspartic products, allowing your installer to take advantage of the strengths of each.
We’ll outline the differences between the two below and explain why your floor may benefit from one or both.
What Is an Epoxy Floor Coating?
Epoxy coatings are made by combining a resin with a hardener. The two components then react and cure to form a hard surface bonded to the prepared concrete.
Epoxies have been used for concrete floors for decades, in part because they provide good adhesion, durability, and chemical resistance. They can be used as primers, base coats, build coats, and other layers within a flooring system.
Epoxy products also tend to have longer working times than fast-curing coatings. That means that your installers will have more time to apply and work with the material before it begins to set. However, this also means traditional epoxies generally cure more slowly than polyaspartic coatings.
Some epoxy coatings are also susceptible to discoloration from UV exposure, which is one reason the chemistry used for each layer of a floor matters.
What Is a Polyaspartic Floor Coating?
Polyaspartic coatings are another type of resinous floor coating, but they typically cure much faster than epoxies. That makes them especially useful when you need to reduce the installation time and get your floor back into service quickly.
However, that faster cure time comes with a tradeoff: Installers have less time to work with the coating after its components are mixed. Temperature and other job-site conditions can also affect how quickly the material cures, making proper product selection and professional installation important.
Polyaspartic coatings are also known for providing excellent abrasion and chemical resistance. UV-stable formulations are particularly useful for topcoats because they help protect the appearance of floors exposed to sunlight.
Which Is Better: Epoxy or Polyaspartic?
Neither epoxy nor polyaspartic coatings are automatically better for every situation.
Epoxy may make sense where adhesion, moisture mitigation, or longer working times are important. Polyaspartic products, on the other hand, can be particularly useful when fast curing, abrasion resistance, and UV stability are priorities.
More importantly, these products don’t have to compete with each other. They can perform different jobs within the same flooring system.
For example, a floor may use an epoxy product closer to the concrete and a UV-stable polyaspartic as the finish coat. Other Resinwerks systems may rely more heavily on fast-curing polyaspartic products when completing the floor quickly is a priority.
That’s why we don’t start by asking whether your floor should be “epoxy or polyaspartic.” We start with the concrete, ask questions about how you use the space, and identify the things you need from the finished floor.
From there, we can select the Resinwerks products that make the most sense for each layer of the system.
Matching Resinwerks Systems to Different Spaces
Resinwerks offers a variety of different flooring systems, with each being best suited for a particular kind of space. A basement that deals with moisture problems may need something a little different than a workshop that takes constant abuse.
Garages
For a typical garage, EPX-F is one option designed specifically with residential garages in mind. It combines a decorative flake finish with coatings made to handle things like vehicle traffic, spills, and everyday wear. However, this kind of coating does take some time to cure.
If you don’t want your garage tied up for several days, KTX-F is another option. It’s a fast-curing flake system Resinwerks designed for one-day garage floor installations, so you can get your space back sooner.
Basements
EPX-F can also work well in basements, especially if you like the look of a decorative flake floor. But basements can throw moisture into the equation, and that may change what needs to go underneath the finished surface.
Resinwerks makes Vapor Barrier Epoxy for concrete that must contend with elevated moisture levels. If moisture testing shows there’s a problem, a product like this can be used as part of the system to help keep moisture creeping through the slab from interfering with the coating.
Workshops and Utility Spaces
Home workshops that don’t see a lot of wear and tear may be good candidates for EPX-F flooring. However, spaces that have to contend with rolling toolboxes, dropped tools, oil, chemicals, and plenty of foot traffic are better suited for EPX-F-HD.
Designed for workshops, mechanical spaces, and utility rooms that see a lot of abuse, EPX-F-HD is a heavy-duty decorative flake system with additional build and protection against wear and chemicals.
What Does Resinwerks Floor Installation Look Like?
Most of the work involved in Resinwerks floor installation happens before the flakes go down. While these steps in the process are admittedly less exciting, they are critical; concrete needs to be properly prepared so the coating has a clean, sound surface to bond to.
The process usually looks something like this:
- Prepare the concrete. We mechanically prepare the surface to remove contaminants and create the profile needed for the coating.
- Make necessary repairs. We fix any cracks, pits, or other damaged areas before applying the coating.
- Apply the base coat. The first coating to go down is the base coat, which is applied directly over the prepared concrete.
- Broadcast the flakes. We spread decorative flakes into the wet coating until we reach the desired coverage.
- Scrape and clean up the flakes. Once the coating cures, we remove loose flakes and scrape the surface to address anything sticking up.
- Apply the topcoat. A clear coat is then applied to seal the flakes and create the finished surface.
How soon you can walk on the floor or pull your car back into the garage afterward depends on the Resinwerks system you choose. Some products take a few days to cure, but other products are specifically designed for faster turnaround times, allowing you to get back out on the floor in about a day or two.
Comparing Resinwerks Flooring Systems and Finishes
Part of the appeal of Resinwerks floors is the number of finish options that are available. Depending on the exact look you want and the specific demands you’ll place on the floor, you can choose from several different finishes.
Some are primarily designed to improve a floor’s appearance, while others provide additional texture or durability for demanding spaces. Here are some of the Resinwerks flooring systems and finishes homeowners may want to consider:
Decorative Flake Floors
Decorative flake is one of the most popular choices for garages, basements, workshops, and similar spaces.
These floors feature small vinyl flakes that are incorporated into the coating while it’s still wet, creating the multicolored appearance many people associate with professionally coated garage floors.
But flakes provide more than just color. They add visual texture that helps disguise minor dirt, dust, and everyday wear between cleanings.
Quartz Floors
Instead of vinyl flakes, quartz flooring features small pieces of colored quartz aggregate in the coating system. The result is a uniformly textured surface that combines a decorative appearance with excellent impact resistance and traction.
That makes quartz especially useful for floors that need to withstand heavy use or provide additional grip.
Quartz is widely used in commercial and industrial environments, but it can also be an option for residential garages and other areas where a rugged finish is desired.
Metallic Floors
If appearance is your top priority, metallic flooring may be the ideal choice. Resinwerks metallic floors suspend metallic pigments within clear resin to create flowing patterns, depth, and color variation across the floor.
And because of the way the pigments move while the coating is being installed, no two metallic floors turn out exactly alike. The result can resemble polished stone, flowing water, smoke, or other abstract patterns depending on the colors and installation techniques employed.
Metallic floors are especially well suited for finished basements, entertainment spaces, and other areas where you want the floor itself to become part of the room’s design.
Industrial Orange Peel
An industrial orange-peel finish gives the floor a lightly textured surface rather than leaving it completely smooth.
The subtle texture can provide additional traction while maintaining a relatively uniform appearance. That makes this type of finish worth considering for workshops, garages, utility spaces, and other areas where function matters at least as much as decoration.
Because texture affects both traction and ease of cleaning, it’s important to consider how aggressive you’d like the finish to ensure it makes sense for the way you’ll use the space.
Grind and Seal
Not every concrete floor needs to be hidden beneath a decorative broadcast system.
With a grind-and-seal floor, the concrete is mechanically ground to clean and refine the surface and then protected with a clear coating. Instead of covering the concrete with flakes, quartz, or metallic pigments, the process allows the natural character of the slab to remain visible.
The result is a simpler, more industrial appearance that works particularly well when you like the look of concrete itself.
Simerrazzo™ Floors
Simerrazzo™ is Resinwerks’ simulated terrazzo flooring system. It uses decorative media and a specialized coating system to recreate the colorful, polished appearance associated with terrazzo without installing a traditional terrazzo floor.
The system can be customized with different colors, decorative blends, aggregate compositions, and sheen levels, allowing for a wide range of finished looks. A clear grout layer and high-wear urethane topcoat complete the system and create its smooth finished surface.
Simerrazzo™ is an option for homeowners who want a distinctive, high-end finish and are willing to invest more in the appearance of the floor.
Which Floor Finish Should You Choose?
There isn’t one finish that’s right for everybody. A garage used for parking two daily drivers has different needs than a woodworking shop, finished basement, home gym, or entertainment space.
That’s why you’ll always want to think about your priorities for the floor before making a choice.
| If You Want… | Consider… |
| A versatile garage floor | Decorative flake |
| Additional texture and heavy-duty performance | Quartz |
| A one-of-a-kind appearance | Metallic flooring |
| A functional, lightly textured surface | Industrial orange peel |
| A more natural concrete appearance | Grind and seal |
| A high-end, terrazzo-inspired appearance | Simerrazzo™ |
What Resinwerks Flake Colors Are Available?
Your floor doesn’t have to look like every other gray flake floor you’ve seen. Resinwerks offers quite a few flake blends, ranging from cool grays to warmer tans and browns. If you can’t find something that matches what you’re looking for, you can also opt for a custom blend.
If you’re considering an EPX-F floor, for example, some of the available blends include:
| Name | Flake Mix Description |
| Silverton | Gray, white, and black |
| Stellar | Deep grays, charcoal, and black |
| Creekbed | Soft grays, browns, and tans |
| Ash | Variation of mid-toned to pale grays |
| Juneau | Primarily creams and whites with hints of grays |
Based on Resinwerks’ current EPX-F floor page
Floor Color and Finish Considerations
Picking a floor color is mostly a matter of personal taste, but there are a few practical things worth thinking about before settling on a particular color or finish.
Your floor takes up a lot of visual space, especially in an otherwise fairly empty garage or basement. That means your choice can have a surprisingly big effect on how the finished room looks and feels.
Light vs. Dark Floor Colors
Lighter colors can help brighten a garage or basement, especially when paired with light-colored walls and good overhead lighting. They can also make smaller spaces feel a little more open.
Darker floors create a different look and can provide more contrast with light walls, cabinets, and other features. But remember that there isn’t one perfect color for hiding dirt. What your floor tends to collect matters.
Very light floors may make dark dirt, leaves, tire marks, and other debris more noticeable. Very dark floors, meanwhile, can make pale dust, dried water spots, and similar messes stand out.
That’s one reason multicolored flake blends work so well in garages and other hardworking spaces. The variation in color and pattern can help disguise some of the minor dirt and debris that accumulate between cleanings.
Consider the Rest of the Space
You don’t have to match your floor exactly to your walls, cabinets, or workbench. In fact, a little contrast can keep everything from blending together.
Instead, think about the room as a whole. A flake blend containing a few colors that complement your cabinets, walls, trim, or other permanent features can tie the space together without looking overly coordinated.
It’s also worth considering changes you may make later. Cabinets and wall colors are relatively easy to change. Your coated concrete floor is a much more permanent choice, so a versatile color palette may make sense if you expect the rest of the room to evolve over time.
Think About Lighting
Colors don’t always look the same in a showroom, on a computer screen, and on your actual floor.
Natural light, overhead lighting, wall colors, and even the size of the room can affect how you perceive the finished coating. A blend that looks fairly dark on a small sample may look different once it covers several hundred square feet.
That’s why it helps to look at physical samples when possible and consider them in the space where the floor will actually be installed.
Texture Also Matters
Color isn’t the only decision that affects the finished appearance of your floor. Decorative flakes, quartz, metallic finishes, and other options can create very different looks even when they use similar colors.
Texture can have practical consequences, too. A smoother surface is generally easier to sweep and mop, while additional texture can provide more traction underfoot. The right balance depends on how you use the space.
For example, a garage that regularly sees wet tires and rainwater may have different needs than a finished basement where easy cleaning and appearance are the main priorities.
How Well Does Resinwerks Flooring Hold Up?
There isn’t a set expiration date for all coated floors. How long yours lasts depends on the system installed, how well the concrete was prepared, and what the floor deals with after installation.
A garage that has cars coming and going every day will suffer more wear than a finished basement in a low-traffic home. Exposure to sunlight, moisture, chemicals, heavy equipment, and abrasive dirt can play a role, too.
Fortunately, Resinwerks offers systems with different levels of abrasion, chemical, and UV resistance to account for those differences.
Good upkeep helps, but you shouldn’t have to baby a properly installed floor. Keeping grit and debris from building up, cleaning spills, and avoiding unnecessary damage can help keep your floor coating looking good as it ages.
Things That’ll Damage a Resinous Floor
Resinous floors are tough, but that doesn’t mean they’re indestructible. A few of the things that can shorten the life of the coating or affect its appearance include:
- Abrasive dirt and grit: Sand, small rocks, and other debris can scratch and dull the surface as they’re dragged around by tires, shoes, or equipment.
- Dragging heavy or sharp objects: Toolboxes, appliances, shelving, and other heavy items can scratch or gouge the coating when dragged across the floor.
- Chemical spills: Resinous coatings resist many common garage chemicals, but resistance varies by product and chemical. Clean spills promptly to protect your floor.
- Extreme heat: Sparks, hot metal, and other concentrated heat from welding, grinding, and similar work can damage the coating.
- Moisture beneath the slab: Excessive moisture vapor moving through the concrete can interfere with adhesion and contribute to coating failure.
- Movement in the concrete: Cracks, settlement, and other kinds of slab movement can damage the coating above them.
- Everyday wear: Tires, foot traffic, tools, equipment, and years of use will eventually cause some wear, particularly in high-traffic areas.
Choosing the right Resinwerks system for the space and properly preparing the concrete go a long way toward preventing premature problems. After installation, routine cleaning and a little common sense are usually all that’s needed to protect the floor.
How Do You Maintain a Resinwerks Floor?
A coated floor is pretty low-maintenance and doesn’t need much day-to-day attention. Most of the time, keeping dirt and grit from building up and cleaning spills as they happen will take care of it.
For routine upkeep, you’ll want to:
- Sweep or vacuum loose debris. Dirt, sand, and small rocks can get ground into the surface under shoes and tires.
- Mop when the floor needs it. Use water and a mild cleaner to pick up any grime that sweeping leaves behind.
- Clean up spills. Wipe up oil, chemicals, and other spills promptly instead of letting them sit on the coating.
- Skip harsh or abrasive cleaners. Aggressive cleaners and abrasive scrubbing can unnecessarily wear on the finished surface.
- Watch how you move heavy items. Pick up heavy furniture or equipment when possible instead of dragging them across the floor.
How Much Does Resinwerks Flooring Cost?
RDP’s floor coating projects generally start around $7 to $9.50 per square foot, with pricing varying based on the size of the project. The Resinwerks system and finish you choose can also change that starting price.
Depending on the system or finish you choose, current pricing adds:
- Flake: About $1 per square foot
- Industrial Orange Peel: About $2 per square foot
- Metallic: About $3 per square foot
- Quartz: About $3 per square foot
- Grind and Seal: About $1 to $3 per square foot
- Simerrazzo™: About $7 per square foot
If your floor needs some TLC before it can be coated, that’ll change the price, too. Cracks and pits may need to be repaired first, and moisture problems may call for additional products (such as a Vapor Barrier Epoxy).
Resinwerks Products: Frequently Asked Questions
Color and finish are usually fun but easy decisions. Cracks, moisture, cure times, and slippery floors, on the other hand, often leave homeowners scratching their heads. Here are a few answers to questions we commonly hear.
Is Resinwerks flooring epoxy or polyaspartic?
Resinwerks makes both epoxy and polyaspartic coatings, and a single floor can use more than one type of product.
Is Resinwerks flooring slippery when wet?
Any smooth, hard floor can get slick when there’s water on it. We can add texture to certain Resinwerks coating systems to give the surface more grip. That can be great in spaces where wet tires, snowy boots, and rainwater make their way inside.
Will a Resinwerks floor yellow in sunlight?
Resinwerks makes UV-stable polyaspartic coatings designed to resist yellowing and discoloration from UV exposure. Like any flooring material, though, long-term appearance can still be affected by the amount of UV exposure your floor gets.
Can you coat concrete that has cracks?
A few cracks don’t necessarily mean you have to give up on coating the floor. We’ll take a look at them first, and if they’re repairable, we’ll fix them during prep work. If the cracks are caused by ongoing movement or a larger problem with the slab, that’s a different conversation.
Can Resinwerks coatings go over an existing coating?
That depends on what’s already on the concrete and how well it’s holding up. An old coating that’s peeling, flaking, or poorly bonded may need to come off so the new system has a properly prepared surface underneath it.
How soon can I use my garage after the floor is coated?
That’ll depend on the Resinwerks system you choose. Some take a few days to cure, but KTX-F, for example, is designed to be ready in a single day. We’ll let you know when it’s safe to walk on your finished floor and pull your vehicle back in.
Can Resinwerks be installed over a damp concrete slab?
Moisture doesn’t necessarily rule out a coated floor, but we need to find out what’s going on in the concrete first. Resinwerks makes Vapor Barrier Epoxy for slabs with elevated moisture levels. We can determine what the slab needs before choosing the coating system.
Upgrade Your Concrete With RDP Epoxy & Floor Coatings
The right coating system starts with the concrete underneath it and what you expect the floor to handle every day. As a Certified Resinwerks Installer, RDP Epoxy & Floor Coatings can help you sort through the coating systems, colors, and finishes that make sense for your space.
Ready to see what your concrete could look like? Contact RDP Epoxy & Floor Coatings to schedule an estimate.
Sources & References
- Resinwerks – “EPX-F Flake Flooring System”
Covers Resinwerks’ light- to medium-duty decorative flake flooring system, including its construction, performance characteristics, and applications such as residential garages, basements, and mechanical spaces.
https://www.resinwerks.com/epx-f - Resinwerks – “EPX-F-HD Flake Flooring System Technical Data Sheet”
Provides technical information about Resinwerks’ heavy-duty decorative flake flooring system, including its components, performance characteristics, and recommended applications.
https://www.resinwerks.com/hubfs/System%20Tech%20Data%20Sheets/Flake%20System%20Tech%20Data%20Sheets/System%20TDS-EPX-F-HD.pdf - Resinwerks – “KTX-F Fast-Cure Flake Flooring System”
Details Resinwerks’ fast-curing decorative flake system, including its use for residential garages and applications where a quicker return to service is needed.
https://www.resinwerks.com/ktxf - Resinwerks – “Vapor Barrier Epoxy”
Explains Resinwerks’ moisture-mitigation epoxy primer, including its use on concrete slabs with elevated moisture levels and relative humidity.
https://www.resinwerks.com/products/vapor-barrier
