Important Epoxy Flooring Facts & Fictions To Know
Before you move forward, if you're interested in understanding exactly why epoxy floors fail and how to prevent failure, see our authority guide:
How to Avoid an Epoxy Flooring Failure.
Fact vs Fiction — What You Really Need to Know
Fiction: “All Epoxy Floor Coatings Are Essentially the Same”
Fact: Epoxy products vary widely in solids content, formulation quality, abrasion resistance, and adhesion strength. Many off-the-shelf floor paints and water-based “epoxy” kits are not truly engineered for floor use and will fail quickly under tire traffic or chemical exposure. We see it every day!
Fiction: “100% Solids Always Means Best Performance or High Solids Are Good Enough”
Fact: Not all products labeled “100% solids” are truly 100% solids by both weight and volume —which means they're fake 100% solids. High solids are good primers, period, end of story. The label alone does not guarantee durability. Look at specification sheets, abrasion ratings, and real-world performance data. Our Technical Performance Resource Hub has all the information you need.
Fiction: “A Polyaspartic or Polyurea Coating Are 10X Stronger Than Epoxy”
Fact: Promotional marketing claims do not always reflect actual performance. Many polyaspartic and polyurea formulas exhibit higher abrasion loss in industry tests than high-quality epoxy + polyurethane systems. We make both of these types of coatings and sell them only when the application fits their performance characteristics.
Fiction: “The Thinner the Coating, the Better the Finish”
Fact: Coating thickness matters. Thin film coatings (2–4 mils) behave more like paint than a floor system. For long-lasting performance, a true floor coating should be significantly thicker (minimum 12-14 mils thick) and engineered to resist wear, impacts, and tire abrasion.
Key Technical Realities (that make a real difference)
Real: Abrasion Rating Is One of the Most Important Specs
Abrasion resistance is measured by the Taber CS-17 test. Lower milligram loss means a harder, more durable coating. Most consumer products show 24–50 mg loss. Our military-grade topcoats test at ~4 mg — a performance level that keeps floors looking new for years.
Real: Adhesion Strength Determines Longevity
A coating can be thick and hard, but if it doesn’t adhere to the concrete surface, it will delaminate. All ArmorGarage epoxies have top adhesion ratings, meaning the top layer of your concrete will let loose with our epoxy stuck to it before the epoxy delaminates from the concrete.
Real: Surface Prep Is Not Optional
No matter how good the epoxy product is, it cannot bond to a slick, dirty, or inadequately profiled surface. Mechanical profiling or proper acid etching opens pores for the epoxy to lock into — the foundation of a durable floor. Our How To Prep & Paint Your Floor The Right Way is a must read.
When Myths Hurt Performance (What Users Often Get Wrong)
Myth: “Any Acid Etch Will Do”
Not all etching products are equally effective. Many DIY kits use insufficient acid volume or strength. Proper etching requires the correct acid concentration and complete neutralization (very important!) — or the epoxies won’t bond as intended.
Myth: “Home Improvement Paints Are Good Enough”
Standard paints, even if labeled “epoxy,” are built for walls and ceilings, not floors. Their abrasion resistance and bonding strength are not engineered for load, tire stress, or chemicals.
ArmorGarage has a long and proven track record of being the best looking and most durable garage floor epoxy coating. We put the proof right out there, see our case studies below of 14 and 16 year old floors. Plus we have fast free shipping, the most informative epoxy flooring website and great customer service!
See our four main Garage Epoxy Flooring kits
There are a lot of destructive forces at work on your floor that will make short work of listening to bad advice on the internet or using an inferior product for your application. To avoid falling victim to many of the factors that destroy epoxy floors if you haven't done so already please read the How To Avoid An Epoxy Floor Failure page, several years down the road you'll be glad you did.
With a good quality epoxy floor system your floor will have a much more dramatic look to it with a super high gloss finish no conventional paint or big box store epoxy can match. A good epoxy floor coating, when cured, is just about stain-proof, and cleaning it is similar to cleaning your nonstick pan. An ArmorGarage epoxy floor will be waterproof, mold & mildew proof, and tough as nails, and we mean it!
OUR EPOXY FLOOR COATINGS
We get calls everyday from customers who went to a big box store or went online and bought what they thought was a heavy-duty product with a good warranty, or what they thought was a good deal without doing any research. Then they had to buy an additional epoxy kit(s) to cover the floor properly so that the concrete didn't bleed through. Then when it failed very prematurely, they found out that their guarantee didn't cover the coating wearing out (peeling off and wearing out are two different things) or the unsightliness due to the coating dulling, yellowing and failing to come clean in just a year or two!
They never took a few minutes to read about proper floor prep or what type of epoxies are the best.
Our Interactive Epoxy Floor Selector Tool is designed to take all the guesswork out of choosing the right epoxy floor system for your application. When you buy one of our floor systems, you can rest assured that all you need to do is get your floor prepped properly, supply the elbow grease and our product will do the rest!
Here's just one of our recent garage floor epoxy reviews:
"No issues with anything from armorgarage.com. Great website that was easy to use."
Recommend this Company: 5.0 out of 5.0
Product Satisfaction: 5.0 out of 5.0
Information: 5.0 out of 5.0
Shopping ease: 5.0 out of 5.0
Merchant options:
Previous epoxy supplier went out of business so I found Armor Garage did a little research and figured it was as good as it gets.
Chris B has ordered 1 product from armorgarage.com
Product Purchased: ARMOR CHIP GARAGE EPOXY FLOORING KIT - FREE SHIPPING
Customer Comments: "Great product, super fast shipping and looks great! Will buy again on the next floor I do for sure."
HERE'S ONE VIDEO THAT WE THINK SAYS IT ALL. ARMOR CHIP GARAGE EPOXY VERSUS HEAVY DUTY OFF THE SHELF EPOXY
This is exactly what we try our best to help you avoid. Thinking you're putting down a great heavy duty epoxy product that you thought was 100% solids when it really wasn't or some form of hybrid epoxy that is supposedly 10X stronger or even worse, some water based product. Keep in mind when you watch the video that the non ArmorGarage part has no vehicle traffic on it!
The following are two of our most popular epoxy flooring kits used by customers. The two images below were done by customers who never done anything like this before and got professional looking results at a fraction of franchise company prices. Plus our floors last 5 times longer!
To get your floor looking like this simply click on the links below the images for the Armor Chip or Armor Granite kit. Either one gives you the easiest installation and the most beautiful durable results!
Our most popular. This is a beautiful Lt gray with Black & White Flakes with 90-95% flake coverage for a real life looking granite floor.
Our standard Armor Chip Garage Epoxy Floor Kit in bright red. Also available with color flake coverage..
FAQ's
Visit our Epoxy Floor FAQ page for the most frequent and also the most important questions we get asked. It's important that you're able to separate the facts from the fiction and believe us when we tell you there's a lot of fiction out there. Between this page, our How To Prep & Paint Your Floor page and our made for first time users Garage Epoxy Kits you'll be coating your floor like an expert. But if at anytime you're unsure what to do or buy give us a call or send an email or Request A Quote and one of our expert sales reps will be more than happy to help.
This Is A Video Update On Armor Chip Garage Epoxy Floor Installed 16 Years Ago To Prove Armor Chip Is As Good As We Say It Is! The Original Video Is Still On Our YouTube Channel For Comparison!
This video is of an Armor Chip Floor with our best in class Military grade Clear Topcoat installed almost 16 years ago. This is a follow up on the video we did 8 years ago. That video is still on our YouTube channel for comparison. You'll see that the floor still looks new! This is with several vehicles including a very heavy SUV twisting and turning in and out of their respective parking spots. This floor has got another 10 years in it before a refresher topcoat will be needed so you can imagine how durable your floor will be if you're pulling your vehicle straight in and out! You simply are not going to get this type of performance with any other epoxy type or brand! SEE VIDEO HERE.
Here's another example which is out of the ordinary. You won't see any other epoxy flooring company post a video or images like these.
When you first look at the images below you're going to say to yourself OMG that floor looks absolutely terrible. We would agree with you and couldn't be prouder of it! This floor has been abused from the day it was put down 17+ years ago by nonstop forklift traffic, pallet jack traffic, rolling ladders, hand trucks and dollies with an average of 3000 people a day for 12 hours a day 365 days a year with never being cleaned or maintained and employees dragging wooden pallets across the floor all day by hand to boot!
It's the equivalent of running your car 100,000 miles a year for 14 years with no maintenance. Any other coating would have been vaporized off the floor long ago. So rolling your car, SUV, riding mower, boat trailer, tool chests, floor jacks or large power tools in and out of or around your garage is child's play for our garage floor coatings. This is an extreme example and this floor should have been re-topcoated a several years ago but they're so busy they just don't have the time and they think the floor is fine! Which is understandable if you saw what the floor looked like beforehand and the fact that every other product they used never lasted more than 6 months! When we say ArmorGarage floors are the most durable, we mean it! See our complete list Industrial & Commercial Epoxy Systems and the Case Studies page for more real world examples.
We assemble our Garage Floor Coatings into complete packages so you don't have to worry about figuring out what all the right tools & materials are that you need to do the job properly. Not sure which epoxy floor sytem is right for you? See our Interactive 1 Minute epoxy Floor Selector Tool. If you still need assistance in product selection or application please contact us at 866-532-3979 or email info@armorgarage.com. You can even email us pictures of your floor and type of traffic on it if you're concerned about any areas that may be an issue. We're here to guide you from start to finish to make sure you're project is a complete longterm success.