EPOXY FLOOR COATINGS COMPARISON CHART

Detailed Explanations Of Different Epoxies and Ratings

See What Competing Epoxy Paint Kits Really Cost To Equal What You Get With ArmorGarage Epoxies!

Don't Be Fooled By A Low Advertised Price!

Armor Garage Epoxy Systems Assure You A Long Lasting Beautiful Epoxy Floor With The Only Guarantee Against Wear!

So Don't Be Fooled By Exaggerated Lifetime Guarantees
That Don't Include Wear!

You'll see that most epoxy companies don't even have specifications for their product! This is an extremely important point! The numbers below are not just for show, they represent the Performance Characteristics of each Epoxy. If a coating has little or no Data for critical performance factors such as Adhesion, Abrasion and Impact Resistance it means the product most likely performs very poorly in those categories. It is extremely costly to do Industry Standard Testing and most manufacturers don't want to spend large sums of money to produce and have to publish inferior results. Another area to be careful of is coverage, many epoxy kits are notorious for not yielding anywhere near the coverage stated. We don't take that into account here but there are plenty of reviews regarding this and we get the phone calls daily about how customers had to purchase multiples of kits to get the coverage and then on top of that the product failed after a short time.

How do you know if an epoxy coating is really Industrial Grade? Simply look at the Abrasion Rating, it's the most important characteristic of any epoxy coating. It tells you right away how resistant that coating is to vehicle and foot traffic(Abrasion). Meaning how long the coating will stay looking new or in the case of poorly rated coatings how quick they will dull and wear out! With Abrasion Loss ratings the smaller the loss number in mgs the better. Every additional mg of loss in the abrasion rating makes a huge difference in the longevity of your floor. Some epoxy products that are described as Industrial/Commercial Grade have a Taber C-17 Abrasion loss rating of 24mg or higher compared to our loss ratings. The difference between an 4mg, 8mg or even 20mg abrasion loss and a 24 mg loss is exponential. As you go higher in mg loss rating the lower in quality you go. Once you hit 25mg you are in regular floor enamel territory which begs the question of why spend extra money on an epoxy? We explain this in further detail in the text below the chart so that you can better understand the difference a high quality topcoat with the proper abrasion rating will make in the appearance of your floor after even just a year of use.

I See A Lot Of Solids Type Epoxies?
Yes there are several solids type epoxies such as Cyclioaliphatic epoxy which is a value engineered epoxy to keep costs down by being an epoxy and topcoat all in one. There are also epoxies that are not full 100% solids and again these are used as cost savers and should only be used as primers. Then there are 100% solids and the best type of 100% solids are military grade Aliphatic epoxies. There are also epoxies that are only 100% in either weight or volume and not both. There's a big difference in being 100% in both, don't get fooled. Anyone who tells you that other type of solids epoxies are as good or better is not being truthful with you. Doing an epoxy floor correctly is labor intensive, you only want to do it once so going with the absolute best is the smart thing to do.

Once you're done reviewing the information on this page you can click on the Blue Product Names in the chart below to go directly to the product page of your choice. Should you still have any questions about which is the best epoxy for you after reviewing this information please feel free to contact us at 866-532-3979 or info@armorgarage.com.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF OUR PRODUCTS:

• ULTRA EPOXY: Military - Industrial grade 3 coat system of primer, high build epoxy and then clear topcoat. Color chips can be added to this system.
• ARMOR II: Heavy Commercial grade 2 coat system of pigmented base coat followed by pigmented urethane fortified topcoat. No colored chips
• ARMOR CHIP: Military grade base coat with 8lbs of colored chips and two coats of clear urethane fortified topcoat. Upgrade option available for single coat of Military grade topcoat for heavier duty applications.
• ARMOR GRANITE: Top of the line epoxy kit with 20lbs of colored chips and three coats of clear topcoat. Military grade topcoat option is also available.

Clicking on the Blue links in the chart below will take you directly to the product page.

The above chart is based on coverage for standard 2 1/2 car garage of 500-550 sf. Below we explain what all of the above means. The three most important factors when considering an epoxy are the abrasion rating or how hard it is to wear the epoxy off once you're driving a vehicle over it and or working on next is the adhesion rating or how strong a bond it makes with your floor and third is the impact rating, how much of an impact can it take without chipping off. These are critical must know factors if you are putting down an epoxy floor and expecting it to last 15-20 years.

+ A Urethane Fortified Topcoat is the most critical part of any epoxy floor coating. All Cycloaliphatic epoxies and all epoxies with any amount of solids in them will Yellow/Amber without a Urethane Topcoat! Urethane is to epoxy as what rebar is to concrete, see the Abrasion and Impact ratings, you'll see that without a Urethane Fortified Topcoat you have an inferior coating with a high abrasion loss rating that will Dull due to wear, Chip from impacts and Yellow in a very short period of time! Any epoxy claiming to have a high UV rating without a Urethane Topcoat is simply not telling the truth! UV additives also don't work, they merely slow down the Yellowing process. Why spend additional dollars on something that will only delay failure by a year or two?

Also be very careful when buying a topcoat, make sure it's an actual topcoat and not just a clear version of their epoxy. Just because a company calls a product a topcoat doesn't mean it is one or is worth your additional dollars. The easiest way to tell you are not getting a true topcoat is to look at the abrasion rating if the epoxy color coat and the UV clear coat has the same abrasion rating then you are getting the same epoxy with UV additives as a topcoat. Guaranteed to Amber/Yellow and wear out.

If you do nothing else know what the abrasion loss rating of an epoxy paint is before you buy it! The abrasion loss rating separates coatings that are truly commercial or industrial grade from those that are just marketed as such. For reference purposes an epoxy must have an abrasion loss rating of 10 or less to be industrial grade. Any abrasion rating above 30 is not suitable for vehicular traffic.

Hardness Note: The Shore D rating determines how tough a surface is and how much abuse and impact force a coating or material can resist. For reference Construction Hard Hats have a Shore D rating of 75-80. As you can see from the chart below our epoxies have extremely hard finished surfaces when fully cured. Compared to our competition that won't publish their Hardness ratings or many of their other ratings. Between our superior Abrasion Loss ratings and our superior Shore D Hardness ratings is why our epoxy floor coatings outlast all other coatings, simple as that. For Armor Chip & Armor Granite the hardness ratings are 70 for the standard heavy duty topcoat and 80 for our military grade topcoat.

Adhesion Note: Epoxy could not be separated from concrete. During adhesion testing with elcometer pull tester, top layer of concrete slab pulled off with no delamination of our epoxies! Typical epoxy adhesion ratings are 300 psi or less. Anything under 400 PSI means it can be separated from your concrete floor. Low adhesion and coatings that are too thin are the reason a large majority of epoxies fail due to Hot Tire Pick Up within the first year. Armor Garage epoxies bond with the first layer of your concrete and cannot be separated and the topcoats bond to the epoxy which cannot be separated once cured.

Abrasion rating is based on the CS-17 Taber Abrasion test with 1000 gram load at 500 cycles which is the industry standard. Where as the lower the mg loss number the better resistance an epoxy has to losing it's shine and actually wearing off. A small difference here equates to a huge difference in the life expectancy of your floor. This simulates actual wear from vehicle tires. What do the numbers mean? Lets put it this way, if you coat half a rectangle with 4mg topcoat and the other half with 8mg topcoat and drive a car or forklift over the rectangle with 2 wheels on the 4 mg side and 2 wheels on the 8mg side. The 4 mg side will last three times as long as the 8 mg side if they were coated at the same thickness, if the 4mg side is 50% thicker it would last 6 times as long as the 8mg side. And of course thinner coatings with higher mg loss ratings will wear through exponentially faster! It's why we're the only epoxies with a "Wear" Guarantee! An epoxy coating is not much good stuck to your floor looking dull and worn out! *ArmorChip & ArmorGranite's standard topcoat is 20mg, the military topcoat is 4mg. Below is a picture worth a thousand words in regards to abrasion wear.

Impact Resistance is the ability of an epoxy to resist impacts such as dropped tools without chipping or cracking. Our epoxies have just about double the impact resistance than our closest competitor! Impact resistance is a measure of how hard a coating is. A harder coating will resist damage from everyday mishaps such as dropped tools, parts, toys etc. It means you'll have a newer looking floor a lot longer without chips and scratches in it! Typical epoxy impact ratings are 75 inch lbs or less! Anything under 100 inch lbs cannot resist dropped tools or parts. With ArmorGarage epoxies if you drop a large hammer, a 1/2" ratchet with a 1" socket, a crowbar or even an 18V cordless drill on it you will not damage the floor, not so with other epoxies! The first accident you have on the competition's coating will ruin the finish of your floor.

Gloss rating is based on the Erichsen Gloss Meter test. Our epoxies score highest for shine and gloss, they have a real high gloss finish! Typical epoxy gloss ratings are 50 or less, which is more or less a satin to semi-gloss finish only! Aside from sticking to your floor and not wearing off an epoxy has to look good! Our epoxies look the best because we manufacture with the highest quality material ingredients. Which means when you roller on our epoxies they cover your floor with a deep rich looking color that has highest gloss finish possible! Home Improvement Center epoxies that are 2-3 Mils thick and epoxies without topcoats suffer from concrete bleed through resulting in a poor finished product or having to purchase multiple kits costing you much more than the advertised price and you still will not have a floor that will look as good or last as long as an ArmorGarage floor. *One last note on Gloss, home improvement store epoxies are tested for gloss without the anti slip additive and are high gloss but once the nonslip is added in they're at best semi gloss. ArmorGarage floors are all high gloss with the nonslip additive.

*Our Ultra Military System is guaranteed for 10 Yrs against Wear for residential use. Note: Some of the competition offer so called Lifetime Guarantees. Please know one thing there is no such thing as a lifetime epoxy! Read the Exclusions and Conditions of those guarantees, they don't include wear(tire abrasion)among other things and don't forget to send in the registration card within 10 days of purchase or you have NO guarantee!

Note: For Reference - Conventional floor paints and enamels are 2-3 Mils thick.

We strongly recommend you read the How To Prep Your Floor and the Epoxy Flooring ages linked below. There's a reason why we post these pages, they're there to teach you what you need to know and what is just marketing hype that you shouldn't pay attention too. Spending 10 minutes reading these pages will help avoid buying an inferior epoxy paint for your floor and show you how to prepare the floor properly so you get 10-20 years of quality service from your new ArmorGarage floor.