How do you know if the epoxy coating is acceptable?
Just look at the wear rating, it is an important characteristic of any epoxy coating. It immediately tells you how resistant the coating is to vehicle and foot traffic. This means how long the coating lasts in a new coat, or in the case of poorly rated coatings, how quickly the coating dulls and wears away! For wear ratings, the lower the loss number in mgs, the better. Every milligram increase in wear rating can make a huge difference in the lifespan of a floor. Some epoxy products described as industrial/commercial grades have a Taber C-17 wear rating of 24mg or more compared to our wear rating. The difference between 4mg, 8mg or even 20mg wear and 24mg loss is exponential. The higher your milligram loss rating, the lower your mass. Once you hit 25mg, you're in the regular enamel zone.
I see a lot of solid types of epoxy?
Yes, there are several solid types of epoxy, such as cycloaliphatic epoxy, which is a value engineered epoxy that reduces cost by integrating the epoxy and topcoat. There are also epoxies that are not exactly 100% solids and these are again used as cost savers or primers. Then there's 100% solids, and a great type of 100% solids is military grade aliphatic epoxy. Anyone who tells you that other types of solid epoxy are just as good or better is being dishonest. Properly doing an epoxy floor is labor intensive.
Impact-resistant epoxy resists impact , such as dropped tools, without chipping or cracking. Our epoxy is twice as impact resistant as our closest competitor! Impact resistance is a measure of the hardness of the coating. A harder coating resists damage from everyday accidents such as dropped tools, parts, toys, and more. That means you'll have newer floors free of chips and scratches for longer! Typical epoxy impact ratings are 75 inch-pounds or less! Anything under 100 inch pounds will not resist a dropped tool or part.
Gloss ratings are based on Erichsen Gloss Meter testing. Our epoxies score high for gloss and gloss, they have a real high gloss finish! Typical epoxies have a gloss rating of 50 or less, which is more or less just a satin to semi-gloss finish! Besides sticking to your floors and not wearing down the epoxy needs to look good! One last note on gloss, home improvement store epoxies are gloss tested without the anti-slip additive and have a high gloss, but once the anti-slip is added they are better semi-gloss.
