Garage floor decision
Epoxy Floor Paint Or A Resin Coating?
The label on a tin can make floor paint and an installed resin system sound interchangeable. They are not. The useful comparison is not brand against brand but a thin film against a measured build over tested, mechanically prepared concrete. That difference affects what the floor can take, how long the room is closed and what happens when the slab underneath is damp or damaged.
Start with build depth, not the word epoxy
Thickness is not a score by itself. A domestic garage does not automatically need a 9 mm industrial build, while a turning forklift should not be put onto a thin roller coat. The system is chosen from the traffic, chemicals, temperature and closure window.
That is why a professional quote follows a survey. Buying the thickest line in a brochure can waste money, but buying only by tin coverage can leave the wearing layer too slight for the job.
- Thin floor paint
- A thin film applied from a tin, without the published 0.4 mm minimum of KT's installed coating build
- Epoxy coating
- 0.4 to 1 mm over primer for garages and light industrial duty
- Epoxy screed
- 3 to 6 mm where wear or impact calls for greater body
- Polyaspartic
- About 0.6 mm where a faster return matters
- Heavy resin
- PU concrete 6 to 9 mm or MMA 3 to 9 mm for their specific duties
Preparation is the largest practical difference
The installed process begins with the slab. Moisture and pull-off strength are checked, and old coatings or curing compounds are identified. Diamond grinding or captive shot blasting opens a sound profile for the primer. Static cracks are stitched with resin and quartz, while movement joints are reopened through the final floor rather than buried.
Cleaning alone does not perform those jobs. A floor can look spotless and still carry laitance, weak concrete or a sealed surface that prevents the next layer from bonding. The site's epoxy pages repeatedly place mechanical preparation before primer because adhesion is decided there, not in the colour coat.
- Moisture reading before a system is fixed
- Mechanical grinding or shot blasting rather than washing alone
- Static crack repair before coating
- Movement joints retained through the finished surface
- Primer selected for the slab condition
Where paint can be the proportionate answer
A lightly used, dry storage room with sound concrete may not justify a thicker commercial build. If there are no hot tyres, turning wheels, chemical spills or damp readings to manage, a simple painted finish may meet the brief. KT Construction's published range is not an argument that every slab needs its heaviest option.
The point is to decide with the duty in view. Domestic garages introduce tyre heat, grit and occasional oil. Workshops add repeated turning, tools and fluids. Warehouses add loaded wheels and concentrated routes. Each step changes what a thin film is being asked to survive.
For domestic garages, the site publishes a 10 to 15 year life for a correctly prepared and specified epoxy or polyaspartic floor. Workshops and MOT bays commonly need re-topping after 5 to 8 years because of grit abrasion.
Downtime changes the material as well as the programme
Epoxy is published at 12 to 24 hours before foot traffic and around 72 hours before heavy wheeled use. Polyaspartic can take foot traffic in 2 to 4 hours and forklifts after about 24 hours. MMA is used for much shorter shutdowns, returning after the final coat in roughly 2 to 3 hours.
Those figures explain why the fastest system costs more and why reopening on the first walkable moment is a mistake. A surface can take shoes before it has reached the hardness needed for tyres or a loaded truck. The quotation should name both hand-back points.
Choose by failure risk, not by the tin price
Choose a simple paint only where the concrete is sound and the use is genuinely light. Choose an installed coating where tyres, liquids, cleaning or regular traffic make adhesion and thickness meaningful. Move to screed, PU concrete or MMA only when impact, heat, chemicals or the shutdown window justify them.
If a garage coating is already peeling, do not add another film over the loose edge. The failed material has to be ground back, the slab checked and the cause addressed first. A new top colour cannot correct moisture or weak concrete underneath it.
Straight answers before you coat the floor
Ask what the slab and the use require
Send us a photograph and tell us what crosses the floor, what has spilled on it and how long the room can close. We will tell you whether an installed resin build is justified, and where a simpler finish is enough.