Garages aren’t much of an issue in Baltimore or elsewhere when they are new. However, when that cement flooring grows old from use, temperature changes, wear and tear, foot traffic, engine leaks and more, it starts to look pretty cruddy. Without maintenance or any help, cement only gets worse, cracking and crumbling over time. Epoxy garage flooring has long been touted as a solution for old garage floors, but that leaves a lot of open questions about what it actually does for an improvement. Epoxy is far more than just a new layer; it’s really an all-encompassing repacking of a garage floor with multiple benefits and advantages, especially in Baltimore where road grit and cars can really bang up a garage floor pretty quickly.
What Makes a Difference?
Various options for a Baltimore garage can change its appearance to an extent. Obviously, painting the cement immediately applies a color change. Adding an additional flooring layer such as tiling or vinyl can create a new floor cover, but the old cement is still underneath and untreated. The assumption is that, when covered, the problem goes away. However, the adhesion of the new floor cover only applies to the old cement layer last exposed, which can include a lot of contaminants still and ultimately affects the adhesion. That in turn ends up contributing to eventual peeling and dis-attachment.
Concrete epoxy flooring in Baltimore is also available. Unlike the above, however, epoxy flooring brings into the picture a very different approach to cement treatment. First off, the old layer of concrete surface in a garage is removed completely through grinding. Doing so gets rid of all the grit and stain as well as oil and dirt that makes adhesion difficult. Instead, the cement is entirely made bare, and the epoxy binds with the new cement that is clean. This different approach is the most recommended method for reliable, durable and long-lasting flooring treatment on bare cement.
Professional Application or DIY Baltimore Kits
Just like anywhere else, there are do-it-yourself kits at hardware stores that can provide the brave “everything needed” for an epoxy treatment. However, what these kits don’t include is experience, which can make a big difference in the success of the application.
For example, applying the treatment at the wrong temperature can dramatically increase or shorten the curing time. Not preparing the cement correctly can end up resulting in poor adhesion. The list goes on; professional teams who have applied epoxy repeatedly know how to do it correctly the first time. No one is perfect, but experience in applying garage flooring near me avoids a lot of mistakes that happen without basic practical knowledge. And those mistakes can be expensive.
Maintenance Also Means Change
Everything deteriorates over time; this is simply the nature of time, age and wear and tear. Cement wears down slower than other materials, but it too is affected nonetheless. Epoxy flooring provides a notable change that adds protection, durability and modification of a garage floor for the better. The application is thorough, it provides a new surface that is easy to clean and live on, and the cement is then able to last much longer without damage from wear and tear. Those are significant benefits for a homeowner and worth considering, especially given how small the investment is for having an epoxy treatment applied. And, best of all, epoxy flooring really brings back the full use of a garage. In fact, it’s not surprising that people suddenly start spending a lot more time in their garage once treated.
