5 Reasons Why You Should Epoxy Your Basement Floor

If you have a basement with bare cement, you’ve probably noticed that it takes a lot of punishment like moisture damage, mold, and scraping. After years of wear, it may be time to replace your entire floor. But why settle for a concrete slab when you can get new basement epoxy flooring? Basement floor epoxy coatings are attractive, easy to clean, and extremely durable compared to other forms of flooring.

Installation is quick, so after a day or two, you will have a shiny, brand-new-looking floor!

Here are five reasons that you should epoxy your basement floor and why it is a good choice for homeowners. Although looks matter, all sorts of things can happen in a basement, so not all of these reasons are aesthetic! It has a lot to do with protection, and durability as well…. Let’s get started.

1. It’s Tough

Painters USA said it best: “When it comes to flooring, epoxy is the toughest!” Epoxy resists almost everything you can think of: water, heat, cold, motor oil, heavy machinery, and more! It can even handle the occasional chemical spill, without stains! That makes epoxy an excellent choice for basement flooring, especially if you live someplace with freeze-thaw cycles and colder temperatures. If your floor needs an extra layer of durable protection, you can’t go wrong with our epoxy products.

That said, the main flaw with epoxy is that it isn’t very flexible. Your concrete garage floor is more likely to crack than your basement flooring epoxy. If the foundation of your building shifts, your epoxy floor won’t be able to move with it. These are super rare cases, but if you think about it… if something out lasts the resilience of concrete flooring, isn’t that a testament to how strong it is?

 

Final Point, Epoxy is tougher than concrete.

2. It’s Sanitary

If you’ve ever had an antique rug, you’ve worried about mold. If you have wooden flooring, it scratches easily. And if you have tiled floors, you have to worry about tiles cracking, chipping and cleaning the dirt that got stuck between the grout. Most of this is just daily wear. If these tasks worry you, it may surprise you to learn that epoxying your basement floor can mean way less work for you!

This is important for places near a water supply, your sump pump, or if your basement is prone to flooding. Mold and mildew will not grow on basement epoxy coatings because they don’t have grooves like wood or tile. It also does not suffer from water damage. You won’t need to clean or repair your epoxy floor nearly as often as a tiled floor.

3. It’s Cost-Effective

Notice how we’re not saying “cheap.” Even though epoxy flooring is an affordable flooring option for basements and garages, the initial savings (which vary by the amount of space) are just the beginning. There is no annual maintenance required as there would be for vinyl tiles. You will not have to pay for any repairs because epoxy is that hard to break. Since you need a floor to pour that epoxy on, you don’t need to tear up any of your old cement floors to get an appealing floor.

Part of our installation process is to grind down, or polish the existing concrete floor, so all you are left with is a smooth clear finish, with a very strong top layer of durable, beautiful epoxy.

4. It’s Eco-Friendly

At this point, we must get into the application process. Most epoxy resin comes in a two-part formula: the epoxy itself and the hardener. When the epoxy is mixed with the hardener, toxic gases are released in a chemical reaction as the epoxy hardens. The cure time can take days depending on the epoxy. While it is easy to do smaller projects in open areas, that’s not possible with basement floors, meaning that covering an entire floor in epoxy can be dangerous with out the proper ventilation needed.

Sometimes, depending on the client’s requests, we can mix in additives, that can make the epoxy more chemical resistant, or even slip proof. Again, with mixing of certain chemicals, you must know what you are doing, to ensure, you are not weakening the epoxy, or creating hazardous gases in the room.

How can something with such hazardous chemicals also be eco-friendly? Once it’s done hardening, epoxy floors are very safe! New types of epoxy are being developed every day to, at minimum, deal with the toxic gas. Greenmatters.com even mentions resins made from recycled materials! You can have an attractive floor surface and now go green, too!

5. It’s Beautiful

While epoxying your basement floor may be enough for some people, other, more creative types will be looking for more than a shiny, clear coating. Our epoxy floors come in a variety of decorative finishes, but that is the tip of the iceberg regarding aesthetic benefits.

 

The customizable floor design options don’t stop with decorative flakes and textures. If you haven’t seen 3D epoxy flooring, do so after reading this post! There are more epoxy basement floor ideas than fish in the ocean (which, by the way, you can get on your floor). If you want your basement to have a floor out of a French palace, there is an epoxy master who can make it happen!

What Floor Do You Want?

Getting an epoxy floor is an easy, affordable way to get a beautiful floor that will last a lifetime. Epoxy flooring is attractive and immune to moisture issues, making it one of the most popular choices for homeowners.

While it’s tempting to buy a barrel of industrial epoxy and dump it on concrete flooring yourself, we highly recommend asking professionals to do it. Epoxy can be hard to work with, but we assure you that the results will be worth it! If your classic basement floor needs a new look, contact us about epoxy coatings today!