I have a new garage floor and I am trying to decide if I should epoxy it, seal it with concrete sealer or do nothing with it. What is gained by the epoxy coating that a concrete sealer won’t do besides looks? Also, what is the life expectancy of the epoxy and what do you do when it is time to replace/repair the epoxy finish? My concern is that I will have a nice floor now and a huge mess down the road. I don’t know if this will influence responses, but I also periodically wash my cars in my garage during the winter.
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take this with a grain of salt. It's a subject I have a lot more to learn but...
From what I understand, the sealer is primarily to protect the concr5ete from stains and helps it with initial curing. It will not make the slab waterproof, only mildly moisture resistant. It is clear and will not leave any mess as it wears off in a couple years.
An epoxy coat can be depended on to be a weara layer and to nearly waterproof the floor, if it is a good slab to start with and cxlean when epoxied. I had the displeasure of removing some epoxy coat a few times in the past and my impression is tht if it ever flakes off it would have to be because there were flaws in the crete or in the application to begin with.
The Epoxy coat would be my choice, priomarily because you wash the car inside in winter. The road salts will defiinitely do damage to the surface of the crete and the epoxy will definitely protect against that sort of thing.
It can make the surface more slick, but there are additives to give a grip texture to it, or sand can be sprinkled onto it while curing for a sandtexture, then second coated.
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Or you could stain it and then seal.