Polyurea flooring

Polyaspartic vs. Polyurea

Which is the best garage floor coating?

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Polyurea Coating Alternative for Garages

When Hello Garage first started, we researched many different garage floor coatings — from polyurea and epoxy to garage floor paints and polyaspartic technology. So, as you begin to narrow down your choices in garage floor coatings, it’s important to make an educated decision regarding what’s best for your garage. On this page, we’ll look at what we found when comparing polyurea coatings to polyaspartic coatings.

Interested in a 100% polyaspartic alternative to a polyurea garage floor coating?

What About Polyurea Garage Floors?

Polyurea floor coatings offer an upgrade in durability, flexibility and protection compared to their DIY and epoxy counterparts, but they still have their drawbacks, including:

Substandard polyurea results
Substandard Results

Polyurea’s extremely fast curing time can lead to a weaker bond and a greater chance of imperfections showing once cured.

Polyurea not UV resistant
Not UV Resistant

Polyurea reacts when exposed to UV radiation and will likely turn yellow over time.

Coating is experiencing poor adhesion to cement
Poor Adhesion

When applied, polyureas tend to be thicker than polyaspartics and less sticky, which reduces the strength of the bond between the coating and the concrete.

Read about Polyaspartic by Hello Garage

Why a Polyaspartic Floor Coating Is Better Than a Polyurea Floor Coating

When it comes to floor coatings, you should choose the kind that looks the best and lasts the longest. And polyaspartic beats polyurea coatings in that area without question. Why? Just take a look:

Standard polyurea coatings cure extremely quickly — so quickly, in fact, that they don’t have time to bond with the concrete beneath it as well as a polyaspartic coating.

Because standard polyureas typically don’t bond with concrete as well as polyaspartic floor coatings, they can delaminate and peel over time.

Polyaspartic floor coatings are polyureas that have been modified to cure slower and resist ultraviolet radiation (UV). Standard polyureas are not UV resistant (See below).

UV Exposure: Any Color You Like… So Long as it’s Yellow.

First, a little chemistry: All polyaspartics are polyureas — a type of viscous, elastic polymer. However, common polyureas are aromatic compounds, whereas polyaspartics are next-generation polyureas that have been modified to be aliphatic. This difference makes common polyureas highly susceptible to UV radiation, so they react in the presence of sunlight and turn yellow over time. Modern polyaspartics are aliphatic and, therefore, completely UV-stable.

Translation: A polyaspartic garage floor coating has all the benefits of a polyurea coating but won’t yellow with sunlight exposure.

Polyaspartic
Polyurea
Clear coat of Polyaspartic versus Polyurea

Clear Coat

garage floor coating color swatches | Hello Garage

Clear Coat on HG Pearl Flake

dirty garage flooring | Hello Garagegarage with new garage floor coating | Hello Garage
Before & After Spotlight

Polyaspartic Garage Floor Coating vs. Polyurea

We transformed this garage from an aging yellow polyurea finish to a clean, bright polyaspartic garage floor any homeowner would love.

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Polyaspartic: the Superior Polyurea Floor Coating

If a garage flooring company is selling a polyurea floor coating, you can bet it isn’t a polyaspartic polyurea — otherwise, they’d say so. That’s why it’s so important to understand what you’re getting and to ask questions. Because if you end up with a non-polyaspartic polyurea coating, your floor might look good for a little while, but there’s a chance it will start peeling and delaminating due to poor adhesion. Plus, it will likely turn yellow after just a few years.

Frequently Asked Questions

Polyureas are a type of viscous, elastic polymer. Meaning they’re chemical compounds that are liquid and pliable when applied but cure to a hard state. However, they tend to have a very fast cure time — so fast that they are often difficult to install successfully. 

Polyaspartics are next-generation polyureas that have been formulated to prolong their cure time and reduce their viscosity to make it easier to install and bond better with the concrete beneath it. This modification also makes it UV-resistant.

Non-polyaspartic polyurea coatings may seem slightly cheaper at first glance. But, since polyurea garage coatings typically don’t last as long as polyaspartic coatings, they will often need to be replaced much sooner, which actually makes them more expensive over time.

Yes — but polyaspartic is better than both. That’s because polyaspartics are polyureas that are modified to adhere better to the concrete and resist UV degradation.