Maintenance & Care
Cleaning and Caring for your Epoxy Floor
The maintenance and cleaning of your garage floor is actually very simple and a lot easier than you may think. Here, we’re giving you some tips and techniques to keep it looking great for years to come.
1. Let Your Floors Fully Cure
The amount of time the coating needs to cure will vary with temperature, atmospheric conditions, as well as the condition of the concrete. The minimum is at least 24 HOURS before allowing foot traffic, and AT LEAST 48 HOURS before driving on or moving heavy objects onto the floor. It will take seven days for the product to fully cure.
2. Avoid Dragging Heavy Objects
Refrain from dragging heavy objects across the epoxy floor. Though our ZG Shield coating is highly abrasion-resistant, it is not completely impervious to scratching or damage. If you are planning on adding heavy cabinets we also encourage the use of floor pads under the legs of the cabinets.
3. Always Wipe Up Stains
The coating is stain-resistant but NOT stain-proof. Wiping up oil and other stains in a somewhat timely manner will help ensure your floor stays looking great.
4. Never Use Harsh Chemicals And Acids
Battery acid is one of the very few chemicals that WILL HURT the epoxy and polyaspartic coating. If you have an electric golf cart you may want to consider getting a golf cart parking mat or using a cookie sheet underneath the battery compartment.
Motorcycles and other vehicles with small batteries often have a vented battery that may occasionally discharge small amounts of acid onto the garage floor. You should consider using a mat or tray for those as well.
Be cautious with brake fluid and any highly corrosive agents.
5. Avoid Continuous Abrasion
A good example of this is running your vehicle with tracks on top of your coating on the off chance you decide to use the same spot over and over again you will eventually wear the coating down and damage that spot.
6. Clean Your Epoxy Coating Safely
To clean the floor, start by sweeping, vacuuming, or blowing out the garage floor. You can use a pump-sprayer or garden hose to mist the floor, it is not necessary to completely saturate the floor with water.
Next, use a soft-foam squeegee to pull the water out of the garage — the foam will remove dust, dirt, light stains and debris with it. A rubber squeegee will smear dirt and oil, foam captures the dirt and oil and pulls it out with the water.
7. Do Not Use Detergents Or Waxes On Your Epoxy Floors
It is important that you NEVER use detergents or waxes to clean your garage floor coating. Detergents leave behind a residue on surfaces like the garage floor. Over time, the film will cause your floor to look hazy and dull and may prevent us from being able to repair the floor.
This is also true of mopping additives like “Mop & Glo.” If you feel you need more than water to get the surface clean, products like Simple Green work great. Vinegar or ammonia will also do the trick.