Mile High Coatings Podcast

Coating Durability Essentials: What Truly Determines Coating Longevity

• David Nanninga • Episode 9

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What Factors Affect The Durability Of Concrete Coatings? 

What really determines how long your concrete coating will last? The answer might surprise you. David Nanninga, president of Mile High Coatings, reveals that durability depends more on the concrete substrate than environmental factors. For optimal results, concrete needs to cure for 28 days to reach 95% hardness before any coating application. This crucial waiting period creates the foundation for long-lasting results.

Temperature plays a significant role in successful installations. While most coatings require temperatures between 35-40°F, the polyaspartic formulations used by Mile High Coatings offer remarkable flexibility—technically installable down to -30°F (though you'll never catch their team working in such extreme conditions!). This versatility enables year-round installations for interior spaces like garages and basements, with only outdoor projects being seasonal in Colorado's variable climate. Surprisingly, fall emerges as the ideal season for coating projects, balancing perfect temperatures with minimal environmental interference.

The sun stands as the universal enemy of all coatings. UV exposure gradually breaks down even the highest quality polymers over time, similar to how car paint fades without protection. Other environmental challenges include falling leaves embedding in wet coatings and the occasional insect creating unwanted texture. While garage floors require minimal maintenance beyond basic cleaning with dish soap or degreasers, outdoor applications may need more attention depending on sun exposure and surrounding conditions. Each project demands a customized approach to maximize longevity. Whether you're transforming your garage, basement, patio, or commercial space, understanding these factors helps ensure your investment stands the test of time.

Ready to elevate your space with expert guidance? Mile High Coatings offers free consultations to help you navigate these considerations for your specific project.

To learn more about Mile High Coatings visit:
https://www.MileHighCoatings.com
Mile High Coatings
970-314-1023

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Mile High Coatings podcast, where we elevate your spaces to a new peak in quality. Hosted by David Nanega, president of Mile High Coatings, this podcast explores how expert residential painting, concrete coatings and epoxy flooring can transform garages, basements, patios and commercial spaces across Colorado's front range. So grab your favorite beverage, sit back and dive into the world of high-quality coatings.

Speaker 2:

Not all coatings are created equal and not all surfaces are ready for them. David Nanaga shares the key factors that impact how long your concrete coating lasts, from prep work to product selection and beyond. Welcome back everyone. I am Millie M, co-host and producer. Back in the studio, david Nanica, president of Mile High Coatings. How are you, david?

Speaker 3:

Good, how are you?

Speaker 2:

Doing well, doing well. Durability is everything, so what environmental factors affect the durability of concrete?

Speaker 3:

coatings. So usually the things that affect the durability are more related to the concrete substrate than the surrounding environment. So usually all manufacturers of coatings want the concrete to be cured for 28 days before a coating is placed. At 28 days concrete reaches 95% cure hardness and at that point you can, you know it's safe to to apply a coating With respect to, you know, the environment itself. Of course there's, there's a typical window, you know, an operating window for temperatures for most coatings typically those are kind of your, you know, maybe 35 to 40 degrees and rising.

Speaker 3:

You know, if we get, you know, on the high end, you know you generally probably don't want to be direct sunlight when it's, you know, 90 degrees or whatever you know. And so, with that said, a product that we use, probably the most, called polyaspartic, is very tolerant to temperature and it can actually be installed down to negative 30 degrees. Now that's obviously pretty extreme and we would never really install it when it's even close to that, mostly because the guys would probably be frozen solid If they're. You know it'd be, I mean you can imagine.

Speaker 3:

So even on days when it's going to be at maybe a high of 20 degrees, we might punt on that day and say, okay, let's you know, let's look at a day that's a little bit nicer outside and I'm kind of referencing something like a garage board coating.

Speaker 3:

Obviously, when it comes to patios and outdoor types of projects, we need generally warmer temperatures because we don't want it to freeze overnight and cause dew. We don't want moisture to affect the curing process. The other thing that's always tricky from an environmental perspective when installing the coating is certain times of year fall, you get leaves starting to drop, you know you get a burst of wind and all of a sudden you know you're applying a wet coating on a patio and you're gonna burst the wind and it blows a bunch of wet but a bunch of leaves on the wet coating. So these are probably going to stick to. It causes issues there. There's been a few times over the years where we've had bugs, you know, walk across or fly land, whatever into the coating.

Speaker 3:

So those are just of course, things that you just inherently can't control at the end of the day. But sun exposure is probably, you know, UV is just kind of the killer of coatings, kind of no matter what If you really think about it, the sun just wears down everything.

Speaker 3:

I mean, the coatings are polymers, they're essentially plastics, for lack of a better word, and so, at the end of the day, repeated UV exposure, long term, is going to degrade pretty much anything. I mean, if you think about it, the sun, the sun beats down everything. It doesn't matter.

Speaker 2:

There's a lot of things, including like your car paint, if you're not Exactly.

Speaker 3:

Coating or not, I mean it just does a number, yep. And so, just straight up, sun exposure over time will eventually cause degradation of everything, including coatings, and so that's something of course to be aware of. So we install coatings year-round, we do garage floors year-round, obviously, we can do basements. Those are indoors, so we do those all the time, and about the only thing we don't do in the winter is, you know, outdoor stuff driveways and patios and walkways and things like that.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, Well, it's reassuring to know that you know you don't have to put your project off, because I was thinking maybe because of severe weather concerns there might be a season where you might suggest someone put off their flooring, but you say you install all. Is there a season that just works better for you, that you enjoy more as far as the installation because of the climate out there in Colorado?

Speaker 3:

For sure. I mean, you can't beat a beautiful Colorado fall yeah it is for sure, but yeah, we um yeah it's, it's.

Speaker 3:

It's so beautiful, I mean fall is pretty ideal for a lot of things, definitely including, uh, installing um coatings, you know springtime can be good too, but then you know, springtime can of course be a little volatile, I mean especially here in colorado. You never know um, you know it can be. Um, you know sunny and nice and you get a. You know it can be. You know sunny and nice and you get a. You know it can be 70 degrees one day and you get a snowstorm literally the next day. It happens.

Speaker 2:

Snow in the spring. Oh yeah, oh yeah, for sure.

Speaker 3:

So I think probably ideally, you know, kind of your spring, summer, fall months, but again, we do them year round. And I say probably, you know, ideally those months, the warmer months For people that live in their homes and have to move stuff, say out of a garage, you know, a lot of times people will put stuff in their driveway. We have other options that we can help with or suggest. People don't want to just leave their stuff out, you know, outside. So of course in the wintertime that's not very appealing, and so oftentimes in the winter, where you know the garage floors that we're coating are maybe new homes or a home that someone just purchased and they haven't moved in yet so they have the benefit of having an already cleared out garage.

Speaker 3:

And so of course we can go in and coat the floor, even if it's, you know, dead winter, you know middle of winter or whatever, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 2:

So it's like the inconvenience of winter has nothing to do with the floor and everything to do with us, the work in the homeowners? Yeah, for sure. So how do you educate clients on maintaining their coatings over time, whether that be weather-related or otherwise?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so typically the coatings you know in a garage floor really don't need maintenance from a reapplication of a clear coat over time. From a cleaning perspective, they're, you know, they're meant to be easy to clean and so dish soap simple, green or any kind of basic decreasing soap, cleaner, is usually going to be good and make cleaning the floor pretty easy. So from a maintenance standpoint, outdoors, depending on the application, there's a lot of variations, a lot of different applications.

Speaker 3:

Depending on the level of sun exposure and kind of what, the you know what kind of the immediate environment of that particular house or project, whatever, will kind of determine what level of maintenance you might need or expect. So so that's so it, kind of case by case, it can vary sometimes, you know, you might look at a reapplication every couple years if it's maybe a stamped concrete patio, which which are a different type of coatings than we would do, um you know, versus maybe a driveway or just regular concrete.

Speaker 2:

Sounds like that's a one-on-one conversation that they should have with you Winter, spring, summer, fall. David's your guy Mile High Coatings. That was packed with practical insight. Thank you for helping us understand what really makes a coating last, and we'll catch you next time on Mile High Coatings podcast.

Speaker 1:

Really makes a coating last, and we'll catch you next time on Mile High Coatings Podcast. Thanks for tuning in to the Mile High Coatings Podcast. Ready to give your space a fresh, durable finish, visit milehighcoatingscom for a free price quote or call 970-314-1023. At Mile High Coatings, we're not just painting walls. We're setting a new peak in quality. Until next time, keep your standards high and your coatings higher.