Choosing The Right Floor Coatings Has Its Advantages

What Are The Advantages Of Choosing High-quality Coating Products?

Floors take a beating—from sun and snow to hot tires, acid spills, and daily wear—and the wrong coating turns that stress into peeling, yellowing, and costly do-overs. We sat down with David Nanninga, president of Mile High Coatings, to pull back the curtain on what really makes a floor last: solids content, film build, UV stability, and careful surface preparation. If you’ve ever wondered why a DIY kit looks great on day one but flakes by year two, or why epoxy blushes and ambers outside, this conversation gives you the clear, no-spin answers.

We explore the science in plain language. David explains how 90–95% solids base and top coats leave far more protection on the slab than lower-solids options, improving bond strength, impact resistance, and consistency. We map the right chemistry to the right setting: epoxy for interior spaces, polyaspartic or urethane where sun exposure is real, and specialized systems where chemicals, sanitizers, or battery acid are in play. You’ll hear practical examples from garages and basements to food and beverage plants and battery storage rooms, showing how chemical resistance and UV stability decide whether a floor thrives or fails.

Then we talk money and peace of mind. Higher-grade coatings paired with professional prep reduce lifetime costs, cut downtime, and come with strong warranties that back the work. Less solvent means lower odor and faster return to service, making these systems safer and more comfortable for homes and busy facilities. If durability, cleanability, and long-term value are on your checklist, this episode hands you the framework to choose wisely and skip the headaches.

If you found this helpful, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s planning a garage upgrade, and leave a quick review so others can find it. Got a tricky floor? Send us your scenario and we’ll tackle it on a future episode.

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

Transcript

Welcome And Show Focus

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to the Mile High Coatings Podcast, where we elevate your spaces to a new peak in quality. Hosted by David Naniga, 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_01 0:35

The right coating products can make all the difference in durability, appearance, and long-term value. Welcome back, everyone. I'm Julie Schwenzer, co-host and producer in the studio with David Nanaga, the president of Mile High Coatings. David, it's great to speak to you again.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

Likewise. Hi Julie.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Hey David. So let's jump right in. What are the advantages of choosing high-quality coating products?

Solids Content And Film Thickness

Matching Coatings To Environments

Cost, Longevity, And Warranties

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Probably the answer for most people is it could be a little obvious, but um from our perspective, um, obviously we have a lot of a lot of floor coatings, a lot a lot of concrete uh coatings in various applications. And um, and we've certainly used uh different various products, um, brands, manufacturers over the years. And so um so I think you know, some of the advantages that we see or have seen over time are are related to the percentage of solids um in the coating. So what that means is if you have a coating that's let's just keep the math simple, 50% solids, when you apply that coating, it's wet, and let's just say it's about five mils. So a mil is a unit of measurement so in terms of thickness, it's 50% solids, half of that or 50% is solvent that evaporates from the coating as it's drying. So you your your film thickness goes from say five mils to two and a half mils because 50% evaporates. And so how that translates to to quality is um, you know, and you can have epoxy and and and polyasparbic, which we which is our main coating that we use, and and they have varying degrees, you know, manufacturers have different percentages of solids. So a lot of manufacturers um hover around the 75 to 82 percent solids. The coating that we use, um the base coat that we use, say on a garage floor, is around 90 to 92% solid. So that means it's it's thicker. Um there's less solvent that evaporates. The the top coat that we use is 95%, so only 5% evaporate. So ultimately what that means is you get a thicker, build a thicker coating. Um, and and that doesn't necessarily always just straight up translate to to better, but um, you know, there there's obviously gonna be other components to the coating. Um, so so so advantages to to um to kind of get back to the main point of the question, you know, advantages to higher quality coatings, you have you know, better proper curing, um, forced durability, you know, if you have better ingredients, you're gonna have um uh more durability, more consistency um in in the product. Chemical resistance can can can vary, you know, product to product. Um another important thing to to maybe mention is uh surface tolerance. And what what that means is maybe less than ideal substrates or surfaces may need more prep or there may be some coatings, you know, say if it's a cheaper, maybe a DIY type of floor coating and the floor is not prepped really, really, really well, um that coating is likely to fail. So surface tolerance means the coating can withstand maybe a a crappier uh substrate or a a substrate that maybe can't be prepped as well or isn't prepped as well. So um, so anyway, uh those are probably uh, you know, I guess the advantages of of you know of of having a uh higher quality coating. Um, but I also think that more important than just that is choosing the right coating for the app for the application. For instance, you wouldn't want to put an epoxy outdoors because epoxy is not UV stable. It's gonna turn yellow and amber pretty quickly. So you'd want to choose a coating like a urethane or a polyaspartic or even an acrylic coating that that has UV stability and it's not gonna turn yellow outdoors. Um, you know, another example could be maybe in a manufacturing facility. Um, we do we do a lot of manufacturing, um, you know, food and beverage type type of facilities where uh chemical uh resistance, maybe there's vats of you know, tanks of chemicals, or um, you know, there we've done battery storage rooms where there, you know, big uh big, you know, warehouses where there's forklifts of batteries and everything. Um in the battery storage room, you know, potentially they can leak acid. Um and so you want to have a coating that's gonna have good uh resistance to to acid. And so so it's so it's not only the you know, the quality of the coating, but but the right coating for that particular application. So um that that's yeah, that that's how I would uh you know go about um recommending a particular coating, you know, and and and again, that obviously requires discussion with the customers' ultimate um you know use and you know what they're looking to get out of them.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

And how can premium coatings uh reduce like long-term costs for homeowners and business owners if they choose the right coating? What are they preventing down the line for expenses?

SPEAKER_02 6:18

Yeah, yeah. So like for instance, you know, our our Droud Sport coding application, uh, we do a lifetime warranty. And so what that means is if the if the core if if the floor uh you know peels, flakes, bubbles, blisters, uh, you know, we come out and fix that. And so so so that's good, you know, so an investment, you know, up front. And and really I say it's not even a large investment. I mean, we're we're extremely competitive uh from a pricing perspective on our grouse floor coatings, or really all of our applications. Uh, you know, if if you you know look at a DIY for, you know, and it costs you um just say, say it costs$1,000, right? And and that that four might last two or three years if you're lucky. Um five years if you're super lucky, um, and that's super rare, I would say, um, as opposed to, you know, maybe spending two, two thousand um or twenty five hundred uh on a floor that's gonna last even 10 or more years. Um I mean that that the the math is is is obvious at that point. Um and and and then it's you know just that performance too, then you're not stressing about, you know, you know, a DIY floor starting to peel up and look bad and and just not perform. And you can just enjoy the floor and not even have to think about it, you know, having it professionally done and and maybe spending a little bit more um and knowing that it's done correctly.

Health, Safety, And Low Odor Benefits

SPEAKER_01 7:40

So and a last question for you are there environmental or safety benefits to using you know better quality products?

SPEAKER_02 7:49

Yeah, so as I mentioned with uh uh related to uh the percentage of solids, so less solvent, you know, that evaporates in an air, you know, it's gonna obviously translate to to less odor and and fumes and and all that type of thing. Um, you know, the the the coatings we we use are you know FDA approved, you know, we we've installed them. Actually, we did a project at the CDC uh here in Port Hollands, um, gosh, uh probably eight to ten years ago. Um and so, you know, again, you know, food, food and beverage, um, commercial kitchens, you know, we've installed these coatings in all these types of facilities. So from um, you know, health and safety standpoint, um, you know, there there might be a sort of initial period of of you know where where you're you're gonna want to ventilate the room just mainly from an odor standpoint. But but yeah, long term, um, there's you know, there's no issues. We do these in basements. I have it in my own basement. Um, obviously tons of garages. And so um, yeah, I I I think from from that perspective, um, there's there's really very little little concern in the way of I guess health and safety.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Okay, David, thank you so much for sharing those insights. We always learn a lot from you, and we appreciate your time.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

Welcome. Thanks.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

We'll see you next time on the Mile High Coatings Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Thanks for tuning in to the Mile High Coatings Podcast. Ready to give your space a fresh, durable finish? Visit MileHighCodings.com 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.