How Garage And Patio Coatings Resist Water Stains And Chemicals

Red wine on the floor. Road salt tracked in all winter. Grease drips by the grill. Even the occasional mystery stain that shows up under a parked golf cart. If you’ve ever wondered what concrete coatings can actually handle and what will eventually leave a mark, we’re getting specific and practical. David Nanninga talks through how different coating systems behave when moisture, spills, and chemicals hit real homes and real businesses across Colorado’s Front Range.

We start with the basics that most people miss: sealing is meant to stop liquid water, but concrete can still push moisture vapor upward. That’s where breathable acrylic coatings can shine for outdoor applications, letting vapor pass while still shedding rain and everyday messes. Then we compare performance across acrylic, epoxy flooring, urethane, and polyaspartic coatings, including why polyaspartic is a go-to for garage floors thanks to UV stability and strong resistance to common chemicals like de-icers and household spills.

From there we zoom into the tougher stuff. Acid exposure changes the rules, and we explain why specialized products like novolac epoxy exist, plus what happens when acids sit too long. David shares a homeowner scenario we’ve seen more than once: battery acid leaking under an electric golf cart and leaving a white ring that can etch the coating and even stain the concrete. We wrap with seasonal guidance on what projects ramp up in summer, and our favorite interior option for busy households: dye-and-seal stained concrete topped with a durable clear coat for a natural look that’s easy to clean. 

If you want a floor that looks great and holds up to real life, listen now, subscribe for more coating tips, and share this with a friend who’s tired of stains. After you listen, what space are you thinking about coating next?

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

Transcript

Welcome And What We Cover

SPEAKER_02 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_00 0:35

Welcome back, everyone. I'm Julie Schwenzer, co-host and producer, back with the awesome David Nanaga of Mile High Coatings.

Moisture Sealing And Breathable Coatings

SPEAKER_00 0:42

David, if we can open this up by talking about how coatings hold up against moisture and spills and chemical exposure, that'd be great. I know it's a bit of a loaded question, but you're the expert if you could explain it to us.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

For sure. Yeah. So uh good to see you again. Uh you too. Been a few weeks, so uh glad to be on here again. I uh I think so, yeah, so it's not necessarily a super loaded question, but there's there's obviously different types of coatings, and with that there's different levels of performance uh that that each you know type of coating, you know, has um, you know, a as it as it exhibits different pros and cons and different characteristics. And so um, you know, when the coatings are sealed, pretty much all of them are gonna do do well with moisture with water. That seems to be the primary uh reason or point of sealing something is to give out moisture. And so there are coatings that will allow moisture to pass through the coating, so like moisture vapor. So there are breathable coatings that uh like an acrylic coating that that uh is popular for for outdoor applications, and a lot of times most acrylics will allow vapor transmission to to pass through, but are still developed in a way that you know that creates a a a seal on top, like rain or or whatever, uh for you know, spills or things like that. So when it comes to acrylics, you know, typically speaking, it's gonna do well against grease and fats and things like that that you might spill, say if you're grilling something and you have your grill out on the patio and drip grease or something, that's probably gonna wipe up pretty well with an acrylic coat. Or really any of the coatings that we use, whether it's polyaspartic, urethane, uh epoxy, and the acrylics are all gonna do pretty well against things like that. But it's when you get to the industrial settings where the the difference where you start to see the difference. And so most household chemicals are gonna do pretty well with polyaspartic, which is why it's so popular with garage floors. And and we we use it outdoors a lot too. But it's UV stable, uh, but also the the you know, it resists chemical attacks from road salts, the magnesium chloride, which is used in road salts. Um you know, wine, you know, is al is always a popular one because red wine obviously tends to stain. It has a very you know powerful staining effect. And so, you know, things like that uh are gonna be you know really not affect the coating.

Chemical Resistance And Acid Damage

SPEAKER_01 3:55

And so on the industrial side, you know, you get you know uh acids and and and mixtures and things things that are really caustic. And so that can affect most coatings. There are specific types of coatings that are built and designed to resist you know certain types or certain classes of chemicals. So there's one called novellac epoxy, and that has good resistance against acids. Whereas a polyaspartic, while it has pretty good resistance against acids, if if those acids are, you know, repeat the exposure and are allowed to sit and don't get cleaned up, they'll eventually eat away, you know, for sure leave like a watermark or ring. One example that I that that I have seen and that I like to use is a lot of times homeowners have well, not a lot of times, but homeowners do have golf carts and stored in their garages for whatever reason. A lot of times over the winter or just whenever batteries can leak. And you know, if it's an electric golf cart and those batteries leaked, you know, you can get a little bit of battery acid on the floor. Obviously, that's underneath the golf cart, and then they, you know, it it might sit there for a month or two months or whatever, and then you go to pull it out, and there's this white kind of ring, kind of watermark looking ring on the floor, and it's kind of eaten away and stained the coating. So the good news is that can be easily repaired, it's not that big deal. It it happens, and um, and so that's probably the one thing that that is that that can affect the coating. And and with that said, that that that would affect the concrete too. That's gonna eat or stainable stained the concrete. You know, at that level, there's just not much you could do about about it. You know, there's not really a whole level of uh of protection that that that's gonna um that that's gonna be effective there. So and then as far as cleaning, you know, um they're they're obviously easy to clean, you know, dish soap, uh, mild degreasers, uh something like simple green, you know, make makes the coatings easy to clean.

Summer Projects And Seasonal Demand

SPEAKER_00 6:09

So and this time of year, what are you doing the most for coatings jobs? Like when it comes to the residential side and then the business side. And this is summertime now for the listeners, because you might be listening to this at a different time of the year.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Yeah, so uh typically in the summer we do a lot of patios, front porches, walkways, just because we have you know the sunshine, the dry weather, and um, you know, but we're not getting into freezing tents overnight, freestyle. That the substrate is worn. And um and yeah. So so it's a lot of a lot of uh quartz applications and and and there's some other and quartz is is a polyaspartic system that we use, kind of has a sandpaper type texture to it. Uh, so it has some nice gritty feel. Uh the quartz is popular outdoors, also because it has a very subtle look to it. If you can imagine like how just how stucco looks on a house, it's kind of like uh I don't want to say it's stucco on the on the concrete, but it kind of mimics that that general look, the the subtlety of it, like the consistency that you would see on like a stucco house. And so uh, and people like that just because usually with a a front walkway or a porch or patio, then you're not trying to do anything too, you know, too extreme, too loud, you know, you're trying to keep it subtle and you're just making it look nice, uh hiding ugly or damaged concrete. So and then of course the garage floors, we do tons of garage floors all year round, but certainly garage floors pick up this time of year as home buyer um activity increases through that, then we tend to increase with that. And then, of course, uh house painting too is very busy uh because we do a lot of exterior uh residential projects, and so just naturally summertime is uh when that tends to happen. So we do a lot of house painting uh around you know the northern Colorado area, and then uh what else as far as commercial projects, those are always steady.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Is that is there any difference seasonally for commercial projects or it differs each year?

SPEAKER_01 8:27

You know, I feel like in the past it used to kind of it seemed like we would get more commercial projects uh fourth quarter, maybe beginning of the year, um, but a lot of times kind of around the holidays. And I think that's maybe as as other businesses maybe slow down or they're maybe trying to use up their budget, um, you know, their maintenance budget or whatever, um, you know, before the end of the year. So I think maybe that had has something to do with it, but it seems like generally speaking, commercial projects are steady year-round with maybe a little bit of a bump in that fourth quarter.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

And

Best Indoor Floors For Busy Homes

SPEAKER_00 9:10

then a last question, just for the homeowners and the people with like high traffic homes with kids or pets or just you know, a messy lifestyle. What's your favorite coating inside the home for people that want to be able to clean it on their own?

SPEAKER_01 9:25

Uh my favorite, so I think that dye and are dye and seal. So that's where we diamond grind the concrete uh to create a nice profile and to create some porosity. And the dye are also aka concrete stain. We apply that, we spray it on, it soaks into the concrete, and then uh once that's dry, we put a like polyaspartic or a urethane coating over the top. And that those are always nice because they they tend to look a little bit more natural. They kind of have a mottled, sort of leathery faux type of look to them. There's a bunch of different color options, and um, and yeah, they last a long time and they they they're aesthetically pleasing. A lot of people like stained concrete, it's very functional, uh easy to clean, and uh, and you still get the the high performance of the poly sparnock uh or the earthing. And yeah, so those are probably my favorite. Another practical one, of course, is polished concrete, and that's that's that's uh been gaining popularity, I'd say, over the last 10 to 15 years, especially in residential surface uh residential uh projects as well.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

Yeah, it's so aesthetically pleasing. Um, and then I think about too the houses with a lot going on and like the frizzy going into the you know into the wall or like uh the basketball or just things being, you know, crazy. And we're in a golf course too, so golf balls are the house. Yeah. So yeah, it's a lot of a lot of madness. Well, it's good to know you're protecting the exterior and the interior. So thank you, David. We appreciate your insight and your time as always, and we look forward to the next episode. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Welcome. Thanks.

Repair Notes And How To Get A Quote

SPEAKER_02 11:16

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.