While both flooring options have gained immense popularity in recent years due to their durability, versatility and aesthetic appeal, they each come with their own unique set of advantages and disadvantages.
Whether you’re a homeowner looking to upgrade your garage or a business owner in search of the perfect flooring solution for your commercial space, choosing between epoxy and polished concrete may seem confusing. With so many factors to consider, such as cost, maintenance and longevity, it’s essential to weigh up the pros and cons before making a decision.
That’s why our team at Policrete have created this short guide to explore the characteristics, benefits and drawbacks of epoxy and polished concrete floors. We’ll also provide you with valuable insights on finding the best flooring option for your project.
Polished Concrete Floor
Polished concrete flooring is a popular choice for modern interior and exterior spaces due to its sleek and polished finish. This type of flooring involves the process of grinding, honing, and mechanically polishing a concrete surface to achieve a smooth and glossy appearance. Polished concrete floors have a high resistance to wear and tear, making them ideal for high-traffic areas such as offices, retail stores, and homes..
- Easy to clean and maintain - requires only periodic mopping and polishing to retain shine.
- Affordable - doesn’t cost as much as an epoxy flooring.
- Hypoallergenic - minimises allergies caused by dust mites.
Epoxy Flooring
Epoxy flooring consists of a base coat, a colour or design layer, and an epoxy coating that creates a protective and glossy finish. This type of flooring is highly resistant to impact, chemicals, stains, and scratches, making it an ideal option for industrial and commercial settings. Epoxy floors are also easy to clean and maintain, and can be customised to suit a variety of design preferences, including colours, patterns, and textures. Moreover, epoxy flooring can be applied over existing concrete surfaces, reducing the need for costly floor replacement.
- Extremely versatile - suitable for both indoor and outdoor settings.
- Next to no maintenance - only basic regular cleaning required.
- High aesthetic appeal - ample opportunity for customisations.
Epoxy Flooring at Policrete
Whether it’s for your garage floor, wet space, entertaining area or showroom, epoxy concrete floors may be the suitable choice. Policrete offers a wide range of epoxy concrete floor options suited to each property. Some of our popular epoxy choices include:
- Commercial epoxy flooring
- Industrial epoxy flooring
- Residential epoxy flooring
- Indoor epoxy flooring
- Outdoor epoxy flooring
Epoxy Flooring vs Polished Concrete: Factors to Consider
Durability
A top priority when choosing the ideal flooring option should always be durability. This is because commercial, industrial and residential floors must be strong enough to withstand wear and tear, heavy loads, and daily use. Therefore, it’s fortunate that both epoxy and polished concrete flooring offer excellent durability.
Once set and hardened, polished concrete can handle high volumes of foot traffic on a daily basis. It doesn’t chip or crack as easily as other materials. Similarly, epoxy flooring is tough and acts more like a protective coating for your existing flooring materials. Epoxy coatings enhance the floor’s ability to withstand high impact, including multiple cars parked in a garage.
Cost
While cleaning, maintenance and longevity are all important factors to consider when choosing between epoxy floor vs polished concrete, the final decision will be influenced by your budget. While both polished concrete and epoxy are two of the most affordable flooring options on the market, they still differ in the overall price.
Polished concrete doesn’t require much money for the grinding and sealing process, and usually, the price will go up depending on the type of finish you’re after. However, an even cheaper option is epoxy flooring wish starts as low as $30 per squared metre for a standard coating. This is because the process basically requires applying epoxy resin onto the existing surface, which is much cheaper than installing new floors.
Installation Time
When it comes to epoxy floor vs polished concrete, the former takes less time to install. Usually, it will take a flooring specialist 2-3 days to finish adding a coating to the floor. This process involves preparing the surface, applying the primer and epoxy coat, and finishing with a topcoat. You will need to wait another day after this process before you can walk on the epoxy surface. If the epoxy flooring is for a garage, it will take seven days before you can drive over the surface. Learn more about epoxy installation if this sounds like the right option fo ryour needs.
On the other hand, polished concrete takes longer to install, with 3-6 days needed to finish the installation. This process includes pouring the concrete mixture and letting it set, then polishing the material to create a smooth and shiny surface. While the concrete will start to harden as soon as it is poured, it still requires around 28 days to complete its curing time.
Slip Resistance
Safety is a key factor to consider when choosing a flooring option, especially when many people will be walking across your residential or commercial floors. Hence, it’s important to opt for a slip-resistant surface.
Even with its smooth and glossy surface, polished concrete is not slippery. Don’t let its light reflectivity fool you. Polishing concrete allows the surface to retain its grip and provides better foot traction than other flooring materials. Alternatively, some epoxy coatings have a smooth, glossy finish that can become slippery when wet, but others can be formulated with slip-resistant additives to increase traction and prevent slips or falls. So, whether you choose polished concrete or an epoxy coating, you’ll find suitable traction for high-traffic areas and you can apply an anti-slip coating with either option.
