Many home and business owners with epoxy garage floor coatings notice that yellowing or discoloration happens over the months or years after installation. Yellow garage epoxy floor paintings can make your floor look dirty, especially if only particular parts of the flooring turn. In this article, we’ll learn why epoxy floors turn yellow and how you can prevent discoloration.
What Is Epoxy Flooring?
Whether you DIY it or hire a professional, epoxy floors consist of a mixture of hardening compounds and resins poured onto your floor and smoothed out. The chemical reaction between these two agents provides a durable finish lasting for years. Concrete floors benefit from epoxy coatings in many ways, including:
- A smooth, flat surface
- Filled in and covered gouges or cracks
- Moisture prevention
Planning for concrete coatings in your garage also keeps dust and grime to a minimum, making it easier to spend time in your garage.
Why Do Garages Benefit From Epoxy Floor Coatings?
Garages take a lot of abuse. The floor must support the weight of your vehicles and items in storage while providing a surface vulnerable to moisture, oil, and other vehicular fluids. Epoxy flooring prevents water from soaking into your concrete and damaging it and acts as a barrier against stains.
This rugged floor coating can bear an incredible amount of weight without cracking, buckling, or warping. Epoxy garage floors can withstand over 3000 PSI.
What Turns Epoxy Floors Yellow
Epoxy floor coatings provide a robust and durable surface, but certain conditions may damage the coating or turn it into a yellowish-brown hue. Knowing what causes this discoloration helps you avoid the need to remove or refinish your epoxy floor coating.
UV Light
Prolonged exposure to sunlight or UV light bulbs may turn your epoxy flooring yellow. This discoloration won’t affect the epoxy’s stability but can cause a permanent color change. Epoxy garage floor coatings in front of windows or glass doors may turn while the rest of the floor remains clear, leaving you with patchy discoloration.
Extreme High Temperatures
Epoxy floors exposed to high temperatures usually stand up to the heat, but after an extended period, the color may change. Again, this won’t affect how your epoxy flooring protects your garage but will result in permanent discoloration.
Excess Moisture
While epoxy flooring resists water and moisture, improperly installed epoxy flooring may have a different seal than professionals know how to get. In addition, too much exposure to moisture may cause your epoxy flooring to crack or discolor.
Oxidation
This type of yellowing typically happens before or during application as opposed to after. Oxidation refers to the accidental oxygen exposure of the hardening agent portion of epoxy flooring. When oxygen hits the hardener, it turns the resin yellow.
Do UV-Resistant Garage Epoxy Floor Paintings Turn Yellow?
Regardless of the location or maintenance, all epoxy floor coatings turn yellow over time. This process, called ambering, occurs naturally with age and speeds up when the flooring suffers consistent or repeated UV exposure.
How Can I Avoid a Yellow Epoxy Floor?
You can take steps to slow down the progression of yellowing epoxy floors, including:
Close Out the Sun
Keeping your home, business, or garage door shut helps shield your floors from UV light. Use blinds or curtains to prevent yellowing if your flooring gets sun from the windows.
Use Colors That Won’t Show Yellow
Tan or beige colors don’t leave much room for yellow epoxy to show. Gray, white, or lightly colored epoxy floors show their age with yellowing epoxy.
Put Color Flakes in Your Epoxy
Mix paint chips or color flakes in with your epoxy before pouring it. This pattern helps block the yellowish color as your epoxy flooring ages.
Use Premium Epoxy Coatings
High-quality epoxy coatings often have UV stabilizers mixed in to help offset yellowing.
Trust Your Local Charlotte Professionals With Your Epoxy Garage Floor Coatings
Proper epoxy floor installation, repair, and maintenance help you keep your floors from turning yellow. DIY epoxy coatings may not have the appropriate sealing to prevent moisture from entering, while professionals can provide a strongly sealed epoxy garage floor.
TAGG Concrete Coatings has years of experience installing epoxy garage floor coatings for various homes and businesses. Other features we offer include:
- Polyurea basecoat with polyaspartic topcoat
- Epoxy for fringe cases
- 15-year warranty against chipping and peeling
Do you need to cover or repair yellowed garage epoxy floor coatings? Call TAGG Concrete Coatings in Charlotte, NC, at (919) 439-8879 for your free consultation.
