It’s always nice to bring a touch of nature into your home. So how can you blend the natural world with your interior space? One increasingly popular way is to turn your home “outside-in” with full-chip mica epoxy flooring. Basements and garages are great places to install this type of flooring, but because it’s so durable, you can install it virtually anywhere…inside and out.
What Does “Full Chip” Mean?
In a “chipped” epoxy coating system, thermoplastic PVA or mica flakes (“chips”) are broadcast into the color coat. Because the chips are broadcast before the epoxy cures, the chips get embedded. In a “full-chip” application, the chips have been broadcast into the epoxy coat until the “point or rejection”. That is to say, the chips fully cover the entire epoxy color coat.
Aside from the added color, contrast and texture, full-chip epoxy coatings are thick…up to 30 mils (a mil is a unit of thickness equal to 1/1000 of an inch). Because of this, they make for very durable floors. (“Partially” chipped floors are 15 to 18 “mils” in thickness; non-chipped floors are less than 13 mils). Generally speaking, the higher the millage, the more durable the floor.
What is Mica?
Using mica chips in a full-chip system takes your flooring “next-level”. Mica is a glimmering silicate mineral found in granite. When incorporated in a floor in a full-chip spread, it provides a unique texture, pattern and reflective quality that only mica can deliver. It’s as aesthetically stunning as it is durable!
Other Benefits
But full-chip mica epoxy flooring provides a host of other benefits. Whether installed inside or out, full-chip mica epoxy flooring resists staining, abrasions and UV damage. Because these systems have one or more clear topcoats, this flooring is also very easy to clean. Just hose it down and squeegee clean.
Mica-Infused Flooring Options
GarageFloorCoating.com (www.garagefloorcoating.com) offers several sophisticated full-chip mica media coating systems. Our classic Earth Effects coating system has been around for years, but our newest entries are the striking Bagari SE and Vintage Mica systems. These coating systems use our proprietary mica blends, not offered by any other company, in a variety of colors.
Installing Full Chip Mica Systems
Installation of a Bagari SE or Vintage Mica system involves the application o f a standard or moisture-mitigating primer coat followed by a color coat into which the proprietary mica blends are “broadcast” in a full-chip spread. One or more clear topcoats follow to provide sheen and unprecedented strength.
Take a peek at our video showing the installation of a Bagari SE floor.
(P.S. Proper epoxy coating installation is not a DIY project).
The Wrap
Take your basement, garage or any space from ordinary to extraordinary with a full-chip, mica-infused epoxy coating system. Our GarageFloorCoating.com team will ensure your mica-infused epoxy-polyaspartic flooring is beautiful, functional and durable…for years to come.
About the Author
GarageFloorCoating.com
Robert Hanson is the President and founder of GarageFloorCoating.com (GFC), an ISO 9001-certified company that has specialized in the installation of epoxy, polyurethane and polyurea-polyaspartic flooring for over 25 years. Robert’s evolving knowledge and experience pertaining to concrete coatings and installation techniques culminated in GFC’s impressive line of commercial-grade Eco-Corflex floor coating products, chip blends and unique coating systems. His proprietary floor coating products and chip blends are sold to over 35 franchisees & authorized dealers across the United States.
