At Summit Coatings, we get a few extremely common questions about our epoxy coatings for garages, basements and other areas. One of the most common such questions: “Is epoxy floor covering and its installation safe?”
Simply put: Yes, all our epoxy products and their installations are fully safe, and will provide you with high-quality surfaces that resist cracking, chipping, staining and many other damage possibilities. Here are a few of the specifics we tell clients when they inquire about the safety and health-related areas of our products to set their minds at ease.
Epoxy Resin Hardening
We’ll get to the primary element folks wonder about when considering the safety of epoxy in a moment, but fully understanding how this works requires grasping how epoxy resin is formulated to begin with. Epoxy is a form of resin, and your final product will really be made up of two primary components: This resin and a hardening material.
When the resin and the hardener are mixed together, a chemical reaction takes place in your epoxy. This initiates a hardening process, one that’s completed when the coating is applied to your surface and various molecules react. From here, the epoxy enters the curing stage, which is similar to drying but different in a few important ways. During this process, we can control the temperature and compounds used in both the resin and the hardener, impacting areas like strength, chemical resistance and abrasive qualities, among others.
Volatile Organic Compounds
Most of the time, when you hear concerns about the safety of epoxy coatings, what’s being referred to is a group of outputs known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These compounds, which can be produced as part of the production process we just laid out above while creating epoxy and hardening it on your floors, can be harmful to human and animal health.
However, it’s important to note that many of these concerns are a thing of the past. While previous production formats for epoxy did indeed create high VOC quantities that required installers and clients alike to wear masks and other safety devices, modern technology allows this process to take place without this same level of VOC output. While our pros may still recommend wearing a basic protective mask if you’ll be in the room during installation itself, the products we install contain extremely low or even no VOC levels whatsoever, meaning you and anyone else in your home will not be at risk.
Our Pros and Safety
Once our team has completed your epoxy installation and the floor has cured completely, the area will be 100 percent safe for all people and animals. If there are any further safety recommendations or tips for your product, we’ll give them to you at installation.
For more on the health and safety qualities of our materials, or to learn about any of our sealing or waterproofing services, speak to the pros at Summit Coatings today.
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