Polyaspartic coating
Also called: polyaspartic, polyurea coating, one-day garage floor, polyaspartic topcoat, aliphatic polyurea
A fast-curing polyurea-type floor coating used as a clear topcoat over epoxy or as a complete one-day system: UV-stable, chemical- and abrasion-resistant, drivable in 24 hours, tolerant of cold. The trade-off is a 15–20 minute pot life. $8–$12 per sq ft installed as a full system.
Polyaspartic is a chemistry cousin of polyurethane, formulated to cure fast and hard: walkable in hours, drivable the next day, and unaffected by sunlight, gasoline, road salt or hot tires. Epoxy yellows in UV and takes a week to accept a car; polyaspartic doesn’t and doesn’t, which is why it took over as the clear topcoat on professional floors and then as a whole system for contractors who want to finish a garage in a day.
Two ways it’s used. As a topcoat over a 100%-solids epoxy base — the most common professional garage floor, combining epoxy’s thickness and self-leveling with polyaspartic’s UV and wear resistance, at $1–$2 per square foot for the clear coat. As a full system — a polyaspartic base coat, flake broadcast to refusal, and a polyaspartic clear — installed over a ground slab in one day at $8–$12 per square foot; it’s thinner than an epoxy base and shows slab imperfections more, but it’s the one-day promise.
The cost of speed is the clock: 15–20 minutes from mixing to unusable, less on a warm day, with a short recoat window. Contractors mix small batches with a second person spreading and never stop. It’s the reason this site sends polyaspartic to a pro — not price, but the working time. The materials themselves are sold mostly through contractor suppliers, with a few retail brands.