Should You Get Polyurea for a Detailing Garage Floor?

Polyurea for a detailing garage floor? That’s the question we found ourselves asking at Dr. Beasley’s when we made the decision to replace the tile flooring in the “Clean Room” at our detailing studio, Simon’s. After researching all the available options, we came across polyurea and were impressed with its properties. So, we had the fine folks at White Rabbit Garage Solutions come down and install the flooring for us. (You can watch the full installation process here.)

With the re-flooring now complete, we wanted to take a closer look at the reasons why we chose polyurea for our detailing garage. So, we had Dr. Beasley’s Director of Success Chris Racana hop on a Zoom call with Gary Kriz, the co-owner of White Rabbit, to break it all down for us. Check out the full video and transcript below!

VICTOR:  Hey everyone, Victor here, Communications Manager with Dr. Beasley’s. So I am sitting right here in the clean room for our detailing studio Simon’s. And as you may have known, we recently redid the floors with polyurea. So we originally had floor tiles installed in this garage,

And what we found was the floor tiles we got weren’t all that durable, so we were seeing them buckle under the weight of heavy vehicles that were getting pulled up by grippy tires. It just wasn’t working out for us.

So we did some careful research and we found that polyurea was actually the best flooring that we could go with for our clean room garage. So we went with the company White Rabbit to have the flooring installed.

And since then, it’s worked out amazingly. So we wanted to take this video to sort of do a deep dive and figure out what exactly it is that makes polyurea flooring so good for a detailing garage.

So to get these answers, we actually had our Director of Success, Chris Racana, talk to Gary Kriz, the co-owner of the company that did the polyurea flooring for us in the first place, White Rabbit Inc. The first question: “What is polyurea?”

CHRIS: For those of us who are not experts in the arena of flooring, can you define polyurea? 

GARY: Sure, polyurea has been around for a while now. Most people know of it or something like it as Line X, the material they line pickup truck beds with, it’s been sprayed into pools as a pool lining for years. White Rabbit started using it about twelve years ago. We had done epoxy for a number of years, which is still a great product. Benefits to polyurea, it’s a little bit more flexible. It’s UV stable. The topcoat is a UV stable topcoat. So a lot of times in an epoxy situation, you’ll see a floor that may be yellowed over time, clouded up, you know, and that the epoxy topcoat just yellows and gets brittle over time. Polyurea remains flexible, so our process is, as you guys saw when we were there, we put down a base coat of polyurea, the chip layer, and then we put down a clear polyaspartic topcoat. So you’ll have a nice, crystal clear coating for years to come. 

VICTOR: Gary brings up a lot of good points here. I mean, polyurea is going to be so much more durable than an epoxy or garage tile flooring. I mean, it’s something that’s used in industrial applications under the heaviest of stresses. So it is something that’s really going to last long term, which is super important for a detailing garage. So let’s get into a little bit of the science behind this durability.

Well, polyurea is an elastomer, not a polymer, much like our Nano-Resin Pro coating. So that means it has a great deal of flexibility compared to a polymer, which is relatively brittle in comparison to an elastomer. So when you’re working in a garage setting, flexibility is very, very important for the flooring.

The concrete underneath will warp and expand and contract with extreme changes in temperature, much like a vehicle panel would. Therefore, you want the flooring going over that to be flexible so it can flex with those shifts in temperature and that expanding and contracting.

Another reason why flexibility is so important is just because of the extreme shifts in weight that garage floors see. I mean, we’re having vehicles of all different types and sizes driving over these concrete floors, so we really want to make sure that the flooring over that concrete is going to be able to flex with the weight of those vehicles. If you’re using something like tile, it can buckle and start to pull apart under that kind of heavy pressure. Or if you’re using epoxy, that sort of thing over time can grow more brittle and less flexible.

A polyurea coating is going to be able to flex with those extreme shifts in weight. Gary also talked about UV stability, which is another thing that’s very important for long term durability with flooring. With things like epoxy, they’re a little bit more susceptible to UV damage.

So those rays from the Sun actually beat down onto the epoxy flooring and start to break down the molecular bonds that make up the flooring itself. And that affects the way it looks. It’s going to start to get clouded, it’s going to start to get yellow and it’s going to start to get more brittle and less flexible and possibly start to splinter and crack over time. With a coating like polyurea for a floor that’s going to be more UV resistant and UV stable, you won’t see those kinds of things.

It’s going to be able to inhibit those sorts of UV reactions to prevent those molecular bonds from breaking down, thereby preserving the appearance of the floor. So obviously, polyurea has a lot of advantages over epoxy. 

But what about other flooring options? What about garage tile? What is the advantage there with the benefits of polyurea?

CHRIS: How does this make it better than doing a temporary floor tile type system?

GARY: Sure. Usually with tiles, they look fantastic when they get put down. A lot of the tiles have those slots in them. So in a garage situation and frankly, like you guys, when cars are pulling in with salt, dirt, water dripping off of snow, especially in a garage situation, it’s going to get in between those cracks and fill up with dirt over the years. So essentially, you’re not really protecting the floor. Again, when it gets laid down it looks fantastic, but you’re not really doing anything to protect the floor. 

The other thing that we’ve seen happen over years with those tiles is that much like when you move a piece of furniture across a carpet, you sort of see the carpet wave in front of it after some time. That sort of happens with those floors. They’ll turn tires, they’ll pop up a little bit. Again, probably better in a lighter situation. Motorcycles, smaller craft like that. But really, from a floor maintenance standpoint, it probably makes the most sense to put a coating on it. 

VICTOR: So the big takeaway here is that polyurea is just going to be a lot more durable than garage tile. But what’s even more important is how good polyurea is at protecting the underlying foundation. Gary didn’t quite mention this, but concrete can get pretty messed up in a detailing garage when you’re dealing with different kinds of chemicals and water seeping into that concrete. It’s going to cause a lot of damage over time. So with tiles, you’re going to see that runoff seep through the cracks and start to damage the floor underneath. So that’s why it’s such a big problem when all that runoff can go straight through the slots of the tiles onto the bare unprotected concrete floor. 

So based on this, I think we can start to make the argument that polyurea is going to be the best kind of flooring for and detailing garage. But what does Gary have to say? What makes it so advantageous as a detailing garage flooring?

CHRIS: What makes polyurea well suited specifically for a detailing garage?

GARY: Well, first, easy to clean and durable. I mean, those are the two biggest things you’re always looking to, you know, with your guy’s situation where you’re doing detailing and giving classes and showing the automobiles. It’s a nice look. It’s a clean look. 

It’s easy to maintain, you know, we can change the slip factor so you’re not falling or, you know, because when you’re using detail chemicals, I mean I do cars too, a little bit on the side, and you’re using different types of sprays and things that dust down the floor, it’s a very easy material to clean. And then, of course, you’re protecting the floors is another thing. So nothing is soaking into the concrete anymore. 

VICTOR: So let’s recap really quick: 

1. Polyurea is very, very easy to maintain. It’s not going to trap dirt and grime and chemicals underneath, like a tile flooring would. 
2. It’s also very durable. It’s very flexible. You know, it can withstand the shifts and pressure from heavy vehicles and changes in temperature. 
3. It’s also UV stable, so it’s not going to start to yellow or cloud over time, like epoxy would. 
4. I mean, it also looks amazing. I mean, Gary, put it best. It just really looks good. It’s a good look for a detailing garage. It’s very clean. It’s very sleek.
5. Like Gary mentioned, it’s also very easy to work on. You can really change up the texture so you get better grip so you’re not slip sliding all over the place if you spill some chemicals or water.
6. And finally, it’s just going to do a lot better at protecting the concrete underneath. It’s not going to let chemicals and water seep into the ground and damage the concrete. And it’s also going to be able to withstand that heavy pressure from heavy vehicles. 

If you put that all together, you’ve got an unbeatable surface for a garage floor. 

OK, so we’ve got our answer. Well, let’s say you don’t want to go with a professional install and you want to go the DIY route. What does that look like? What are the advantages of going pro over doing DIY?

CHRIS: So if we were to compare polyurea to something like the coatings you’d more typically see in the big box home improvement stores. Obviously, you touched on epoxy yesterday and the issues with yellowing over time due to the UV exposure. But what would something like the polyurea system have over and above what the DIYer would go find at that big box home improvement store?

GARY: Well, first there’s floor prep. So part of the cost in prepping the floor is going to be how you prep the floor. So a lot of times in the “Home Depot” style or home DIY kit, you’re looking at an acid wash where you mix a chemical with water and you’ll scrub away at the floor and it’ll turn out OK. I mean, there’s people that have, you know, their floors will last anywhere from a year to 3-4 years by doing that. It takes a lot of time, usually a couple of weekends to do it right. 

But it isn’t as superior as doing diamond grinding or frankly, shot blasting. Either are really good methods. We choose to diamond grind, which is one of the most standard. But you want to get into the concrete a little bit, rough it up, get it profiled so that it will accept the liquid, so the liquid soaks into it.

Beyond that, usually the DIY kits just go down much thinner. I would equate it more to like a sheet of paper versus, you know, corrugated cardboard or something. If you’re thinking about— again, it doesn’t go down as a quarter inch, but it’s a much thicker material when it’s done with the chips.

Also, when you install the DIY systems, they usually come with a small cup of chips. So you throw them into the air, and you know, they don’t cover the floor, whereas these chips are not only a nice color layer, but they’re a full coating of chips, a full broadcast, so that’s another protective layer.

VICTOR: OK, so like Gary said, a pro install is going to be superior no matter what. Not only because of the prep involved, but also because of the additional material that a pro install is going to provide. You’re not getting a whole lot of coating material when you go with the DIY kits. So now that we’ve got our answers, Chris talked to Gary a little bit about what the installation process actually looks like. 

CHRIS: If you could give a basic rundown of the installation process for our audience, like what you had to go through. I mean, we touched on it earlier, but what is necessary as far as the prep and then the actual install of a polyurea floor? 

GARY: Sure. So we show up, basically, we unload the equipment, get the area prepped up. So we’re kind of keeping it clean there, getting the equipment set up. We have vacuums, industrial vacuums hooked up to our grinding equipment. So you have a larger floor grinder or several, in your case, we had a couple. You have some seven inch grinders and some smaller grinders by hand. And basically you get the floor cleaned up. You start grinding, trying to take off that very thin layer. Anywhere there’s cracking or spalling, get that cleaned out. We’re usually V grinding out the cracks. 

Get that all nice and prepped, and we go back in the areas where there’s spalling or cracking, hit that with a two part product that we call “fortification”, or just a repair material. Get that into the cracks. Let that set up. Usually hardens harder than concrete, 15-20 minutes max, and then hit that area with the grinder again. Get it all nice and smooth. 

Once that’s done, the base coat gets applied. It gets squeegeed and rolled on. And then, as that’s still wet, we over broadcast the chips to rejection into the coat. And then once the floor is done, we usually let that sit. 

Now the advantage to using polyurea, it cures very fast. So usually in a garage situation, we’re probably taking about an hour, hour and a half, depending. So if we’re doing a garage in a day, two car garage, it’ll take about an hour and a half, and in your guys’ case, when we did the floor there, we let it sit overnight because it’s just a large area to do. 

When that cures, the chips will stick to the floor, we come in with a scraper. Scrape a couple of directions back and forth, side to side, sweep up and collect all the chips. Blow everything in. Now you have your floor ready to go. Then we mix the polyaspartic topcoat and again squeegee that on and back roll it and just work our way out to an area we can exit and let that cure. 

That cures in about, we usually tell people about 8-10 hours to walk on it. 24-36 hours to drive on it. It takes about 7 days to chemically cure. But again, 36 hours later, you can drive on it.

CHRIS: Was there any particular challenges when it came to the Dr. Beasley’s floor project?

GARY: The only thing that was a challenge, but it didn’t turn out that bad, after all, was just making sure we got enough of that top layer off to get the material that had misted down over the floor. You know what I mean? The detail material, any of the sprays or anything like that. 

Actually, the job went very smoothly and the end result turned out beautiful. It looked really nice. I mean, you guys picked a nice color and everything. So yeah, it was a very smooth project. 

VICTOR: So to wrap things up, we had Chris talk to Gary a little bit about how White Rabbit was founded and how they got into flooring in the first place.

CHRIS: So a little bit White Rabbit. Can you give us some background? What did White Rabbit come from? How’d you get into this business and how do you find yourself where you’re at today? 

GARY: Well, first, White Rabbit was started about 33 years ago as a husband and wife team who began the business. They originally wanted garage storage. And at that time, nobody really had any interest in doing that in a garage. So the couple said, “You know what? We’ll put it in ourselves.” 

So they put in some closets and some organization, and the wife partner was in marketing, the husband I believe he was a lawyer or something. I can’t remember exactly, but the neighbors started looking and going “I like that. I want that.” So like any good small business starts, you do a job for somebody, you do another job and pretty soon you’re marketing the business and you’re getting into garage floors and it’s been kind of that way ever since. 

We’ve gone through a couple of iterations of cabinet styles. So I would say a few years ago, Scott and I entered the picture. We both kind of left the corporate world and frankly, it was probably the best decision of probably both of our lives, I’ll speak for both of us. 

And the people we work with, I mean, we have Harriet here who was here before us, but she was getting the business organized before we were ready to buy it. We’ve got now seven full time, eight full time guys that work for us. 

So we’re probably one of the largest in the Chicagoland area. You know, there’s floor competitors and other storage competitors, but we have a great reputation. We have great Google reviews. We do our best to take care of people as best as we can. 

And then I think the last funny story is just where the name came from, because you always get asked. 

CHRIS: Yeah. 

GARY: White Rabbit, what does it have to do with anything, right? You know, White Rabbit, is kind of— it’s kind of like pulling a rabbit out of a hat. You leave the work in the morning, your garage is kind of a mess. You come back at the end of the day and, you know, in quotes, magically transformed, your floor looks fantastic. Your storage looks great. 

But the side story to that is they were both— the original owners were both Jefferson Airplane fans and, of course, one of their favorite songs, “White Rabbit”. So, you know, we always kind of have some fun with with telling people when they ask, you know, “What’s the real meaning?” 

CHRIS: That’s awesome. So how many years now have you been with White Rabbit?

GARY: Scott and I have been here since March of 2019.

CHRIS: OK, so a couple of years now. So in that — we’re at three years now, what would you say would be the most interesting project you had? Of course, other than Dr. Beasley’s. 

GARY: [laughs] Interesting project…. what has been interesting really is seeing the degree to which some folks really like their garage or boat house or even basement for that matter or combination of. We have several folks who’ve done some incredible projects. So I think it’s probably just unique places. We’ve done a boat dock in Wisconsin, which was a concrete area, that looked fantastic. We’ve done a barn for someone who was using their barn for a wedding. But just some of the designs — we have three consultants Erika, Tyler and Fred, between our Chicago and Wisconsin areas that do some great designs. 

And I would just say, I’m not sure if there’s one interesting project that stands out as much as maybe a top ten, where you just see some really cool designs, but you definitely get to meet people of all walks who have different ideas about their storage or their flooring. And it’s really neat to see some of the projects come together. It’s kind of the best way I could answer that.

CHRIS: Well, as soon as I can convince my wife to allow me to park my Shelby in the living room, then I’ll be giving you a call so we can kind of combine the garage and living room a little bit.

GARY: [laughs] We could color match that. 

CHRIS: How can someone get their floors done by White Rabbit? 

GARY: So by reaching out to us. So you can go to www.whiterabbitinc.com, you can go to garagesolutionschicago.com or garagesolutionsmilwaukee.com, so you can find us there.

You can look at color samples, we have pictures of actual jobs we’ve done. One nice thing that I think some people might like is we’re not a franchise. We’ve all our own employees. We don’t farm the work out.

So you will talk to one of us, be it me, Scott, Harriet, Theresa or the consultants, or frankly, when the guys come out, they’ll walk you through the process of doing the floor… and sometimes you’ll just see the trucks out!

We get a lot of calls when a neighbor sees us. So of course, we have our phone number 847-272-7878. I’ll get you right to the office here.

CHRIS: Excellent. I appreciate your time so much, Gary, great to meet you — virtually anyway.

GARY: Nice meeting you too. 

CHRIS: Absolutely, I appreciate it. Great job on the garage. I mean, I know I personally appreciate it because I spent a lot of my time out there filming content, putting on our training classes, so I know the lighting in there is improved and just it feels like a happier, more productive place. So I appreciate that and thank you. 

GARY: And we loved doing the project with you guys, and we’re happy that it turned out, so we really appreciate that. Thank you so much.