Polyaspartic Coating Options for Garage Side Walls

Denver Colorado garages have a large variety of side walls (aka stem walls or foundation walls) depending on the slope of the house and the neighborhood. Typically when a client finishes their concrete garage floor with a 100% polyaspartic coatings, they opt to also coat their side walls and stairs. However, depending on the size of the side wall, the price can vary significantly.

Since you are not driving on a side wall, coating it is more for the aesthetic value than the protection polyaspartic coatings bring to the floor from stains and degradation caused by magnesium chloride and harsh weather.

Options to consider when coating a side wall include:

1) Adding a cove wall transition from the floor to the side wall

2) doing a full flake coating to match the floor

3) Coating with a polyaspartic base coat that compliments the floor

4) Simply painting the concrete with a complimentary color

Cove wall transitions create a nice, clean transition from the floor to the side walls with either an epoxy product, a manufactured product, a rigid concrete or a more flexible polyurethane based product. Think of this like a caulk line or a baseboard between your concrete floor pad and the concrete side foundation wall that can be coated with a polyaspartic coating. It is not generally recommended to install a cove wall in a Colorado home built less than 2 years ago because it is almost certain to settle/shift and crack.

A full flake coating on a side wall is probably the cleanest, most attractive look. It provides a true compliment to the floor coating and provides the best overall protection to the side wall. The cost to coat is the same square footage price as the cost to coat the floor.

The option to coat the side walls with a complimentary base color (e.g. White Night Gray), is also a popular option that is less than 1/2 the cost to install a full flake coating. This option still provides the protection and ease of cleaning created by a polyaspartic coating.

Other than not doing anything to the side walls, the last option is to simply paint with a concrete or epoxy paint from your local paint store. This will be the least expensive option, but will have the shorter life expectancy coupled with harder to clean surface.

Floor Shield of Castle Rock is happy to review all these options with you and provide our recommendation based on your unique garage space and budget.

Location: Denver, CO