Metallic Epoxy Flooring Essential Guide

Metallic Epoxy Floors for Homes and Businesses

Metallic epoxy flooring provides a pearlescent, seamless, and glass-like finish and can contain any color combination to complement your interior design. It is excellent for hiding concrete blemishes, can be installed to be slip-resistant, and includes industrial-grade protection, making it one of the most resilient cosmetic epoxy concrete flooring options on the market. Metallic epoxy floors are growing in popularity, and their distinctive, one-of-a-kind designs will last a lifetime if installed correctly by experienced flooring experts. 

What Is Metallic Epoxy Flooring?

Due to its complexity, a metallic epoxy floor installation requires a creative flooring specialist to turn your dream floor into a reality. Metallic epoxy flooring is a unique combination of different light-reflective aggregate blends swirled together during application. Aggregate powder blends consist of nanoparticles that have been coated with organic or inorganic pigments to produce an iridescent appearance. An epoxy flooring specialist should work with you in advance to plan the project details to minimize disruption to your daily routine. 

A flooring expert will manipulate the pigments before the epoxy fully cures, forming reflective patterns that scatter light in beautiful ways according to the look you want. It is also sprayed with alcohol to give your floor a unique, shiny, 3D appearance. Metallic epoxy flooring is a popular decorative option within residential spaces, showrooms, retail establishments, and lobbies in commercial and institutional enterprises. 

Metallic Epoxy Floor Installation

Proper metallic epoxy floor installation consists of numerous steps and usually takes 1-7 days, depending on your project’s size. Decorative floor designs, such as a metallic finish, are applied by hand and have a longer completion time. A flooring expert should first correctly prepare the concrete surface, which includes a series of steps. They test it for previous applications, sand the surface with equipment such as a CPS machine with 25 grit metal diamonds, fill all joints and cracks, and clean it thoroughly. These steps ensure optimum adherence of coatings to the concrete surface, even application, and long-lasting performance.

Your flooring specialist first applies the base coat during the application process, which is usually a dark, solid color that exaggerates the metallic effect. Once the base coat is complete, the metallic epoxy is hand-crafted according to design specifications. The final texture and application method becomes an art form, and an experienced, creative metallic epoxy installer will produce a long-lasting quality result. 

The epoxy will cure for a minimum of 24 hours. Once cured, epoxy flooring produces polymer structures that give it tremendous strength and resistance to spills and abrasion. The result is a seamless, exceptionally hygienic, easy-to-clean, and odorless floor that is incredibly wear-resistant while meeting the highest safety standards. 

Metallic Epoxy Floor Cost

A metallic epoxy floor is the most labor-intensive epoxy floor and requires a high level of technical experience to achieve the right aesthetic look. It is the most time-consuming due to its hand-crafted result and the most expensive per square foot. An average range of cost per square foot will fall between $8-$12 for a metallic epoxy floor.

There are a series of factors to consider to calculate the cost of your metallic epoxy floor project. Calculating floor area size is the first task. Measure the length of the floor space, and multiply it times the width of the floor space to get the square footage. Often, property owners will want to have a contractor measure their room which isn’t necessary. 

A professional epoxy floor installation can require heavy equipment, and reaching a more challenging space can require more labor and expense. Easy access to a floor area is ideal, but often this isn’t possible in older properties. Usually, a basement epoxy floor in an older property will increase your cost slightly. Older houses tend to have longer and narrower staircases that lead to a basement, requiring extra labor (and cost) to carry the equipment and materials to avoid accidental damage and complete the project on time.

Before applying an epoxy floor coating, professional flooring specialists should assess the existing surface thoroughly. If the concrete surface is in poor condition, installers will need more time to fix all damage to ensure the proper installation of an epoxy floor. More time for preparation means a higher cost for you. For example, if the concrete is old, they should test the surface for previous epoxy layers or other products applied over the years, patch and repair all cracks and chips, and remove all grease. Correctly preparing the concrete surface before applying the coatings ensures the new metallic epoxy floor will last a lifetime.

Metallic Epoxy Floor Benefits

Metallic epoxy flooring provides superior functionality with an impressive look. 

1. It is conveniently easy to clean and stays hygienic because it doesn’t have seams to harbor bacteria. 
2. Design possibilities are limitless. There is an infinite amount of color and design combinations available to create an attention-grabbing floor. 
3. It is very safe due to its non-slip surface. A metallic epoxy floor may appear slippery, but its slip-resistant features make it an ideal choice for spaces with consistent foot traffic.
4. It is incredibly durable with little maintenance. If an object would happen to fall and damage the floor, an experienced epoxy floor professional can most often repair it for a nominal cost.
5. It makes an unforgettable first impression. Each metallic epoxy floor is custom, and its light-reflectivity noticeably brightens up an interior.

Metallic Epoxy Floor Professionals

Are you interested in transforming your existing floor to be better for guests, entertaining, and maintenance?

Contact an ArmourFlo flooring specialist for a free quote. We discuss your requirements in detail and then explain the benefits and drawbacks of multiple products and manufacturers.

We work with industry-leading products, have technical expertise, and substantial knowledge in all of the required steps to produce a fantastic metallic epoxy floor solution that endures.