Finish systems
Four finishes, one slab, four very different quantities
Solid colour, flake, quartz and metallic can look like four styles at four prices. In material terms they are four different builds, with different amounts of resin, different weak points and different repair options. This page runs the same slab through all four and shows what changes.
Your choice, sized for this floor
Double-broadcast quartz build
86.0 mils across 4 layers, 18 kits
The same floor, four ways
Each row below is the same slab and the same service condition, at 100 percent volume solids in 3-gallon kits. Only the finish changes. The gallon column makes the point: choosing a finish is choosing a quantity of resin, and in this site's model the quantity moves by multiples rather than by percentages.
| System | Total film | Layers | Gallons | Kits | Broadcast media |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solid-colour build | 32.0 mils | 3 | 19.2 gal | 7 | none |
| Broadcast flake system | 40.0 mils | 3 | 24.0 gal | 8 | 36 lb flake |
| Double-broadcast quartz build | 86.0 mils | 4 | 51.1 gal | 18 | 1,980 lb quartz |
| Metallic pour system | 37.0 mils | 4 | 22.2 gal | 8 | none |
Solid colour
The plainest build and the least material in the table above: in this site's model, a pigmented build coat and a clear topcoat over a primer. It suits a plant room, a store cupboard or anywhere appearance is not a requirement.
Its weakness is that a uniform colour shows marks. Scuffs, tyre marks and patch repairs stand out against it, and waviness in the concrete can be easier to see under a flat colour than under a broadcast finish.
Broadcast flake
Vinyl chips thrown into a wet base coat, then locked down under a clear. The chips do three jobs at once: they help hide slab imperfections and later wear, and their edges give the finished surface a texture a smooth coating does not have. This site plans flake at 4 pounds per hundred square feet, our assumed partial-broadcast rate.
The build has to be thick enough to bury the chips, which is why this site's model gives flake more film than a solid system for the same traffic. Chips standing proud of the clear coat feel sharp underfoot and hold dirt, and the fix after the fact is another clear coat.
One weak point is a thin patch in the broadcast. Flake does not stick to a base coat that has begun to gel, so a section thrown late can look different for good. That is a timing problem, and the batch arithmetic on the film build page is how to plan for it.
Quartz broadcast build
Coloured quartz sand broadcast to refusal into resin, twice, then grouted. At 1.10 pounds per square foot per course (our assumed rate) this is a different class of floor: a placed system with real thickness rather than a coating, where the aggregate rather than the resin takes the abrasion.
Its textured surface gives grip when wet, which a smooth clear-coated floor lacks. A damaged area can be cut out and rebuilt in the same system.
The cost is material and labour together. Compare the gallon figure in the table above with the solid-colour row; that multiple comes before the aggregate. If only foot traffic crosses the floor, the extra thickness is buying grip and appearance rather than wear the traffic calls for.
Metallic pour
A pigmented base with a clear or tinted resin over it carrying metallic pigment, moved with a squeegee and then worked with a blower or a brush to produce the marbled effect.
The effect lives in one layer, and that layer cannot be matched in a local repair: a scratch, a burn or a patch stays visible because the pattern cannot be reproduced. Traffic marks show against it as they do on a solid colour.
It suits a showroom, a shop front or a room where the floor is meant to be looked at, and suits poorly a space with a forklift, a floor jack or welding.
Grip, and why this site publishes no slip number
A smooth cured resin floor can be slippery when wet. The U.S. Access Board's guide to the ADA Standards (section 302.1) explains that accessible floor surfaces must be slip resistant, and gives the reason no number accompanies that requirement: the standards set no minimum coefficient of friction. The guide's own words:
the standards do not specify a minimum level of slip resistance (coefficient of friction) because a consensus method for rating slip resistance remains elusive
What that changes for your floor There is no published slip number for a floor to meet, so this page offers aggregate choices rather than a coefficient.
So there is no federal coefficient to hit. What you can control is the aggregate: none, a light suspended additive in the topcoat, or a full broadcast. The trade-off is that a grippier surface is harder to clean, and a textured floor in a garage holds tyre dirt that a smooth one sheds.
Where the floor gets wet and people walk on it, choose grip and accept the cleaning. Where it stays dry and appearance matters, smooth is defensible.
Biggest swing factor The finish decision itself. In the table above it moves the material quantity by a multiple.