RockSolid Polycuramine Garage Floor Coating Kit Review
Rustoleum’s RockSolid line of concrete coatings feature a no peel guarantee and according to their website:
The Garage Floor Coating, like all RockSolid Polycuramine® coatings, offers unsurpassed durability. Polycuramine is 20 times stronger than epoxy. With its resistance to salt, oil, gas and other harsh chemicals, this is one of the toughest floor coatings on the planet. It’s easy to maintain and will last a lifetime while still looking fantastic.
This claim and guarantee sounded fantastic so we decided to try it out for ourselves.
What is a Polycuramine? We mostly review epoxy and urethane based products; however, RockSolid’s Polycuramine products claim to combine the best product attributes of polyurea, epoxy and urethane chemistries into one.
Other product features include a high gloss finish, low odor and VOCs, hot tire pickup resistance and chemical resistance. The Garage Floor Coating Kit is available in five color variations in either a 1 car garage kit or a 2.5 car garage kit. The finished surface can accept foot traffic in 8-10 hours and vehicle traffic 24 hours after application. Instead of shipping in a plastic pail or metal can, the Rocksolid Garage Floor Kit arrives in a burst pouch that you roll, shake and pour directly onto the concrete. Also included in the kit are a concrete etch, foam roller, decorative paint chips and the burst pouch.
So is the Rustoleum RockSolid Garage Floor Kit all it is claimed to be?
Lackluster reviews on Amazon and Home Depot highlight issues with delamination especially in the areas where tires pull in and out of the garage, a short pot life and less square footage coverage than advertised. Home Depot averages a 2.9 star rating based on 476 reviews with 131 of those 1 star reviews.
Our experience:
When it came time for us to test out the RockSolid Garage Floor Kit, we followed the instructions and did not grind the floor as we read this could cause the paint to absorb into the concrete leaving us short of material. We cleaned the concrete and used a concrete degreaser to remove stains. We used the concrete etcher supplied in the kit, and used the denim chips. After applying one coat we found the coverage to be about 25% less than advertised. We can see how inexperienced applicators may have difficulty applying the full kit before the pot life is up. (Application Tip: remember that as soon as the material starts to roll back up on the roller, stop! Do not continue rolling as the pot life has been reached. You will need to open a new kit to continue with the application.) Because of our experience we were able to apply the product successfully; however, we did need to use 2 of the kits for a 1 car garage.
Our review first week after application:
Even though Rustoleum is marketing their Rocksolid product as a DIY friendly kit, it will take a skilled applicator to be able to apply this product successfully without any issues. There was a noticeable color variation between the two kits we used. We used one kit up to a control joint and then used the second kit from that control joint to the end of the garage so the color difference appeared to be more of a design choice that a product failure. The overall appearance looked okay after application minus some areas of bubbling. We reached out to Rustoleum directly who stated this was a known issue and if we sent in our receipts and photos they would issue us a refund.
Our review one year after application:
Definitely does not last a lifetime as claimed and after a year there is noticeable wear especially where the car is parked and directly along the tire routes. We have much better luck when using an industrial grade epoxy base coat and urethane top coat. Despite a longer cure time, and higher price point industrial grade concrete coating products are well worth the investment.