Many homeowners and businesses in Reno and the surrounding areas enjoy the vibrant colors and patterns that come with epoxy floors. Some like a look of speckled complementary colors, many prefer a marbled look, others want specific lines or patterns. To protect these beautiful floors, Nevada Custom Coatings adds a durable topcoat. The topcoat seals in the customized look of your epoxy floor. Most topcoats are clear as possible, but different levels of transparency are available. Thankfully, Nevada Custom Coatings uses a standard scale to make sure your topcoat is at the exact level of transparency and shade that you want for your epoxy floor.
The Gardner Scale Explained
In the 1950’s, Dr. Henry Gardner developed a procedure to standardize the clarity of oils and paints. He used a series of 18 vials, all containing liquids set at different transparencies, from pale yellow to dark brown. The vials identify the transparency of many different substances – not just oils and paints, but also things like acids, resins, varnishes, and so on. In 1958, Dr. Gardner brought his technique to manufacturers and marketers, and his scale system is still in use today. Of course, technology has made some improvements – most companies use spectrophotometers or glass filters instead of liquid-filled vials, but all of them are still based on Dr. Gardner’s original scale system.
The Gardner Scale and Your Epoxy Topcoat
Let’s say you want your epoxy floor to look like your favorite beach. Using a topcoat with a slightly yellowed transparency might help to enhance the sandy scene. Similarly, if you wanted something like a stained-glass appearance, an adjustment to the topcoat’s color and transparency helps to make the colors more vibrant. It all depends on the look you’re going for. The Gardner scale allows Nevada Custom Coatings to make sure the transparency is not too much or too little.
In most cases, customers want a crystal-clear transparency, so that the colors and patterns created by a wide combination of micas, granules, flakes, and other materials shines through. Nevertheless, sometimes allowing a little less transparency adds a subtle hue that enriches the look and appeal of your epoxy floor. The Gardner Scale assists us in getting your floor’s look just the way you want it. We’d love to discuss what look you want to see with epoxy coatings for your concrete floor. Give us a call or schedule a free consultation online. Epoxy coatings are clearly the best option for your concrete!
