Two contractors can quote your garage using the same basecoat, the same flake and the same topcoat, and one can be using half the material. The difference is broadcast rate, and it is the easiest place in this trade to take cost out of a job without it showing on day one.
What broadcast means
After the polyurea basecoat goes down, coloured vinyl flake gets thrown into it while it is still wet. The flake lands, sticks, and stands up at every angle. Once the basecoat cures, the excess is scraped off and vacuumed, and two clear topcoats lock in what remains.
How much flake goes in is a decision, and there are two ways to make it.
Full refusal
Flake is thrown until the floor physically will not accept any more. It bounces off. Every square inch is covered, no basecoat is visible anywhere, and the finished floor is a continuous field of chip.
This uses a lot of material and it takes two people moving fast, because the basecoat is curing while you work.
Partial broadcast
Flake is scattered at a set rate, often around half of refusal, and the basecoat is allowed to show between the chips. Some contractors call this a light broadcast or a designer finish.
It costs meaningfully less in material and it is faster to install.
How to tell them apart
On a finished floor, look for the base colour. If you can see solid colour between the chips, it is partial. On a full refusal floor there is nowhere for a base colour to show because there is no gap.
In photographs, partial floors read as a coloured floor with speckles on it. Full floors read as a stone or terrazzo like surface with no background.
Why it matters beyond looks
Wear. On a partial floor the topcoat is thinner over the exposed basecoat between chips, because flake adds body. Wear concentrates in those gaps first.
Hiding dirt. The reason a flake floor looks clean two weeks after sweeping is visual noise. Less flake, less noise, more visible tire marks and drips.
Touch ups. A full refusal floor can be repaired locally and blended, because the field is continuous. Matching a partial pattern is much harder.
Texture. The chips give a flake floor its slip resistance. Fewer chips, smoother floor, more slippery when wet.
The honest case for partial
It is not fraud, and there are rooms where it is the right call.
A showroom, a retail floor or a finished interior space that stays dry, gets light traffic and is meant to read as a subtle colour rather than a stone texture is a reasonable place for a lighter broadcast. It also costs less, and if the budget is the binding constraint, a well installed partial floor over a properly ground slab beats no floor at all by a wide margin.
The problem is not partial broadcast. The problem is partial broadcast quoted against photographs of full refusal floors, at a price that looks competitive because half the material is missing.
What we do
Full refusal, on every job, as standard. It is in the price on our pricing page and it is not an upgrade line.
If you specifically want a lighter broadcast for a particular room, we will do it and price it lower, and we will show you both so you know what you are choosing.
The question to ask
When you are comparing quotes, ask each contractor: is the flake broadcast to full refusal, and how many pounds of flake are on this job?
Refusal on a two car garage is a lot of flake. A contractor who works this way will know the number without checking. A contractor who does not will change the subject.
Related
- The flake blends we stock, all seven, with previews
- How the broadcast layer works
- How to read a quote that looks cheap
Reference
Broadcast rate is a manufacturer specification rather than a matter of taste. Coating system data sheets state a required coverage for full refusal, and the International Concrete Repair Institute covers the substrate side of the same equation.