How long does epoxy take to cure?

Seven days at 25C, ten days at 10C, on Sherwin-Williams' published schedule for ArmorSeal 1000 HS. Benjamin Moore gives the same seven days at 25C for Corotech V430. But full cure is rarely the number you need: foot traffic comes at 24 hours at 25C and 48 at 10C, and a car at 48 to 72 hours at 25C and four to five days at 10C. The gap between the number on the tin and the number that matters is where most of the confusion lives.

How long before I can park a car on a new epoxy floor?

Two to three days in a warm garage, four to five in a cold one. Sherwin-Williams publishes heavy traffic at 48 to 72 hours at 25C and 4 to 5 days at 10C, and ProEpoxy, a Toronto applicator, independently quotes 72 hours before vehicle traffic. If you are in an unheated garage in spring or autumn, plan on the longer figure. Putting a car on too early does not usually mark the floor at once; it prints the tyre pattern into a coating that has not finished hardening.

Why does the calculator refuse to work out a time for 18C?

It does not refuse, it uses the 10C column and says so. What it will not do is interpolate. Sherwin-Williams prints three temperature columns and nothing between them, so a value calculated for 18C would be a number the manufacturer never stated. It would also be wrong in a predictable direction, because chemical cure rate rises roughly exponentially with temperature rather than in a straight line. Reading the colder column errs towards waiting longer, which is the safe way to be wrong.

Can I apply epoxy in an unheated Toronto garage?

Not for most of the year. Both data sheets set 10C as the minimum, and it applies to the air, the surface and the material, not just the thermometer on the wall. A slab holds cold long after the air has warmed, so a garage that reads 12C in April may have concrete several degrees below that. It is also why applicators charge for heat on shoulder-season jobs: heating a garage for three days is real cost and it is the difference between a floor that cures and one that stays soft.

What is the recoat window and why does missing it matter?

It is the period during which the next coat will chemically bond to the last one. Sherwin-Williams gives 8 hours to 7 days at 25C and 24 hours to 7 days at 10C, and states plainly that if the maximum is exceeded you must abrade the surface before topcoating. Benjamin Moore's window on Corotech V430 is tighter: 12 to 24 hours to recoat and abrade if you have not topcoated within 72. Miss it and you either sand the whole floor or accept a mechanical bond where a chemical one was designed in.

Does polyaspartic really cure in a day?

Quick Coat, an Ontario applicator, publishes a one-day installation curing in 24 hours, and speed is the entire reason polyaspartic costs more than epoxy. What no readable Canadian source states is how that figure moves in the cold, so this page does not adjust it and does not pretend to know. If you are weighing the two on timing rather than curiosity, our epoxy against polyaspartic calculator puts the wait and the premium side by side.

Epoxy Cure Time: When Can You Walk On It, and When Can You Park?

Last updated: August 26, 2026By EpoxyFloorIndex Research Team

Cure time is a temperature question, and in Canada that changes the answer by days rather than hours. The same coating that takes 48 hours to hold a car at 25C takes four to five days at 10C, and 10C is the coldest either of these data sheets will allow it to be applied at. Pick a product, put in how warm the space will actually be, and the published schedule for that temperature comes back.

When can you walk on it, and when can you park on it?

Which product's schedule?

Sherwin-Williams ArmorSeal 1000 HSHigh-solids polyamide epoxy at 6.0 mils (150 microns)published at 10C, 25C, 49CBenjamin Moore Corotech V430100% solids self-levelling epoxy floor coatingpublished at 25C

How warm will the garage be while it cures? (Celsius)

This sheet allows application between 10C and 49C, air, surface and material.

Using the 10C column, the nearest published one at or below 12C

4 to 5 daysbefore a car

Dry to touch: 4 h
Earliest recoat: 24 h1 day
Latest recoat without abrading: 168 h7 days
Foot traffic: 48 h2 days
Heavy traffic, a car: 96 to 120 h4 to 5 days
Full cure: 240 h10 days
Pot life once mixed: 6 h

Your 12C is 2.0C above the 10C column. Nothing here has been interpolated between published columns, because a figure between two printed ones is a figure the manufacturer never stated. Reading the colder column means these times are the safe direction to be wrong in: the real floor will be ready sooner, not later.

Drying time is temperature, humidity, and film thickness dependent. If maximum recoat time is exceeded, abrade surface before topcoating. Source: Sherwin-Williams ArmorSeal 1000 HS product data sheet, revised August 10, 2021.

Why this tool will not interpolate

Sherwin-Williams publishes three temperature columns for ArmorSeal 1000 HS, at 10C, 25C and 49C, and nothing in between. It would be easy to make this page look more like a calculator by splitting the difference: ask for 18C, report a figure halfway between the 10C and 25C rows. Every online cure calculator we could find does something like that.

It would also be making numbers up. A value between two printed columns is a value the manufacturer never stated, and the reason to care is not pedantry. Cure is a chemical reaction, and reaction rate rises roughly exponentially with temperature rather than in a straight line, so a linear guess between two columns is wrong in a direction you can predict: it says the floor is ready sooner than it is.

So the rule here is to use the published column at or below the temperature you give, and to say which one it used. Reading the colder column always errs towards waiting longer, and when the cost of being wrong is a tyre print pressed into a floor that has not finished hardening, longer is the correct direction to be wrong in.

The published schedules, in full

Both sheets were downloaded and read (August 2026). These are the columns exactly as printed, so you can check the tool against the source without leaving the page.

Sherwin-Williams ArmorSeal 1000 HS

High-solids polyamide epoxy at 6.0 mils (150 microns)

Published drying schedule for Sherwin-Williams ArmorSeal 1000 HS
Milestone	10C	25C	49C
Dry to touch	4 h	2 h	0.5 h
Earliest recoat	24 h	8 h	4 h
Latest recoat without abrading	168 h	168 h	168 h
Foot traffic	48 h	24 h	12 h
Heavy traffic, a car	96 to 120 h	48 to 72 h	24 to 36 h
Full cure	240 h	168 h	96 h
Pot life once mixed	6 h	4 h	2 h

Application 10C to 49C, air, surface and material, at least 2.8C above the dew point, relative humidity 85% maximum.

“If maximum recoat time is exceeded, abrade surface before topcoating.”

Sherwin-Williams ArmorSeal 1000 HS product data sheet, revised August 10, 2021

Benjamin Moore Corotech V430

100% solids self-levelling epoxy floor coating

Published drying schedule for Benjamin Moore Corotech V430
Milestone	25C
Dry to touch	6 h
Earliest recoat	12 to 24 h
Latest recoat without abrading	72 h
Full cure	168 h

Application 10C to 38C, air, surface and material, at least 2.8C above the dew point.

“If topcoat is not applied within 72 hours abrade the surface to ensure proper inter-coat adhesion.”

Benjamin Moore Corotech V430 technical data sheet, M72 V430 EN 080318

What GTA applicators tell their own customers

A data sheet describes a product in a laboratory. These are the waits Ontario firms actually quote on a real garage, and they line up closely with the warm column, which is a useful check on both.

Epoxy garage floor, foot traffic: 24 to 48 h
“24-48 hours before foot traffic and 72 hours before vehicle traffic”
ProEpoxy
Epoxy garage floor, vehicle traffic: 72 h
“24-48 hours before foot traffic and 72 hours before vehicle traffic”
ProEpoxy
Polyaspartic floor, full cure: 24 h
“1-Day Installation: Cure in 24 hours, minimizing downtime.”
Quick Coat

Frequently asked questions

How long does epoxy take to cure?: Seven days at 25C, ten days at 10C, on Sherwin-Williams' published schedule for ArmorSeal 1000 HS. Benjamin Moore gives the same seven days at 25C for Corotech V430. But full cure is rarely the number you need: foot traffic comes at 24 hours at 25C and 48 at 10C, and a car at 48 to 72 hours at 25C and four to five days at 10C. The gap between the number on the tin and the number that matters is where most of the confusion lives.
How long before I can park a car on a new epoxy floor?: Two to three days in a warm garage, four to five in a cold one. Sherwin-Williams publishes heavy traffic at 48 to 72 hours at 25C and 4 to 5 days at 10C, and ProEpoxy, a Toronto applicator, independently quotes 72 hours before vehicle traffic. If you are in an unheated garage in spring or autumn, plan on the longer figure. Putting a car on too early does not usually mark the floor at once; it prints the tyre pattern into a coating that has not finished hardening.
Why does the calculator refuse to work out a time for 18C?: It does not refuse, it uses the 10C column and says so. What it will not do is interpolate. Sherwin-Williams prints three temperature columns and nothing between them, so a value calculated for 18C would be a number the manufacturer never stated. It would also be wrong in a predictable direction, because chemical cure rate rises roughly exponentially with temperature rather than in a straight line. Reading the colder column errs towards waiting longer, which is the safe way to be wrong.
Can I apply epoxy in an unheated Toronto garage?: Not for most of the year. Both data sheets set 10C as the minimum, and it applies to the air, the surface and the material, not just the thermometer on the wall. A slab holds cold long after the air has warmed, so a garage that reads 12C in April may have concrete several degrees below that. It is also why applicators charge for heat on shoulder-season jobs: heating a garage for three days is real cost and it is the difference between a floor that cures and one that stays soft.
What is the recoat window and why does missing it matter?: It is the period during which the next coat will chemically bond to the last one. Sherwin-Williams gives 8 hours to 7 days at 25C and 24 hours to 7 days at 10C, and states plainly that if the maximum is exceeded you must abrade the surface before topcoating. Benjamin Moore's window on Corotech V430 is tighter: 12 to 24 hours to recoat and abrade if you have not topcoated within 72. Miss it and you either sand the whole floor or accept a mechanical bond where a chemical one was designed in.
Does polyaspartic really cure in a day?: Quick Coat, an Ontario applicator, publishes a one-day installation curing in 24 hours, and speed is the entire reason polyaspartic costs more than epoxy. What no readable Canadian source states is how that figure moves in the cold, so this page does not adjust it and does not pretend to know. If you are weighing the two on timing rather than curiosity, our epoxy against polyaspartic calculator puts the wait and the premium side by side.

Sources

Read August 2026. These schedules describe two specific products. Whatever is going on your floor has its own sheet, and the number on that sheet is the one that governs. Published technical data is subject to change without notice.