Full broadcast versus partial
This is the single most important thing to check on a flake quote. A partial broadcast covers 40-60% so the base colour shows between chips, and uses about a third of the material. A full broadcast covers completely, then gets scraped back flat the next day. Both get called "flake"; only one still looks right in year ten.
Why it hides dirt so well
The multi-colour chip breaks up the visual field, so dust, tire marks and footprints do not read the way they do on a uniform surface. How well a blend hides dirt depends on contrast within the blend rather than whether it is light or dark. A three-tone blend hides almost everything, and any single tone shows everything.
Grip that lasts
Flake texture is mechanical, formed by the physical profile of chips under the topcoat. A solid-colour floor gets grip from an aggregate additive mixed into the final coat, which sits at the very surface and wears away with it. So a flake floor keeps its slip resistance for life while a solid floor loses grip exactly as it ages.
It repairs invisibly
If a flake floor gets gouged, the area is ground, re-based, hand-broadcast with matching chip and re-coated. Because the pattern is random, the repair disappears. Solid colour and metallic floors cannot be spot-repaired the same way, which matters more than people expect over a twenty-year life.
Want this answered for your slab?
Free site visit with a moisture reading, then a written fixed price. Across the BC Interior.