Concrete
Sealing concrete so it stops shedding and staining
Bare concrete looks tough and is not. It is porous, so it drinks oil and wine and rust, and it dusts constantly as the surface breaks down underfoot. A coating stops both.
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Tell us the space and rough size. Or call (941) 504-9132.
Detail
What a coating changes
The obvious one is stains: a sealed floor holds a spill on the surface long enough to wipe it up instead of drinking it. The less obvious one is dusting. Untreated concrete constantly sheds fine powder, which is why a bare garage floor always looks dirty a day after sweeping.
A coating also brightens the space significantly. A light-colored or gloss floor bounces light around a garage or utility room in a way that changes how usable it feels.
Picking a system for the space
Interior living areas usually want either a decorative metallic or a polished grind and seal. Garages want flake or solid color under a hard clear. Outdoor concrete wants a UV-stable polyaspartic or polyurea with texture in it.
Getting this wrong is the most common mistake we are called in to fix, usually an interior-rated epoxy put down on a sunlit lanai.
Condition matters more than age
A thirty-year-old slab in good condition takes a coating beautifully. A five-year-old slab with a moisture problem or a sealed surface is a much harder job. Age is not the question; what is happening in and under the concrete is.
Preparation
What happens before any resin comes out
Concrete looks tough and is porous. Whatever goes on top only works if the surface was opened mechanically first.
We diamond grind every floor. Progressively finer diamond tooling runs across the slab until the surface is opened to a profile the coating can key into mechanically, with the dust going into a vacuum rather than into the house. Acid etching, which is what most retail kits instruct, barely touches a hard-troweled slab.
Then we read moisture. Florida slabs sit on sand with a high water table and move vapor upward continuously; trap that under a film-forming coating and you get bubbling and delamination that can only be ground off and redone. Where the numbers come back high we specify a moisture-tolerant primer instead of pretending the problem is not there.
Cracks get chased out to a clean edge and filled rather than skimmed over, spalls and pop-outs get rebuilt, and any previous coating comes off entirely. Only when the slab is sound, open and dry does anything get mixed.
The finish is what you see. The grind underneath it is what decides whether you are still happy in year eight, and it is where we spend the time other quotes save money.
It is also why we will occasionally tell someone their slab needs repair before it needs a coating. A floor that should be fixed structurally is not a floor we will put resin on, because the crack comes back through and then it is our name on it.
Related work
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What it suits →Questions
Concrete Floor Coatings questions
How much does concrete floor coatings cost?
Price follows square footage, the condition of the slab and the system you choose. A sound slab that only needs grinding costs far less to prepare than one with cracks, old coating or a moisture problem. We look at the floor and give you a real number rather than a range that means nothing.
How long does concrete floor coatings take?
Most residential work is two to four days on site depending on size and system. Commercial and industrial floors are scheduled around your hours and often run nights or weekends. You get exact dates before we start, including when you can walk on it and when you can put weight on it.
Do you grind the floor first?
Always. Diamond grinding is the only way to get a profile the coating can key into, and it is the single biggest reason floors either last or fail. We do not acid etch and we do not coat over a sealed slab.
What about moisture in the slab?
Florida slabs move water upward constantly, and vapor trapped under a coating is a guaranteed failure. We take a reading before quoting. If the numbers are high we specify a moisture-tolerant primer rather than pretending the problem is not there.
Can you match a color or a look I have seen?
Usually. We carry eighteen flake blends and mix metallic per floor, so bring a photo, a cabinet door or a paint chip and we will get close. We put samples down in your own light before you commit.
Do you work outside Sarasota?
Yes. We cover a 120-mile radius from Sarasota, which is twenty-four counties from Naples up to Ocala and across to Orlando. Check the service areas page or call and ask.
Send us the space. We will send back a number.
Rough size and a photo is enough to start. We cover Sarasota and twenty-four counties around it, so tell us where you are and we will tell you when we can get there.
Pour this floor
Or call (941) 504-9132.