Garage
Garage floors that survive Florida
A garage floor takes more punishment than anything else in the house. Hot tires, dropped tools, road salt in winter for the northerners, and a slab that sweats every summer. A coating only helps if it was bonded properly in the first place.
Pour this floor
Tell us the space and rough size. Or call (941) 504-9132.
Detail
What actually goes wrong with garage slabs
Most garage floors in this part of Florida were poured fast and finished smooth. A smooth, dense surface is exactly what a coating cannot grip, which is why so many big-box kits lift within a year or two. The kit was not the problem. The bond was.
Then there is moisture. A slab sitting on Gulf Coast sand moves water upward constantly. If that vapor has nowhere to go and a film-forming coating traps it, you get bubbling and delamination that no topcoat can fix afterwards.
We take a moisture reading before quoting and we diamond grind every floor to open the surface. That is the difference between a floor that lasts a decade and one that gets stripped in year two.
What you can put on top
Flake is the most popular choice for a garage: vinyl chips broadcast into the base coat, then sealed. It hides dust, it hides tire marks, and the texture gives you grip when the car comes in wet.
Metallic is the show finish. If your garage is visible from the house or you keep something worth looking at in it, a metallic pour turns the floor into the feature. It costs more and it takes longer.
Solid color is the budget-sensible option and still miles ahead of bare concrete. Polyaspartic topcoats go over any of the three when you need the space back quickly.
How long you lose the garage
A standard two-car bay is three days on site. Day one is grind, repair and prime. Day two is the base coat and broadcast. Day three is the clear topcoat. You walk on it the next day and park on it about four to five days after the topcoat, depending on humidity.
We give you those dates in writing before we start, because ‘a few days’ is how people end up parking on a floor that is not ready and printing tire marks into it permanently.
Preparation
What happens before any resin comes out
A garage slab is usually the worst-prepared concrete on a property: hard-troweled smooth when it was poured, then twenty years of tire rubber, oil and road salt on top of it.
Grinding comes first, always. Diamond tooling opens the surface so the coating has something to bite into, because a coating bonds mechanically rather than by sticking. The etching kit sold with retail epoxy does almost nothing to a slab that was power troweled smooth, which is most of them.
Moisture is the second reading. Concrete here pushes water vapor up through itself day and night, and a coating that seals it in will blister and let go regardless of what it cost. High numbers mean a moisture-tolerant primer goes down first, not that we carry on and hope.
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
Epoxy Garage Floors
Epoxy earned its reputation twice over: once as the toughest thing you can put on a garage slab, and once as the…
See the system →Full Flake Garage Floor Coatings
A full flake floor is broadcast to refusal across the whole slab rather than scattered for effect. The result is a…
How it works →Commercial Garage Floor Coatings
A commercial garage takes residential garage problems and multiplies them: far more vehicles, tires that arrive hot…
Read the detail →Industrial Garage Floor Coatings
An industrial garage is not a big residential garage. Trucks, plant, trailers and forklifts put loads through a slab…
What it suits →Questions
Garage Floor Coatings questions
How much does garage 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 garage 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.