How much does it cost to coat a garage floor?
Our premium garage floor coatings have made quite a splash, especially when we share drastic before and after photos on social media. These pictures attract a lot of comments and questions too from homeowners wondering what type of floor we can coat, indoor vs. outdoor floor coatings, and what type of performance they can expect. All good questions, but the one we hear the most?
How much do your concrete floor coatings cost?
While we totally understand the desire for a ballpark figure, it’s not quite that easy. It’d be a little bit like asking, “How much does a car cost?” Sure, every car has four wheels, an engine, and goes places, but there’s a wide spectrum of options available with vastly differing price points.
With that said, we’re still going to offer a price range here, but with one request. After you read the number, would you keep reading? We want to share the full context, and help you better understand our system, our approach, and maybe help you avoid a messy mistake at the same time.
What's the best kind of coating for a garage floor?
Still reading? We appreciate that! And we have a lot of good info to make it worth your while.
So, when you coat your garage floor you really have three broad options. We’ll dig into each of these below, offering some pros and cons.
Do-it-yourself (DIY) Floor Coating Kits
Relatively cheap! You can pick up a bucket at your local home improvement store, and will likely spend under $200. The most common available options include concrete paint, epoxy, and acrylic sealers. Paint and sealer are NOT recommended since they just don’t have the strength and durability you need for a hard-working surface. Epoxy is more popular, and a better option, but the DIY kits are messy, tough to work with, and will take you a solid couple of days to apply with mixed results. And once they’re down, they are a beast to repair or redo.
Professional Epoxy Garage Floor Coatings
This is a popular, middle-of-the-road option. There’s a big price jump from the DIY kits, but at least a professional is involved. Just be aware that many of the installers use the same basic materials that you can buy yourself; you’re just enjoying the benefits of having someone else do the work, and with a higher-grade result. At the end of the day, however, you still are left with the same product, and you need to be sure that it will really meet your needs and perform the way you want it to, especially since you paid much more for a professional application.
How long does an epoxy garage floor coating last? Typically a few years, sometimes a bit more. At that point you can expect peeling, discoloration, stains, and hot-tire pickup is an ongoing threat during the summer.
PolyUrea Garage Floor Coatings
While epoxy is a household word, polyurea is more of a puzzler for a lot of our clients. And when we mention polyaspartic topcoats, it starts to sound like a totally foreign language.
Here’s the difference:
- Polyurea cures much faster than epoxy, making it ideal for quick applications. You’ve probably seen our “1-DAY coating” verbiage? That’s not an exaggeration.
- Polyurea is much stronger than epoxy too, partly because it creates a chemical bond with your concrete floor. It fuses to the surface, you could say.
- Polyurea floor coatings are more flexible than epoxy. Don’t mistake flexibility for weakness or a rubbery consistency, though. What we mean is that it’s not brittle. As your home shifts and settles over time, you drive over your floor, you drop tools on it, etc., your floor will absorb the movement and withstand the impact. No chipping or cracking, a common problem with epoxy.
So yes, polyurea costs more, but it’s a product we believe in and have used in our own homes (literally!). We’ve also used it in commercial spaces, from warehouses to veterinarian offices. It’s tough stuff!
Why is our floor coating system different?
It’s all about the product we use, without a doubt, but it’s also all about our approach. If you coat your floor yourself with a $200 epoxy kit, the only prep work you’re doing is clearing out the space. If you hire an epoxy coating installer who buys the same product from a big box store, the prep will be pretty minimal as well. Maybe cleaning the surface for better adhesion.
We go much deeper, delivering more of a commercial-grade installation process scaled down for your home. No cut corners, and designed for complete performance and value. Here’s what it looks like.
Setting Your Floor Coating Up for Success
Our estimate process isn’t just a sales pitch. We want your coatings to succeed, and begin by making sure your surface is a good candidate. This includes taking measurements, evaluating the condition (cracks and damage), and performing a moisture test. If needed, we can apply a moisture vapor barrier, but it’s not always necessary. What IS necessary is making sure we know the exact nature of your concrete. We’re applying a high-performance system to a breathable, permeable slab, making it critical that we know what we’re working with.
Mending Cracks and Blemishes
Some contractors just coat over cracks and damage, but that’s not to our standard. We use a specialized mender to fill cracks, gaps, spalls, and pits, creating a smooth surface. Think of it like filling nail holes on a wall before painting, just on a much larger scale.
Surface Preparation
We have a state-of-the art grinder that we use for the open spaces, and then hand grinders for the more detailed areas of your floor. This opens the pores and smooths the surface, ensuring the BEST adhesion possible. Your coating is going to grab onto the concrete and fuse into place with a chemical bond that never gives up.
Premium, Pure Floor Coatings
We buy our coatings and chips directly from the manufacturer, ensuring that we’re working with a premium, pure system. No unnecessary fillers or dilution.
Our Warranty!
We stand by our work, and to a degree that most won’t. When we coat your floor, it comes with a 15-year warranty, and a complete satisfaction guarantee. Risky? Not at all! We genuinely know and understand what sets this system and approach apart, and have been serving our local Idaho and Nevada communities for over 23 years.
What impacts the cost of your concrete floor coating?
Here are the key factors:
- Square footage: how much surface area do you want coated?
- Color options. We have standard blends to choose from, but can provide custom blends too. If you Bleed Blue, for example, you might want those Bronco colors (we’ve done it!).
- Custom logos and patterns. Also doable, but requires extra product and time.
- Steps
- Verticals (also known as “stem walls”)
- Garage aprons
- Previous coatings that need to be removed. Yes, we’re asked to grind away failed epoxy coatings pretty regularly. Telling, right?
- Condition of the concrete, and the time involved in prep and repairs.