Residential shop floor coating

Your home shop floor, ground past the oil stains and coated in two days.

A shop floor shows what happens on it. There is a dark patch under the project car, rings where the oil pan sat, a chip where a wrench landed, and a gray film that never mops out. If the shop is at your home, whether it is a detached garage, a workshop out back or a third bay off the house, we can coat it. We grind the slab, lay an epoxy base with a full flake broadcast, and seal it with a polyaspartic clear top coat, over two days.

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What a shop floor goes through

A shop floor carries weight in small spots. A jack stand puts one corner of a car on its small steel feet, a floor jack rolls across the slab on narrow wheels while it lifts, and a loaded tool chest sits on four casters. On bare concrete those spots scuff and chip at the edges. A coating spreads none of that weight, so the concrete under it has to be sound, and the coating has to be stuck to it all the way through.

Fluids are the other half of it. Motor oil, coolant and brake fluid all soak into bare concrete, which is why an old shop slab carries stains a degreaser does not lift. A sealed floor keeps a spill on top where you can wipe it up. Brake fluid is a solvent that eats paint, and it is hard on floor finishes too, so it gets wiped up when it drips rather than left overnight. The oil already in an old slab matters too: a coating laid over it grips the oil instead of the concrete.

If your shop is a detached metal or block building with no cooling, the slab in it bakes all summer. A car that comes in off the street parks on that slab on hot tires. Hot rubber softens the surface it sits on and pulls as it cools, and a thin coating with a weak bond is what comes up with it.

How we coat a shop floor

We grind the whole slab with a diamond grinder and vacuum it, so the base coat lands on open concrete and not on oil film, old paint or dust.
We fill cracks before anything goes down, priced as an add-on on your quote, so a crack does not collect fluid under the coating or catch a caster.
Where the stem walls along the bottom of the walls are chipped or crumbling, we re-sack them, so the coating finishes against a sound edge.
We lay the epoxy base coat and broadcast the flake into it while it is wet. Epoxy is what bonds to the concrete, and the flake locks into it.
We leave the floor to hold for 24 hours. The base coat has to set up hard before anything goes over it, or the top coat traps what is still curing underneath.
We come back, scrape off the loose flake and roll on the polyaspartic clear coat, which seals the flake in and is the layer your tools and tires meet.

A shop floor gets exactly the system a garage floor coating gets, and the hold is why it is a two day install and never a one day job.

Prep: Mechanical diamond grinding
The system: Epoxy base coat, flake broadcast, polyaspartic clear top coat
Walk on it: 24 hours
Park on it: 48 hours

Full flake for a working floor

For a shop we recommend a full flake broadcast, where the flake covers the whole base coat. The flake gives the floor texture underfoot, which is what you want when there is oil or water on it, and it hides the scuffs and small marks a working floor collects. A light broadcast lets more of the base color show, and so does every mark. Pure epoxy with no flake and metallic are better suited to a room you live in, since a scratch on a solid color is easy to see. If part of the building is a living space rather than a work area, the interior concrete coating finishes suit that part better.

A lift and a floor drain are the two things to bring up at the quote visit. A lift bolts through the floor into the concrete, so where it goes, and whether it goes in before or after the coating, is settled before the install date. A floor drain is where the coating has to stop cleanly around a grate, on a slab that slopes toward it.

What it costs and what to expect

We price by the square foot, always. A bigger shop costs more, and so do crack filling, stem wall repair, or an old coating that has to be ground off before the new one goes down. Jayson comes out, measures the slab and gives you the price in person, and you pick your blend and book the install date at the same visit. Financing is available through Affirm.

The shops we coat are on residential property, and commercial buildings are outside what we offer.

For two days the shop is out of use. The grinder needs the whole floor, so the tool chest, the rolling workbench and the project car all have to be somewhere else. Jayson is on every job, and the installers who start your floor are the ones who finish it. You can walk on the floor 24 hours after we finish, and roll a car back in after 48 hours. If what you want is the oil off the slab and no coating at all, concrete cleaning is a job we do on its own. What we put in writing about the floor is the written warranty, and a garage or driveway done at the same time goes on the same quote, like everything else we do.

Get your estimate

Tell us where the slab is and roughly how big. We come back with a blend, a system and a price.

Do you do commercial shops?

No. We coat shop floors at homes: a detached garage, a workshop behind the house, a third bay or a hobby shop on your own property. Commercial buildings are not work we take, so a shop that belongs to a business is outside what we offer, even when the floor is the same size as a home shop. If the building is on the lot where you live, it is the kind of shop we coat, and Jayson can tell you at the quote visit.

Is a shop floor coating the same as a garage floor coating?

Yes. A shop gets the same system as a garage: the slab is diamond ground and vacuumed, an epoxy base coat goes down with flake broadcast into it, the floor holds for 24 hours, and a polyaspartic clear top coat goes on when we come back. There is no heavier shop version and no cheaper one. What usually changes is the finish. For a shop we recommend a full flake broadcast, because it gives the most texture underfoot and hides the marks a working floor collects.

Will an epoxy floor hold up to jack stands and a floor jack?

A jack stand puts the weight of a corner of the car on a few small steel edges, and a floor jack rolls on narrow wheels while it lifts. That is hard on any floor, bare concrete included. The habit that protects a coated floor is the same one that protects any finished surface: set each jack stand on a square of plywood or a rubber pad, and slide a piece of cardboard under the jack. Give the floor its full 48 hours before a car comes in, let alone goes up on stands.

Can I put a car lift on a coated shop floor?

A two post or four post lift bolts through the floor into the concrete, so the coating is drilled where the anchors go. The lift’s own instructions say how much concrete it needs under it, and that is a question about the slab, not the coating. Where the lift will sit, and whether it goes in before or after the floor, is something to settle with Jayson at the quote visit, so the plan is set before the install date. Tell him too if a lift might go in later.

How do I clean oil and brake fluid off a coated shop floor?

On a sealed floor the spill sits on top, which is most of the work done. Soak up the puddle with shop towels or an absorbent, then mop the spot with warm water and a mild degreaser, and rinse. Skip anything with a solvent in it, and never scrub with a wire brush. Brake fluid is a solvent of its own, so wipe it up as soon as it drips rather than leaving it overnight. For the gray film that builds up in a working shop, a regular mop with a mild cleaner keeps it off.