This epoxy garage floor in Daytona Beach started as a tired concrete slab with a long crack running across it, worn patches from an old coating, and oil staining near the door. It finished as one even grey floor, the color the owner asked for.
The job took a weekend. The before photo shows the crack being filled, which is one of the first steps and the one that decides whether a coated floor lasts. The after photo is the same garage with the coating down and the room back in use, shelves and all. Our epoxy floor coating page explains the service in more detail.
- Location
- Daytona Beach, FL
- Property
- Home with an attached garage
- Surfaces
- Concrete garage slab
- Work shown
- Before and finished
Before and after photos
Each photo is labeled with the state of the work, so you always know what you are looking at.
Why do garage floor cracks need repair before an epoxy coating?
Because a coating laid over a crack only hides it for a while. Then the crack comes back through.
Concrete slabs move a little with heat and moisture, and in Florida they get plenty of both. A crack is where that movement shows up. If you roll a coating straight over it, the coating bridges the gap for about one season. Then the slab shifts, the coating splits along exactly the same line, and you are left with a clean new floor with the old crack drawn right through the middle of it.
So the crack on this floor was cut out and filled first, the way you can see in the before photo. Cutting it opens the crack up to sound concrete on both sides so the filler has something solid to hold onto, rather than sitting in a hairline gap full of dust. It is slow, fiddly work on your knees. It is also the step that most often gets skipped on cheaper garage floor jobs, and the one you see failing a year later. We handle the same repair on shop floors as part of our industrial painting work.
Can you put an epoxy coating over oil stains?
Not directly. Oil in the concrete stops the coating from bonding, so the stains have to be dealt with first.
Garages collect oil, transmission fluid and tire marks, mostly in the spot just inside the door where the car sits. On this floor the staining near the door was degreased and then etched before anything else happened. Degreasing pulls the oil out of the surface. Etching opens up the top of the concrete so the coating can grip it rather than sit on a smooth, sealed skin. Skip either step and the coating tends to lift in exactly the spots that were stained, which are also the spots that take the most wear.
Old coatings are the other thing to check. This slab had worn patches from an earlier finish, and anything loose has to come off before a new coat goes over it. We look at all of this at the estimate and it gets written into the price, not added later.
How long does an epoxy garage floor take?
This one took a weekend. That is a good rule of thumb for a typical home garage in reasonable condition.
The time goes on prep more than coating. Cleaning, crack repair, degreasing and etching take up much of the first stretch, and the concrete has to be dry before the coating goes down. After that the floor needs time to cure before it takes foot traffic, and longer before a car rolls back in. We tell you those times for the product on your floor before we start, so you can plan where the car sleeps.
A floor with deep damage, a lot of old coating to remove, or a larger commercial space will take longer, and the estimate will say so. If you want to see other specialty jobs, like refinished tubs and stained decks, take a look at our painting project portfolio, or call Color Masters Painting to have Robert look at your garage.
Is your garage floor cracked or stained?
We will look at the slab, tell you what prep it needs, and put it all in a written estimate. Call Robert or send a request.