Garage Floors (Epoxy & Coatings)
Transform your garage with professional epoxy floor coatings that resist stains, hide cracks, and make your space look like a showroom.
Turn Your Garage Into Usable Space
Your garage floor takes abuse that no other floor in your home experiences. Cars track in road salt, oil, and chemicals. Tools drop and scratch the surface. Winter moisture from snow and ice sits on the concrete. Over time, bare concrete becomes stained, dusty, and ugly. Epoxy floor coatings solve all these problems while making your garage look incredible.
Epoxy creates a protective layer over your concrete that's resistant to almost everything garages throw at it. Oil and chemicals wipe up easily instead of soaking in. Salt and moisture can't penetrate to damage the concrete. The hard surface resists scratches and impacts that would chip bare concrete. And epoxy comes in colors and patterns that transform a drab garage into a space you're proud to show off.
We install epoxy floor coatings throughout Rexburg for both residential garages and commercial shops. The difference between a DIY epoxy kit from a big box store and professional installation is dramatic. Store-bought kits often fail within a year or two because of poor surface prep and thin coatings. Professional epoxy properly applied lasts 15 to 20 years with normal use. When you work with experienced garage floor coating specialists, you get a floor that performs as good as it looks.
What Epoxy Floor Coatings Do for Your Garage
Epoxy garage floors deliver benefits that make them worth the investment for most homeowners:
Advantages of Epoxy Coatings
- Stain and chemical resistance: Epoxy creates an impermeable barrier. Oil, gas, antifreeze, and other automotive fluids wipe up without leaving stains. Road salt can't attack your concrete.
- Easy cleaning and maintenance: Sweep or blow dust away easily. Mop spills with soap and water. The smooth, sealed surface doesn't hold dirt like porous concrete does.
- Improved lighting: Epoxy's glossy finish reflects light, making your garage brighter with the same light fixtures. This is especially noticeable with lighter colors.
- Crack and imperfection coverage: Epoxy fills and hides small cracks, chips, and surface defects. Your old, worn floor looks brand new after coating.
- Customizable appearance: Choose from solid colors, color flakes, metallic finishes, or decorative patterns. Create exactly the look you want for your space.
- Increased home value: A professionally coated garage floor is a selling point that buyers notice. It shows the home is well-maintained and cared for.
Beyond garages, epoxy coatings work great for shop floors, basement floors, and any concrete surface that needs protection and better appearance. Many Rexburg homeowners start with the garage and then have us coat their basement or workshop floors. For comprehensive concrete solutions, our concrete slab services can address underlying floor issues before coating application.
How Professional Epoxy Installation Works
The secret to long-lasting epoxy floors is in the preparation. This is where professional installation differs dramatically from DIY kits. We start by thoroughly cleaning your floor and repairing any significant damage. Then we use diamond grinding equipment to open the concrete pores and create a profile that epoxy can bond to properly.
Any cracks or holes get filled with epoxy crack filler before coating. This prevents them from showing through and getting worse. If your floor has moisture issues, we address those first because moisture will cause epoxy to fail no matter how well it's applied.
We apply a primer coat that penetrates deep into the concrete and creates the foundation for the main epoxy layers. Then we apply the base coat of epoxy, typically in your chosen color. While this coat is still wet, we broadcast decorative color flakes if you want them. These flakes add texture and visual interest while hiding dirt and tire marks.
After the epoxy cures, we apply one or more clear topcoats. These topcoats provide the durability and chemical resistance. They also create the glossy finish that makes epoxy floors shine. Some topcoats include anti-slip additives for areas where traction is important.
The entire process typically takes 2 to 3 days including cure time. You need to keep vehicles out of the garage during this time, but most floors are ready for light use after 24 hours and full vehicle traffic after 72 hours. Temperature matters for curing, so we schedule garage floor jobs when conditions are right. If you're considering other concrete improvements along with your garage floor, our concrete driveway services can create a coordinated look from street to garage.
Garage Floor Coating Questions
Here are the questions homeowners ask most about epoxy garage floors:
Professional epoxy floor coatings last 15 to 20 years or more in residential garages with proper installation and care. Commercial shops with heavier use might see 10 to 15 years. The lifespan depends on the quality of materials used, proper surface preparation, and how you maintain the floor. High-quality 100% solids epoxy with a durable topcoat holds up much better than thin water-based coatings. Keeping your floor clean and occasionally reapplying the clear topcoat extends its life even further. Most homeowners are amazed at how well epoxy holds up compared to bare concrete that deteriorates visibly after just a few years of use. When your epoxy eventually needs replacement, we can recoat right over the old coating in most cases.
Properly installed epoxy should not peel or chip under normal use. Peeling happens when the coating doesn't bond correctly to the concrete, usually because of inadequate surface preparation, moisture in the concrete, or contamination. This is why we emphasize thorough prep work including diamond grinding the surface. Cheap DIY kits often peel because they don't include proper primers or the instructions skip crucial prep steps. Commercial-grade epoxy applied by professionals creates a chemical bond with the concrete that's extremely strong. Minor chips can occur if you drop very heavy objects on the floor, but these are easily repaired. The floor won't spontaneously peel or lift if it's installed correctly and your concrete doesn't have moisture issues.
Epoxy installation requires specific temperature ranges to cure properly, typically between 50 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit for the concrete surface and ambient air. Below 50 degrees, epoxy cures very slowly or not at all, leading to soft spots and poor bonding. Above 90 degrees, it cures too fast to work with properly. In Rexburg's climate, this means most epoxy installations happen from late spring through early fall. Winter installations in heated garages are possible if we can maintain proper temperature throughout the curing period. We monitor weather forecasts carefully and only schedule epoxy jobs when conditions will be right. Trying to install epoxy in cold weather causes failures that require complete removal and redo. It's worth waiting for proper conditions rather than rushing the job.
Ready to upgrade your garage floor? Contact us for a free estimate and color consultation. We'll assess your floor, show you coating options, and provide a detailed quote for transforming your garage into a space you'll actually want to spend time in.