Why highway driving causes it
A tire that has been on the highway comes home hot and soft. As it cools against the floor it presses into any coating that is not fully hardened and chemically grips it. When the vehicle pulls out the next morning, the coating comes with the tire. It happens in winter too, twenty minutes of driving puts real heat into a tire at any ambient temperature.
What prevents it
Adequate film thickness is the main defence: a professional system at 25-35 mils has reserve that a 2-4 mil consumer kit does not. A UV-stable polyaspartic topcoat is specifically formulated for hot-tire resistance. And a full cure before the first vehicle returns, which is 72 hours for an epoxy-base system.
It is the signature consumer-kit failure
Hardware-store kits are the classic case: thin water-based film over acid etch, with no topcoat. They usually survive one summer. The tread pattern left behind is unmistakable, and it is why grinding off a failed kit is such a common first step on jobs we quote.
If it has already happened
A floor showing tire pickup cannot be spot-repaired reliably, because the same conditions apply across the whole parking area. The coating comes off, the slab is re-profiled, and a properly specified system goes down. This is the scenario where the cheap quote ends up costing more than the good one would have.
Want this answered for your slab?
Free site visit with a moisture reading, then a written fixed price. Across the BC Interior.