Everything
people ask

Mobilising a crew, truck, grinders, extractors and product costs about the same whether the floor is 200 or 2,000 square feet. On a small floor that fixed cost spreads across very little area, so the rate per square foot goes up.

Almost always one of six things: acid etching instead of diamond grinding, partial flake broadcast instead of full rejection, one topcoat instead of two, low-solids water-based epoxy instead of 100% solids, no moisture test, or cracks coated over rather than repaired. Ask which in writing.

Yes. We take a moisture reading and inspect the slab before quoting, which removes the things that normally cause change orders. If something genuinely unforeseeable turns up mid-job, we stop and talk to you before doing anything that costs money.

A deposit covers materials, which are ordered to your specific colour and system. The balance is due on completion after you have walked the floor. We never ask for payment in full up front.

Walk on after 24 hours and park on after 72 for a standard epoxy-base system. A full polyaspartic build is 4-8 hours to walk on and 24 hours to drive on. Polished concrete is in service immediately.

Not the way we do it. Grinders run to HEPA dust extractors that capture silica dust at the tool, and interior work is contained with poly and negative air where needed. You should not find a grey film on everything when we leave.

Yes, completely, including anything mounted to the floor. We can help move heavy items on the day, but the slab needs to be fully clear for grinding and for the coating to be continuous wall to wall.

100% solids epoxy is nearly odourless. Polyaspartic has a noticeable solvent smell during application that dissipates within a few hours with ventilation. For interior and occupied commercial work we use low-odour formulations and ventilate actively.

Four causes: acid etching instead of diamond grinding, moisture pushing up through the slab, low-solids consumer-grade product, and hot tire pickup from thin or under-cured coatings. All four are decided before any resin is applied.

A tire that has been on the highway comes home hot and soft, and plasticizers migrate out of the rubber into a thin or under-cured coating. When the car moves, the coating lifts with the tire in a perfect tread pattern. Proper film thickness, a polyaspartic topcoat and a full 72-hour cure prevent it.

A coating follows the slab. If the concrete moves, the coating will eventually show it. That is why we chase and fill cracks with rigid polyurea, and why we honour control joints through the coating on slabs that are still moving rather than filling them flush.

Flake floors repair almost invisibly: we grind the area, re-base, hand-broadcast matching chip and re-coat the section, and because the pattern is random the patch disappears. Solid colour and metallic floors cannot be spot-repaired the same way and need a section re-worked.

The floor can still be coated. The system starts with a 100% solids moisture-vapour-barrier primer rated to resist the pressure, with the decorative build going on top as normal. It adds $2-$4 per square foot and it is not optional where readings call for it.

Not immediately. Fresh concrete holds a lot of water, and the old rule of thumb is 30 days of cure per inch of thickness before coating, and we still moisture test rather than relying on the calendar.

The old coating comes off first: diamond grinding for thin or failing films, shot blasting for thick or well-bonded ones. Coating over a partial failure guarantees the new floor fails along the same lines. Removal adds $1-$3 per square foot.

Yes. Concrete has enormous thermal mass and lags well behind the air, so a garage can read 15°C in the air with a 6°C slab. Resin cures against the slab, so that is what we measure, along with dew point, since a slab colder than dew point carries an invisible moisture film that destroys adhesion.

Yes, with a UV-stable polyaspartic system, standard epoxy ambers and chalks outdoors within a season. Exterior work needs a stable weather window and slab temperatures in range, which realistically means May through September with shoulder months depending on the forecast.

For lifespan and maintenance, yes, polishing has no film to peel and lasts 30+ years with no re-coat cycle. For colour control, covering a damaged slab and chemical resistance, epoxy wins. The condition of your slab usually decides it rather than preference.

A penetrating lithium silicate densifier at $1.50-$3 per square foot hardens the surface chemically and stops a slab dusting, with no film to fail. If dusting is the only problem you are solving, it is genuinely the right answer and we will tell you so.

Not with a polyaspartic topcoat, provided spills are cleaned up within a reasonable time. Petroleum products, brake cleaner and hydraulic fluid wipe off without staining. Battery acid and pooled solvents are the exceptions worth acting on quickly.

Workmanship is warranted against delamination and adhesion failure. The specific term goes in writing on your quote alongside the manufacturer product warranty, so you have both documented. Damage from parking before full cure, impact and abrasion are not covered. Those are use, not defects.

A residential garage rarely needs anything beyond cleaning for 15-20 years. A commercial floor in real traffic wants a fresh topcoat around year ten. A one-day job of light abrasion, clean and two coats, done before the topcoat wears through to the decorative layer.