What are concrete coatings?

A concrete coating is a resin floor laid over the slab you already have. The concrete is ground back and repaired, a base coat goes on, color or flake is cast into the wet base, and a clear coat locks the lot in. The same three layers cover a garage, a warehouse, a kitchen and every driveway or pool deck we coat.

Are slip-resistant coatings effective?

Yes, and the reason is that the texture is part of the coat rather than a treatment put on afterwards, so it does not wear away the way a painted-on additive does. What it will not do is make a wet floor behave like a dry one. What it buys is a surface that still holds a foot when it is damp, which on steps, a pool surround or a working kitchen is the difference that counts.

When should I consider applying concrete coatings?

When the slab is still sound but the surface has stopped doing its job: staining that will not wash out, dust that comes back a week after sweeping, or a floor being asked to take something it was never finished for. It is also worth doing before damage spreads, because coating sound concrete costs a good deal less than rebuilding concrete that has been left to break up.

Can concrete coatings be customized?

Yes, and all of it is settled before we start: color, sheen and texture. The flake blends we lay are set out with a swatch for each one. A blend reads differently on a screen than it does on a floor in daylight, so the chart is the place to start rather than the place to finish.

Is maintenance required for concrete coatings?

Very little, and none of it is complicated. Sweep the grit off, because grit is what takes the shine off a floor rather than weight, and wash it with warm water and a mild detergent. Keep strong acids away from it. A floor that is worked hard will want its clear coat renewed after some years rather than replaced, and that is a morning of work on a slab that is already sound.

Concrete Coatings Los Angeles | Epoxy Surface Professionals

The Slab Comes First and the Coating Comes Second

A coating is a thin thing. It takes the shape of whatever sits under it, so the concrete has to be right before any of it goes down. The first move is to grind the surface with diamond tooling, and that is less about cleaning it than about opening it up: finished concrete is closed and slightly glazed, and grinding leaves behind a profile with enough tooth for resin to bite into. It lifts whatever the last covering left behind at the same time, and it shows up the damage nobody could see through paint or an old sealer.

What the grinder finds is then cut out and rebuilt rather than filled over. Cracks are opened up and packed, divots and broken edges are brought back level, and the holes left by old fixings are made good, so that none of it reads through the finish once the floor is done. Only when the slab is sound does the coating become a question about the room instead of a question about the concrete. Which coating depends on the room: epoxy for most indoor floors, polyaspartic where downtime has to be short, and an outdoor system for driveways, patios and pool decks.

One more thing is settled before anything is poured, and it is the one nobody can see. Concrete laid on the ground passes water vapor up through itself continuously, and a coating laid over a slab that is pushing hard enough will let go of it in sheets a year or two later. Where the readings call for it, a moisture vapor barrier goes down first and the build runs on top of that.

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What the Last Coat Decides

Grip, and where it comes from

Grip is not brushed on at the end. It is built into the coat while the coat is still open, either from flake thrown into the base until it will hold no more, or from a fine aggregate carried through the clear coat itself. Both leave a texture you can feel through a bare foot. That is why it has to be settled before we start rather than after you have walked on the floor wet, and it is the one question worth thinking hardest about on a pool surround, a porch, or any floor that gets hosed down.

Gloss, and what it trades against

Gloss is the other half of that same decision and it pulls the opposite way. A high gloss throws light back around a room, hides very little, and turns slick the moment water is standing on it. A satin or matte seal gives up some of the shine and holds a foot far better. Most indoor floors want the gloss, and anything that gets wet wants less of it than people expect. At the decorative end, metallic epoxy carries pigment in the resin, and a flake system builds texture from chips broadcast into the wet coat.

What the film actually stops

Bare concrete is porous, so oil, brake fluid, wine and whatever else lands on it soaks in and stays in. A cured coating is a continuous film with nothing for any of that to get into, and that is the whole of why a coated floor cleans up and a bare one only ever fades. It is not indestructible. Strong solvents, battery acid and a hot tire left standing on it will all mark a floor in time. The difference is that the mark sits on a surface we can do something about, rather than inside the slab where nobody can.

What a coating will not do

Two things are worth saying plainly. A crack that has stopped moving can be cut out, rebuilt and covered, and it stays covered. A crack that is still opening will find its way back through whatever goes over the top of it, because nothing thin enough to be a floor is ever strong enough to hold two pieces of concrete together. Where we find one, we say so instead of coating over it. A floor with a real fall in it is the same kind of answer: that wants leveling underneath rather than a heavier coat on top, and it is a separate job with a separate quote.

What it costs

Coating work in Los Angeles generally runs $5 to $7 per square foot. Three things move a quote inside that range: what the concrete turns out to be like once it is opened up, the area to be covered, and which system goes over the top. The first of those is the one that cannot be judged from a photograph, which is why the estimate happens standing on the floor itself.

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Concrete Coatings Los Angeles

The Slab Comes First and the Coating Comes Second