How to Choose an Epoxy Flooring Contractor

Almost every quote you receive will name the same products. The coating itself is close to a commodity now. What varies between a floor that lasts and one that fails is preparation, and preparation is invisible by the time you see the finished job.

These are the questions worth asking, and what a good answer sounds like.

How will you prepare the slab?

The answer you want: diamond grinding. A machine with diamond-segmented discs opens the surface of the concrete so the coating can key into it. Every major manufacturer requires it before they will honour a warranty.

The answer that should worry you: acid etching. It is faster and cheaper, and it is the most common reason a coating peels in Florida. If a contractor leads with acid etching, ask why, and get the answer in writing.

Shot blasting is also fine, and more common on large commercial slabs.

Will you moisture-test before quoting?

Much of Florida sits on sandy soil with a high water table. Vapour moving up through a slab will push a coating off it no matter how good the product is.

A calcium chloride test or a relative humidity probe costs the contractor very little. If the reading is high, the fix is a vapour-barrier primer, which costs more. A contractor who tests before quoting is giving you a real number. One who tests afterwards, or not at all, is giving you a price that may change.

What is the warranty, and who honours it?

There are two different warranties and they are often blurred together.

• The manufacturer warranty covers the product. It is usually void if the slab was not prepared to their specification.
• The workmanship warranty covers the installation, and it is only as good as the company standing behind it.

A five-year workmanship warranty from a business trading for fifteen years is worth more than a lifetime warranty from one that opened last spring. Ask for it in writing either way.

Who is actually doing the work?

Some contractors subcontract installation. That is not automatically bad, but it changes who you call when something goes wrong. Ask whether the crew is employed, and whether the person quoting will be on site.

How long until I can use it?

For a residential garage, foot traffic the next day and vehicles after three to five days is normal for a polyaspartic system. Anyone promising you can park on it the same evening is either using a different product than they described or is wrong.

What licence and insurance do you carry?

In Florida you can verify a contractor's licence yourself through the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Ask for the licence number and check it. Ask for a certificate of insurance naming general liability and workers' compensation, and confirm the dates are current.

A note on price

The cheapest quote is usually cheap because of preparation. Grinding a garage takes hours of labour and a machine; skipping it saves the contractor real money and costs you the floor. When one quote is far below the others, the difference is rarely the coating.