Garage Floors
Two ways to finish a garage slab, and they suit different people. Polished concrete or an epoxy coating, across Los Angeles and Orange County. Minimum 400 square feet.
Which one do you want
Almost every garage enquiry comes down to the same question, so here is the honest answer before the sales pitch.
Choose polished concrete if
You want the floor to last without a recoating cycle. Nothing sits on top, so nothing can peel or lift. It handles vehicle weight and it will not be damaged by a hot tyre. The finish is the slab itself, so the colour is grey and the character comes from the concrete.
Choose epoxy if
You want colour, or the slab is stained and pitted enough that covering it beats revealing it. Epoxy gives you a seamless surface that wipes clean, resists oil and chemicals, and reflects light so the garage feels brighter. It is a coating, so it has a life.
If neither is obviously right, the slab decides. We look at it and tell you which one your floor will actually hold, rather than which one costs more.
Polished garage floors
Industrial grinders and diamond pads work the slab until it holds a sheen. The floor gets flatter as it goes, which matters in a garage: an uneven slab creates friction against tyres every time a car moves on it.
It is quicker than most people expect, because there is no adhesive, no coating and no cure time between layers. Grinding also leaves the surface less slippery than a gloss coating, and it needs very little looking after.
More on the process, the grit sequence and the gloss levels on the polished concrete page.
Epoxy garage floors
Epoxy resin blended with a polyamine hardener, laid over a moisture vapour barrier and finished with a polyurethane top coat. It cures hard, carries weight, and shrugs off the acids and solvents that live in a garage.
Three finishes. Solid colour is one coat of epoxy vapour block and one of urethane. Metallic is two coats of epoxy and one of urethane, and the extra coat is what gives it depth. Flake chips is built like solid with flake broadcast into the surface, which hides marks and adds grip.
The polyurethane top coat is not optional and it is where cheap garage jobs cut corners. A bare epoxy floor without it is what gives epoxy its reputation for lifting under hot tyres. More detail on the epoxy coatings page.
What size is your garage
Useful for a rough idea before we measure.
1 car
Up to 200 sqft. Below our 400 sqft minimum on its own, so this works as part of a larger job.
2 cars
Up to 400 sqft. The most common garage we do.
3 cars
Up to 600 sqft.
4 cars
Up to 800 sqft.
What condition is your slab
Slab condition moves the price more than size does. You can usually place your own floor from these four.
Excellent
Minor imperfection, hairline cracks.
Good
Some hairline cracks and divots.
Fair
Open cracks, divots, oil stains.
Bad
Sunken concrete, cracks, holes. Still workable, but it needs repair before anything else and that is where the cost goes.
What it costs
Garage epoxy runs $6 to $15 per square foot, and a typical two-car garage lands between $1,800 and $4,500.
Where you land depends on the slab and the finish. A clean slab with a solid colour sits low. A cracked, oil-stained slab with a metallic finish sits high, because the repair is real work and metallic carries an extra coat of epoxy.
Optional extras that change the number: a penetrating sealer for oil-stain protection, colour stain, control joint filling, an extra polyurethane coat for protection, and an extra epoxy coat for flooring correction. We put them on the quote rather than raising them afterwards.
Minimum job size is 400 square feet. Below that the setup and containment do not spread across enough floor to be worth doing.
Garage projects
Common questions
How much does a garage floor cost?
Garage epoxy runs $6 to $15 per square foot, and a typical two-car garage lands between $1,800 and $4,500. Slab condition and the finish move the number more than the size does.
Should I choose polished concrete or epoxy for my garage?
Polished concrete if you want a floor with nothing on top to peel and no recoating cycle. Epoxy if you want colour, or the slab is stained and pitted enough that covering it beats revealing it. If the slab is bad enough, it makes the choice for you.
Will hot tyres damage an epoxy garage floor?
Hot tyre pickup is what happens when a coating without a proper top coat softens and lifts where the tyre sits. It is the classic failure of cheap garage kits. A polyurethane top coat over the epoxy is what prevents it, and it is not something to leave off to save money.
Do you do single-car garages?
Our minimum is 400 square feet, which is roughly a two-car garage. A single garage on its own is usually under that, but it works as part of a larger job such as a garage plus a driveway or patio.
Can you do anything with an oil-stained slab?
Yes. Oil staining sits in the Fair category and it is normal in a garage. Grinding takes off the contaminated surface. For polished floors we can add a penetrating sealer for ongoing oil-stain protection.
How long will the garage be out of use?
It depends on the slab condition and which finish you choose, since epoxy needs cure time between coats and polishing does not. We give you the schedule with the quote once we have seen the floor.
Book a site visit
We measure, check the slab, and tell you which finish it will actually hold. You get straight answers on the spot. The written quote follows within two business days.