Epoxy Flooring Questions and Answers

Two Las Vegas firms publish $4 to $10 per square foot for epoxy systems and $5 to $12 for polyaspartic, installed. Pro Shine Concrete Restoration states a range of $3 to $13 per square foot depending on the system. A two-car garage of 400 to 500 square feet lands around $1,600 to $5,000 at those published rates.

Yes, if it is installed over a properly ground slab. The two things that fail here are prep and heat. A film laid on a dusting slab over caliche lifts at the apron, and a standard clear ambers under west-facing sun.

Cured epoxy handles 104-degree air and a 140-degree slab. What the heat does change is the working time: pot life shortens, so a crew works smaller sections in July than in January.

Caliche is the cemented layer the USDA maps here as a petrocalcic horizon, about seven inches down in the Las Vegas series. It does not hold water, so slabs drain sideways, and the concrete above it cures alkaline, with a pH around 8.4 to 8.6. Moisture-tolerant primers and correct prep handle it.

The Las Vegas Valley Water District reports valley water as very hard, in the region of sixteen grains per gallon. Hard water leaves mineral spots on a new floor that a damp mop takes off. It does not affect the coating.

Only after a bonding test. A coating that is already delaminating has to come off, and a sound one has to be scarified. Most failures we see here are a second coat over a failed first one.

Polyaspartic systems take a car in 24 hours. Epoxy with a polyaspartic topcoat is usually 3 to 5 days for full vehicle traffic, sooner for foot traffic.

A residential floor coating rarely needs one. A structural repair, a slab replacement or a commercial fit-out does, and the office that issues it depends on the address: the City of Las Vegas, Clark County, Henderson, North Las Vegas or Boulder City.

Unincorporated Clark County covers Summerlin, Spring Valley, Paradise, Enterprise, Whitney and Sunrise Manor even when the mailing address reads Las Vegas. The cities of Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas and Boulder City issue their own permits.

Not if grit is added. We put a fine grit in the topcoat on the apron and the entry, and a heavier one where the floor gets wet.

You can, and some customers do. Metallic is a poured decorative system, so it costs more and shows dust more than flake. It belongs in a showroom or an interior, not a working garage.

Yes. Several communities here have rules about visible exterior finishes. Send the rule text with the request and the system is specified to match it.

Grinding is done with dust extraction attached to the grinder and negative air in an enclosed space. An occupied house is masked before a machine is started.

Between 50 and 85 degrees at the slab for the install. In July that means an early start and a slab that has been shaded, not a floor that is 130 degrees at noon.

Yes, with an early start or a night pour. Above roughly 90 degrees slab temperature the pot life of a standard epoxy drops fast, so sections get smaller and the crew grows.

That is where a high-build system earns its money. A heavier film and a quartz or flake broadcast take dropped weights and rolling tools better than a thin decorative coat.

Always. Cracks are chased, cleaned and filled with a rigid epoxy before the base coat. A crack that is caulked and painted over comes back through the film within a season.

Most residential garages are two days on site. Commercial and industrial work is phased around operating hours and often runs overnight.

Yes, on the system as installed, and it is written into the quote. Ask what it covers: delamination and wear are different promises.

The Las Vegas Valley: Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Summerlin, Spring Valley, Paradise, Enterprise, Green Valley, Centennial Hills, Southern Highlands, Anthem, Mountain's Edge, Skye Canyon, Aliante, Providence, Inspirada, Rhodes Ranch, Whitney, Sunrise Manor and Boulder City.