Concrete floor questions, answered straight

Because it is most of the labor. Grinding, routing cracks and rebuilding spalled patches take far longer than rolling out resin. Two quotes on the same garage differ mostly in how much prep each one actually included.

On site. We measure, look at the joints and any old coating, and tape-test for moisture. A phone number would be a guess, and guesses get revised upward once someone sees the slab.

Stepped cracks, spalling, an old coating that has to come off, and moisture coming up through the concrete. Any of those adds grinding and filling before a drop of resin goes down.

Not a hard one, but very small areas cost more per square foot, because mobilising the grinder and the vacuum takes the same time whether the room is 200 square feet or 2,000.

A typical two-car garage is two working days. Polishing runs one to two. Commercial work gets phased around your hours. Bigger or badly damaged slabs run longer, and we say which yours is when we measure.

Foot traffic is usually the next day. Vehicles wait for the topcoat to harden, commonly two to three days for epoxy and often overnight for polyaspartic. Gulf humidity stretches both, so we give you the real window.

Yes, with attention to dew point. Overnight lows sit in the mid-70s from June through August, so the slab stays warm and the margin thins. We read slab temperature on the day and will move a pour rather than trap moisture underneath.

Yes, completely, including anything bolted to the floor. We can help shift heavy items, but the slab has to be clear before grinding starts or the dust gets into everything you left behind.

Sunlight and time decide it. Epoxy ambers outdoors and takes two to three days. Polyaspartic holds color and often goes back into service the same day, but it costs more and has a short working window.

Worth asking. Polishing refines the slab itself, so there is no film to peel and no barrier trapping moisture. It suits a sound slab. A badly spalled one needs resurfacing first.

Flake hides hairline repairs, trowel lines and dust, and it is less slippery wet. Solid color looks cleaner and costs less. In a working garage, flake almost always wears better.

Only where people look at the floor. It is a decorative system for entries, dens and showrooms. In a working garage you are spending money on something nobody sees.

No. It hides them for a while. A crack that has stepped means the ground moved, and the coating will tear along the same line. We route and fill first, and detail the joint so it can keep moving.

Clay. Two of the four soil series under Atascocita, Vamont and Atasco, carry maximum linear extensibility of 12.8 and 10.0 percent. That is a lot of swell and shrink as the ground wets and dries through the year.

Dust goes into a vacuum at the machine. Wash water and slurry stay contained on site and are disposed of properly. Nothing is rinsed into a street, ditch or storm drain.

It depends on the job. Atascocita is unincorporated Harris County, and a residential coating on an existing slab normally involves no county building permit. Commercial work differs and floodplain rules can attach. Check with the County Engineer.

Usually, once dried and tested. Sort the paperwork first: repair in a floodplain can count toward Harris County's substantial improvement threshold, and coating counts toward the project total. Talk to the County Engineer.

Atascocita, Humble, Kingwood, Summerwood, Crosby, Huffman, Sheldon, Channelview and Highlands. Anywhere else in Harris County, ask. We will tell you straight if you fall outside what we cover.

No. We finish concrete, nothing else. If your slab problem turns out to be a drainage or foundation issue, we will say so and point you at the right trade rather than coating over it.

We tell you, before you have spent anything. A slab in sections that move independently belongs to a foundation contractor, not to us. Overlaying it would just take your money and crack.