Epoxy floors that stay bonded to the slab.
A hard, washable, seamless floor over concrete, and the grinding, moisture testing and joint work that decides whether it stays bonded. Most epoxy failures are preparation failures, not product failures.
- Free site inspection
- Written, itemised quote
- 1-year workmanship warranty
- Same-day callback
At a glance
What does epoxy floor coating actually involve?
Epoxy is a two-part resin coating bonded to a concrete floor. The visible part is a hard, washable, seamless surface. Most of the work sits below it: testing the slab for moisture, grinding off the weak cement layer on top, filling cracks and repairing joints, then priming and building up the coats in the right sequence.
When this is the answer, and when it is not.
Sending you to the wrong service wastes your money and our time. This is how to tell.
This is likely right if
- The slab is sound but dusty, and sheds fine grit every time it is swept
- You need a washable floor that doesn't soak up oil, in a workshop, kitchen, clinic or lab
- A basement or stilt car park needs a cleanable surface with proper grip on the ramp
- An existing IPS or cement screed floor is intact and only needs a hard, sealed surface over it
Something else comes first if
- Water is rising through the slab, with no membrane below it, sealing the top traps the vapour and the coating lifts. The source has to be dealt with first
- The slab is sinking, hollow underfoot, or cracking as it moves, that needs a structural opinion and concrete repair before any coating
- The floor ponds because it falls the wrong way, epoxy follows the slab it is laid on, so levels and falls have to be corrected in screed first
What the service includes.
Slab survey and moisture test
We check for moisture rising through the floor, old coatings, oil soaking, hollow patches and how the joints run. Taping a plastic sheet down overnight and looking underneath tells us more than any visual check. A newly poured slab has to be fully cured before anything seals it in.
Containment and protection
Grinding concrete makes a great deal of fine dust. Doorways, lift lobbies, shutters and services are sealed off, walls and adjacent floors protected, and the grinders run with vacuum extraction.
Mechanical preparation
The top of a trowelled slab is a weak, closed skin of cement laitance. We grind it back with diamond tooling until the concrete underneath is open and porous, rather than acid-etching, which leaves salts behind if it isn't neutralised properly.
Crack, joint and patch repair
Static cracks cut open and filled with epoxy mortar, spalled patches rebuilt, oil-contaminated areas degreased or cut out. Movement joints are carried through the coating and sealed flexibly, coating straight over a moving joint only splits along it later.
Priming and coating build
Primer worked into the open concrete first, then the coats built to the agreed system and thickness. Each mix is measured by ratio and used within its working time, and grip aggregate is broadcast into ramps and wet areas where agreed. Bay and line marking are quoted as separate lines.
Cure, inspection and handover
The floor stays closed while it hardens, then we walk it with you under proper light to check coverage, edges and coving. You get a written record of the system applied and a written warranty with its conditions stated.
Not included, or quoted separately
- Structural concrete repair, slab replacement, or anything needing a structural engineer's opinion
- Under-slab waterproofing or a damp-proof membrane, which can't be laid from above
- Correcting the floor's falls, or forming new drains, gullies and channels
- Breaking out tiles, failed screed or oil-soaked concrete and carting the debris away, quoted separately once we see what's under it
- Moving vehicles, machinery, racking and stored goods out of the area, and disconnecting fixed equipment
The sequence.
Floor survey
We measure the actual floor area, including ramps, plinths, steps and coving, and check the slab for moisture, contamination and old coatings. What we find here sets the specification, rather than a system chosen before anyone has seen the floor.
System and specification agreed
A thin roller-applied coating, a self-levelling grade and a mortar screed are different answers to different loads. The system, the build thickness, the finish and the grip level go in writing before any tool comes out.
Clear and contain
The area is emptied, swept and sealed off from the rest of the building, with dust extraction set up. In an occupied basement we usually work in bays so part of the parking stays usable.
Prepare and repair
Grinding, degreasing, crack and joint repair, then the floor vacuumed clean. This stage is the job, it decides whether the coating stays down.
Prime and coat
Primer goes on while the ground surface is still clean, then the coats in sequence, each mixed by ratio and laid within its working time. Grip aggregate broadcast where agreed.
Cure and staged handover
The floor is kept closed while it hardens. Foot traffic returns before wheeled and vehicle traffic, and we walk the floor with you before it is opened.
What moves the price on this job.
We do not publish a rate, because it would change once someone measured your property. These are the variables that decide it.
- Measured floor area, plus edges, ramps, plinths, steps and coving, detail work takes far more labour and material for the area it covers than open floor
- How much preparation the slab needs: light grinding, heavy grinding or shot blasting, and whether oil-soaked concrete has to come out
- Whether an old coating, tiles or a failed screed must be removed first
- The system agreed, a thin roller-applied coating, a self-levelling grade, or a mortar screed built to take wheeled loads
- Moisture in the slab, and whether a moisture-tolerant primer or a suppressant layer is needed under the coating
- Access and shutdown: whether the floor can be closed in one go or has to be worked in bays, at night, or around parked vehicles
Epoxy Floor Coating — your questions.
Why does epoxy lift off in discs or peel away in sheets?
Almost always moisture or bond, not the resin. Epoxy is close to impermeable, so vapour rising through a slab with no membrane under it collects beneath the film and pushes it off in discs. The other cause is coating over laitance, the weak cement skin on a trowelled floor. Grind that off and test the slab first, and both problems show up before they cost you a floor.
Can you coat over our existing tiles?
Sometimes, but be clear about what you get. The glaze has to be ground off so the coating has something to hold, every hollow or drummy tile has to come out and be filled, and grout lines usually telegraph through a thin coating as fine ridges. If you want a flat, unbroken floor, the honest answer is to lift the tiles or lay a bonded screed over them first.
Will the finished floor be slippery?
A smooth gloss epoxy is slippery once it is wet or dusty, which matters on ramps, in wash-down areas and in kitchens. We broadcast graded quartz or aluminium oxide aggregate into the wet coat in those places to give it grip. It is a trade-off: the more texture you add, the harder the floor is to mop clean, so we agree grip area by area.
Can epoxy go on an open terrace or uncovered parking?
Standard epoxy ambers and chalks in direct sunlight, the colour shifts and the surface goes dull. Under a slab, in a basement or inside a unit, that isn't an issue. Where the floor is open to the sky, we either add a polyurethane topcoat over the epoxy or suggest a different system altogether, and we'll tell you which before you commit to a colour.
When can we drive on it again?
Foot traffic comes back first, wheeled and vehicle traffic after that, and full hardness later still. We confirm the sequence on site rather than by the calendar, because it depends on the system and on the weather while it cures. Going on too early is what causes tyre marks and hot tyre pickup, where a warm tyre lifts patches of coating as the car pulls away.
Let us look at your walls first.
Tell us about the property and we will set up a free colour and wall inspection. You get a written, itemised quotation afterwards, with no obligation to go ahead.
- We call you back the same day to get a picture of the property and the surfaces.
- We agree a time and come out for the free inspection.
- You get the written scope and itemised quotation.
- Nothing starts until you approve it.