Professional Garage Floor Install Opinions

[smrtasp]

I’ve spent the last few months organizing my garage and I am ready for floors. The garage will be mostly for parking my cars and doing light work. No welding, auto repairs, etc.

That said, I have decided to have it done professionally and have had 3 different companies come out. I looked for Yelp and Angies List reviewed companies as well as checked BBB for any negatives when creating my list. As of now I have narrowed it down to 3 but each have different approaches so I’m hoping others on here can provide some feedback on their own experiences with using professionals.

All 3 sand/grind the floor for prepping.

2 use a 2 coat system with a hybrid primer/color base coat and full broadcast and Polyurea top coat. Each says it’s a 2 day install and I could park on it by the 3rd day. Each offer lifetime on lifting/peeling. These are also supposed to come out to about 9-10 mil.

1 of them uses a 4 coat system - primer, base color and flakes, epoxy glaze and Polyurea top coat. This one offers 5 year warranty on lifting/peeling and even though the Poly top coat is supposed to be UV safe, he will not run it all the way to the driveway where 4-5 inches is exposed for a few hours each day. This one should come to 15+ mil.

All 3 are at 3.50 sq. ft. installed but 1 of them is running a 20% discount right now which the other 2 are willing to come close to.

So the challenge is picking one. I’m always suspect of lifetime warranties on anything but I’m a bit surprised that what appears to be the strongest product will only be guaranteed for 5 years from lifting or peeling.

Any thoughts/comments welcome.

 

[Ultimate Floors by Rhino]

Wow that's cheap. I'd go with the full polyurea coatings over epoxy. Add to that they are giving you a better warranty.

 

[smrtasp]

Yeah, I thought so to but in So Cal its pretty competitive from what I have learned so 3.50 a sq ft is right where many are. I have a few home mags that show up in the mail every few weeks and ever other vendor that can do these floors is right in the same range.

 

[smrtasp]

Ive decided on the Polyurea product and got it at 3.25 a sq ft installed. They start tomorrow which worked great for my schedule this week. Id prefer not to advertise their pricing on here so PM me if anyone in Orange County is looking for an installer.

 

[noweare]

I think warrenties are only as good as the person you are dealing with.
If it doesnt peel in 5 I doubt it will peel after that. That is a low price.
Its all in the prep. Polyurea is expensive so that one company is doing the first
topcoat in epoxy since a full broadcast will absorb lots of costly material. Then
hitting it with the poly at about 250 sf per gallon, makes sense.

 

[thegarageguy]

Before anyone ever makes a decision, you should see their work in person. Make sure it's one that is at least 3 years old. $3.50 per sqft sounds extremely cheap...seems like contractors are cutting each others throats. An epoxy - polyaspartic is just as good as an all polyaspartic. Sometimes epoxy is a better option for not only cost concerns but because it can go on thicker to hide blemishes. A rolled on polyaspartic system like they are offering here is super thin and although, if prepped properly should hold up fine, it most likely will not hide any repair work or blemishes. Good luck. P.S. pics of work would be nice

 

[smrtasp]

My neighbor used the same company (I didn’t know this until I saw that his floor was done the same day I made my choice and walked over to talk to him about it) and there are about 3K homes down where I live and the owner gave me other references. 2 of them were 3-4 years old and 1 was brand new. Every floor looked fine, no complaints from the owners (the one that wasn’t happy with the color he originally chose had it replaced at no cost). The older floors had some dark spots near the garage doors from what I would guess is oil as we all have roll up doors. It does feel like I made the right choice. I don’t need a 20+ mil floor for parking cars and walking through to get to my gym.

 

[Cruzin90]

At $3.50/sqft, I bet your getting a THIN THIN THIN floor coating. It's like saying a brand new Lexus is only $10,000.

Polyaspartic polyurea in a garage: Diamond grind, 3 mil base coat, 2 mil tak coat, flakes, 6 mil topcoat should be about $5.00 to $6.00/sqft with no concrete repairs.

 

[thegarageguy]

At $3.50/sqft, I bet your getting a THIN THIN THIN floor coating. It's like saying a brand new Lexus is only $10,000.

Polyaspartic polyurea in a garage: Diamond grind, 3 mil base coat, 2 mil tak coat, flakes, 6 mil topcoat should be about $5.00 to $6.00/sqft with no concrete repairs.

Exactly, but it seems the contractors there are desperate for work. Probably the owner and a day laborer only installing. I'd be surprised if they have certificates of insurance.

The left side is an all polyaspartic rolled on system and the right is a poured epoxy full broadcast polyaspartic sealed system. $3 system on left and $6 on the right

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

I agree with garage-guy. You get what you pay for.

 

[smrtasp]

I appreciate all the feedback. I've learned a lot about this over the last few months from all the experts on here and I realize there are lots of options here. At the end of the day I picked the vendor I felt most comfortable with. As I noted above I ended up with 3 quotes after talking to 6. Only 1 of them was open about which manufacturer he used for his coatings and had references I could talk to. He also didn't try to trash his competitors. The other 2 wouldn't tell me who they used when I asked and one of them told me about houses he was working on in the area and when I asked to go to see it he back peddled a bit and said it was new construction and they wouldn't want me diving around.

BTW - 2 different 2 man crews came out each day to do the work and neither was the owner although he will be out tomorrow to check out the finished product which he says he does on as many jobs as possible to make sure it's what his customer expected and to make sure clean up was done properly.

 

[Hottrod]

Exactly, but it seems the contractors there are desperate for work. Probably the owner and a day laborer only installing. I'd be surprised if they have certificates of insurance.

The left side is an all polyaspartic rolled on system and the right is a poured epoxy full broadcast polyaspartic sealed system. $3 system on left and $6 on the right

The difference between the two systems is quite striking - can you advise which (if any of these samples) are similar to the products offered by the popular providers (Legacy Industrial, HP Spartacote etc.) ?