A garage floor coating is not a weekend job you can redo cheaply if it goes wrong. Once epoxy has cured to a slab, taking it off means grinding it off.
That costs more than the original installation would have. So the question for most people is not whether to hire someone. It is how to tell one contractor from another.
The short answer
A professional is buying you three things a kit cannot sell you: mechanical grinding of the slab, a moisture test before anything is poured, and a written warranty if it fails.
If you want to see the systems we use and what finished floors look like, see our epoxy garage floor installation in St. Louis.
What does a professional epoxy floor contractor do that a DIY kit cannot?
Almost all of it is the concrete preparation, and that is the part a kit does not include.
A professional grinds the slab with a diamond grinder so the coating bonds mechanically, instead of etching it with acid and hoping. They test the slab for moisture first, because a slab pushing moisture upward will lift a coating off however carefully it was rolled on.
Cracks and pitting get repaired before anything is applied, not after. A boxed kit gives you the coating and leaves all of that to you.
| Store-bought kit | Professional install | |
|---|---|---|
| Slab preparation | Acid etch | Diamond grinding |
| Moisture test | Not included | Before any pour |
| Crack repair | Your job | Part of the work |
| Finish options | Solid color, light flake | Flake, quartz, metallic, non-slip |
| If it fails | Your cost | Written warranty |
How do you compare epoxy floor installers?
Ask all of them the same three questions. The differences show up fast.
- How will you prepare the slab? The answer you want is mechanical grinding, not acid etching.
- What coating system is it, and how many coats? A single-coat product and a full epoxy or polyaspartic build are not the same floor and will not last the same time.
- What happens if it fails? This tells you whether there is a written warranty behind the work.
It is also worth reading actual customer reviews rather than only the testimonials a company picks for its own website.
How long does an epoxy garage floor take to install?
Most residential garages take two days. Small floors can be done in one, and a floor that is part of a wider remodel runs to four or five.
Those are our own recent jobs, not industry averages:
| Job | Where | Time on site | What was installed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reiff family | Colonial Ct., Clayton | 1 day | Failing concrete repaired, then coated. 200 sq ft |
| Masksumic family | Birchmont Place, Oakville | 2 days | Tuxedo flake system. 500 sq ft |
| Skurtu family | White Stable Road, Des Peres | 2 days | Non-slip epoxy flake. 800 sq ft |
| Heubbe family | West Adams, Kirkwood | 2 days | Polyaspartic, Tidal Wave flake. 550 sq ft |
| Leibermann family | Ladue Estates Drive, Ladue | 2 days | Epoxy flake, finished before a move-in date |
| Esselman family | Summer Top Circle, Fenton | 2 days | Garage floor plus a screened patio |
| Hanson family | Forest Crest, Lake St. Louis | 2 days | Completed ahead of an international move |
| Albers family | Lancelot Drive, Weldon Springs | 2 days | Recoat in flake with crushed stone |
| Sult family | Winter Valley, Fenton | 2 days | Flake system finished the day before Christmas |
| Reich family | Winchester, Ballwin | 2 days | Home gym floor with extra non-slip additive |
| Randall family | Creekwood Ln, Ladue | 5 days | Drywall and paint first, then floor and Slatwall |
| Leitner family | Tapawingo, Fenton | 4 days | Floor, cabinetry, workbench, Slatwall, two overhead racks. 700 sq ft |
| Blueberry Hill | Delmar Loop, University City | 2 days | Commercial flake with an aliphatic topcoat, over existing tile |
Cure time is separate from install time. You will normally walk on it before you park on it, and a cold slab lengthens both.
What coating systems do we actually install?
Five, and the choice is driven by the slab and the use rather than by preference.
- Epoxy with a flake broadcast. The standard residential build. Flake is thrown into the wet coat, then sealed. Colors are named systems, not shades mixed on site: the Masksumic floor in Oakville is Tuxedo, the Heubbe floor in Kirkwood is Tidal Wave.
- Polyaspartic flake. Cures faster and holds color longer in daylight. Used on the Kirkwood job, 550 sq ft over two days.
- Flake with crushed stone. More depth than a solid color. This was the Albers recoat in Weldon Springs, over an existing epoxy floor the owner found flat.
- Non-slip build. An additional additive in the top coat rather than a different system. The Reich home gym in Ballwin needed traction more than gloss.
- Commercial grade with an aliphatic topcoat. For constant foot traffic. The bathrooms at Blueberry Hill went over existing tile, which bonds only with mechanical preparation.
A contractor who cannot name the system, the flake and the topcoat is quoting a color, not a floor.
Is a DIY epoxy kit ever cheaper?
Only if it works the first time.
A kit costs a fraction of a professional install up front, and on a slab that is new, clean and dry that can be a genuine saving. The risk is what happens on a slab that is not.
A coating over unprepared or damp concrete tends to peel in sheets rather than wear evenly. Putting it right means grinding back to bare concrete first. At that point you have paid for the kit, the grinding, and the installation you were avoiding.
What drives the cost of an epoxy garage floor?
Four things, roughly in this order of impact.
- The condition of the slab. Cracking, pitting or an old coating all mean repair and removal before the new system goes down. This is the single biggest swing.
- The size of the floor. The obvious one, though price per square foot usually falls as area grows, because moving the equipment in costs the same for a one-car garage as a three-car.
- The coating system. Changes both the price and how long the floor lasts.
- The finish. Solid color, flake broadcast, metallic or non-slip each change the labor as well as the material.
The slab is genuinely the variable. On the Clayton job above the concrete was breaking up and had to be repaired before any coating went down. On the Albers garage in Weldon Spring there was already an epoxy floor in place that the homeowner found flat and generic, so that one was a recoat rather than a bare slab.
Two garages of identical size can be quoted very differently. You can get a rough range from our epoxy flooring cost calculator before you ask anyone to quote.
What is the best time of year to install an epoxy floor in St. Louis?
Most of the year works. The constraint is slab temperature, not the date on the calendar.
Epoxy cures chemically, and that reaction slows as concrete gets cold. A floor in an unheated St. Louis garage in January can take considerably longer to cure than the same floor in May. At the other end of the year, humidity during curing can cloud or blush the surface of some systems.
This matters more here than in milder parts of the country because of the freeze-thaw cycle. St. Louis County garages freeze and thaw repeatedly through winter, and a slab that already has cracks will move with it. That is a good reason to have the concrete looked at before the work is booked rather than after.
Winter is not off the table with planning. We installed a flake floor for the Sult family in Fenton to be finished by Christmas morning, and it took two days.
Does the order of the work matter?
Yes, and it is one of the clearest signs you are dealing with someone who has done this before.
On the Leitner garage in Fenton we installed the epoxy floor first, then let the coating cure before cabinetry, a workbench, Slatwall and two overhead racks went in. Doing it the other way round means working heavy components over a floor that has not finished curing.
Brandon and his crew showed up when they said they would, worked hard all day, and came back the next day to complete the job. Brandon was very timely with his communication and price quote.
The Leitner family, Fenton, on their garage floor and storage build
On the Randall garage in Ladue the drywall and painting were done first, so patching dust and paint could not contaminate the new coating.
Are epoxy floors worth it?
For a garage in daily use, generally yes, for two reasons that have nothing to do with looks.
A coated floor is sealed, so road salt, oil and brake dust sit on the surface instead of soaking into porous concrete. And it is far easier to clean, which is what most people notice day to day.
A bare slab in a St. Louis garage absorbs whatever comes off the car all winter. If you are still weighing materials, our guide to epoxy garage floor coatings covers how the systems differ, and there is a variety of color and style options once you have chosen one.
It is not only garages. We put a non-slip epoxy floor into the Reich family home gym in Ballwin, and a commercial floor into the bathrooms at Blueberry Hill on the Delmar Loop.
See the work before you decide
Every job above has photographs, the work that was done and the homeowner’s own words on it. Start with the full set of case studies.
Four short clips from our own installations. Each one plays in a window on this page, so you keep your place.
How much does it cost to epoxy a garage floor?
Read the full answer
Can you epoxy a garage floor in winter?
Read the full answer
Is epoxy flooring worth it?
Read the full answer
Behind the Scenes: Professional Epoxy Floor Installation
Watch the full video
What to ask before you hire
- How will you prepare the slab, and will you grind it?
- Will you test for moisture first?
- What coating system is it, and how many coats?
- How long before I can walk on it, and before I can park on it?
- Is there a written warranty, and what does it cover?
- Can I see photographs of finished floors you installed locally?
Garage Designs of St. Louis has been installing garage floors from Fenton since 2002, and epoxy is one of the services we install ourselves rather than subcontract.
What to do next
Call 314-308-7780 or request a free in-home estimate. We look at the condition of the slab, tell you which coating system suits it, and give you a price quote before any work starts.
