Choosing an installer
Epoxy Flooring Contractors in Houston
If you are holding two or three quotes and cannot work out why they differ by thousands of dollars, this page is for you. Here is where the money actually goes, and what to ask before you sign anything.
What does an epoxy flooring contractor actually do?
Short answer
An epoxy flooring contractor prepares concrete and installs bonded resin systems onto it. The work is mostly preparation: grinding the slab, checking for moisture, repairing cracks and spalls, then applying base and topcoat layers in sequence. Anyone quoting a coating without describing how your concrete will be ground is quoting a different job.
At a glance
- Quick answer
- Epoxy is the right base coat for its build and bond, but it ambers in sunlight and belongs under a UV-stable topcoat rather than on top.
- Best for
- The base layer of a garage or commercial floor system, bonded into freshly ground concrete
- Interior slabs with no direct sunlight exposure
- Applications needing film build to level a slightly irregular surface
- Not recommended when
- It is being sold as a single-coat finished floor with no topcoat over it
- The surface sees direct sunlight and colour stability matters — epoxy is aromatic and will amber
- The slab was not mechanically profiled first, in which case no resin will hold
- Installation time
- Installed as one layer within a multi-day system rather than as a standalone job. Sequence and schedule are confirmed in writing before work starts.
- Return to service
- Foot traffic returns before vehicle traffic. Exact hours are set by the installed system’s technical data sheet and by cure-day temperature and humidity, so they are given in writing at the final walkthrough rather than published as a fixed number.
- Preparation method
- Mechanical diamond grinding with dust control. Never acid etching.
- Warranty
- 5-year written workmanship warranty
- What drives cost
- Number of coats and total film build specified
- Slab condition and how much repair precedes coating
- Whether a UV-stable topcoat is included over it, which it should be
Reading a quote
The eight lines where quotes actually differ
Two quotes can use identical language and describe completely different work. These are the points to compare, and what a weaker answer tends to look like.
| What to look for | What a weak quote says | |
|---|---|---|
| Surface preparation | Mechanical diamond grinding, which opens the concrete profile so the resin keys into the slab. | Acid etching or a pressure wash. Cheaper and faster, and the most common reason a coating peels. |
| Crack and spall repair | Itemized as its own line, repaired before any coating goes down. | Not mentioned, which usually means the coating goes straight over the damage. |
| Flake coverage | Broadcast to refusal, then scraped and vacuumed so the surface is even. | "Partial" or "light" broadcast — noticeably less material, and the base coat shows through. |
| Topcoat | A named topcoat product appropriate to the system and the exposure. | "Clear coat" with no product named, so there is no way to check what it is. |
| Insurance | $2M general liability plus workers’ compensation, certificate available on request. | "Insured" as a claim on a website, with no certificate offered. |
| Warranty | A written 5-year workmanship warranty you receive as a document. | A verbal "lifetime" claim, or a manufacturer material warranty presented as if it covered labor. |
| How the price was reached | After an onsite inspection of your actual slab. | Over the phone or from a square-footage number, then revised upward once work starts. |
| Payment | No payment due upfront. | A significant deposit before any work happens. |
Warning signs
Six things that should slow you down
None of these prove a company does bad work. All of them are worth a direct question before you commit.
Estimating
A price before anyone saw the slab
Concrete condition is the single largest variable in the job. A number quoted sight-unseen is a placeholder, and it moves once the grinder hits a soft or previously coated surface.
Preparation
Acid etching described as preparation
Etching is a chemical rinse, not mechanical profiling. It cannot produce the surface profile a coating needs to bond to, and it is the most common root cause of a floor that peels within a couple of years.
Warranty
"Lifetime warranty" with nothing in writing
Ask which document it lives in and what it excludes. A warranty that cannot be produced as paper is a sales line, not a commitment.
Scheduling
A one-day install on a damaged slab
Speed is not automatically a problem, but a slab with cracks or spalls needs those repaired as a distinct step. If the schedule has no room for repair, repair is not happening.
Payment
A large deposit up front
We do not take payment before the work. A company that needs your money to start the job is telling you something about how it is funded.
Materials
No named products anywhere
A quote that says "epoxy" and "clear coat" with no manufacturer or product identified cannot be compared against anything, which is usually the point.
Your list
Eight questions to ask every installer
Ask us the same ones. If an answer is vague from anybody, including us, treat that as the answer.
- Will you mechanically grind the slab, and with what equipment?
- Can you send me your certificate of insurance?
- Is your warranty on workmanship, materials, or both — and can I read it before I sign?
- What specific products are you installing, by name?
- How are cracks and spalls priced, and is that in this quote?
- What happens to the price if the slab turns out to be in worse shape than expected?
- Do you require a deposit?
- Who is actually on site — your crew, or a subcontractor?
Why two quotes on the same garage differ by thousands
Almost always, the gap is preparation. Grinding a slab properly takes hours of labor and specialized equipment, and it produces a surface profile that the resin can mechanically key into. Etching a slab takes a fraction of the time and costs a fraction as much. Both can be described in a quote as "surface preparation."
The second-largest gap is material volume. A flake floor broadcast to refusal consumes considerably more flake than one broadcast lightly, and the difference is visible for the life of the floor. A quote can say "flake system" either way.
The third is what has been left out. Crack repair, stem walls, moisture testing and removal of an existing coating are all real costs. Omitting them makes a quote look competitive until the work starts.
What we can and cannot tell you about our own work
We can tell you exactly how we prepare a slab, what our warranty covers, what our insurance is, and that we do not ask for money before the job. Those are verifiable, and we put them in writing.
We are not going to give you performance numbers we cannot substantiate, or a price for your floor before we have looked at it. If a competitor will do both of those things instantly, that is worth weighing rather than reassuring.
Terms used on this page
- Epoxy
- A two-part thermosetting resin used as a base coat. It bonds strongly into ground concrete and builds thickness well. It is aromatic, so it ambers and chalks under sustained sunlight — a documented property of the chemistry, and the reason it belongs underneath a UV-stable topcoat.
- Aliphatic
- A class of polymer chemistry that resists ultraviolet degradation. Aliphatic coatings such as polyaspartics and aliphatic urethanes hold their colour in sunlight; aromatic chemistries such as standard epoxy do not.
- Polyaspartic
- An aliphatic polyurea coating chemistry used as a clear topcoat. Being aliphatic, it is UV stable, which is why it goes on top of an epoxy base rather than the other way round. It also cures quickly, which shortens return-to-service but narrows the window an installer has to work the material.
- Mil thickness
- Coating thickness measured in thousandths of an inch. Target thickness is specified by the coating manufacturer for the specific product and application, so we quote it from the technical data sheet for the system going on your slab rather than publishing a general figure.
- Laitance
- A weak, dusty layer of fine cement particles brought to the surface during concrete finishing. A coating applied over laitance bonds to the laitance rather than to the slab, which is why the floor can peel away in sheets while the coating film itself is undamaged.
- Concrete surface profile (CSP)
- The ICRI scale describing how rough a prepared concrete surface is, from CSP 1 (nearly smooth) upward. Coating manufacturers name a target CSP in their data sheets; diamond grinding is how that profile is produced repeatably.
Questions
Questions about hiring a contractor
Why will you not quote over the phone?
Because the price depends on what the concrete is doing, and we cannot see that over the phone. Slab condition, existing coatings, cracks and moisture all move the number. Quoting blind means either padding the price or revising it upward later, and we would rather look at the floor.
Is epoxy or polyaspartic better?
Neither is universally better — they are different chemistries with different strengths, and most quality floors use both in layers. We cover the actual differences on our polyaspartic page.
What does "$2M insured" actually mean?
It means we carry $2 million in general liability coverage plus workers’ compensation for our crew. If someone is hurt or something is damaged on your property, that is covered rather than becoming your problem. Ask any contractor for the certificate — a real one will send it.
Should I be suspicious of a cheap quote?
Not automatically, but you should be able to explain why it is cheap. Compare the preparation method, the flake coverage, the named products and what is itemized. If the cheap quote matches on all four, it is a genuinely better price. Usually it does not match on preparation.
Do you subcontract the work?
The floor is installed by our own crew. It is a fair question to ask anyone you are considering, because it determines who is accountable if something goes wrong and whether the insurance you were shown applies to the people actually on your property.
Get an itemized quote after we have seen your concrete
Every estimate is free, happens onsite, and comes back itemized. No payment is due upfront.
- $2M general liability + workers’ comp
- 5-year workmanship warranty
- No upfront payment