Professionally Installed Garage Floor Epoxy

A professionally installed coating runs roughly $4 to $12 per square foot, so a standard 2-car garage (about 400–500 sq ft) typically lands between $2,000 and $5,000 depending on slab condition, crack repair, and the coating system you choose. DIY kits look cheaper at $1 to $5 per square foot, but they skip diamond grinding and use thin, single-coat epoxy that is prone to hot-tire pickup and peeling. Apex quotes a firm price after measuring your slab and checking for moisture and cracks — no per-square-foot surprises on install day.

Yes. A properly prepped, professionally coated floor seals bare concrete against oil and road salt, stops concrete dust, wipes clean, and protects the slab for 20 to 30 years. The value comes from the prep and the system — diamond grinding and a polyaspartic topcoat, not a $150 big-box kit that can peel within a season. With a 25-year warranty, the coating typically outlasts several DIY re-do cycles, which is why it holds up as a long-term home improvement.

The real downsides belong to DIY and thin single-coat epoxy: it can yellow under UV, lift from hot tires, and peel within a few years if the slab was only acid-etched instead of ground. Standard high-gloss epoxy is also slippery when wet unless an anti-slip aggregate is broadcast into the topcoat. Apex avoids these by CSP-2/3 diamond grinding, repairing cracks first, and finishing with a UV-stable polyaspartic topcoat and an anti-slip additive — backed by a 25-year warranty.

One day for the flake system. We arrive around 7 AM, run the diamond grinder, patch cracks and joints, roll the primer and pigmented basecoat, and hand-broadcast flake into the wet basecoat — all before 4 PM. The polyaspartic topcoat goes on the next morning. Walk-on in 4 hours, drive-on in 24, full cure in 72.

With a polyaspartic topcoat you can typically walk on the floor in about 4 hours and return vehicles in 24 to 48 hours, versus the 3 to 7 days a traditional all-epoxy system needs to cure. Full chemical cure continues over the first week, so we recommend keeping heavy static loads off until then. Apex schedules most single-car and 2-car garages as a one-day install with next-day drive-on.

Diamond grinding is the professional standard: it mechanically opens the concrete to a uniform CSP-2/3 profile so the coating bonds into the slab. Acid etching only chemically roughens the surface, gives inconsistent results, cannot flatten a smooth or sealed slab, and leaves residue that undermines adhesion. Apex diamond-grinds every floor — it is the single biggest reason a coating lasts decades instead of peeling, and it is the step DIY kits and one-day crews most often skip.

Yes — over repaired cracks, not raw ones. Every crack, spall, and control joint gets a two-part polymer patch, ground flush, and re-profiled before any coating goes down. Repair up to ¼-inch wide is included in every quote; larger spalls or oil-saturated concrete can add cost, which we call out on the walkthrough before you sign, never on install day. Coating over unrepaired cracks is exactly why DIY floors telegraph and fail.

Polyaspartic is the more durable finish: it is UV-stable so it will not yellow, resists hot-tire pickup, and cures fast enough to walk on in about 4 hours. Epoxy is a strong, lower-cost base coat but on its own it fades in sunlight and is less flexible. Apex builds a hybrid system — a high-solids epoxy base for adhesion and thickness with a polyaspartic topcoat for UV and abrasion resistance — so you get the strengths of both, rated for a 20 to 30 year lifespan.

In Florida's heat and humidity, a UV-stable polyaspartic topcoat over a high-solids epoxy base is the most reliable choice — it resists the yellowing and hot-tire pickup that plague thin epoxy in sun-exposed garages, and it tolerates high slab moisture when paired with a mitigation primer. Standard high-gloss epoxy alone tends to fade and soften faster in these conditions. Apex installs this hybrid garage floor coating across its Jacksonville, Fort Myers, Boca Raton, Hialeah, Port Charlotte, and St. Petersburg service areas — plus Atlanta and Savannah, GA and Charleston, SC.

Standard smooth, high-gloss epoxy can be slippery when wet — but an Apex floor isn't smooth. A full vinyl-flake or quartz broadcast leaves the surface with real micro-texture, and we can add an anti-slip aggregate to the topcoat where grip matters most. In practice that means: flake broadcast for everyday traction, quartz for maximum grip (workshops, dog runs), and a polyaspartic anti-slip additive on request. Wet or oily conditions don't ice up the way a bare solid-color floor does.

Yes. Every finish system has multiple stocked flake blends (grays, tans, blacks, blues, plus custom mixes), and metallic pigments can be tinted to just about any hue. Bring a photo, a swatch, or an idea and we'll match it. Sample chips get delivered before install so you're not guessing.

Florida — Jacksonville, Fort Myers, Boca Raton, Hialeah, Port Charlotte, and St. Petersburg. Georgia — Atlanta and Savannah. South Carolina — Charleston. Every location runs the same crew standard and the same warranty. If you're in the metro area of any of those, we cover you.

Apex installs across three states, so “near you” usually means one of nine local crews: in Florida — Jacksonville, Fort Myers, Boca Raton, Hialeah, Port Charlotte, and St. Petersburg; in Georgia — Atlanta and Savannah; in South Carolina — Charleston. Every crew runs the same diamond-grind prep, the same 100%-solids epoxy and polyaspartic garage floor coating systems, and the same 25-year warranty. Enter your ZIP in the estimate form and we’ll confirm the closest crew to you.

Mold needs moisture, so it only becomes a risk when a coating is applied over a slab with unaddressed vapor drive or hydrostatic pressure. Apex runs a calcium-chloride or RH moisture test before coating and, when readings are high, installs a moisture-mitigation primer that blocks vapor from reaching the coating. On a tested, properly primed slab there is no moisture layer for mold to grow in — which is also why we grind rather than acid-etch.

Three things: mechanical prep (diamond-grind to CSP-2/3, not acid etch), layer chemistry (100%-solids epoxy body coat with a UV-stable polyaspartic topcoat, not a single paint-grade layer), and a 25-year residential warranty grounded in the chemistry — not the marketing.

The full installed system: bonding failure, peeling, and delamination — the things prep decides. It does not cover impact gouges, chemical spills left standing, or third-party additions to the floor after install. The warranty transfers with the home for the first sale.