Thin old slabs, gray floor paint, and a high water table. Ten minutes up Highway 99 and we deal with all three.
Free In-Home EstimateWalk into a Hazel Dell garage built in 1972 and you can guess what is on the floor: a coat of gray paint from some decade past, worn through where the tires sit, with hairline cracks running under it. The slab is thinner than what code requires today and it has 50 years of oil in it. None of that stops us from coating it, but all of it has to be dealt with before the epoxy goes down, and most of the deal is grinding.
The other Hazel Dell factor is water. The neighborhoods around Lakeshore and toward Vancouver Lake sit flat and low, and the water table is close to the surface. Moisture readings in these slabs run higher than they do up in the hills, and the old ones were poured without a vapor barrier. We meter every floor here before we quote, and when the number is high the system starts with a moisture-mitigating primer.
Old gray floor paint is the first thing to go. Nothing bonds to it, and it is usually bonded weakly to the slab itself. We prep by diamond grinding or dustless shot blasting, and we pick the right method for each space, working across the whole floor until the paint and the top skin of concrete are gone and fresh aggregate shows. That also pulls decades of oil out of the surface. Then hairline cracks get polyurea and a flush grind so they do not telegraph through the flake.
On a slab this old, thickness is on your side. Our flake system, 100% solids epoxy, flake to refusal, polyaspartic on top, ends up 30 to 40 mils and stiffens the surface of a thin slab rather than just coloring it. The finished floor is easier to clean, hides the patch work, and holds a 5-year workmanship warranty. Hazel Dell garages are mostly 2-car and on the small side, which makes them a quick install.
Materials: 100% solids epoxy base, full flake broadcast, Flake Lock, polyaspartic topcoat
Thickness: 30-40 mils
Install time: 2-3 days
Walk on it: 1-2 days after
Park on it: about a week after
Warranty: 5 years on workmanship
Hot-tire pickup resistant. Chemical and impact rated.
Between the Highway 99 strip, Minnehaha, and Walnut Grove, the housing is single-story ranches on flat lots from the 60s, 70s, and 80s with attached 2-car garages. The slabs are 40 to 60 years old, thin, and finely cracked. Close to Vancouver Lake and along the Burnt Bridge Creek Trail the ground holds water most of the year, so the calcium-chloride test decides whether we use a mitigating primer. Infill townhomes in Northwest Vancouver are the opposite case, fresh concrete still drying. Our shop is about 10 minutes away, and a typical Hazel Dell ranch garage keeps our crew there two days, or three when the floor is larger.
Hazel Dell, Lakeshore, Northwest Vancouver, Minnehaha, Walnut Grove
Every slab is different, so we price each floor after a free in-person inspection. Most Hazel Dell garages hold two cars and measure 400 to 500 square feet. Slab condition, old coatings, cracks, moisture and size are what move the price, and exact pricing comes after that inspection, with a written quote.
Inside the coating
Every floor starts with a properly prepared slab and is built up one layer at a time, each with a specific job.
For concrete floors
No, leave it to us. Chemical strippers make a mess and do not get it all. We take the paint off along with the top layer of concrete by diamond grinding or dustless shot blasting, picking the right method for the space, which is what we would do to prep the slab anyway. Two problems, one step.
Usually. Damp spots on a slab near Vancouver Lake are vapor coming up through concrete with no barrier under it. We test the moisture level and, when it is high, use a mitigating primer that tolerates it. If there is standing water or an active leak, that has to be solved first.
No. Hairline cracks get filled with polyurea and ground flush before the base coat, and a full flake broadcast hides the repair lines completely. Larger cracks are treated the same way. A slab that is heaving or shifting is a different conversation, but that is rare on the flat lots here.
Day one is grinding, crack repair, base coat, and flake. Day two is scraping the loose flake, then the Flake Lock coat, which needs three to four hours to dry, and then the topcoat; a big garage can run into a third day. Hazel Dell owners stay off it for the first couple of days, then park once a full week has passed. Being 10 minutes away up Highway 99, we can run the second day early.
It stiffens the surface and seals it, which stops the dusting and the oil absorption. It does not add structural thickness. A thin slab that is intact is a fine candidate. One that is broken into moving pieces is not, and we would tell you that at the estimate.
Ten minutes away. Free in-home visit.
Request EstimateOr call (360) 685-7222 or text
