The oldest incorporated city west of the Rockies has some of the roughest garage slabs we coat. We still coat them.
Free In-Home EstimateA detached garage behind an 1890s house in McLoughlin or Canemah was poured decades after the house, by someone who did not think about vapor barriers or reinforcement, on a bluff where the ground has been shifting ever since. The slab is small, thin, cracked, and sometimes tilted. Coating it is a judgment call that we make in person, and most of the time the answer is yes, with more prep than any other garage in the metro.
Up on the hilltop and toward Beavercreek Road it is a different city. The 1960s to 80s ranches on Hilltop and in Park Place have ordinary slabs with paint and cracks, and the 2000s subdivisions have modern concrete. It takes us about 40 minutes on I-205 to get there, and we see all three kinds on a typical estimate run. The bluff garages get the moisture meter and a hard look at movement first.
A crack that is still opening will come through any coating. So the first question on a bluff garage is whether the slab has settled and stopped or is still going. Cracks with old paint inside them and no fresh edges have usually stopped. Those get routed, filled with flexible polyurea, and ground flush, and the flexible filler takes up small seasonal movement without breaking the epoxy above it. A slab in active motion gets an honest no from us.
On a slab that passes, the flake system does more for old concrete than for new. Diamond grinding takes off the dusty, weak surface, and 100% solids epoxy soaks into what is left and stiffens it. Then flake to refusal and a polyaspartic topcoat, 30 to 40 mils. The lower town near Willamette Falls stays damp and shaded, so those slabs get a moisture test and, more often than not, a mitigating primer. Hilltop slabs dry faster and usually pass.
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.
Below the Oregon City Municipal Elevator, in McLoughlin, Canemah, and the South End, the garages are tiny and the slabs are the oldest in our service area, poured with no vapor barrier onto ground near the falls that holds moisture and shifts. Prep there is crack routing, polyurea, a full grind, and a moisture reading. Above the elevator on Hilltop, Park Place, and Rivercrest, the mid-century ranches have standard 1960s to 80s slabs with paint and joint cracks, and the ground dries faster. Forty minutes down I-205, so we book two dedicated days and re-check the bluff slab's moisture before the base coat.
McLoughlin, Canemah, the South End, Park Place, Beavercreek Road, Hilltop
Every slab is different, so we price each floor after a free in-person inspection. A bluff garage in Canemah might be only 220 to 300 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
By looking at the cracks. Old cracks with paint or dirt inside and no fresh, sharp edges have stopped moving and can be filled and coated. Fresh cracks, offset edges, or a slab that rocks under foot mean the ground is still shifting, and we will tell you a coating is not the right spend. Most Oregon City slabs pass.
We can smooth it, not level it. Grinding takes down high ridges and repair mortar fills dips so the surface is even, but changing the overall pitch of a slab is a concrete job, not a coating job. The flake floor follows the slope and looks uniform doing it.
In most cases, yes, once a moisture-mitigating primer is in the plan. The lower town is shaded and wet, and old slabs have no vapor barrier, so readings run high. The primer tolerates that vapor. What it cannot handle is liquid water coming in, which has to be fixed at the source first.
Normal. A 1970s ranch slab on the hilltop has paint and control-joint cracks, which means a full grind and polyurea fill, and the ground up there dries faster than the bluff so moisture usually passes. Two days, same as a Vancouver ranch garage.
About 40 minutes on I-205. We come for the estimate in person, because bluff garages have to be seen. Installs are two dedicated days, and on old slabs we check moisture again the day before the base coat.
Bluff or hilltop, free in-person estimate.
Request EstimateOr call (360) 685-7222 or text
