The east wind puts more grit on a Washougal garage floor than anywhere else in Clark County. Here is a floor that shrugs it off.
Free In-Home EstimateDrive out SR-14 past Camas, about 25 minutes from our shop, and the weather changes. The Gorge wind hits Washougal first, and with it comes the dust and grit that ends up on every garage floor from downtown to Cape Horn. Bare concrete grinds that grit into itself and dusts forever. A flake floor with a polyaspartic topcoat takes the same grit and lets you push it out the door with a broom.
Washougal has three kinds of floors we see over and over. Older 1940s to 1970s slabs near the river and downtown, often patched more than once. Newer hillside garages up toward Lookout Ridge and Mount Norway that see heavy tracked-in grit. And the big broom-finished shop slabs on acreage east of town, where the owner parks a tractor next to the truck. We coat all three, but the prep is different for each.
Ice days are more common in Washougal than in Vancouver, and ice days mean deicer on the road and salt on the floor. Salt sitting on bare concrete draws moisture into the slab. Salt sitting on a 100% solids epoxy floor with a full flake broadcast is just dirt to be rinsed off. The polyaspartic topcoat does not react to it, and the gas, oil, and deicer slush that drip off a truck on Washougal River Road wipe straight off.
Shop slabs on acreage are usually thick and broom-finished, which is a rougher surface than a house garage. We still diamond grind or shot blast them, because the goal is a consistent profile the epoxy can lock into, not just a clean floor. Then the base coat, a full broadcast of flake to refusal, and the topcoat, 30 to 40 mils total. That build handles a dropped socket wrench or a tractor tire without chipping.
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.
Downtown Washougal garages near Steamboat Landing often have concrete that was patched with whatever was handy. Loose patches come out and get refilled with polyurea; a patch that is not bonded will not stay bonded under epoxy. Hillside slabs in Lookout Ridge and Mount Norway are newer and sound; the job is mostly removing ground-in dust and any builder sealer. Shops out toward Cape Horn and Hathaway tend to be thick pours on well-drained ground, so moisture is less of an issue, but we still meter every one. The trip from our shop is about 25 minutes each way, so grinding and base coat happen in one day.
Downtown Washougal, Lookout Ridge, Mount Norway, Washougal River Road, Hathaway, Cape Horn
Every slab is different, so we price each floor after a free in-person inspection. 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
Yes, and better than bare concrete. Grit on a raw slab acts like sandpaper and turns the surface to powder over time. On a polyaspartic topcoat it just sits there until you sweep or hose it out. The flake texture also hides the dust between cleanings, which matters when the east wind blows for a week.
It will after we grind it. A broom finish is rough but not the right kind of rough; the ridges are weak and the valleys are sealed with laitance. Diamond grinding takes the ridges down and opens the surface evenly. Then the 100% solids epoxy has something solid to bite into across the whole slab.
The coating itself is fine with freezing weather. The concern is deicer and salt tracked onto bare concrete, which is one of the reasons Washougal slabs get pitted. After coating, the salt cannot reach the concrete. Just rinse the floor when the weather breaks.
Two, usually. Day one we grind, repair, and lay the base coat with the flake. Day two we scrape the excess flake and apply the polyaspartic topcoat. Twenty-five minutes each way on SR-14 is not far, so we do not batch Washougal the way we do the far Oregon suburbs.
We do. The floor is coated right up to the drain edge and the slope is preserved, so water still runs where it should. For a wash bay we can broadcast a heavier grit into the topcoat. Tell us at the estimate where the drain and slope are and we plan around them.
Free on-site estimate, garages and acreage shops.
Request EstimateOr call (360) 685-7222 or text
