Nearly every garage in West Linn is on a hill. Slopes, steps, drains, cold joints. We coat all of it.
Free In-Home EstimateAsk a coating installer if they can do a garage that slopes 4 inches front to back with a trench drain at the door and a step up to the house, and watch their face. That is a normal Tuesday in West Linn. Rosemont, Savanna Oaks, and Barrington Heights are built on hillsides, and the garages are tuck-under or side-entry with floors that follow the grade. Flake epoxy works fine on a slope. What it needs is an installer who plans for the slope.
West Linn is roughly 40 minutes south of our shop on I-205. We bring the sample boards and a moisture meter to the first visit, because the hills here catch more rain and hold it, and the river neighborhoods down in Willamette and Bolton fog in for days in winter. The meter tells us which garages need a moisture-mitigating primer, and the walk-around tells us where the drains, steps, and cold joints are.
A sloped slab was usually poured in two or three sections, and where the sections meet there is a cold joint. Cold joints crack, and a crack under a coating eventually shows. We route those joints out, fill them with flexible polyurea, and level them off ahead of the base coat so they can move a little without breaking through. Trench and floor drains stay open; we coat to the edge and keep the fall so water still leaves the garage.
The epoxy itself handles a grade well. At 100% solids it is thick enough to stay put on a slope instead of running downhill, and we control the thickness with a squeegee and back-roll. Flake to refusal, then a polyaspartic wear layer that hot tires cannot lift and that brake fluid or gasoline will not harm. Thirty to 40 mils. Five-year workmanship warranty, and yes, it covers the sloped part.
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.
Up in Rosemont, Robinwood, and Sunset, the 1970s to 2000s hillside homes have the sloped and stepped garages, and those slabs are otherwise sound; the work is joints, drains, and old sealer. Down in the Willamette historic district near the falls and the Tualatin River, the houses are older and the slabs are thinner, with cracks, paint, and no vapor barrier. The river fog keeps those slabs damp, and they get metered every time. More rain than the valley floor slows winter cure, so the topcoat goes down midday. From Vancouver it is about 40 minutes down I-205, so a job is two planned days on site.
Willamette, Bolton, Rosemont, Savanna Oaks, Robinwood, Sunset
Every slab is different, so we price each floor after a free in-person inspection. Joint routing and drain detailing add labor, so hillside garages usually sit in the middle of what we see. 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. Solvent-free epoxy at 100% solids is thick, and we apply it at a controlled rate with a squeegee and roller, not by pouring. It stays where we put it on a normal garage grade. The flake broadcast then locks the surface, and the polyaspartic topcoat goes on the same way.
That is a cold joint, and it is the most common thing we fix in West Linn. We open it up, fill it with a flexible polyurea, and grind it flush. Because the filler flexes, the joint can move slightly without cracking the coating above it.
Yes. We grind and coat right up to the drain edge and keep the slope so water still runs into it. The drain grate comes out during the work and goes back after. If the drain edge is chipped we rebuild it with repair mortar before coating.
Usually. Slabs near the river with no vapor barrier read high on the moisture meter, and that is what a moisture-mitigating primer is for. We test first. If there is water actually entering the garage from outside, that has to be fixed before we coat.
It mostly affects cure time in winter. A cold, wet day slows the topcoat, so we schedule it for midday, keep the garage closed, and warn you that parking may wait a little longer than the normal week. Spring and summer installs stay close to that one-week mark.
Slopes, steps, and drains are not a problem.
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