How to Price an Epoxy Garage Floor Coating | Reddit & LinkedIn

Homeowners think the coating is the cost, but surface prep is where the money and the risk live. A slab with oil staining, cracks, or a failing prior coating needs real grinding and repair before anything goes down, and skipping that is how a coating peels in a year. Price prep first and price it honestly.

Measure the square footage, then inspect for moisture, spalling, and contamination. A clean, sound two-car garage prices very differently from a stained slab with a failed DIY kit on it. The inspection is the estimate, so do not quote a garage floor from a phone photo alone.

Decide diamond grinding versus acid etch, and in most professional jobs grinding wins because it opens the profile the coating needs to bond. Price crack chasing and filling, spall repair, and degreasing for heavy oil, each as its own line so the client sees why prep costs what it does.

Moisture is the silent killer. If the slab tests wet, a standard epoxy can fail, so price a moisture-tolerant primer or a different system when needed. Naming these conditions on the estimate protects you from a callback and protects the client from a coating that lifts.

Price the system per square foot: a budget single-coat, a full epoxy with flake broadcast and a clear topcoat, or a one-day polyaspartic that cures fast for occupied garages. Each has a different material cost and a different labor and cure schedule, so quote the one the client actually wants.

Estimate labor for grinding, patching, base coat, flake broadcast, and topcoat, and build the schedule around cure windows between coats. A flake floor is usually a two-visit job, and polyaspartic can be one long day. Price the days, not just the hands-on hours.

Materials on a coating job are a meaningful share of cost, so mark them up 20 to 35% depending on the system and warranty you stand behind. Set a job minimum so a small single-bay garage still covers mobilization, grinder rental or wear, and cleanup.

Present a per-square-foot price with the prep scope spelled out, because prep is where cheap competitors cut and lose. ContractShield builds this quote from photos in about 25 minutes. Snap the job, say or type the scope, and the AI drafts labor and materials from your own price templates, line by line for you to approve. Every line shows whether the price came from your template or an AI estimate, and it never invents your labor rate or markup. Then the same tool invoices the milestones and chases any overdue balance for you, all for a flat 2% per job, 1% client and 1% contractor, capped at $250 per job, with no per-lead fees ever.