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Epoxy Repair and Recoat · Ann Arbor

Epoxy Repair and Recoat in Ann Arbor, MI

Open a small test grind to read the failure. Take the bad coating off. Lay down the system that should have been spec'd the first time. Most jobs wrap in a day.

❦1 day installs · typical timeline
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Ann Arbor garage after recoat with a charcoal flake floor.
Crack saw opening a hairline crack across a concrete slab.
Garage slab: failed coating one side, flake the other.
What we install

Why a coating fails, and what the slab is telling you

An Ann Arbor garage with peeled, chipping, hazed, or gummy epoxy is almost always a coating story. Not a concrete story. The slab is fine. The product on top of it was the wrong call. Failures cluster around three causes. Cheap garage epoxy flooring kits from the home center, with one soft water based layer, peel inside two or three winters. Epoxy floors without a polyaspartic on top yellow and turn gummy through the first July. Coatings put straight onto an unprimed slab lift in whole sections once the vapor pressure underneath builds. Each of the three is fully fixable. But only after the failed product comes off in full.

A real repair starts at the walk-through, with a small test grind (about a foot square) through the failed coating to read the failure firsthand. The diagnosis drives the quote. Not a guess from a phone photo. Most jobs then run a full grind back to fresh concrete. Cracks get a polyurea fill. Spalled zones where the old coating took aggregate with it get a mortar patch. The reinstall is the standard system: primer matched to the current vapor reading, solids epoxy base, full flake broadcast, polyaspartic topcoat. The finished floor acts like a fresh install on a new slab. The prep was rebuilt from the slab up.

  • Test grind during the walk-through. The quote follows the reading, not a guess.
  • Failed coating gets fully removed back to fresh concrete. Not feathered into a thin refresh.
  • Mortar patching for slab zones where the failed coating took concrete up with it.
  • Reinstall uses the same materials and the same process as a fresh concrete install.
  • A one or two car garage usually wraps the repair install inside one working day.
The concrete is rarely the patient. The coating was the wrong prescription. Pulling it off and rewriting it is the cure.

Repair calls in this region tend to come from one of two places. Homeowners who installed a DIY kit two summers ago and are now standing on lifted flake. Owners who hired a cheap installer and watched the floor lift after the first humid August. Both situations recover. Whether to recoat or tear out the slab depends on what the test grind shows. That is why doing the grind during the walk-through, before the quote, is the part that does not get skipped.

If a failing epoxy floor is the situation in an Ann Arbor garage or basement, the form on this page reaches a local installer who handles a free walk-through with the test grind. Most homeowners are surprised at how much more affordable the fix is than ripping out the entire slab.

Materials

What the test grind shows on the spot

A failed epoxy floor fails for a short list of reasons. The test grind tells the installer which one within the first twenty minutes of the walk-through. The installer marks a section about a foot square, runs a small grinder across it, and reads how the existing coating responds. A coating that lifts off the slab in clean sheets bonded poorly from the start. Almost always because the prep was an acid etch or a pressure rinse, not a mechanical grind. A coating that pulls chunks of aggregate up with it bonded too aggressively to a slab that was already weak below the surface (water damage, freeze-thaw spalling, prior chemical exposure). A coating that grinds away in a thin even layer with the concrete sound below it is the easy diagnosis. The slab is fine. The product was just wrong for the conditions.

Once the failure is named, the repair plan follows on its own. Most jobs run a full grind and reinstall. Some need extra mortar patching wherever the failed coating took aggregate with it during removal. The reinstall is the standard system. A vapor mitigating primer sized to the slab's current moisture reading (not the reading from when the original coating went down years ago). A solids epoxy base coat. A full chip broadcast. A polyaspartic topcoat. The new floor does not inherit whatever was wrong with the original. It acts like a fresh install on a new slab.

  • A test grind happens during the walk-through, before any quote.
  • Three failure modes the grind tells apart: bad prep, weak slab, wrong product on a sound slab.
  • Full removal beats a thin refresh in every case where the original product actually failed.
  • Slab patching enters the scope only where aggregate came up with the failed coating.
Ann Arbor garage after recoat with charcoal flake polyaspartic.
What about the alternatives?

Repair approaches measured by what they actually fix

Bids on a failing floor usually fall into one of the five buckets below. Only one of them fixes the actual cause. The other four buy time, kick the cost down the road, or in two cases guarantee a repeat failure on schedule.

Paint over the failed coating

Cheapest cosmetic pass. Bonds to the failed coating, not the slab. Comes apart in six to eighteen months. Both layers lift together.

Skip

Thin refresh sealer over the existing floor

Adds a clear or pigmented topcoat over the failed layer. Buys two or three cosmetic years at most. Does nothing for the bond or the moisture cause.

Skip

Local patching of one zone only

Works when the failure is small (under ten percent of the floor) and the rest reads sound on the test grind. Rare to be that contained.

Acceptable

Full grind and reinstall

The actual fix. Removes the failed product. Reads the cause. Reinstalls a system sized to the current slab. The new floor acts like a fresh install.

Recommended

Tear out and replace the slab

Last resort. Reserved for slabs that are structurally bad (large settling cracks, deep water damage). Rare on home garages.

Acceptable
How it goes

From quote to walk-on, fast.

01

Free walk-through

A 15-minute on-site visit. We measure the slab, check moisture, and write a fixed quote.

02

Prep the slab

Diamond grind to a CSP-3 profile. Cracks chased and filled. Moisture-mitigating primer.

03

Coat and broadcast

100% solids epoxy base, then a full vinyl flake broadcast to rejection while wet.

04

Polyaspartic topcoat

Final UV-stable topcoat. Walk on the same evening, drive on in 24 hours.

Before you book

Questions worth pushing on before signing a repair quote

Repair work attracts more shortcut bids than fresh installs. The homeowner already paid for one floor and is sensitive to a second big number. The questions below separate a repair that will hold from a repair that will fail the same way.

Does the quote include the test grind?
It should, at no charge. A reputable repair installer runs the small grind during the walk-through (about twenty minutes) and writes the observed failure into the quote. A quote without the grind is built on what the homeowner said over the phone. Not on what the slab actually shows. That is the path by which repair jobs end up failing for the same reason the original did.
How does the install handle slab zones where aggregate came up with the old coating?
A polymer mortar concrete repair compound, allowed to cure, ground level with the slab around it before the new system lands. Patched areas usually read invisible under the finished flake broadcast above. An installer who plans to coat straight over a spalled zone without patching is skipping a step. That skip will show through the new floor inside the first season.
On a partial repair, will the recoat blend exactly to the existing floor?
Custom chip blends can match closely if the original installer wrote down the recipe. Exact matches across years are rare. A small patch in a corner with low traffic usually reads invisible once cured. A big patch (over twenty percent of the floor) often shows as a subtle shade shift under certain lighting. Most owners choosing a partial repair accept that. A full grind and reinstall removes the matching problem entirely.
How does the installer think about workmanship on the recoat?
A reputable installer stands behind the new system for the same period as a fresh install, as long as the moisture reading and the prep were correct at install. Coverage usually excludes the original failure repeating if the underlying cause (steady basement moisture, repeat chemical exposure) was not actually fixed. Ask the installer to put in writing what is and is not covered before signing.
What if the cause of the original failure cannot actually be fixed?
An honest installer says so before quoting. Coating over a slab with steady moisture pushing through (a failed sump, a foundation crack with seepage) is a guaranteed repeat failure inside a few years. The actual fix in those cases is drainage, sump replacement, or a vapor barrier. Not another coating. A walk-through that names a problem outside the coating scope and points at fixing it first, sometimes through a different trade, is the sign of a reputable installer. One that just quotes another coating job is selling work that will not last.
Aftercare

Keeping the recoat from failing the same way the first one did

A recoated floor carries the same routine care as a fresh install, with one extra item. The original failure usually points at a habit or condition that helped cause it. If the first floor lifted because of basement vapor, the new floor still needs the dehumidifier and sump pump running. If the first floor failed under chemical exposure (battery acid spills, full strength degreaser, hot solvent), the spill habit needs to change. The recoat itself is built to hold. Whether it actually holds depends on whether the conditions that defeated the first floor have been addressed.

  • Keep the basement dehumidifier running through spring and early summer. Slab vapor peaks in this region then.
  • Keep entry mats at every doorway. Salt grit helped cause most garage floor failures even when it was not the main story.
  • Catch oil, brake fluid, and antifreeze spills the same day. Overnight contact is when chemistry starts attacking the topcoat.
  • Do a quick scan at every season change for new efflorescence, hairline cracks, or coating dulling. Catches a repeat failure early.
  • Anything that looks off, call the installer right away. Observations in the first year are usually covered. Observations at year five are not.
Ann Arbor garage after recoat with a charcoal flake floor.
How a recoated floor reads compared to the failed original
FAQ

Frequent questions about repair and recoat

How much does epoxy flooring cost per square foot in Ann Arbor?
The published averages deserve some skepticism, because slab condition drives the real number more than any chart admits. As a market range they still orient the budget: most Michigan solid-color installs land around $4 to $7 per square foot, toward the low end of the $3 to $8 national spread. Decorative flake systems run roughly $7 to $12, and metallic pours $8 to $15. Deep cracks, oil saturation, or a heavy moisture reading push the prep portion up inside those ranges. A reputable installer in the Ann Arbor area still writes one fixed number on paper after a free walk-through, not a range over the phone.
How long does an epoxy floor last?
A professionally installed epoxy floor runs 10 to 20 years, and the installs that reach 15 to 20 share two traits: the slab was diamond-ground before the primer, and the wear layer on top is a urethane or polyaspartic rather than more epoxy. The water-based kits from the home center sit at the other end. Those single soft layers often peel within one to three years, usually starting where the hot tires park. The chemistry is only part of that gap. The grind and the moisture primer are the rest.
Is epoxy flooring a good idea for a Michigan garage?
For a garage or basement in this climate, yes, and the reason is road salt. Michigan slabs eat brine for half the year, and unsealed concrete absorbs it until the surface starts to chalk and pit. A coated slab keeps the salt, oil, and meltwater sitting on top of the film where a rag handles them. The honest exception is a slab with an active structural problem: a moving crack, a failed sump, water arriving from below. Coating over any of those buries the problem instead of fixing it, and a walk-through should catch them first.
What is the difference between a DIY epoxy kit and a professional install?
The kit itself costs $90 to $300 retail, and a two-car garage typically lands at $300 to $700 all-in once tools and etch solution are counted. What the box cannot include is the diamond grind, the moisture reading, or a polyaspartic topcoat, and those three are where the lifespan lives. Big-box kits are a single water-based layer over an unground slab, and they often peel within one to three years, led by hot-tire pickup. The professional system costs several times more and runs four coats on a prepared slab. The two products share a word, not an outcome.
How long does epoxy floor installation take?
Most residential installs finish in one working day. The floor takes foot traffic four to six hours after the topcoat goes down, and cars roll back on at about 24 hours. Two-day schedules show up in specific cases: a metallic pour that needs its own cure window before the topcoat, or a basement slab that needs serious crack repair before the primer. Full chemical resistance, where a spill can sit without reacting with the film, lands around day seven.
Ready when you are

Ready for a real Ann Arbor floor?

Send a few photos or book a free 15-minute on-site walk-through. A fixed written quote within one business day.

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