Garage, basement and commercial floor coatings laid over concrete we grind open and moisture test before anything is mixed.
Arlington Heights Epoxy Flooring has spent 20+ years installing epoxy garage floors, polyaspartic coatings, polished concrete and commercial resin floors for homes and businesses in Arlington Heights, IL. We coat garages and basements, grind and polish bare slabs, repair cracked and spalled concrete before it is coated, and build static-dissipative, warehouse and food-service floors for the companies working around O’Hare. Every one of those floors starts the same way, with the concrete opened by a machine and tested before any resin is mixed.
A floor coating is a film, and it follows the slab underneath it. That is why we spend so much of the first visit looking at the concrete rather than at color charts: moisture coming up from below, cracks that still move, and old sealers or paint that will not let a new coating grip. We put what we find in writing, including the product, the system build and the finished thickness, so you can check what was quoted against what went down.
The sections below walk through the work we do most: garage floors from bare concrete to finished coating, basements and the water beneath them, the color and finish choices, and the commercial floors that keep warehouses, kitchens and labs running. Each one explains what the job involves and where floors in this part of Cook County tend to fail.
What we do
Epoxy and Polished Concrete Floors in Arlington Heights, IL
Ground, moisture-tested garage slabs finished with epoxy and a brine-resistant topcoat that holds up to Arlington Heights winters and hot tires.
Polished concrete ground, densified and burnished from your existing slab, for commercial floors, basements and living spaces around Arlington Heights.
Fast-curing, UV-stable polyaspartic coatings for garages, basements and commercial floors, applied over mechanically ground and moisture-tested concrete.
Basement epoxy floors built around a moisture test, with mitigation primers, drain and sump detailing, and finishes for playrooms, gyms and laundry rooms.
Marbled, high-gloss metallic epoxy floors for basements, living spaces, garages and showrooms, each one hand-worked over a ground and moisture-tested slab.
Crack, spall and salt-scaling repair for garage, basement and commercial slabs, with an honest call on when a floor needs more than a patch.
Epoxy, urethane and polyaspartic floor systems for warehouses, plants, labs and shops, installed in phases so the building keeps running.
Vinyl flake epoxy floors in custom chip blends and sizes, broadcast over a ground slab and sealed under a tough, brine-resistant clear topcoat.
Diamond grinding and shot blasting that strips old coatings and adhesives, levels lips and leaves the right surface profile for the floor going on next.
Static-dissipative and conductive resin floors for electronics, labs and server rooms, grounded to the building and resistance-tested before handover.
Seamless, coved, slip-resistant kitchen floors in urethane cement and epoxy, built for hot washdown, grease and health department plan review.
We have been grinding, repairing and coating concrete for more than 20 years, long enough to have seen what happens to garage floors laid over acid-etched concrete and basement coatings applied to damp slabs. That experience shapes every proposal we write: the slab is tested first, the problems are named before the price, and the system is chosen for the floor in front of us rather than for the brochure.
Every slab we coat is opened with a diamond grinder or shot blaster, because a suburban garage floor carries years of sealer, tire residue and deicer salt, so the primer bonds to clean concrete rather than to an acid-etched surface that still holds whatever the acid could not lift.
No basement or garage slab gets coated until its moisture is tested and written into the proposal as a line item, since parts of the village sit on poorly drained glacial till whose spring water table can rise near the surface, so vapor is measured beforehand rather than discovered as blisters afterward.
Each garage system is chosen for the calcium chloride brine the village pre-wets its rock salt with, so the topcoat sheds the slush tires carry in all winter rather than letting chloride soak into bare concrete, where it forms expansive calcium oxychloride and scales the surface.
Curing is booked against slab temperature and dew point, never the calendar: the epoxy data sheets we follow want the slab at 50 degrees or warmer and at least 5 degrees above the dew point, so an unheated garage in a northern Illinois March waits for spring rather than getting a coating that blushes or lets go.
Our written proposal names the product, the system build and the finished thickness, and reads out the warranty exclusions with moisture first, so what was quoted can be measured against what was installed rather than resting on a vague promise of a commercial-grade floor.
Never does a home floor coating job start without a written contract and the state’s Home Repair: Know Your Consumer Rights pamphlet in the owner’s hands, as the Illinois Home Repair and Remodeling Act requires, so the terms sit on paper rather than in a handshake that leaves out protections Illinois wrote for homeowners.
An epoxy garage floor job runs from a walk-through of the bare slab to the day the car goes back in. We look at the cracks, the old coating and the moisture, then grind, repair, prime, build the color coat and topcoat, and give the floor its cure. Knowing the sequence up front tells you how long the garage will be out of service and why each step earns its place.
Concrete that has been sealed, painted or troweled glass-smooth gives a resin nothing to hold, which is why a coating over it peels in sheets. We diamond grind or shot blast every garage slab to an ICRI concrete surface profile the primer can lock into, and we do not acid etch. That profile keeps the floor bonded when a hot tire and a January freeze both pull at it.
Garage slabs were long poured straight onto gravel and clay, and even the village’s current replacement handout calls for a vapor barrier specifically under attached garages. We test with an ASTM F1869 calcium chloride kit or ASTM F2170 in-situ relative humidity probes before naming a system. If vapor is moving, the proposal says so and adds a moisture-mitigation primer rather than gambling the floor on luck.
A hairline shrinkage crack, a crack with one side higher than the other, and a crack that opens and closes with the seasons each mean something different. We map them before quoting, fill stable cracks with a rigid repair material and tell you plainly which ones will show through. A coating follows the slab, so it cannot hold together a crack that is still moving.
Arlington Heights pre-wets its rock salt with a blend of salt brine, liquid calcium chloride and sugar beet juice, and that mix rides into the garage on every tire. Calcium chloride reacts with cement paste to form calcium oxychloride, an expansive compound that scales and pits bare concrete. A sealed, chemical-resistant topcoat keeps the brine on the surface, where a squeegee can push it back out the door.
O’Hare records roughly 121 days a year with a low at or below freezing, and an unheated garage slab holds that cold long after the air warms. The epoxies we install want the slab at 50 degrees or warmer, and 5 degrees above the dew point, through the cure. When an unheated garage cannot get there, we book it for spring rather than coat a cold floor and hope.
Hot tire pickup happens when a warm tire softens a thin or poorly bonded coating and pulls it loose as the rubber cools and contracts. One-part garage paints and coatings laid over unground concrete are the usual victims. We build with 100% solids epoxy and a polyaspartic or polyurea topcoat over a ground slab, so the film is thick enough and bonded well enough to stay where it was put.
A store kit is usually a water-based epoxy with an acid etch for prep, sized for a weekend and a paint roller. What it skips is the grinding, the moisture test, the crack repair and the film build that a garage facing a winter of brine actually needs. We install 100% solids resins over a mechanically profiled slab, and the proposal states how thick the finished system will be.
Price follows the slab more than the color chart: square footage, how much old coating has to come off, how many cracks and spalls need repair, and whether a moisture-mitigation primer goes down first. A flake system with a polyaspartic topcoat prices differently from a solid color coat or a metallic finish. We quote after the walk-through, line by line, so you can see which item moved the number.
Floor coating warranties commonly exclude failures caused by moisture vapor from below, and many also exclude hot tire marks, chemical stains and cracks that move after installation. We read those exclusions to you before the job is sold, with moisture first on the list. A warranty you understand on the first day is worth more than a longer one whose limits only surface after the floor blisters.
A basement floor coating lives or dies on what is coming up through the slab, so the first visit is a moisture test, not a color conversation. We run ASTM F2170 relative humidity probes or calcium chloride tests and compare the readings with the manufacturer’s limit, which is 85 percent in-situ relative humidity for one widely used epoxy. The reading decides the primer and sometimes the whole system.
Poorly drained glacial-till soils around Arlington Heights, the Ashkum series among them, carry a seasonal water table that can sit within a foot of the surface between January and May. A slab that looks dry in October can be pushing vapor hard in April. That is why we test with the season in mind, and why hydrostatic pressure rather than bad luck explains most basement coatings that peel.
The white powder that collects on a basement floor is efflorescence: mineral salts carried up by moisture and left behind as the water evaporates. It is a visible sign that water is moving through the concrete, and no coating should go over it. We grind it away, test the slab, and choose a primer for that moisture rather than sealing the salt in to push the coating off later.
The perimeter, the sump pit rim and the floor drain are where basement water shows first and where a coating usually starts to lift. We grind tight to the walls, detail the drain so the coating slopes into it rather than damming water, and finish the sump pit edge cleanly so the lid still seats. Those details take time, and they are where cheap basement jobs give out.
When a heavy storm pushes sewage back up through a basement floor drain, the slab takes on contamination as well as water. Before that floor is coated it has to be cleaned, disinfected, dried and tested, because residue and trapped moisture both break a bond. Where an overhead sewer conversion or backflow work is planned, we schedule the floor after it so new plumbing does not mean cutting a finished coating.
A moisture-mitigation primer is a dense epoxy built to hold back vapor that would blister an ordinary coating, applied directly to a ground slab. We specify one when testing shows readings above what the topcoat system allows, and the proposal prices it as its own line. It costs more than a standard primer and far less than stripping a failed basement floor and starting over.
A coated slab under a playroom, workshop or home gym mops clean, handles rolling equipment and takes area rugs or rubber mats on top. We choose a satin finish and a textured broadcast where bare feet and socks will be, so the floor cleans easily without turning slick. Stair landings, door clearances and low ceilings all get planned around before the first coat goes down.
Illinois requires a state license from IEMA to reduce radon for pay, and the U.S. EPA notes that sealing a slab alone has not been shown to lower radon significantly or consistently. So we never sell a floor coating as radon reduction. If your test comes back high, a licensed mitigator installs the system first, and we coat around the pipe and seal ring afterward.
A coating will not stop a foundation crack from leaking, lower a high water table, dry out a basement that floods, or hold together a slab that is heaving. Those are drainage, grading and structural problems, and they come first. We tell you plainly when a basement needs that work before it can be coated, rather than selling a floor that lifts with the next wet spring.
A vinyl flake broadcast scatters colored chips into the wet base coat, then locks them under a clear topcoat, hiding dust, tire marks and small slab flaws. Smaller chips read as a fine speckle, larger chips as a bolder pattern, and a full broadcast covers the base color entirely. We bring blend samples to the slab, since a chip looks different on gray concrete than on a showroom board.
Metallic epoxy floors get their marbled, three-dimensional look from metallic pigment moving inside a self-leveling epoxy while it is still wet. The installer works the swirls by roller, brush and air, so no two floors match and each needs a steady hand and a warm, controlled room. We lay a sample first and protect the finish with a clear topcoat, since metallic floors show scratches more readily than flake.
Polished concrete is the slab itself, ground with progressively finer diamonds, hardened with a lithium silicate densifier and burnished to a sheen. How deep the first cut goes decides the look: a cream polish keeps the surface paste, salt-and-pepper shows fine sand, and full exposure reveals the stone. We grind a test patch so you see what your particular slab actually holds before committing.
High gloss reflects light and makes a garage look bright, but it shows every footprint, dust film and tire mark. Satin hides more and still cleans easily, and matte reads closest to stone while hiding the most. We match the sheen to how the room is used, and we point out that a textured additive in the topcoat changes how slippery any sheen feels underfoot when wet.
A quartz aggregate broadcast seeds colored sand into the resin, building a textured floor where color and slip resistance arrive in the same layer. It suits mudrooms, ramps, locker rooms and commercial kitchens, where wet footing matters more than a mirror finish. We seal it with a clear topcoat whose thickness controls how much grit stays under your shoe.
A solid color coating is a pigmented epoxy with a clear or tinted topcoat and no chips, the simplest and most utilitarian floor we install. It suits workshops, utility rooms and warehouse aisles where a clean, light surface and visible spills matter more than pattern. We recommend it whenever a plain floor serves better, even though a flake system costs more and looks busier.
Standard epoxies yellow, or amber, when sunlight reaches them, which is why a floor near an open garage door can turn a different shade from the back wall. Polyaspartic and polyurea topcoats are aliphatic and hold their color under ultraviolet light. We put a UV-stable topcoat over any epoxy that will see daylight, so the floor does not show exactly where the door stops.
Saw-cut lines can divide a polished or coated floor into a tile pattern, borders can frame a showroom or parking stall, and a company logo can be inlaid in a lobby or shop. Each one is laid out on the slab before resin goes down and protected under the topcoat. We also detail existing control joints so they read as part of the design rather than an accident.
A commercial floor job carries more square footage, heavier traffic, tighter schedules and often a specification from an architect or a health inspector. We plan the system around the work the floor must do, such as forklifts, washdown or static control, and around the hours the building can close. That usually means phased installs and fast-cure resins a home garage never needs.
Cross-dock and warehouse floors in the industrial belt around O’Hare take constant forklift traffic, pallet jacks and dragged loads, so the coating has to resist abrasion and impact as much as stains. We build them with high-build 100% solids epoxy or urethane systems, stripe aisles and staging lanes, and repair joints first so wheels do not hammer the edges apart.
Walk-in coolers and freezers expose a floor to cold, condensation and temperature swings every time the door opens. Most epoxies cannot be applied cold and turn brittle near freezing, so we use systems rated for the temperature, often urethane cement, and plan the work for when the space can be warmed. Cove bases at the walls keep cleaning water out of the joints.
Electronics assembly, server rooms and some labs need a floor that bleeds static charge to ground within a specified resistance range, measured in ohms. An ESD floor uses conductive or static-dissipative resin over a grounding grid of copper strips tied to building ground. We test resistance after installation against the range your specification calls for and hand over the recorded readings.
Laboratory floors face acids, solvents, disinfectants and spills of whatever the bench is using that week. We match the resin to your chemical list, often a novolac epoxy or urethane system, and run the coating up the wall as an integral cove so spills cannot reach the joint. Ask to see the chemical resistance chart; we choose from it, not from a brochure.
Service bays and equipment shops see oil, brake fluid, coolant, hot exhaust and rolling jacks, often in a building heated only by overhead tubes. We build a thick epoxy or urethane system with a textured topcoat, careful detailing around trench drains and a finish that lets spills be wiped up instead of soaking in. Jack and lift loads are part of the specification from the start.
Illinois adopted the 2022 FDA Food Code, which asks for smooth, durable, nonabsorbent, easily cleaned floors and coved floor-to-wall junctures under section 6-201.13, while section 6-201.11 allows antislip surfaces where safety calls for them. We install integral cove bases and textured, sealed kitchen floors that meet those rules, and coordinate with the local health department’s plan review.
Hot water, steam cleaning and boiling spills cause thermal shock that can crack and debond an ordinary epoxy. Urethane cement is a cement-filled urethane that moves much like concrete with temperature and tolerates hot washdown, freezer conditions and higher slab moisture. We specify it for kitchens, breweries and food plants where an epoxy floor would not survive the cleaning schedule.
Illinois caps volatile organic material at 250 g/L for floor coatings and 340 g/L for industrial maintenance coatings under 35 Ill. Adm. Code Part 223, stricter than the 400 and 450 g/L federal limits in 40 CFR 59 Subpart D. The Illinois rule reaches anyone who applies a coating in the state, not only the manufacturer, so we choose compliant products and never thin past the limit.
Many commercial floors cannot shut down for a week, so we phase the work in sections, run night and weekend shifts and use fast-cure polyaspartic or urethane systems that return a floor to service sooner. Dust-controlled grinding with vacuum extraction and low-odor products keep the rest of the building working. The schedule is written into the proposal before work starts.
Arlington Heights Epoxy Flooring provides epoxy-flooring throughout the greater Arlington Heights area, with the same crews and the same standards on every job.
Good to know
Most two-car garages take a few working days from grinding to the final topcoat, longer when cracks need repair or a moisture-mitigation primer goes down first. Foot traffic usually returns within a day of the last coat, vehicles wait several days, and one widely used epoxy reaches full cure in about seven days at 68 degrees. A cold slab slows every one of those steps.
No. Illinois issues no state license for flooring or coatings work, so there is no state license number to show. Each village sets its own contractor registration instead; in Arlington Heights it runs through the Building and Life Safety Department and expires every December 31. We show the registration, and any bond or insurance certificate, that each municipality asks for.
They usually work together rather than compete. A 100% solids epoxy base builds thickness and bonds deeply into a ground slab, while a polyaspartic topcoat cures faster, resists ultraviolet ambering and stands up well to brine and hot tires. A full polyaspartic system can return a garage to service sooner, but it needs careful timing because it sets quickly.
Not right away. Manufacturer data sheets commonly call for new concrete to cure at least 30 days before a coating goes on, and a slab poured in a cold month may hold water longer than that. We moisture test new slabs the same way we test old ones, and we schedule the coating when the readings and the temperature allow it.
A coating hides small, stable cracks once they are repaired, but it cannot stop a crack that is still moving. The coating is a film that follows the concrete under it, so a crack that opens with frost or settlement will reappear through the floor. We read every crack before quoting and say plainly which ones will telegraph and which need slab repair first.
Yes, on every home job. The Illinois Home Repair and Remodeling Act requires a written contract for residential work over $1,000 and the state's Home Repair: Know Your Consumer Rights pamphlet, with a signed acknowledgment. We hand over both before work starts, whatever the job size, and the contract names the product, the system build and the finished thickness.
We price from the slab you have, not a flat rate per garage. Square footage, the amount of old coating or sealer to remove, crack and spall repair, moisture readings that call for a mitigation primer, and the chosen system all move the number. The written proposal lists each of those as its own line so you can see exactly what you are paying for.
Rarely, and only after testing. Paint, sealer and worn coatings usually have to come off, because a new coating bonds only as well as whatever is under it. We grind failing coatings down to sound concrete; a well-bonded, compatible coating can sometimes be ground and recoated, and we test adhesion before deciding which route the floor needs.
It changes the plan, not necessarily the project. Readings above the coating's limit usually mean adding a moisture-mitigation primer, choosing a system that tolerates vapor such as urethane cement, or waiting for a drier season. If water is entering from drainage or grading, we say so, because those problems have to be fixed before any floor will stay bonded.
Sweep or dust-mop grit regularly, since sand and road grit are what dull a topcoat. Squeegee winter slush out the garage door rather than letting brine dry on the floor, and mop with warm water and a pH-neutral cleaner. Skip harsh acids and citrus degreasers, set rubber pads under jack stands, and the floor keeps its gloss for years.
Request a free quote today and we'll get back to you fast.
