Garage Floor Painting Costs SA 2026 - Get Free Quotes

Garage Floor Painting Costs in South Australia

Garage floor coating across South Australia generally costs $15 to $30 per square metre for a penetrating sealer, $35 to $70 per square metre for a plain two coat epoxy, $55 to $130 per square metre for a flake system with clear coats, and $80 to $150 per square metre for polyaspartic. A standard double garage of around 36 square metres therefore lands between roughly $1,600 for a basic epoxy and $5,200 for a full flake build. Crack repair, joint treatment and moisture barrier priming sit outside those figures as separate items. The reason two quotes on the same garage can differ by double is almost never the product. It is a difference of opinion about what the slab needs first, and that difference is usually settled by whether anyone bothered to test it.

Garage floor coatings fail in a small number of predictable ways and the two dominant ones should be stated plainly at the outset. The first is moisture, where water vapour moving up through the slab collects under an impermeable coating and pushes it off in blisters or sheets, sometimes months after the job looked perfect. Both are established before the first coat goes on rather than during it. Knowing them lets you read a quote for what it leaves out.

The second is bond, where a coating applied to a surface that was not mechanically opened up simply does not key into the concrete, and lifts the first time something hot, sharp or heavy works against it. Both are preventable and both are decided before any product is opened. South Australia gives the moisture problem a sharper edge than most states because of when a lot of the housing stock was built. Vapour barriers under residential slabs became standard practice progressively, and a sizeable number of garage slabs in Adelaide's established suburbs, along with detached garages and sheds poured by owners over the decades, have no membrane underneath them at all. Those slabs sit directly on ground that carries moisture, and they will move that moisture upward indefinitely.

The heat then adds its own layer. An Adelaide garage in February can sit above 40 degrees inside, which cuts the working time of a two pack epoxy dramatically and makes a hot tyre a genuine test of adhesion rather than a theoretical one. Winter does the opposite and can stop a standard epoxy curing properly at all. Timing the job is a real decision here rather than a scheduling convenience. This page covers what the work involves, the difference between the coating systems, slab moisture, cracking on reactive soils, saline groundwater, preparation, the seasonal windows, slip resistance, ventilation safety and why retail kits disappoint. Related commercial and industrial work sits in the SA epoxy flooring guide, and broader painting background in the SA painters guide.

What the Work Involves

A properly executed garage floor coating is mostly preparation, and the coating itself is the quick part at the end. The sequence runs assessment and moisture testing, clearing and cleaning the space, degreasing any oil contamination, mechanical preparation of the surface, crack and joint repair, patching and levelling where needed, priming, then the coating build and any clear coats. Degreasing deserves a mention because oil is the one contaminant that defeats everything downstream. Motor oil, transmission fluid and brake fluid soak into concrete and sit below the surface, and grinding alone will not remove them because fresh contaminated concrete is exposed as the old surface comes off. Deep stains generally need a dedicated degreaser and sometimes a poultice treatment, and occasionally the affected patch has to be cut out and repaired.

Access and emptying the space are practical items that belong in the scope rather than being assumed. A garage has to be completely cleared, which for most households means a weekend of moving shelving, freezers, tools, bikes and stored boxes somewhere else. Most operators expect the garage cleared before they arrive, and a floor still holding shelving and a car cannot be prepared properly. Clarify who moves what when you book.

Some contractors include a clearing allowance and most do not. The floor is then out of use for the cure period, which is a day for polyaspartic and commonly several days for epoxy before vehicles return, so the household needs a plan for parking in the meantime. Edges and details are where quality shows. A coating should be cut in cleanly at walls, carried into door thresholds properly, and finished at the garage door line in a way that will not catch and peel when the door seal drags across it. Some systems include a coved skirting up the wall by 50 to 100 millimetres, which looks better and makes washing out easier, and it should be priced as an option rather than assumed either way.

Where the slab itself is failing rather than merely worn, coating is the wrong intervention. Slabs that have settled, heaved, cracked widely or lost surface strength need structural or resurfacing work first, because a coating follows the shape of what is underneath it and hides nothing. Concrete resurfacing and slab foundation repair address the cases where the substrate is the problem rather than the finish, and a new slab is occasionally the honest answer. A coating over a failing slab hides the problem and shortens its own life at the same time.

Sealers, Epoxy, Flake and Polyaspartic

There are four broad categories on the domestic market and they solve different problems at different prices, so choosing on appearance alone tends to produce regret. Penetrating sealers soak into the concrete instead of forming a film, generally based on silane or siloxane chemistry, and they reduce dusting and moisture absorption while leaving the floor looking much as it did. Matching the system to the slab and the use matters more than the headline price per square metre. Ask which category is being quoted and why it suits your floor.

They are the cheapest option, they cannot peel because there is no film to lift, and they are the right answer where the goal is a cleaner, less dusty slab rather than a transformed one. They will not hide stains, level anything or produce a showroom finish. Epoxy is the workhorse and the term covers a wide range. Two pack epoxies mix a resin and a hardener and cure by chemical reaction rather than by drying, which is what gives them their hardness and chemical resistance. Within that category, water based epoxies are thinner and more forgiving, solvent based sit in the middle, and high solids or one hundred per cent solids epoxies build the thickest film and cost the most. Epoxy is hard and durable but it is not ultraviolet stable, so where a garage gets direct sun through an open door the surface will amber and chalk over time unless a topcoat handles that.

Flake systems are the most popular domestic finish and are built rather than simply applied. A base coat goes down, then vinyl flake is scattered across it by hand while it is still wet, a step the trade calls broadcasting. The excess is swept and scraped back the next day, and one or two clear coats seal it. The flake hides imperfections and minor slab colour variation, provides texture that helps with slip resistance, and is far more forgiving of an imperfect slab than a solid colour. It also takes longer and involves more material, which is why it costs more than plain epoxy.

Polyaspartic and polyurea systems are the premium option, both being fast reacting two pack coatings developed from the same chemical family as polyurethane, and their advantages are practical rather than cosmetic. They cure far faster, often allowing return to service within a day, they are ultraviolet stable so they do not yellow, they tolerate a wider temperature range at application, and they remain slightly more flexible than epoxy which helps on a slab that moves. The trade offs are cost and working time, because fast cure means a very short pot life, which is the window between mixing the product and it becoming unusable in the bucket, and application is unforgiving of hesitation. This is not a product for an inexperienced applicator. Hybrid builds are common and sensible, an epoxy base coat for its bond and build with a polyaspartic or polyurethane clear coat for ultraviolet stability and abrasion resistance. Manufacturers including Dulux, Sika, Mapei, Ardex and Crommelin publish technical data sheets for their floor coating ranges stating film build, pot life, cure times and moisture tolerance, and a contractor naming a specific product lets you check those figures rather than take an assurance on trust.

Slab Moisture and Why Coatings Fail

This is the most important section on the page and the one most often skipped in a quote. Concrete slabs on ground move water vapour upward continuously, driven by moisture in the soil beneath. A vapour barrier installed under the slab largely blocks that movement. With no barrier, it continues indefinitely. An impermeable coating over a slab moving significant vapour creates a trap.

The vapour reaches the underside of the coating, cannot escape, and builds pressure until it forces the coating away from the concrete, which shows up as blisters, bubbles or whole sheets delaminating. This can happen weeks or months after a job that looked flawless on completion, which is why the contractor is often long gone by the time it appears. The South Australian dimension is the age of the stock. Vapour barriers under residential slabs became standard practice progressively rather than overnight, and older garages across Adelaide's established suburbs, along with countless detached garages and sheds poured privately over the decades, simply do not have one. If your garage predates the 1970s, or was an owner built addition at any time, assume there may be no membrane until testing says otherwise. Treat a converted carport with particular suspicion, since the original slab was often poured as an outdoor hardstand rather than as an enclosed floor.

Testing is straightforward and any contractor working properly will do it. The simplest field method tapes a sheet of plastic film tightly to the slab, leaves it in place for a period, and checks for condensation underneath and darkening of the concrete, which indicates vapour movement. More rigorous methods measure relative humidity within the slab using probes placed in drilled holes, or measure moisture emission over a set period. The relative humidity probe method is the more reliable indicator and should be requested on any older slab or anywhere the plastic sheet test comes back positive.

The remedy where moisture is present is a moisture tolerant primer or a dedicated barrier coat designed to bond in the presence of vapour and resist the pressure. These products exist, they work, and they add meaningfully to the cost, generally $15 to $35 per square metre. What does not work is applying a standard epoxy and hoping. A few other moisture sources deserve a look while you are at it. Garages built into a slope, common through the Adelaide foothills and the Hills, can take water in through the back wall rather than the floor.

Downpipes discharging beside the garage, paving that falls toward the building rather than away, and garden beds banked against the wall all push water into the slab edge. Fixing those costs far less than any coating system. Damp proofing and basement waterproofing specialists deal with water entering below ground level. Correcting the drainage outside is far cheaper than specifying a heavier barrier system inside.

Cracking, Reactive Soils and Joints

Adelaide sits on some of Australia's most reactive clay soils, which swell when wet and shrink when dry, and that seasonal movement transfers into slabs. Garage slabs are often more exposed to it than house slabs because they are frequently shallower, less heavily reinforced and sometimes poured separately as an addition. Cracking is therefore common rather than exceptional here. Not all cracks matter equally and the distinction drives the treatment.

Fine surface crazing, the shallow map like pattern that appears on many slabs, is a curing artefact and generally needs nothing beyond preparation. Shrinkage cracks that are stable and tight can be routed out and filled with a semi rigid epoxy or polyurea joint filler and coated over successfully. Cracks that are still moving are a different matter. A filler placed in a crack that opens and closes seasonally will either split or push out, and the coating above it will show the movement through regardless of how well it was filled. An honest contractor will tell you that a moving crack will probably reappear through the finish and will let you decide, rather than promising an invisible repair that cannot be delivered.

Cracks with a height difference across them, where one side sits higher than the other, indicate slab movement rather than surface shrinkage and should be assessed before any money is spent on a finish. The same applies to widening cracks and to any crack accompanied by doors that have started to bind or by cracking in the adjoining walls. Concrete repair and crack filling specialists handle the remedial stage and floor levelling addresses slabs that have gone out of plane. Control joints, the sawn or tooled lines deliberately placed in a slab to make it crack where you want it to, need their own treatment. They are doing a job and coating straight over them without filling them properly means the joint will simply reflect through. Filling with a flexible or semi rigid joint filler and treating them as a designed feature of the floor is the correct approach, and any contractor who does not mention joints on a slab that clearly has them has not looked closely.

Salt and Saline Groundwater

Salt is a South Australian concrete problem and it deserves attention that it rarely gets in generic coating advice. Where groundwater carrying dissolved salts moves up into a slab and evaporates at or just below the surface, those salts crystallise and expand, which breaks down the concrete matrix from within. On a slab this presents as surface fretting, a powdery or flaking top layer, and small blown out patches where the surface has lifted. The Riverland and the Murraylands carry well documented groundwater salinity, and salinity is also a factor across parts of the mid north, the Murray Mallee and low lying land near the coast. Coastal districts around both gulfs add airborne and groundwater salt of their own.

Coating a slab that is actively suffering salt attack achieves the same thing as painting a wall with rising damp, which is to say it relocates the problem out of sight and buys a season or two. The surface continues to deteriorate underneath a film that then loses its substrate and lifts. A slab showing fretting, efflorescence, which is the white crystalline bloom left behind as salts dry at the surface, or a chalky layer that keeps returning after cleaning, the moisture pathway needs addressing before a coating goes anywhere near it. Practical steps that help are the unglamorous ones. Improving surface drainage so water runs away from the slab, redirecting downpipes, removing garden beds and paving that sit above the slab edge, and where relevant improving ventilation to the space so evaporation happens into moving air rather than into a sealed box. Only once the source is under control does a coating become a reasonable investment, and a moisture tolerant system remains the sensible choice even then.

Preparation and Why Acid Etching Is Not It

Concrete straight from the trowel is a closed, dense, polished surface, and a coating applied to it has very little to grip. The entire purpose of preparation is to open that surface up and create a profile that a coating can key into mechanically instead of relying on chemistry alone. Diamond grinding opens that surface so the coating can key into it, which is why preparation dominates a proper quote. A price that looks low is usually a price without grinding.

Diamond grinding is the standard professional method. A planetary grinder fitted with diamond tooling removes the surface laitance, which is the weak dusty layer of fine cement paste left on top when concrete is finished, opens the pores, flattens minor high spots and leaves a consistent profile across the whole floor. It is measurable, repeatable and it works on contaminated concrete as well as clean. Shot blasting achieves a similar result by firing steel shot at the surface and is common on larger commercial floors. Both produce a floor that visibly looks different from where it started.

Acid etching is the method sold with retail kits and it is a poor substitute. It relies on an acid solution reacting with the cement paste to roughen the surface, but the result is inconsistent, it does nothing about oil contamination, it cannot flatten anything, and it depends heavily on thorough neutralisation and rinsing that is difficult to achieve properly in a domestic garage. There is also a disposal problem with acid etching that homeowners rarely consider. The rinse water carries acid and dissolved cement fines, and washing it down a driveway into a stormwater drain is an environmental offence rather than a grey area. Stormwater in South Australia generally discharges to creeks, the Torrens and ultimately the gulf without treatment. Requirements are administered by the South Australian Environment Protection Authority.

The practical test when comparing quotes is simple. Ask what preparation method is included and expect a specific answer naming grinding or shot blasting, along with what happens to the dust. A quote that says the floor will be cleaned and etched is describing a cheaper job that will not last as long, and it should be priced accordingly rather than compared directly against a ground floor. Pressure cleaning is useful for removing loose debris beforehand but it is not preparation in this sense and should not be presented as such.

Heat, Cure Windows and Hot Tyre Pickup

Temperature governs floor coating work in South Australia more tightly than it governs wall painting, and understanding why prevents a lot of disappointment. Two pack products cure by chemical reaction and that reaction accelerates with heat. In practical terms, an epoxy with a comfortable half hour working time at 20 degrees may give an applicator ten or fifteen minutes in a garage sitting at 38 degrees, and the material can begin to gel in the bucket before it reaches the floor. That is how you get roller marks, uneven film build, visible joins where a wet edge could not be maintained, and in bad cases material that has to be ground off. An experienced contractor responds by working early, mixing smaller batches, and sometimes declining a summer afternoon slot altogether.

Cold does the opposite and is the more absolute limit. Most standard epoxies specify a minimum application and cure temperature, commonly around 10 degrees, below which the reaction slows dramatically or stalls, leaving a floor that stays soft, remains tacky and never reaches its designed hardness. An unheated Adelaide garage on a July morning can sit under that figure, and the Adelaide Hills and Mount Gambier sit lower again. This is a genuine reason contractors push winter bookings out or specify a product formulated for lower temperatures.

Polyaspartic systems are more tolerant at both ends of the range, which is one of the practical arguments for paying more for them in a South Australian climate. Hot tyre pickup is the failure mode that South Australian summers make famous, and understanding it matters because it is so often blamed on the wrong thing. A car driven on a hot day returns with tyres well above ambient temperature, and the tyre then sits pressed against the coating as it cools. If the coating is soft, thin or poorly bonded, the tyre grips it more strongly than the concrete does and lifts a patch away when the car next moves. It is the definitive test of a garage floor coating and it is why single pack retail floor paints fail so consistently here.

The defences are a properly bonded system through mechanical preparation, adequate film build rather than a thin coat, a true two pack chemistry, and full cure before vehicles return. That last point is the one owners break most often, because a floor that feels hard underfoot has not necessarily reached full chemical cure, and driving onto an epoxy days before the data sheet allows is a reliable way to create a problem that looks like a product defect. None of those three are visible once the floor is finished, which is exactly why they get cut from a cheap quote. Ask for each to be named on the scope.

Slip Resistance

A smooth gloss epoxy floor is slippery when wet and this is the safety issue people notice only after the first rainy day. A car pulling into a garage brings water in on its tyres and body, that water pools on an impermeable floor rather than soaking in as it would on bare concrete, and a high gloss surface under a thin film of water offers very little grip. Slip resistance of surfaces in Australia is classified under a recognised Australian Standard, with test methods and ratings that specify how surfaces perform wet and dry, published by Standards Australia, and while a domestic garage is not usually subject to a regulatory requirement, the classifications are a useful reference when discussing what you are getting. Anti slip aggregate broadcast into the final coat solves it without changing the appearance much. Ask for that to appear on the written scope.

The practical solutions are straightforward and inexpensive to include at the outset. A flake system provides texture inherently because the flake creates a slightly profiled surface under the clear coat. Fine aggregate, usually aluminium oxide or a polymer grit, can be broadcast into or mixed through the final clear coat to add grip, and the amount can be tuned so the floor is safe without becoming impossible to sweep. A satin or matt finish is also less slippery than a high gloss, and it hides tyre marks and dust better.

Raise this at quoting stage before the fact. Adding grip to an existing gloss floor means recoating it, which costs far more than including it in the clear coat originally. Households with older occupants, young children or anyone with mobility difficulties should treat it as a requirement rather than an option. It is a trivial addition at the time and a full recoat afterwards.

Dust, Vapour and Ventilation

Two hazards sit in this work and both are taken seriously by contractors who run proper systems. The first is silica dust. Grinding concrete generates respirable crystalline silica, which is a well established cause of serious and irreversible lung disease, with public health information published by SA Health, and the exposure standards and control expectations have tightened considerably in recent years. Dry grinding without dust extraction in an enclosed garage produces very high airborne concentrations.

The controls are established and visible, so you can tell at a glance whether they are in place. Grinders should be connected to a suitable industrial dust extraction unit with suitable filtration, operators should be wearing fitted respiratory protection rather than a paper dust mask, and the space should be isolated from the rest of the house. A contractor grinding dry into an open garage with no extraction is exposing themselves, your household and your neighbours. Workplace health and safety requirements are administered by SafeWork SA.

The second hazard is chemical. Epoxy resins and hardeners are skin sensitisers and repeated exposure can cause persistent dermatitis, while polyurethane and polyaspartic products contain isocyanates which are respiratory sensitisers requiring specific respiratory protection. Solvent based products give off vapours that are heavier than air and accumulate at floor level in an enclosed space. Ventilation during and after application is not optional in an enclosed garage.

That last point has a specific practical consequence in Australian garages that needs stating plainly. A great many households keep a second fridge or freezer in the garage, and some have a gas hot water unit mounted on the garage wall. Both are ignition sources at or near floor level. Where a solvent based product is being used, appliances should be switched off at the power point and pilot lights extinguished, and the space should be ventilated properly rather than closed up to keep dust out. Confirm this has been considered before work starts.

Household members and pets should stay out of the space during application and for the period the contractor specifies afterwards. Where the garage is internally connected to the house, the connecting door should be sealed rather than merely closed, because vapours will find their way under it. Ask for the specific re-entry and return to service times, since foot traffic and vehicle traffic have different waiting periods. Driving onto a floor too early is a common way to ruin a good job.

DIY Kits and Why They Fail

Retail garage floor kits are widely available and there is a reason so many South Australian garages have a half peeled floor under the shelving. The kits are not fraudulent, but they combine several compromises that add up. The preparation supplied is usually an acid etch rather than mechanical grinding, which produces a weaker bond from the start. The coating is often thinner than a professional build and sometimes a single pack product rather than a genuine two pack, which will not resist a hot tyre. Moisture testing is rarely mentioned at all, so a slab with no vapour barrier is coated without anyone knowing. And the working time on a warm day is short enough that a first time applicator is likely to be fighting the material rather than laying it down evenly.

None of that means a competent home owner cannot get a reasonable result on a sound, dry, modern slab in mild weather with a good quality two pack product and hired grinding equipment. Plenty do. What it does mean is that the odds are considerably worse on exactly the floors that most need help, which are the older slabs with no membrane, some cracking and years of oil in them. On those floors the difference between a professional job and a kit is not finish quality, it is whether the coating is still attached in three years. On a sound slab with a tight budget, a penetrating sealer applied by a homeowner is a far better use of money than a thin film coating that will lift.

What Drives the Price

Slab condition is the dominant variable and it is why an inspection matters. A sound, level, uncontaminated modern slab needs grinding and coating. A forty year old slab with cracks, oil staining, a worn surface and no vapour barrier needs testing, crack routing and filling, degreasing, patching, a moisture tolerant primer and then the system, which is several times the labour. System choice spreads the range widely and should be matched to use rather than to appearance. A garage that stores a car and some tools does not need what a home workshop with a hoist, dropped tools and solvent spills needs. Paying for a heavy build on a light duty floor is money spent, and specifying a light system on a working workshop floor is money wasted twice.

Size works strongly in your favour because so much of the cost is fixed. Mobilising a grinder and extraction unit, setting up, masking, and mixing take much the same time for a single garage as for a double, so the per square metre rate falls as area rises. Coating a double garage and an adjoining store room together costs far less than doing them in two visits, and the same applies to combining a garage with a shed or workshop on the same property. Turnaround affects the price through product choice. A household that cannot be without the garage for several days, a polyaspartic system that returns to service within a day solves a real problem and the premium buys that. Where the timing is flexible, a well built epoxy system at a lower price is perfectly sensible.

Access and site factors matter more than expected. A garage under the house with a tight driveway, a shed at the back of a long block, or a Hills property with steep access all add time for moving equipment. Power supply is a genuine consideration too, since larger grinders and extraction units may need more than a standard domestic outlet can provide, and where three phase is unavailable the contractor may need smaller equipment and more time. Finally, the season affects both price and availability. Spring and autumn are the comfortable working windows here and they are also the busiest, so booking ahead matters. Price polished concrete alongside as an alternative where the slab is in good condition, since it uses similar preparation equipment and produces a very different result.

Garage Floor Coating Costs Across Adelaide

Pricing across metropolitan Adelaide tracks slab age and condition more than location. The newer growth areas to the north and south carry modern slabs with vapour barriers that coat straightforwardly. The established middle and inner suburbs carry older slabs where testing and crack repair are more likely to be needed. The foothills and Hills add access difficulty and, on garages cut into a slope, water entering through the back wall rather than the floor.

Two patterns repeat across Adelaide jobs. Quotes that differ sharply on an older garage almost always differ on whether moisture testing and a barrier primer are included, so asking each contractor directly about it usually explains the entire gap. And summer bookings taken for hot afternoons produce a disproportionate share of the finish complaints, which is an argument for accepting an early morning slot or a date in a milder month. Ask each operator what preparation and what moisture testing the price assumes.

Regional South Australia

Regional pricing carries a mobilisation component that matters more here than in most trades, because the equipment is heavy. A grinder, an extraction unit and enough product for a floor is a trailer load, and a contractor travelling three hours each way to coat a single garage has spent a day on it regardless of the slab. Grinding equipment has to travel, so coordinating with another job nearby genuinely changes the figure. Ask when the operator is next working in your area.

Grouping work is the single most effective saving in regional South Australia. A property with a garage, a workshop shed and a machinery shed should be quoted as one engagement rather than three visits, and neighbours coordinating a contractor's trip to a smaller town is a common and sensible arrangement. Farm and rural properties in particular tend to have several slabs needing attention at once. Workshop sheds and shed and garage slabs are frequently part of the same conversation.

Mount Gambier and the Limestone Coast are worth singling out on the moisture question. The district sits over limestone with high groundwater in places and receives more rainfall than Adelaide, so slab moisture is more likely rather than less, and testing there is not a formality. The same higher humidity also lengthens cure times and shortens the comfortable working season. The Riverland, the Murraylands and parts of the mid north carry the salinity issue described earlier, and a slab in those districts showing surface fretting deserves a proper look before any money goes into a finish. The upper Spencer Gulf towns present the opposite constraint, where summer heat compresses the workable part of the day considerably and a contractor who insists on an early start is doing the job properly.

Availability rather than price is the real limit in the far west and the north. Specialist floor coating businesses are concentrated in Adelaide and the larger centres, so lead times of several weeks are normal and short notice attracts a premium. Generous notice and flexibility on dates are worth more than negotiating on rate. Property maintenance contractors covering regional areas can sometimes coordinate a coating crew into a larger scope of work.

What to Look Out For

Ask for a moisture test and treat a refusal as decisive. It is the single most predictive item in this trade, it costs the contractor very little, and a quote that does not mention the slab's moisture status on an older garage has skipped the step most likely to determine whether the floor is still attached in three years. Establish the preparation method in writing and expect the words grinding or shot blasting. Acid etching is a cheaper and weaker approach and where it is proposed the price should reflect that rather than sitting alongside a ground floor as though the two are equivalent.

Ask what film thickness the system builds and how many coats are included. Thickness is where cheap jobs economise invisibly, because a thin coat looks identical on the day and behaves quite differently under a hot tyre. A quote naming the product and the number of coats can be checked against the manufacturer's data sheet, and one that says two coats of premium epoxy cannot be checked against anything. Confirm the cure schedule and get it in writing, specifically when you may walk on it, when you may return light items, and when you may drive on it.

These are different dates and the vehicle date is the one that matters. Driving onto a floor early is a common cause of damage that then gets attributed to the product, and a contractor who states the dates clearly is protecting both of you. Watch for a quote that omits the things that always exist. Every older garage has some crack, some joint, some edge detail and some oil. A quote that mentions none of them either has not looked or intends to raise them as variations once the work has started, and both are worth asking about before signing.

Check dust control before the grinder starts rather than afterwards. Silica dust from dry grinding travels through an entire house through the connecting door and settles on everything, and the health issue is more serious than the cleaning one. Extraction connected to the grinder and a sealed connecting door are what you are looking for. Finally, establish the warranty and what it actually covers, because coating warranties frequently exclude the most likely failure. Ask specifically whether moisture related delamination, meaning the coating lifting away from the slab, is covered and under what conditions, since if the answer is that it is excluded then the moisture test becomes even more clearly your responsibility to insist on. Licensing and consumer information for building work contractors is published by Consumer and Business Services, and consumer guarantees are administered by the ACCC.

What to Look for in a Quote in SA

A garage floor coating quote worth comparing states the preparation, the system and the cure not a lump sum. It should state the area in square metres, describe the preparation method specifically, say whether moisture testing is included and what happens if the slab tests wet, list crack and joint treatment and any patching, name the primer and each coat in sequence with the number of coats, state the expected film build, confirm whether anti slip additive and coving, the curved fillet where the floor turns up to meet the wall, are included, give the cure and return to service times, and set out the warranty and what it excludes. Moisture and preparation are the two items most often left vague and both are where a cheap quote becomes an expensive one. Describe your garage properly when you enquire because it shapes the advice. Give the internal dimensions, say roughly when the garage was built and whether it was part of the original house or added later, describe the current surface including any coating already on it, mention visible cracks, oil staining, fretting or a powdery surface, say whether the garage is built into a slope or has ever shown damp, and note whether you need it back in service quickly. Photographs of the whole floor and close ups of any cracks or stains save a great deal of back and forth.

Get three quotes and make sure all three price the same preparation and the same system, because a flake build and a plain epoxy are not comparable products. If a contractor recommends something different, such as a sealer instead of a film coating, or dealing with drainage before coating at all, that is useful information rather than an attempt to avoid work. Posting the job once here brings responses from several contractors so the preparation and systems can be read side by side. Settle the moisture position, the preparation, the system, the film build, the anti slip and the cure schedule before anyone starts, and keep the product data sheets with your property records so any future repair or recoat uses a compatible product. Incompatible recoating is a common and entirely avoidable cause of failure years later. You will also find concrete driveway and garage door maintenance contractors here for the work that often accompanies a floor upgrade.