Garage, basement, polished and commercial floors from a crew that grinds every slab and tests it for moisture before anything is quoted.
Racine Epoxy Flooring has spent more than 20 years installing epoxy flooring in Racine, WI, from two-car garage floors and basement slabs to polished concrete, polyaspartic coatings, metallic finishes and the commercial, industrial and kitchen floors that keep the county’s plants and restaurants running. Every job starts the same way: we look at the slab, test it, and tell you what it can carry before anyone talks about color.
That order matters more here than in most places. A Racine garage spends the winter soaking up road salt and calcium chloride brine, a basement in an older house may sit over a sump pit that went in only recently, and a restaurant kitchen floor has to satisfy a health department plan review before it goes down. A coating chosen for looks alone can fail on all three.
What follows is how we approach each kind of floor we coat: the preparation, the moisture questions, the finish choices and the rules that apply in Wisconsin and across the Illinois line. If something here matches the floor you are looking at, the estimate visit is where we measure it and put numbers to it.
What we do
Epoxy flooring for Racine garages, basements and working floors
Ground, tested and coated garage floors built to shrug off winter brine, hot tires and oil drips in Racine, WI.
Slabs ground, densified and polished to a lasting sheen for stores, warehouses, offices and basements in Racine, WI.
Fast-curing, sunlight-stable polyaspartic coatings for garages, shops and businesses that need the floor back quickly.
Moisture-tested basement floor coatings built around sump pits and drains, for laundry rooms, workshops and family spaces.
Marbled, three-dimensional metallic epoxy finishes for showrooms, offices, basements and display garages in Racine, WI.
Crack, spall, joint and salt-scaling repair for garage, basement and shop slabs, done right before a coating goes down.
Seamless resin floors for stores, service bays, clinics and offices, phased around the hours a Racine business stays open.
Full-broadcast vinyl flake floors in custom blends that hide dirt, add grip and take years of traffic in Racine, WI.
Diamond grinding and shot blasting that strip old coatings, mastic and wax to a measured profile, ready to coat or polish.
Static-dissipative and conductive resin floors, grounded and resistance-tested for electronics assembly, labs and server rooms.
Heavy-build resin floors with filled joints and chemical-resistant topcoats for Racine-area plants, warehouses and shops.
Coved, slip-resistant urethane cement kitchen floors planned around Racine health department plan review and installed after hours.
We have been grinding, testing and coating concrete floors for more than 20 years. In that time the questions that decide whether a floor lasts have not changed: is the slab sound, is it dry enough, is it open enough to bond, and is the system built for what will drive or spill across it? Our proposals answer those four questions in writing before any work is scheduled.
Every slab we coat is opened with a diamond grinder or shot blaster to a measured ICRI concrete surface profile, so the epoxy keys into clean, porous concrete rather than sitting on the weak, etched skin an acid wash and a garden hose leave behind on most kit-coated garage floors.
No basement or garage floor gets coated on the strength of looking dry, because Wisconsin’s dwelling code does not require a vapor retarder under an unconditioned attached garage slab. Testing is priced into the scope, so vapor is measured before the coating rather than discovered as blisters after it.
Racine garages take a winter of calcium chloride brine and rock salt off the tires, so our garage floors get a full-build epoxy base and a chemical-resistant polyaspartic topcoat rather than a thin single coat that lets chloride-laden meltwater soak into the concrete underneath.
Before a job is scheduled we ask the City of Racine Building Division or the village inspector whether it needs a permit, since replacing an accessory garage slab is a priced permit item and coating one may not be, so a project is never stopped halfway on a guess.
Each home job gets a written contract before any deposit, as Wisconsin’s ATCP 110 home improvement rule requires, naming the product, system build, finished thickness and the warranty exclusions with moisture read out first, so the floor that goes down can be checked against the floor that was sold.
An epoxy garage floor starts with a walk-through: we read the cracks, joints, oil stains and any old coating, then test the slab for moisture. Prep day is grinding, crack repair and vacuuming, and the coating goes down in layers over one or more days. Cars return after the topcoat reaches its rated cure, not on the day it looks dry.
A coating bonds to whatever is on top of the slab, so a floor that was sealed, painted or waxed holds a new coat only as well as the old film holds the concrete. We grind through to sound concrete with a diamond grinder or shot blaster. An acid etch cannot remove a sealer, which is why it has no place in our process.
Wisconsin’s Uniform Dwelling Code calls for a 6-mil vapor retarder under new house slabs but exempts an unconditioned attached garage slab under SPS 322.38. Many garage floors therefore have nothing stopping ground moisture from rising. We run an ASTM D4263 plastic sheet test or in-situ relative humidity probes first, because vapor pushing up is a leading reason garage coatings peel.
Wisconsin’s dwelling code section for garage floors, SPS 321.203, requires concrete or another noncombustible material impermeable to petroleum products, sloped to the door, to grade or to a floor drain. A note under the rule says it does not require the concrete to be sealed or coated. That choice is the owner’s, and we build the coating around the slope already there.
Replacing an accessory garage slab appears on the City of Racine’s 2026 building permit fee schedule as a slab-only item at $100 per slab, and starting without that permit doubles the fee. Coating an existing slab has no line on the schedule. We still put the question to the Building Division before scheduling, because a slab that needs replacing is a different job altogether.
Brine and rock salt ride into a garage on the tires all winter, and on bare concrete the meltwater soaks in, refreezes and scales the surface. A seamless coating with a chemical-resistant topcoat keeps chlorides on top, where a squeegee can move them out the door. We carry the system to the slab edges and the apron joint, where meltwater pools first.
Racine’s long-term weather normals count roughly 119 nights a year at or below freezing, and a resin coating needs the slab above its minimum cure temperature and safely clear of the dew point. In a heated garage we can work through winter. In an unheated one we say plainly when the job has to wait for spring rather than coat a cold slab that will not cure properly.
Concrete holds air, and as a slab warms during application that air rises into the wet coating and leaves bubbles or pinholes behind. We prime while the slab temperature is steady or falling, using a penetrating 100% solids epoxy primer that seals the surface first. Any pinhole left in the primer coat is filled before the next layer goes on.
An epoxy garage floor kit is usually a water-based product a fraction of the thickness of a 100% solids system, rolled over a slab cleaned with a mild acid wash. It looks fine until hot tire pickup lifts it under the wheels. A professional job differs in the grinding, the moisture testing, the resin’s solids content and the polyaspartic or polyurea topcoat over it.
Price moves with the slab more than the color: square footage, how much grinding and crack repair it needs, whether an old coating has to come off, moisture mitigation, and whether you choose flake, metallic or a solid finish. Our proposal lists each of those as its own line, along with the product and finished thickness, so two quotes can be compared fairly.
Most coating warranties exclude failures caused by moisture vapor or hydrostatic pressure from below, and many also exclude hot tire pickup, chemical spills and impact. We read those exclusions out before the job is sold, naming moisture first, and write any warranty into the contract. A peeling patch two years later should never be a surprise argument.
Before we talk about color for a basement floor, we ask where the water goes. A basement slab sits below grade with soil on every side, so moisture testing is a line item in our scope rather than an upsell after blistering. The result decides whether a standard primer or a moisture-mitigation primer goes under the epoxy.
On humid summer days, warm air meets a cool basement slab and condenses on it, which is why some floors look damp in July and dry in January. That is surface condensation, not water rising through the concrete, but it still matters for timing. We check the dew point spread at the slab surface before coating and run dehumidification when it is too tight.
When groundwater sits against the underside of a slab it pushes up with real force, and a coating that blocks it becomes the weakest layer. A floor can look dry in October and still carry that pressure in a wet spring. If testing or the house history points to it, we say plainly that a coating is not the fix and the water has to be managed first.
Efflorescence is the white, chalky powder that appears when water moving through concrete carries salts to the surface and evaporates. It tells you moisture is traveling through the slab. We grind it off, test the floor and choose a primer for the reading, because a coating laid over active efflorescence gets pushed off by salt crystals forming underneath.
The edges of a basement floor are where coatings most often fail: around the sump pit lid, the floor drain, the base of the foundation wall and any old patch. We grind right to those edges, fill cold joints and terminate the coating cleanly at the pit and drain rather than running a thin film into an opening where it will peel.
Racine’s Sump Pump Program targets homes built before 1954, disconnecting foundation drains from the sanitary sewer because heavy rain risks basement backups. If your house has a new pit and discharge line from that work, we coat around them, not over them, and leave the lid and cleanouts accessible. Fresh concrete patched around the pit is tested and allowed to cure first.
After water has come in, a slab can stay wet well below the surface long after the floor looks dry. We wait for the source to be fixed, dry the space and test with ASTM F2170 probes before any coating goes down. Coating a floor that is still releasing water traps it in the concrete, and the coating is what lets go.
A coated basement slab makes a durable, washable floor for a playroom, workshop, laundry area or home gym. For family spaces we often suggest a satin flake system that hides crumbs and gives traction; for a gym, a thicker build that takes dropped weights better. Rubber mats are fine over the coating once it has fully cured.
A floor coating is not radon mitigation, and we do not sell one as that. Sealing a slab can close some entry points, but radon reduction is a designed system with its own fan, piping and follow-up testing. If radon is a concern, test first and talk to a mitigation specialist, and we will coat around whatever system goes in.
A vinyl flake floor gets its look from the blend and the chip size broadcast into the base coat. Small chips read as a fine speckle, while larger ones read bolder and hide more dirt. A full broadcast, where flake covers the base coat to rejection, gives the most texture and the thickest finished system under the clear topcoat.
Metallic epoxy uses pigments that move as the resin flows, leaving a marbled, three-dimensional pattern no two floors repeat. It needs a flawlessly ground slab, controlled working time and a crew that knows how the pattern will settle. It suits basements, showrooms and offices better than working garages, where scratches show sooner on the glossy surface.
Polished concrete is the slab itself, ground through progressively finer diamonds and hardened with a lithium silicate densifier rather than coated. How deep we grind decides the look: a cream polish shows little stone, salt and pepper shows fine aggregate, and full exposure reveals the larger stone. We assess the slab first, because patches and old repairs show through.
High gloss looks sharp but shows every dust film, tire mark and fine scratch. Satin and matte topcoats hide wear better and read calmer in a working garage or shop. We bring sample boards to look at under your own lighting, because the same sheen looks different under fluorescent tubes than in daylight coming under a garage door.
A quartz aggregate broadcast seeds colored quartz into the resin, so the grain that gives slip resistance is also the color. It is common in commercial kitchens, locker rooms and ramps where wet traction matters. Texture is tuned by the grit size and by how heavily the topcoat fills the grain.
Sometimes a solid gray or tan coating is the right answer: a shop floor that needs line striping, a utility room, or a warehouse aisle where a busy pattern would hide dropped parts. Solid colors also make oil leaks and loose hardware easy to spot. We still build them with a full primer, base and topcoat.
Many epoxies yellow, or amber, under sunlight, especially near an open garage door or a window wall. Polyaspartic and polyurea topcoats resist that change, which is one reason we put them over epoxy base coats on floors that see daylight. A metallic or light-colored floor shows ambering first, so it gets that topcoat as a matter of course.
Saw-cut grids, contrasting borders and inlaid logos turn a coated floor into a design element. We lay them out from your drawing, mask between coats and keep control joints where the concrete needs them. A logo at a showroom or shop entrance usually costs more in layout time than in material.
A commercial floor carries forklifts, pallet jacks, chemicals and schedules, so the system, the joints and the timing all change. We plan around the hours the building has to keep running, document product data and finished thickness, and coordinate ventilation and access with facility managers. A residential garage rarely needs any of that paperwork.
Manufacturing floors take oil, coolant, cutting fluids and the vibration of anchored machines. We degrease and grind until the slab is clean enough to bond, coat around machine bases or between equipment moves, and choose the resin for the chemicals actually on the floor. Aisle lines and safety markings go in with the topcoat.
Every control and construction joint a forklift or cart crosses is filled with a semirigid joint filler before the coating goes over it. Hard wheels hitting an open joint chip its edges, and a coating bridged over an unfilled joint cracks along the line. A filled joint carries the wheel load and keeps the coating edge intact.
Food processing plants in Wisconsin are licensed under ATCP 70, and the condition of their floors is part of what that rule and its inspectors look at. We use urethane cement or chemical-resistant systems that slope to drains and cove at the walls. Scheduling usually means a shutdown window agreed with the plant manager and the sanitation crew.
A restaurant, bakery or tavern kitchen in the city answers to the City of Racine Public Health Department, whose plan-review checklist asks for floor finishes that are smooth, light colored and easily cleanable. A remodel needs an approved plan before work begins. We build the finish schedule around that, including coved floor and wall junctures under Wisconsin Food Code 6-201.13.
Hot water washdowns, steam and thermal shock break the bond of an ordinary epoxy, and the floor delaminates near the kettle or the dish line. Urethane cement handles that heat and constant moisture. It is our standard system for commercial kitchens, breweries and food lines that wash down every shift.
Medical and campus buildings rarely close for long, so floors are phased room by room or done overnight. We use low-odor systems where people are working nearby, capture dust at the grinder and coordinate with facilities and infection-prevention staff. Fast-curing polyaspartic topcoats help return a room to service by the next morning.
Lakefront marina service buildings and boat storage floors see fuel, oil, solvents and wet trailers coming off the water. We build them like a heavy shop floor, with a chemical-resistant topcoat and quartz texture where they get wet, and grinding slurry stays on site rather than going anywhere near the lake. Seasonal haul-out usually sets the schedule.
Electronics assembly, labs and data rooms often need static-dissipative or ESD flooring, which bleeds charge to ground through a conductive layer. The specification sets a resistance range, and the installed floor is tested against it. Grounding points, primer and topcoat have to work as one system for the reading to hold.
Floor coatings fall under the national architectural coatings rule, 40 CFR 59 Subpart D. Illinois adds its own architectural coating VOC limits in 35 Ill. Adm. Code Part 223 Subpart C, which we check on jobs across the state line, while Wisconsin has no state architectural coating rule of its own. Racine County lies partly in the Milwaukee 2015 ozone nonattainment area, so product VOC content stays on our list.
Plants, kitchens and shops that cannot close are scheduled overnight or over a weekend. We stage the grinding, coating and cure so the floor is ready when the next shift arrives, and pick fast-return systems where the window is short. The schedule goes into the proposal before the work starts, so nobody is surprised on Monday.
Racine Epoxy Flooring provides epoxy-flooring throughout the greater Racine area, with the same crews and the same standards on every job.
Good to know
Most residential garage floors take a couple of days from grinding to topcoat, longer when cracks need repair or an old coating has to come off. Foot traffic usually returns before vehicles do. Cars wait for the cure time on the product data sheet, and that time stretches in a cold garage, which is why we schedule against slab temperature rather than the calendar.
No. We open every slab mechanically with a diamond grinder or shot blaster. Acid etching leaves a weak, uneven surface and cannot remove sealers, wax or old paint, so a coating laid over it often lets go at the first hot tire or the first winter of brine. Grinding gives a measured profile the primer can actually key into.
They do different jobs, and most of our floors use both. A 100% solids epoxy makes a strong, thick base that bonds well to ground concrete. A polyaspartic or polyurea topcoat over it resists ultraviolet ambering, abrasion and chemicals better and cures faster. Which build suits your floor depends on sunlight, traffic, temperature and how fast you need the space back.
No, and we will not sell it as a fix. Water rising through a slab under hydrostatic pressure will push a coating off the floor. The water source has to be managed first, by drainage, a sump system or foundation work. Once the slab tests within range, a coating with the right primer makes a durable, washable basement floor.
Coating an existing floor has no line on the City of Racine's 2026 building permit fee schedule, while replacing an accessory garage slab does. Whether a particular job needs a permit is a question for the Building Division or the village inspector, so we ask before scheduling rather than assume. A kitchen floor in a licensed food business is a separate health department question.
Wisconsin has no state license specific to floor coating. Building permits for one- and two-family dwellings run through the state Dwelling Contractor certification, which concerns construction rather than coating an existing floor. What protects a homeowner on a coating job is the contract: under ATCP 110 we put every home job in writing before taking a deposit, with the products and warranty named.
Sometimes, but only after testing how well the old coating is holding. If it is peeling, chalking or lifting at the edges, it has to be ground off, because a new coat is only as strong as the layer beneath it. Sound epoxy can be ground to a profile and recoated. We decide after looking, not from a photo.
Sweep or dust mop grit often, since grit is what dulls a topcoat. Wash with a pH-neutral cleaner and a soft mop or auto scrubber, and squeegee winter brine out rather than letting it dry on the floor. Put pads under kickstands and jack stands, and avoid dragging steel across the surface. A worn topcoat can be screened and recoated.
Moisture vapor and hydrostatic pressure from below head the list on nearly every coating warranty, followed by hot tire pickup on lower-grade systems, chemical spills, impact and wear from neglect. We read the exclusions out before the job is sold and write the warranty terms into the contract, so you know exactly what is covered before you pay a deposit.
Often, yes. We phase plant, kitchen and shop floors by area and work overnight or over weekends, choosing fast-return systems where the window is short. Dust from grinding is collected at the machine, and slurry is handled on site rather than washed to a drain. The schedule and phasing are written into the proposal before any work starts.
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