Questions to Ask a Garage Floor Epoxy Installer in New Orleans

These questions work with any installer — including the one a NOLA Concrete Coatings request is routed to. We connect New Orleans homeowners and businesses with a licensed local concrete coatings installer. We don't do the work — we route your request to one contractor who does. The answers below are what a careful installer will be able to give on the spot, and what the product data they rely on supports.

The checklist

1. License and insurance

In Louisiana, contractors are registered or licensed by the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors. Home improvement work within a set range of project amounts calls for a home improvement registration; new home construction calls for a residential license; and commercial projects above a set amount call for a contractor's license. The amounts change, so check the board's site rather than relying on anyone's memory — and use its Contractor Search to look up the number you are given.

For residential and home improvement contractors, the board requires general liability coverage and proof of workers' compensation, and it requires that coverage be kept continuously. A certificate sent to you by the contractor's insurance agent is the clean way to confirm it.

2. The slab: moisture first

Coating makers generally require a moisture test before coating concrete, because excess moisture in a slab can make a floor covering fail. Ask:

• Which test — an in-slab relative humidity test (ASTM F2170) or a calcium chloride test (ASTM F1869)?
• For the in-slab test, are the holes drilled to 40% of the slab depth, and do the probes sit at least 24 hours?
• What limit does the planned primer allow, according to its data sheet?
• Will the readings be on paper?

The pass/fail number comes from the coating maker, so the useful answer names a product and its limit. The full background is in the guide to moisture testing a slab before epoxy.

3. Surface preparation

Ask how the concrete will be prepared and to what profile. Professional coating systems specify it; one epoxy floor system calls for mechanical preparation to CSP 3–4 on the industry scale. If there is paint, sealer, or an old kit on the floor, ask how it comes off — even a kit maker says a sealer must be removed and a coated floor scuff sanded before anything new goes down.

4. The coating system

• The products by name, so you can read their data sheets yourself.
• How many coats: primer, body or wear coat, flake, topcoat.
• The thickness of each coat — one commercial epoxy wear coat is applied at 12 to 25 mils wet.
• Whether the topcoat is epoxy or polyaspartic, and why for this garage.

5. Weather on the day

Ask what the installer checks before each coat. Coating makers want the slab at least 5°F above the dew point, and their data sheets tell installers to measure slab moisture, air humidity, temperatures, and dew point before applying — one asks for those readings to be recorded every few hours during the job. An installer who will wait out a bad morning is protecting the bond.

6. Cure and return to service

Ask for two times in writing: when people can walk on the floor, and when cars can park on it. The rule used across this site is foot traffic after about 24 hours, and vehicles after three to seven days on an epoxy topcoat or 24 to 48 hours on a polyaspartic one.

7. The written quote

A written quote worth comparing lists four things as separate lines: prep, repair, the coating system, and the finish.

1. 1PrepThe method (diamond grinding or shot blasting), the moisture test, and any moisture-tolerant primer that test calls for.
2. 2RepairCrack and spall repair, removal of an old coating or sealer, and whether that number is fixed or an allowance the crew settles once the floor is opened up.
3. 3Coating systemThe chemistry, the number of coats, and the total mil thickness, not just a product name.
4. 4FinishSolid color, flake, or metallic; the topcoat; and the return-to-service windows for foot traffic and for vehicles.

8. After the job

• What cleaners to use, and which to avoid.
• Whether a refresher topcoat is possible later — coating makers publish one for their systems — and what it would involve.
• What the installer's own warranty covers, and for how long, in writing.

Answers that should give you pause

• “We don't need to test this slab.”
• “We just acid wash and roll it on” for a professional-priced job.
• No product names, no coat count, no thickness.
• A single lump-sum price with no breakdown.
• No registration or license number, or reluctance to have the insurance agent send a certificate.

Questions about the slab's history

An installer can only plan for what they know about. Tell them, and ask how each changes the plan:

• How old is the slab? New concrete needs time — one kit maker says at least 28 days — before any coating, and a professional product's data sheet sets its own rule.
• Has anything been put on it? Sealers have to come off, and old paint is tested for adhesion; one maker says that if much of it lifts, all of it must be removed.
• Has it ever been under water, or does it stay damp anywhere? That is a reason to test in more places, and close to coating day, since a reading reflects only the time it was taken.
• Has it been patched? Patches and new sections of concrete can behave differently from the old slab, so point them out at the site visit.