Surface Prep & Repair in Knapp, Wisconsin.

Yes — batched with corridor neighbors when available. Lead time typically 2-3 weeks.

Almost always inadequate surface prep. The most common cause is acid etching instead of diamond grinding — the chemical bond is dramatically weaker and fails first under thermal cycling, moisture, or load. Other causes: coating applied over old coating without grinding it off, moisture transmission from below (untested), or hot-tire pickup damage on epoxy. If a previous floor coating peeled within a few years, the next one needs to be installed differently — start with full diamond grinding to remove whatever's left, then a polyurea (not epoxy) system on top.

Diamond grinding mechanically cuts the concrete surface with diamond-tooled abrasives, opening the pores uniformly and creating a mechanical bond profile (ICRI CSP-3 to CSP-4). Acid etching uses muriatic acid to chemically react with the surface — uneven, leaves chloride residue in the pores, creates a weaker chemical bond. Lab pull-off tests show diamond-ground surfaces hold coatings at 4-10× the bond strength of acid-etched surfaces. We never acid etch.

Yes — diamond grinding, crack repair, and spalling patch are included in every coating install we do. It's not a separate line item or upsell. The 15-year warranty exists because the prep underneath it is right; charging extra for prep would be charging extra for the foundation of the install.

Yes — for two cases: (1) sub-contracting to another coating contractor whose own crew doesn't have grinder equipment, and (2) repair-only work for homeowners with cracks or spalling that need fixing but who aren't ready for a full coating yet. Standalone prep runs $2-4 per square foot depending on slab condition and scope; repair-only is bid by scope.

For a typical 2-car garage (~440 sq ft), grinding runs 2-3 hours including setup, wall-to-wall coverage, and cleanup. Larger spaces scale linearly. Crack repair adds 30-60 minutes depending on linear footage. Spalling repair adds 1-2 hours per 100 sq ft of repair area. The dust is contained by HEPA vacuum so the rest of your house stays livable during grinding.

No — our grinders run with attached HEPA-vacuum dust collection. Effectively zero airborne dust escapes during grinding. We can grind in residential garages, basements, and mudrooms without affecting other parts of the house. After grinding we vacuum the slab a final time before any coating goes down.

Almost always yes. Cracks get filled with flexible polyurea joint filler before the coating goes down. The filler bonds to both sides of the crack and stretches with future movement, so the crack doesn't telegraph back through the coating. Exceptions: structural cracks (deep, through-slab, or growing) are signs of a foundation issue that should be addressed before coating. We'll tell you on-site.

Diamond grinding removes most old paint, sealers, and coatings cleanly in one pass. Stubborn cases (heavy enamel paint, deeply penetrating sealers) get an extra grind pass or a chemical degrease step before grinding. By the time the new coating goes down, the slab is bare concrete substrate.

Most spalling, pitting, and minor surface damage is repairable with polymer-modified concrete compound, troweled flat, and overcoated. Severely damaged concrete (large sections lifted from frost heave, structural cracks, deep through-slab damage) is sometimes beyond restoration — a coating over a structurally bad slab buys 1-2 years before the underlying problem reappears. We'll tell you straight if your slab needs replacement instead of restoration.

Below-grade slabs (basements, walk-outs, lower-level garages) transmit ground moisture upward through the concrete. High moisture causes coating delamination — the bond between coating and slab fails as moisture vapor builds up underneath. We run an MVER test before coating any below-grade surface; readings tell us whether the slab is dry enough for a standard install or needs a moisture-mitigation primer underneath. Avoids the most common cause of below-grade coating failure.