Garage, basement and commercial floors built on a ground slab, a moisture test and a written spec you can check against the finished floor.
Mount Prospect Epoxy Flooring has spent more than 20 years installing epoxy flooring in Mount Prospect, IL, from two-car garages and finished basements to shop, warehouse and restaurant kitchen floors. We grind every slab open, test it for moisture before the price is final, and write the exact coating system into the proposal so you can hold the finished floor up against it.
Our work covers epoxy garage floors, basement floor epoxy, flake and metallic epoxy, polyaspartic coatings, polished concrete, concrete grinding and repair, and commercial, industrial, ESD and commercial kitchen flooring. Each of those starts in the same place, with the concrete underneath, because a coating is only ever as sound as the slab it bonds to.
Most of the floors we see here are old concrete. About 70 percent of the village’s housing units were built between 1950 and 1979, by Census estimates, so a typical slab carries decades of patching, sealers, adhesives and road salt, and the prep plan has to account for all of it before a drop of coating goes down.
What we do
Ground, tested and coated concrete floors for Mount Prospect homes and businesses
Ground, moisture-tested and salt-resistant epoxy garage floors, built in full coats with the product and thickness written into the quote.
Ground, densified and polished concrete for homes and commercial spaces, with an honest preview of what an older slab will reveal.
Fast-curing, UV-stable polyaspartic floor coatings over a ground and tested slab, for garages, basements and working floors.
Basement floor coatings that start with a moisture test, a ground slab and an honest answer about water, drains and what a coating cannot fix.
Marbled metallic epoxy floors poured over a flat, ground and tested slab, finished with a clear topcoat that keeps the color true.
Diamond grinding and shot blasting that strips old coatings and adhesives and leaves a measured profile a new floor can grip.
Crack, spall and joint repair for garage, basement and shop floors, with a straight answer when a slab is past repair.
Epoxy floors for shops, showrooms, offices and flex buildings, phased around business hours and specified for the traffic they carry.
Static-dissipative and conductive epoxy floors with a grounding grid, installed and tested for electronics, labs and server rooms.
Full-broadcast vinyl flake floors over a ground slab, sealed under a clear topcoat that handles salt, tires and daily wear.
Thick-build epoxy, quartz and urethane systems for warehouses, plants and shops, specified for wheel loads, chemicals and cleaning.
Seamless, coved and slip-resistant floors for restaurant and commercial kitchens, built to survive hot water, grease and nightly washdowns.
Mount Prospect Epoxy Flooring brings more than 20 years of concrete coating work to every job. That time on the tools is why our proposals start with the condition of the slab rather than the color of the chips, and why we say so plainly when a floor should be repaired, replaced or left alone instead of coated.
Every epoxy floor we install starts with a diamond grinder or a shot blaster cutting the slab to a measured ICRI concrete surface profile. An acid etch leaves sealer, oil and weak paste behind on mid-century garage slabs, so the coating peels in sheets rather than holding, which is the shortcut a kit-and-roller crew takes.
No basement or garage slab gets a final price until it has been tested for moisture with a calcium chloride kit, an in-situ relative humidity probe or a plastic sheet test. With better than nine in ten Mount Prospect houses sitting over a basement, so much moisture can come up through the floor that it lifts a coating, which a contractor who skips the test only learns after the warranty claim.
Our written proposal names the product line, the number of coats and the finished thickness of the system. That turns the quote into something you can measure the floor against, so a thin two-coat job cannot be passed off as the full build you paid for, rather than leaving you with a price and a color name.
Garage systems are chosen to stand up to the calcium chloride brine and rock salt that ride in on tires through a winter that averages close to 40 inches of snow at O’Hare. A full broadcast with a chemical-resistant topcoat keeps that slush from eating into the floor, rather than a thin single coat that dulls and wears through by spring.
Cure times follow slab temperature and the dew point spread at the surface, never the calendar. O’Hare logs more than 120 days a year at or below freezing, so an unheated garage in January is told to wait, where a rushed crew would coat a cold floor and leave you with blush, soft spots and poor adhesion.
A garage job starts with a walk of the slab, a moisture test and a map of every crack, spall and old coating. Then comes grinding with dust collection, repairs, the base coat, the broadcast and the topcoat, followed by a walk-through and the stated cure time before you park, so you know what each day of the job is for.
Most two-car garages take one to three working days from first grind to final coat. The number moves with the amount of repair the slab needs and the system you choose.
A garage slab that was sealed or painted years ago will not let a new coating reach the concrete. Anything rolled over that old layer can only hold as well as the old layer does, and when the old layer lets go the new coating goes with it in sheets.
We grind or shot blast every slab down to clean, open concrete before any primer goes down. That profile is what a 100% solids epoxy needs to grip, and it is the one step no topcoat can make up for later.
Mount Prospect’s garage floor standard calls for a minimum 5-inch concrete slab over at least 4 inches of crushed stone, and the village text and drawings show no vapor retarder under it. That means ground moisture can reach the underside of a garage floor, so we test before quoting rather than assuming a garage slab is dry because it is not a basement.
A high reading points us toward a moisture-mitigation primer or a different system. A normal one lets us build the standard floor with confidence.
Calcium chloride brine and rock salt ride into the garage on tires and pool where the car sits. On bare concrete that salty meltwater soaks in, freezes and thaws, and slowly scales and pits the surface, which is why so many older garage floors show a rough, flaking patch right under the wheels.
A sealed, broadcast coating keeps that brine on top where it can be squeegeed out the door. The chemical-resistant topcoat is chosen for exactly that exposure.
Epoxy and polyaspartic resins cure by chemistry that slows down in the cold, and a cold slab can also sit near the dew point and collect a film of moisture. Coating into those conditions invites amine blush, a soft cure and poor adhesion.
An attached garage that shares a heated house wall can often be coated through the shoulder season. A detached, unheated garage in January usually cannot, and we would rather book you for spring than install a floor that fails.
In a county assessor sample, roughly a third of the village’s garages are detached buildings, and many sit at the end of a long driveway. We stage the grinder, dust collector and material so the driveway stays usable where it can, and we tell you up front which days the garage itself will be closed. Detached garages also run colder than attached ones, so the cure schedule on a detached floor is set by its own slab temperature.
A store-bought epoxy kit is a thin, water-based coating applied over an acid-etched slab. It can look good for a season, but it has little film thickness and an etch that never fully removes old sealer, so hot tire pickup and peeling are common.
A professional floor is ground, repaired and built up in multiple coats of 100% solids epoxy and polyaspartic. The difference shows up in the second winter, not the first week.
The price of an epoxy garage floor depends on the measured square footage, the amount of grinding and old coating removal, the crack and spall repair, the system and the broadcast. A full flake broadcast with a polyaspartic topcoat costs more than a solid color floor, and a slab that needs a moisture-mitigation primer adds a line of its own.
We give a fixed price only after we have seen and tested the slab. A number given over the phone without that visit is a guess.
Nearly every coating warranty excludes failures caused by moisture coming up through the slab. Many also exclude damage from impact, hot tire pickup on certain systems, and chemical spills left to sit.
We walk through those exclusions before the job is sold, starting with moisture. That way the warranty you sign means what you think it means.
Mount Prospect is a basement village, with better than nine in ten houses in an assessor sample sitting over a full or partial basement. Before we coat any of them, we answer one question first: how much moisture is coming up through this slab.
The answer decides the primer, the system and sometimes whether the floor should be coated at all. Skipping the test is how basement coatings end up bubbling and lifting within a year.
A basement that has taken a sewer backup needs cleaning, disinfection and drying before anyone talks about a new floor. Coating over a slab still wet from a backup traps that moisture under the film and almost guarantees the coating will fail.
We coat after the cleanup, after the drying and after a fresh moisture test confirms the slab is ready. If the source of the backup has not been fixed, we say so before we quote.
About a third of the village-owned sewer system is combined, and the village says buildings on those lines do not have overhead sewers and are more prone to flooding through floor drains. Its Overhead Sewer Rebate Program reimburses single-family owners up to half the cost of a conversion, to a maximum of $7,500.
The village also says indirect costs such as new floor tile may not be covered. That makes the plumbing the first job and the floor coating the last one.
A coating is a wear surface, not a barrier against water pushed up a floor drain or through a crack under pressure. Hydrostatic pressure under a basement slab will find a way around or under any film laid on top.
We never sell a coating as waterproofing or flood protection. On a basement that has taken water, the drain, the backwater valve and the drying come first.
A white, chalky powder on a basement slab is usually efflorescence, the salts left behind when water moves up through the concrete and evaporates. It tells you the floor is moving moisture, even when it looks dry.
Efflorescence has to be ground off and the moisture measured before coating. It is also a strong hint that the slab will need a mitigation primer.
A moisture-mitigation primer is a dense epoxy layer built to hold back vapor that would lift a standard coating. We specify it when a calcium chloride test or in-situ relative humidity probe reads above what the coating maker allows.
It adds a step and a cost, but it is often what makes a damp basement floor coatable at all. When even the primer is outside its limits, we tell you that too.
Basement pricing follows the same drivers as a garage, with two more on top: the moisture reading and the access. Carrying grinders and material down a basement stair takes longer, and a slab that needs a mitigation primer adds material and a coat.
Furnaces, water heaters and sump pits have to be worked around or detailed, which also affects the number. We price each one after the moisture test, never before.
In Illinois, radon mitigation is licensed work regulated by the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. A floor coating may seal over some surface cracks, but it is not a radon system and cannot be tested or certified as one.
We never sell a coating as radon reduction. If radon is your concern, a licensed mitigator should handle it before or alongside the floor.
A vinyl flake floor is a resin base coat with colored chips broadcast into it, then sealed under a clear topcoat. The blend sets the overall color, and the chip size sets how busy or calm the floor looks from the doorway.
A full broadcast covers the base coat completely, hides imperfections in the slab and adds grip. We bring sample boards so you can see the blend on your own floor in your own light.
Metallic epoxy carries pearlescent pigment that moves as the resin is worked, leaving a marbled or flowing look. No two floors come out the same, which is the appeal and the challenge.
A good metallic floor needs a flat, perfectly prepared slab and an installer who controls the pattern rather than chasing it. We show finished examples and talk through the look you want before mixing anything.
Polished concrete is the slab itself, ground in stages and hardened with a lithium silicate densifier until it takes a shine. How deep the grind goes decides how much of the stone in the concrete shows, from a cream finish to full exposed aggregate.
Old slabs with patches and color variation polish with that history visible. We explain what your slab is likely to show before we start cutting.
A high-gloss topcoat brightens a garage and shows off a flake blend, but it also shows dust, footprints and tire marks. Satin and matte finishes hide those everyday marks better and read as calmer.
We help you choose the sheen for how the floor is actually used. A workshop and a show garage rarely want the same one.
A quartz floor broadcasts colored quartz aggregate into the resin, building color and texture in a single step. It is harder than vinyl flake and gives a coarser, more slip-resistant surface.
That makes quartz a strong choice for wash bays, entries and commercial floors that see water. We tune the topcoat to keep the texture cleanable.
A solid color floor skips the broadcast and lets one even color carry the room. It suits a shop where dropped parts need to be found, or a utility room where a clean, light floor is the goal.
It shows scratches and slab flaws more than a flake floor does. We will tell you when a solid color is the right call and when a broadcast will serve you better.
Standard epoxy yellows, or ambers, under ultraviolet light, which shows first in front of a garage door left open on sunny days. The effect is cosmetic, but on a light color floor it is easy to see.
We top sun-exposed floors with a UV-stable polyaspartic or aliphatic topcoat. That keeps the color true where the light lands.
Saw-cut lines, contrasting borders and inset logos turn a plain floor into something designed. They need careful layout and clean cuts so the lines stay straight across the whole room.
Commercial clients use them for walkways and safety zones, and homeowners for borders around a workbench or a parking area. We draw the layout with you before anything is cut.
A commercial floor carries forklifts, pallet jacks, chemicals and cleaning routines a garage never sees. The system, the thickness and the prep are all specified around that use, and the schedule has to fit around a business that is still running.
The proposal for a commercial floor names the system, the expected service life and the phasing plan. That is what lets an owner or a facility manager compare quotes on equal terms.
Kensington Business Center on Business Center Drive is the kind of office and industrial park where a single flex building can hold an office, a showroom and a loading area. Forklift and pallet jack wheel loads grind and gouge a thin coating, especially at turns and dock plates.
We specify a thicker 100% solids epoxy or urethane system for those lanes. Lighter coatings go where traffic is on foot.
Racking anchored through the slab leaves bolts, shims and baseplates that a coating has to work around. Moving racks to coat underneath is often not practical, so the layout of the job follows the racking.
We coat the aisles and drive lanes, detail around the uprights, and plan the work in sections so stock can keep moving. Striping and safety lines go down once the coating has cured.
Food processing floors are hosed down with hot water and cleaners at least once a shift, and they need to drain, resist chemicals and stay slip-resistant while wet. A standard garage coating will not survive that routine.
We look at the temperature of the wash water, the cleaners and the drains before choosing the system. Coved bases and sealed joints keep water out of the corners.
The FDA Food Code wants floor and wall junctures in food areas coved and sealed so they can be cleaned. Mount Prospect’s Environmental Health Division reviews restaurant plans, and an integral cove base is part of what that review expects to see.
We run the floor coating up the wall as a seamless cove, so there is no grout line or crack for water and grease to sit in. Antislip texture goes into the field where cooks stand.
Urethane cement is a thicker, cement-based resin system built to handle thermal shock, hot water and harsh cleaners that would soften a standard epoxy. It is the usual choice for commercial kitchens, breweries and wash-down food areas.
We specify it where hot water and steam cleaning are routine. It costs more than epoxy and earns that back by not failing in a kitchen.
Illinois limits the volatile organic compounds in floor and industrial coatings under 35 Ill. Adm. Code Part 223, and those limits bind the person applying the product, not only the maker. The national architectural coatings rule sets a federal baseline beside it.
We select coatings that sit inside those limits. That protects you, your building and the crew breathing the air during the job.
Many commercial floors cannot shut down for a week, so we phase the work around shifts and build overnight and weekend windows into the schedule. Fast-cure polyaspartic and urethane systems help shrink the downtime where they fit the use.
The schedule is set before work begins and written into the proposal. You know which areas close and for how long.
Mount Prospect Epoxy Flooring provides epoxy-flooring throughout the greater Mount Prospect area, with the same crews and the same standards on every job.
Good to know
Most two-car garages and basement floors take one to three working days, depending on how much crack repair the slab needs and which system goes down. Light foot traffic usually follows within a day, while vehicles and heavy furniture wait longer, and the written proposal states the return-to-service time for the product we are installing.
We price from the measured square footage, the condition of the slab and the system chosen, so a quote is only final after we have seen the floor and tested it for moisture. Crack and spall repair, old coating removal, a moisture-mitigation primer and a full flake broadcast are the items that move a number the most.
The village does not publish a list of floor coatings that are exempt from permits, so we ask the Building Division instead of guessing in either direction. Replacing a garage slab is flatwork the village's own supplement covers, which is a different question from coating the slab that is already there.
Illinois does not issue a state license for flooring or floor coating work. What applies is each village's own contractor registration, bond and insurance rules, and we confirm those with the village before a job is booked rather than after the crew shows up.
A 100% solids epoxy builds thickness and bonds hard to a properly ground slab, but it cures slowly and will amber in sunlight. A polyaspartic coat cures fast and holds its color under ultraviolet light, which is why many of our garage systems pair an epoxy base with a polyaspartic topcoat.
Not as it is. A coating rolled over old paint or sealer can only bond as well as that old layer does, so we grind or blast it off down to clean concrete first and tell you in the proposal how much removal the floor needs.
A failed test does not always end the job, but it changes it. Depending on the reading, the floor may need a moisture-mitigation primer, a different system, or a plain answer that the slab should not be coated until the water source is dealt with.
A smooth high-gloss coating can be slick under wet boots or snowmelt. We control grip by broadcasting flake or quartz into the coating, or by adding a fine aggregate to the topcoat, and we match the texture to how the floor gets cleaned.
Yes. Shop, warehouse and kitchen floors are phased around shifts, and we schedule overnight and weekend windows when a building cannot stop, with the cure time of each product built into the plan.
Clear the floor of vehicles, shelving and stored items, and keep the space free of traffic until the coating has cured. We take care of the grinding, dust collection, repairs and coats, and we walk the finished floor with you before we leave.
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