Garage, basement and commercial floor coatings with the moisture test, the product line and the finished thickness written into the quote.
Lombard Epoxy Flooring has spent more than 20 years putting epoxy flooring into garages, basements and commercial buildings in Lombard, IL, along with polyaspartic coatings, flake and metallic epoxy, polished concrete and the concrete repair that has to come before any of them. Every floor we install starts the same way: the slab is opened mechanically, tested for moisture and mapped for cracks before a price is final.
That order matters more than the color chart. Most coatings that peel, blister or turn cloudy fail because of what was under them, not because of the resin, so our proposals name the product line, the number of coats and the finished thickness in writing. You can hold the finished floor up against the quote and check it.
We work on two-car garages and basement family rooms, and on office mechanical rooms, clinic corridors, school hallways and restaurant kitchens across DuPage County. The approach changes with the building, but the slab preparation and the moisture question do not.
What we do
Ground, tested and coated epoxy flooring for Lombard, IL homes and businesses
Ground, moisture-tested epoxy garage floors in Lombard, IL, built in layers to stand up to road salt, hot tires and dropped tools.
Ground, densified and polished concrete floors in Lombard, IL, with the aggregate exposure and sheen chosen from test passes on your slab.
Fast-curing, UV-stable polyaspartic floor coatings in Lombard, IL, installed over a ground and moisture-tested slab.
Basement floor epoxy in Lombard, IL that starts with the water history and a moisture test, then a ground slab and the right primer.
Marbled, pearlescent metallic epoxy floors in Lombard, IL, placed by hand on a ground slab and sealed with a clear, UV-stable topcoat.
Diamond grinding and shot blasting in Lombard, IL that strips old coatings and glue and opens the slab to a measured surface profile.
Crack, spall, joint and salt-scaling repair for garage, basement and commercial concrete floors in Lombard, IL.
Commercial epoxy and resin floors in Lombard, IL for offices, clinics, schools, hotels and retail, phased around your operating hours.
Static-dissipative and conductive resin floors in Lombard, IL, grounded and tested to the resistance range your facility specifies.
Full-broadcast vinyl flake epoxy floors in Lombard, IL, with the blend, chip size and texture picked for your garage, basement or shop.
High-build industrial epoxy and resin floors in Lombard, IL for warehouses, manufacturing and shops, with joint repair and striping.
Seamless urethane cement kitchen floors in Lombard, IL with integral coved bases, slip-resistant texture and grease and heat resistance.
We have been grinding, repairing and coating concrete for over two decades, long enough to have seen which systems hold up on local slabs and which ones peel after a few winters of road salt. That experience shows up in the prep and the moisture testing more than in the brochure, because those are the steps a newer installer is most tempted to skip.
Every slab we coat is opened with a diamond grinder or a shot blaster to a measured concrete surface profile, so the epoxy has real texture to lock into rather than the shallow, uneven etch an acid wash leaves on a garage floor that still carries old sealer and oil.
No price is final until the slab has been tested for moisture, whether it is a basement on Lombard’s poorly drained silty clay or a garage poured without a vapor retarder, so a floor that needs a mitigation primer gets one rather than being coated blind and blistering a year later.
Our written proposals name the product line, the coat count and the finished thickness, so the floor that goes down can be measured against what was sold, rather than a one-line quote for an epoxy floor that leaves the system to whoever shows up on install day.
Cracks, spalls and failing coatings are mapped before the estimate is written, and when a slab should be repaired or replaced first we say so plainly, rather than burying a heaving or crumbling floor under resin that will crack right along with it.
Cure schedules follow the slab temperature and the dew point spread at its surface, so an unheated Lombard garage in January is told to wait for warmer weather rather than being coated on a cold slab where the epoxy stays soft, blushes and never reaches its rated hardness.
Permit and contractor-registration questions are settled with the village before a job is booked, and home projects above the state threshold get a written contract and the Illinois consumer-rights pamphlet, so nothing is left to sort out after the grinder is already running.
A garage job starts with a look at the slab, a moisture test and a written proposal, then moves to grinding, crack and spall repair, the base coat, the broadcast and the topcoat. We tell you the cure times before we start, so you know when you can walk on the floor and when the car can come back in.
Most Lombard homes have the garage attached, which puts the grinding dust and coating odor one door away from the kitchen. Our grinders run with vacuum dust collection at the machine, we seal the house door during the work, and we choose low-odor products where the system allows it.
The International Residential Code lets a detached or attached garage slab be poured without the vapor retarder required under living space, and Lombard has not amended that exception. That means moisture can rise freely through many garage floors, which is why we test rather than assume the slab is dry.
The village’s own residential rules call for wire mesh in attached-garage floors, an approved noncombustible floor surface, and restrict dry calcium chloride as a set accelerator. Calcium chloride left in a slab can draw moisture and interfere with coating adhesion, so it matters on a new pour that is going to be coated later.
We use the ASTM D4263 plastic sheet test as a quick screen and calcium chloride vapor emission testing under ASTM F1869 or in-situ relative humidity probes under ASTM F2170 when the numbers matter. The result decides whether a standard primer is enough or a moisture-mitigation primer goes down first.
A coating is a finish, and the village’s code keeps finish work like painting and tiling exempt from permits, but replacing a slab is structural work that is not. If the concrete is badly heaved, settled or crumbling, we tell you it needs replacing first, and the permit question goes to the Building Division before anything is scheduled.
Every winter, cars carry brine and rock salt into Lombard garages, and that wet salt sits on bare concrete through repeated freeze and thaw. It scales and pits the surface over time, so we pick garage systems with a sealed, chemical-resistant topcoat that keeps salt water on top of the floor where it can be squeegeed out.
Epoxy needs the slab itself, not just the air, to stay warm enough through the cure. The weather stations around Lombard average more than a hundred freezing nights a year, so an unheated garage in deep winter may simply have to wait, and we would rather move the date than install a floor that cures soft or develops amine blush.
A warm tire pulled into a garage softens a thin or poorly bonded coating, and when the car backs out it can lift the film right off the slab. Hot tire pickup is mostly a prep and thickness problem, which is why we grind the slab and build a 100% solids epoxy base rather than rolling on a thin water-based coat.
Big-box epoxy kits are usually water-based, thin and applied over an acid-etched slab, which is why so many of them peel within a few seasons. A professional floor is ground, repaired, primed and built in layers to a stated thickness, and it is topped with a polyaspartic or urethane finish that a kit does not include.
The price moves with the garage size, the amount of crack and spall repair, whether an old coating has to be ground off, the moisture result and the system chosen. A flake floor with a polyaspartic topcoat costs more than a single solid coat, and we price each line separately so you can see where the money goes.
A basement slab sits in the ground, and much of Lombard sits on poorly drained glacial-till soils with seasonal water close to the surface. Before a basement floor is coated we read the walls and slab for past water and test the concrete, because a coating cannot hold against moisture pushing up from below.
The July 2010 storm flooded the Main Street viaduct and parts of Finley Road, and the April 2013 storm flooded homes inside and outside the floodplain. A basement that has taken water has to be cleaned, dried and retested before any coating, and FEMA’s guidance on flood damage-resistant materials is a reminder that the finish should tolerate getting wet again.
About a third of Lombard still has combined sewers, and the village helps homeowners install overhead sewers through a cost-share grant. If a basement has backed up before, the plumbing fix belongs ahead of the floor, and we schedule around it rather than coating a slab that may be cut open for new piping.
A coated basement floor still has to meet the sump pit, the floor drain and any ejector pump basin. We stop and detail the coating cleanly at each one, keep grinding dust out of them with vacuum capture, and leave the pits accessible for service.
Many basement floors in Lombard’s postwar houses carry decades of floor paint, patch compound and old tile adhesive. All of it has to come off down to sound concrete, so the estimate accounts for removal, and we test what we find before quoting rather than discovering it with the grinder.
White, chalky powder on a basement floor is efflorescence, salts carried to the surface by moisture moving through the concrete. It tells us water is active in that slab, and it is one of the first signs that a moisture-mitigation primer or a drainage fix is needed before coating.
When the vapor emission or relative humidity readings come in above what the coating can tolerate, or past the limits the manufacturer publishes for its system, a moisture-mitigation primer goes down first. It adds cost, and we show that line in the proposal instead of hoping the slab dries out.
A coated basement floor handles washer leaks, dropped tools and gym equipment better than bare or painted concrete, and it cleans up with a mop. We adjust the build and texture to the room, adding grip in a laundry area and a heavier build under a weight rack.
Almost every coating warranty excludes damage from moisture vapor transmission and hydrostatic pressure under the slab. We explain those exclusions before the job is sold, starting with moisture, so a basement owner knows what the warranty covers and what it does not.
A floor coating is not waterproofing and does not stop a leak, a backup or a sump that cannot keep up. It is also not radon reduction: in Illinois that work is licensed through IEMA, and radon-resistant construction under IRC Appendix F is a separate system, so we never sell a coating as either one.
A vinyl flake broadcast hides dust and small imperfections and gives texture underfoot. Larger chips read as a bold, speckled pattern while smaller chips blend into an even tone, and full broadcast versus a partial scatter changes both the look and the grip.
Metallic epoxy uses pigments that move as the resin is worked, leaving a marbled, three-dimensional finish. It takes a carefully ground and primed slab, the right working time and an experienced hand, because the pattern is set as it is placed and cannot be patched invisibly later.
Polished concrete is ground in stages, densified with a lithium silicate densifier and polished to a chosen sheen. A light grind keeps the cream on top, while a deeper grind exposes salt-and-pepper or full aggregate, and we show you sample passes before committing to one.
High gloss looks sharp but shows every footprint and tire mark, while satin and matte topcoats hide dust and light scuffs better. We help you pick the sheen by how the room is used, not just how the sample board looks under showroom lighting.
A quartz aggregate broadcast puts colored, angular quartz into the resin, giving color and slip resistance in a single step. It is a common choice for commercial kitchens, locker rooms and ramps where the floor gets wet and has to stay grippy.
A solid color epoxy is the straightforward option for utility rooms, storage areas and workshops. It costs less than a decorative system, shows spills clearly so they get cleaned, and can still take a light anti-slip additive in the topcoat.
Standard epoxy yellows, or ambers, when sunlight reaches it through an open garage door or a window. Polyaspartic and polyurea topcoats resist ultraviolet light far better, so on a floor that sees daylight we finish with one of them.
Decorative saw cuts, borders and inlaid logos turn a plain slab into a designed floor for a showroom, lobby or business entry. We lay them out before coating and set them into the system so they wear with the floor rather than sitting on top of it.
Commercial floors carry heavier traffic, carts and chemicals, and they usually have to be installed around a business that cannot close for a week. That changes the system, the scheduling and the paperwork, so we scope commercial work separately from a residential garage.
Office building mechanical rooms, storage rooms and loading areas need a floor that resists oil, coolant and forklift or pallet-jack wear and cleans up quickly. A thicker epoxy build with a chemical-resistant topcoat seals the concrete and keeps it from dusting.
Behind the ballroom and guest floors, a hotel or conference center runs service corridors, laundry rooms, storage and dish areas that take carts all day. We coat them in sections so the building keeps working, with texture where the floor gets wet.
Clinic utility rooms, sterilization areas and corridors need a seamless floor that cleans easily and stands up to disinfectants. We phase the work so patients keep moving through the rest of the office, and schedule odor-producing steps for after hours.
School and college floors in locker rooms, kitchens, science rooms and corridors are scheduled around the academic calendar, usually over summer and long breaks. We plan the cure times so the floor is ready before students return.
DuPage County Health Department food plan review looks for smooth, nonabsorbent, grease-resistant floors with a coved floor-to-wall juncture, in line with FDA Food Code 6-201.13. We build an integral cove base into the floor system so the joint at the wall can be cleaned instead of collecting grease.
Where a kitchen floor sees boiling water, steam cleaning and harsh cleaners, standard epoxy can soften and fail. Urethane cement handles thermal shock and chemical exposure far better, which is why we specify it for commercial kitchens, bakeries and food plants.
Retail tenants need floors that look good, resist cart and foot traffic and go in between one lease and the next opening. Polished concrete and decorative epoxy both fit, and we schedule around the landlord’s construction rules and turnover dates.
Illinois limits the VOC content of floor coatings and industrial maintenance coatings under 35 Ill. Adm. Code Part 223, and DuPage County sits inside the Chicago ozone nonattainment area. The rule binds the person applying the product, not just the seller, so we choose coatings that fall inside those limits.
When an office, clinic or store cannot close, we work overnight and on weekends, coating in phases and using faster-curing polyaspartic systems where the schedule is tight. The goal is a finished section ready for the next business day.
Lombard Epoxy Flooring provides epoxy-flooring throughout the greater Lombard area, with the same crews and the same standards on every job.
Good to know
A typical two-car garage runs one to two working days for grinding, repairs and coating, then the floor needs its cure time before foot traffic and longer before a car is parked on it. Basements and commercial floors vary with size, repairs and the system chosen, and we give the schedule in writing with the proposal.
Price depends on the square footage, how much crack and spall repair the slab needs, whether an old coating has to come off, the moisture test result and the system you pick. A single color coat costs less than a full flake broadcast with a polyaspartic topcoat, and a moisture-mitigation primer adds to any of them, so we price after the slab has been looked at and tested.
Illinois does not license flooring or coatings contractors. Lombard does ask contractors doing permitted work to register with the village each year and carry general liability insurance, and we check with the Building Division whether a given job needs a permit before it is scheduled.
Epoxy builds thickness and bonds hard to a ground slab, which is why it is usually the base coat. Polyaspartic cures faster, holds up better to sunlight without ambering, and makes a tough clear topcoat, so many garage systems use an epoxy base under a polyaspartic finish.
Not reliably. A new coating only holds as well as whatever is underneath it, so loose paint, failing epoxy and tile adhesive are ground off until the slab itself is exposed and profiled. We test a well-bonded old coating before deciding anything, and the proposal says which way the floor is going.
Foot traffic usually comes back within a day, while vehicles wait longer so the coating reaches enough hardness to resist hot tires. The exact window depends on the products and on the slab temperature during the cure, and a cold slab stretches it, so we tell you the date rather than a generic number.
A smooth, high-gloss coating can be slick when wet, which is why the texture is part of the specification. A flake or quartz broadcast, or an anti-slip additive in the topcoat, gives grip, and we name the one being used in the proposal rather than promising a nonslip floor in general terms.
The common exclusions are moisture vapor transmission and hydrostatic pressure from under the slab, along with impact damage, chemical spills outside the product's rating and structural cracking. We walk through the exclusions before you sign, with moisture first, because it is the reason most coatings fail.
Illinois sets VOC limits for floor coatings and industrial maintenance coatings, and those limits apply to the person applying the product as well as the seller. We choose products that fall inside them, and 100% solids epoxy and many polyaspartics carry very little solvent to begin with.
No. A coating does not stop seepage, groundwater pressure or a sewer backup, and in Illinois radon reduction is licensed mitigation work that a floor coating does not replace. We look at the water history first and coat only a slab that is ready for it.
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