When you want to cover a concrete floor inside or your home or a slab outdoors, epoxy is often the best option. It’s an affordable solution to other styles of flooring often found in garages and basements, but the cost of epoxy flooring depends on a number of factors. We’re going to cover those areas in our epoxy flooring cost guide while helping you find the best type of epoxy for your concrete floors.
Square Footage
There are four areas that determine how much epoxy flooring will cost, but the first thing you’ll need to figure out is the square footage for your project. This will determine how much epoxy you’ll need to purchase as well as any additional materials needed for the job.
To find the square footage for flooring, take a tape measure and find the length and width of the room you want to use epoxy in. When you multiply those numbers together, it gives you the square footage measurement for the room. If the room is 8’ x 10’, you would need enough epoxy to cover 80 square feet.
Current Condition of your Concrete Floors
This is where you need to think about where you plan to install the epoxy and the condition of your flooring. Concrete is tough, but cracks will form over time, and it’s capable of chipping as well. Before you begin to consider the types of epoxy flooring available, you need to repair any damage to your flooring.
While we won’t cover that process, concrete repairs are relatively inexpensive on a smaller scale. If you want to use epoxy flooring in your garage, laundry room, patio, or basement, it won’t cost much to fix minor damage. With that in mind, you need to think about what caused the damage to begin with and take preventive measures to keep it from happening again.
If you have deep cracks or a busted slab you want to cover in epoxy, you need to call in a professional to assess the situation as epoxy may not be an option for a while. If resurfacing is required, it can cost anywhere between $500 to over $1,000. For minor damage and cracks, you may be able to get by with a simple tube of Quikrete Concrete Repair.
Types of Flooring Epoxy
Epoxy flooring can be used in any room of your home, provided it’s concrete and prepped in the proper fashion. What works in one room may not work in another, however, which is why there are several types of epoxy flooring to consider. Here’s what you can expect from each style along with a table to give you a rough idea of pricing.
Water-based epoxy – This is the most popular style of epoxy flooring available today. A floor or slab coating with water-based epoxy can combat hydrostatic pressure. It’s also extremely easy to apply whether you need a thin or thick coat and produces low VOCs compared to traditional epoxies used in flooring.
Solid Epoxy – As the name implies, this type of epoxy is solid, which means it is also extremely durable. You can add flakes or chips to these floors as they dry, and it’s another eco-friendly option when it comes to volatile organic compounds. While highly resistant and durable, it is the most expensive type of epoxy flooring.
Solvent-based – This may not be an option depending on where you live as solvent-based epoxies are not environmentally friendly and highly flammable. With that in mind, they are ideal for certain applications and more durable than water-based solutions. If you are interested in an epoxy that uses solvent as a carrier, be you may have to look hard, and you’ll want to take our next section very seriously.
Epoxy Flooring Cost per Square Foot
Brand
Style
Epoxy Type
Primer/Binder
Price
Rust-Oleum
RockSolid Garage Floor Kit
Polycuramine
500 square feet
$214.00
Devoe
Devran 224V High Build Epoxy
Solventborne
400 square feet
$110.00
Color Chips
Norklad 200 Colored Epoxy
Solid
350 square feet
$154.00
Rust-Oleum
EpoxyShield Basement Kit
Water-based
250 square feet
$59.00
Color Chips
Pure Metallic Obsidian Silver
Solid
400 square feet
$735.00
DIY or Hire a Pro?
The good news is epoxy flooring is something many consumers can install without professional assistance. The real question is, do you really want to? Before you rule out hiring a pro, you need to consider fumes, the mess, drying times and where you’re installing the epoxy. It’s not a quick and easy process like laying down floating engineered floors, so you’ll need to set aside some time as well.
For small areas, a DIY 1 or 2-part epoxy kit may do the trick as these all-in-one solutions are typically easy to use. Other kits and methods may require things like trowels, paint rollers, squeegees or even sprayers. You also need to consider mistakes, and costly they are to fix with epoxy flooring if you have to reapply the coating. If your floors are in poor shape or you don’t like “messy” projects, you should think about hiring a professional, and can get an idea of the cost through our tool below…
Final Thoughts
As you can see from our guide, there is more to the cost of epoxy flooring than just the material itself; especially if your floor is in poor shape to begin with. If you’re still on the fence about epoxy, our guide to the best garage flooring options will help make your decision easier.
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