Epoxy Flooring in Northbrook, IL

Epoxy flooring in Northbrook is often the last unfinished piece of a well-kept house. Census figures cited by Wikipedia put the village's median home value at $652,300. Kitchens, baths and landscaping get updated on a schedule here. The garage floor usually does not. It is still the gray slab the builder poured, now marked with tire tracks, oil shadows and a ring of salt stain by the door. We coat that floor so it matches the rest of the property.

A village that filled in fast

Northbrook was incorporated in 1901 as Shermerville and took its current name in 1923. It stayed small for decades. The census counted 3,348 people in 1950, then 11,635 in 1960, 25,422 in 1970 and 30,778 in 1980. That thirty-year jump means most Northbrook garages were poured between the mid-1950s and about 1980. Those slabs are now 45 to 70 years old. We usually find:

• Shrinkage cracks that have opened over decades of freezing and thawing
• Control joints with broken edges where tires roll over them
• A slick, dense surface from the original steel trowel finish
• Earlier DIY paint or a roll-on kit peeling in the tire lanes

Each of these gets dealt with before any coating goes down. Old paint is ground off. Cracks are routed and filled. The whole slab is diamond ground so the base coat can bite into fresh concrete.

Choosing a finish for a higher-end house

Most Northbrook owners we talk to care about how the floor looks for the next ten years, so we start with the finish and work backward.

• Full-broadcast flake: chips cover the base coat completely. It hides tire marks and gives texture underfoot. This is the most common choice for a two- or three-car garage.
• Polyaspartic topcoat: stays clear in sunlight that comes in through an open door and handles hot tires well.
• Solid color epoxy with a clear coat: a clean, simple look for workshops and storage rooms.
• Basement floor epoxy: a lighter floor for gyms, laundry and storage, after a moisture reading.

We bring sample boards to the estimate so you can see the colors against your walls and cabinets.

Hot summers matter too

Winter salt gets the attention, but Northbrook summers are hard on floors as well. Wikipedia notes the village can see 90°F or hotter on as many as 16 days in a summer, with a July average high of 83°F. A car that just came off the expressway parks hot tires on the floor. Cheap coatings can soften and lift under that heat, a problem called hot tire pickup. A properly ground slab with a quality base coat and a polyaspartic or high-solids topcoat resists it.

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Snow, salt and the door threshold

The village averages about 33 inches of snow a year. That is enough to keep salt trucks busy from December into March. Brine collects in the first few feet inside the door, where the slab is coldest. We pay extra attention to that strip. If it is scaled or pitted, we patch it level before coating so water does not pool there later.

If you are getting the house ready to sell

A coated garage floor shows well in listing photos and at showings. If a sale is coming, tell us your date. We will plan a system and cure time that gets the garage back in use before the photographer arrives.