Shop & Commercial Floor Epoxy in Missoula, MT

Shop & commercial floor epoxy is a heavier version of what goes on a home garage: thicker coats, harder-wearing materials and more attention to the loads and chemicals the floor will see. Around Missoula that covers a wide range. We coat home shops and pole barns on acreage in the Bitterroot and along the Clark Fork, service bays, warehouse and storage spaces, and the back-of-house floors of local businesses.

What a shop floor deals with

A working floor takes more than a garage does. Trucks, trailers, tractors and snow equipment roll in heavy and wet in winter. Jacks and stands put point loads on small areas. Hydraulic fluid, diesel, antifreeze and solvents get spilled. Tools get dropped. Sand and deicer from county roads ride in on the tires. A thin residential coating will not last under that. A commercial system uses thicker 100 percent solids epoxy for the body of the floor and a chemical-resistant topcoat on the surface.

Systems for working floors

• High-build epoxy: thick 100 percent solids coats that bridge small surface flaws and resist impact.
• Broadcast quartz or flake with grit: texture built into the system for traction where floors get wet or oily.
• Chemical-resistant topcoat: urethane or polyaspartic over the body coats for abrasion and fluid resistance.
• Line striping and zones: marked walkways, parking bays and work areas, coated into the system.

Prep on larger slabs

Shop slabs are often older, bigger and dirtier than house floors. Some have years of oil soaked into them. We degrease and grind, and where oil has gone deep we may need to grind further or treat the spot before coating. Control joints in large slabs are cleaned out and either filled or honored, depending on how much the slab moves. Cracks are repaired, and broken edges at the door are rebuilt so loaded wheels do not chip the coating.

Spills, drains and the aquifer

Missoula Public Health describes the Missoula Valley aquifer as an EPA-designated sole-source aquifer and the city's primary drinking water supply, and the county's Water Quality District inspects businesses that store hazardous materials. A sealed floor helps keep oil and fluids on top where they can be cleaned up. On our side, we collect grinding dust by vacuum and keep degreaser rinse and coating waste out of floor drains and gravel.

Scheduling around your business

Commercial floors usually cannot be out of service for a week. Using polyaspartic topcoats and planning in sections, we can often coat a space over a weekend or in phases so part of the building stays open. We talk through access, ventilation and return-to-service times when we quote.

Where we see these floors

Missoula County spans the Missoula valley, the Bitterroot to the south and the Clark Fork corridor east and west along I-90. Rural lots out that way often have a detached shop or pole barn, and some sit on gravel roads the county does not treat with deicer. Those floors see more dirt and fluids than salt. In town, the floors we coat are more often in commercial and light industrial spaces.