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Concrete coatings · Garage floors

Flake floor

Vinyl chips broadcast into a wet base coat and locked under a clear top coat. It is the common finish, it is what is in most of the photographs on this site, and the reason it works is that it hides everything a plain color shows.

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One flat fee to find out what is wrong. You are told it on the phone before anyone is dispatched, and it comes off the job if you hire us. Read our Plain Terms

A finished garage floor in a pale gray and tan flake blend, running the depth of the bay, with the slab's saw-cut control joints still visible as fine straight lines through the coating and an open door at the far left
The control joints are still readable through the finish. They are part of the slab, not a defect in the floor.

What the work is

The base coat goes down pigmented. While it is still wet, vinyl chips are thrown into it by hand — into it, not onto it, which is why there is no second attempt at the timing. Once cured, the loose chips are scraped back and the surface is sealed under a clear coat.

It is called a full broadcast when chips are thrown until the base will not take any more. That is what you are looking at in the close-up photographs here: no base color showing through at any angle.

Two practical consequences. A flake floor has texture, so it is less slippery wet than a smooth one, and it hides dust, tire marks and the ordinary unevenness of a domestic slab far better than a solid color. The trade is that it is busier to look at, and the blend you pick is the floor you keep.

Pick the blend from a physical chip in daylight. The samples read differently under a garage light than they do under the sun, and a photograph on a phone is not a color match.

What is included

  • The blend chosen from physical samples before anything is ordered
  • Pigmented base coat over a prepared, tested slab
  • Full broadcast by hand, to refusal
  • Scraping back the loose chips once cured
  • Clear top coat over the whole floor
  • Carrying the finish up the wall as a base where you want it, quoted as its own line

What is not

  • Matching a blend to a photograph. We match to a chip
  • Changing the blend after the base coat is down
  • A partial broadcast sold as a full one. If you want a lighter scatter, that is a choice and we will price it as one

Why texture is not a cosmetic decision here

A garage slab in Washington County collects blown sand and fine dust for most of the year. On a smooth, solid-color floor that shows as a film and reads as dirt within a week of cleaning. On a flake floor it disappears into the pattern.

The same texture is what keeps the floor usable when a car comes in wet after a monsoon storm. Flooding is the most widespread geologic hazard in southwestern Utah, and the storms that cause it are short and heavy. A smooth sealed slab with water on it is a skating rink; a broadcast one is not.

What to ask anyone quoting this, us included

  • Is this a full broadcast, or a scatter? Ask to see the difference on a sample board
  • What is the clear coat, and what does its data sheet say about ultraviolet exposure?
  • Can I see the actual chip in daylight before you order it?

What we can show you in writing

Every line traces to a document we read in full. The number after a sentence points to the research below.

  • Concrete substrates must be mechanically prepared to remove cement laitance, existing coatings and curing compounds, and to achieve a profile that is clean, dry and free of dirt, grease and oil. Diamond grinders create that profile and remove high spots and coatings; shot blasting is described as the industry standard for surface preparation of concrete.1
  • The Utah Geological Survey maps wind-blown sand as one of nine adverse construction conditions for the St. George–Hurricane area in Special Study 127, and Washington County publishes it as its own GIS hazard layer. Utah DEQ notes that from spring through fall, high winds combined with dry surface conditions produce dust storms that can lead to extremely high levels of particulate matter.2
  • UGS Special Study 127 records flooding as the most widespread and damaging geologic hazard in southwestern Utah. Southwest Utah has a defined monsoon season, and St. George has recorded a 78-day dry spell ending with monsoon onset.2

Where this comes from

Every line above traces to a document we read in full. The number after a sentence points to the research below; hover it for the section. If you find a line wrong, tell us and we will fix it and say so.

  1. Concrete coatings research, September 2026 Compiled from ICRI Guideline 310.2R-2013 on concrete surface preparation, the ASTM moisture test standards F2170, F1869 and D4263, ACI 302.2R and NRMCA CIP 29 on slabs and vapor retarders, Sika's published surface preparation guide, Sherwin-Williams product literature on polyaspartic chemistry, and the Utah Geological Survey and Utah DEQ material already cited in the environment research. 1 section cited. Hover a number above for the section.
  2. Environment, water and ground research, August 2026 Compiled from the cities' own water quality reports, Utah Geological Survey Special Study 127, the Utah State Hazard Mitigation Plan, Washington County GIS hazard layers, NOAA climate records, EPA radon zones and Census QuickFacts. 2 sections cited. Hover a number above for the section.

This work

What it looks like on the job.

No caption names a town: these were not all shot in Washington County and we will not imply otherwise.

  • A garage bay finished in tan and brown flake, with a sectional door part-raised on the left, daylight from two high windows, and white walls
    One bay, finished. The joint lines running across it are the slab's, not the coating's.
  • A wide garage with a brown and tan flake floor, two slim white steel posts rising from it, a sectional door raised on the left and a white door and electrical panel on the right
    The coating runs up to and around the posts rather than stopping short of them.
  • A low view across a dense tan, brown, black and white flake garage floor toward a sectional door part-raised, with daylight coming in beneath it
    Floor level, which is where you see whether the flake is dense enough to hide the slab.
  • A garage in use with a gray, white and black flake floor, a rail of hanging coats and a dartboard on the far wall, a wall shelf, and exercise equipment left out on the floor
    A garage in use, not a showroom.
  • A tan flake garage floor seen from inside the bay, meeting the plain concrete driveway at the door line, with a stone-faced house across the street beyond
    Where the coating stops at the door line, and the driveway concrete starts.
  • A long garage bay finished in tan flake, strip lights overhead, looking down its length to an open door and steps at the far end
    A deep bay, looking down its length.
  • A garage with a brown and tan flake floor, a wall-hung tankless water heater and utility sink on the back wall, a white door beside them and two small framed pictures
    The floor goes under and around the equipment rather than stopping at it. This is the same garage as the bare slab further down.
  • A garage with charcoal-painted walls and a gray flake floor, a bright patch of sunlight falling across it from the open door, and a white door on the right
    A dark room and a gray floor. It shows dust less than a light one and heat more.
  • A garage floor in a gray and white flake blend where the coating is carried several inches up the wall as a continuous base rather than stopping at the floor line
    The coating carried up the wall as a base, so there is no open joint at the floor line for water to sit in.
  • An empty garage with a pale tan flake floor and the sectional door raised, its inner face covered in framed comic and hot-rod artwork, with palm trees and a street outside
    An empty bay, door up.
  • A garage floor in a blue, gray and white flake blend, with a water heater in the far corner and two red extension cords hung on the wall above
    Flake is sold as a blend, and the blend is chosen. This one is blue.
  • A brown flake garage floor with a hard diagonal line across it where sunlight through the open door meets shade, and a flat-head mop resting on the surface
    The same floor in sun and in shade. Sunlight is why the color you pick indoors is not the color you live with.
  • The front of a stucco and stacked-stone house with two garage doors open, showing coated flake floors inside both bays against the plain concrete driveway outside
    From the street, with both doors up.
  • A gray and white flake garage floor photographed from above at an angle, with two white sectional garage doors closed at the top of the frame
    From above, where the coverage is easiest to judge.
  • A close view of a finished flake floor, showing individual tan, black, brown and white chips locked under a clear gloss coat
    Close enough to see the individual chips under the clear coat.
  • A close view of a charcoal and gray flake floor, its chips fine and densely packed, under an even matte finish
    A charcoal blend, close up.
  • A low close view along a tan and white flake floor, a band of reflected light running across it, with a doorway out of focus beyond
    Full-broadcast flake: chips are thrown until the base coat will not take any more.
  • The corner where a tan flake floor meets a stucco wall and the galvanised track of a garage door, the coating running cleanly into both angles
    The corner behind the door track. It is the hardest place to finish and the first place to look.
  • A close view of a black and silver flake floor with a pooled highlight of reflected light in the foreground
    A black and silver blend.
  • A hand holding a heap of gray, charcoal and pale tan vinyl flake chips above an open white bucket of the same
    The chips before they are thrown. They are vinyl, and they go on by hand.
  • Dozens of square flake color samples and two bound sample decks fanned out on a white table, showing blends from pale greys and tans through to blue and black
    The blends, as samples. Pick from the chip in daylight, not from a photograph on a phone.
  • A ground-level view along the threshold of a garage door, showing a blue and white flake floor inside ending in a clean edge against the plain concrete driveway outside
    The edge at the threshold, which is where a floor is finished well or is not.
  • A coated apron in tan, black and white flake photographed from ground level, meeting a plain concrete sidewalk at the top of the frame
    A coated apron running out to the sidewalk.
  • A laundromat interior with rows of stainless commercial washers and stacked dryers standing on a gray, black and white flake floor under strip lighting
    A laundromat. Standing water, wheeled carts and machines that vibrate — a harder floor than a garage.
  • A low view along the same laundromat floor, the gray, black and white flake running the length of the room past a bank of stacked dryers
    The same floor from floor level.
  • A garage floor part-way through, the pigmented base coat rolled out across the slab and still wet, the lower walls masked in a dark band, before any flake has been thrown into it
    The base coat, still wet. The flake goes into this, not onto it, which is why there is no second chance at the timing.

The rest of garage floors

  • Garage floor coating

    The bay emptied, the slab ground back, and a finish that is bonded to concrete rather than sitting on it.

  • Solid color floor

    One color, no chips. The plainest finish, and the one that shows every repair in the slab beneath it.

  • Metallic floor

    A pigmented resin worked while wet so the color moves. No two are the same, which is the point and also the risk.

  • Grind and seal

    The concrete itself is the finish. Ground back, then sealed. Nothing is added on top to fail.

The quote is the number. There is no second number.

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