Flake Floor Coatings in Baton Rouge, LA

Flake floor coatings are what most people around Baton Rouge imagine when someone mentions a coated garage. Small vinyl chips get tossed by hand into a base coat that is still wet, and a clear topcoat locks them in place. The finished floor looks a bit like terrazzo or speckled granite, and it does a few practical jobs that a solid-color floor cannot. It hides dust, pollen and tire marks, its texture gives wet soles more grip, and it makes small imperfections in the concrete much harder to spot.

Full broadcast or partial

There are two ways to lay flake. With a full broadcast, we keep throwing chips until not a speck of the base color is visible. We scrape off the extra, vacuum the floor and then seal it. You end up with the heaviest texture, the best camouflage for flaws and the thickest total build. With a partial or light broadcast, a scattering of chips lands on a tinted base that stays visible between them. It is a lighter look with a smoother feel underfoot. Most garages we coat get a full broadcast, because it handles the mud, grit and water that come in from a South Louisiana driveway.

Picking a blend

Flake blends come in dozens of mixes, from grays and tans to blends with bits of blue, red or school colors. Lighter blends brighten a dim garage and show less dust. Darker blends hide tire marks and stains but can show light-colored grit. Chip size changes the look as well: small chips give a subtle speckled texture, while big ones make a bolder pattern. Sample boards come along on the estimate visit, so you judge each blend under your own garage lighting, which matters when the garage gets the low, hazy light of a humid afternoon.

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Built for what rolls through a Baton Rouge garage

A flake epoxy floor is a good match for the way people here use a garage. Bass boats and trailers drip water and drag sand. Ice chests, coolers and smokers come in and out all football season. Golf carts and side-by-sides track in mud. Kids and dogs walk through barefoot. The texture of a full broadcast floor helps on every one of those, and the clear topcoat wipes clean with a hose and a squeegee. It is also forgiving: a small chip or scratch in a flake floor is much less visible than the same mark on a solid gloss surface.

The layers under the chips

The chips get the attention, but the bond is made underneath. We start by grinding the slab and testing moisture, because no blend of flake will stay put on a damp, unprepared floor. Then comes a primer if readings call for one, a pigmented base coat, the chip broadcast while that coat is wet, and a clear topcoat. For garages, the topcoat is polyaspartic so it will not yellow in sunlight. By HomeAdvisor's numbers the flakes alone come to about $0.04 per square foot, which shows that the chips are a small part of the price. The labor, the prep and the resin around them are what you are paying for.

Where flake works beyond the garage

The same chip system works in laundry rooms, mudrooms, workshops, covered patios, screened porches and some commercial spaces such as break rooms, gyms and retail back rooms. Outdoors, it needs a topcoat that resists UV plus a textured surface wet shoes can grip. Inside a business, a heavier chip load and a thicker topcoat give it more wear life. We will tell you at the estimate whether flake is a good choice for the space or whether another system fits better.