Staining and Sealing
Stain puts color into the concrete itself, and the right sealer helps keep water and road salt out. We stain and seal interior floors, basements, garages, patios and porches.
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Garage floor sealing helps keep water and road salt out of a bare concrete slab. All winter, your car brings salt slush into the garage, and it melts onto the floor. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency estimates the Twin Cities metro alone gets about 365,000 tons of road salt a year. From our Otsego base, Slab Lab Coatings seals garage floors across the metro.
Sealing a garage floor starts with prep: oil cleanup, diamond grinding, repairs and a moisture check. Then we match the seal to your slab and how you use the garage. That can be a penetrating sealer or a full-flake garage floor coating. The free on-site estimate spells out the sealer, the prep and the repairs for your floor.
Tell us about the floor. We come out, look at the slab and give you a free estimate.
In a Minnesota garage, the trouble starts with the salty slush that drips off your car. When the weather allows, the ready-mix concrete industry says to hose that salt off the slab. It also warns that salty water left sitting on concrete raises the risk of scaling, where the surface flakes off.
Unsealed concrete soaks up water like a hard sponge. When wet concrete freezes, the water expands as it forms ice and stresses the slab. Deicing salt keeps the surface wetter and adds freeze-thaw cycles, the industry explains. Winter after winter, that can leave a garage floor pitted and flaking.
Sealing helps the slab shed salty water, but it does not make concrete salt-proof. Researchers tested silane and siloxane sealers on pavement joints at MnROAD, the Minnesota Department of Transportation's research facility. Over two years, the treated joints showed no real difference from untreated ones.
A penetrating silane or siloxane sealer works inside the slab. It coats the walls of the pores, which helps salty water bead up instead of soaking in. A national cost guide notes these sealers leave no surface film, so tires have nothing on top to wear through. That suits a sound slab with light use.
An acrylic sealer is the thinnest kind, and it typically dries to a glossy film on top. Under traffic, film sealers can wear out early, a concrete research review notes. In a garage, that traffic is your tires. One sealer seller labels its glossy sealer not for garages, due to hot tire pickup.
A full-flake coating seals the whole slab under a layered floor. Our system is a base coat, a full broadcast of flake and a polyaspartic topcoat. On one flake-system maker's chemical chart, a 20 percent salt solution, motor oil and gasoline all rate excellent. For a garage that takes salt slush and oil drips all winter, a coating is usually the better seal.
A sealer has to bond to the slab, and a home-improvement cost guide says that takes clean, dry concrete. In a garage, oil drips and salt residue come up first, with our garage floor cleaning service. Next, diamond grinding with dust extraction takes off old sealer, paint or a failed coating.
Cracks, pits and salt damage get concrete crack and spall repair before anything is sealed. Every slab also gets a moisture check. Slab Lab Coatings was founded by a former coating inspector, and these are the prep standards an inspector checks for.
Timing matters too. The same guide favors spring or fall, when it stays 50 to 80 degrees for at least 24 hours. For slabs that face winter, the ready-mix concrete industry favors late summer, after a few dry days. Old concrete must be completely dry before resealing, so a slab still wet from spring slush has to wait.
Free estimates and site visits across the northwest metro and the Twin Cities, about 40 miles around Otsego.
(612) 702-9724From the first call to the final topcoat, here is how it goes.
Call or text (612) 702-9724, or send the form. We look at the slab and put the system, repairs, mil thickness and price in writing.
We diamond grind the slab with dust extraction to open the surface for a strong bond. Then we test the concrete for moisture.
We fill cracks and chips, including salt pits near the door. The coating goes down over sound, smooth concrete.
A high-solids, self-priming epoxy or polyaspartic base coat goes down over the ground slab. This is the layer that bonds to the concrete.
We broadcast polymer flake across the wet base coat until it is fully covered. Then we scrape off the excess for a consistent texture and grip.
A scratch-resistant, UV-stable polyaspartic topcoat seals the floor and hardens in 6 to 8 hours. The crew leaves care instructions and tells you when to park.
Common questions about garage floor sealing across the northwest metro and the Twin Cities, about 40 miles around Otsego. If yours is not here, call and ask.
Stain puts color into the concrete itself, and the right sealer helps keep water and road salt out. We stain and seal interior floors, basements, garages, patios and porches.
Learn More
Professional cleaning for coated and bare concrete garage floors. We go after road salt residue, oil drips, grime and tire marks.
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Crack, pit and spall repair for garage, basement and shop floors, plus resurfacing overlays for worn slabs. A resurfaced floor can take a coating or stand as the finished floor.
Learn MoreOur prep follows the standards a coating inspector checks for, because the company was founded by a former coating inspector.
Every slab we coat is diamond ground and tested for moisture first. Cracks and pits are repaired before any coating goes down.
About 75 days a year the temperature swings across freezing in the Twin Cities. Our polyaspartic and polyurea systems are chosen for that and for road salt.
Most garages are coated in one day. One Google review describes a three-stall garage done between 8 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. Pick your look from two dozen flake blends.
Real reviews from real floor coating jobs, 34 reviews on Google.
Josh was amazing to work with. He personally called after I did the Facebook quote and scheduled an estimate for the next day. He got me on the schedule within 2 weeks. The crew arrived at 8am sharp, and were gone by 2pm doing my 3 stall garage. It’s been 2 months and it’s still the favorite update we’ve done to our house since buying. I can’t recommend Josh and Slab Labs enough for getting your garage floor upgraded.
We were so happy with the new garage floor coating Slab Lab did in our garage. Josh was very informative and helpful every step of the way. The workers, Rey and Alex, arrived on time, were very hard working, courteous, and very skilled in all aspects of the job. They were all so pleasant and easy to work with. The floor is beautiful—no more ugly salt damaged concrete! Thanks, Slab Lab!
Highly recommend. I’ve had the floor in my garage for about a year, and it still looks brand new. If I move, I’ll be calling them again for the next garage.
Send a few details about your floor, and we will set up a free on-site estimate. If you would rather talk, call or text (612) 702-9724.
Tell us about the floor. We come out, look at the slab and give you a free estimate.
