Munster Indiana Epoxy Flooring for Salted Garages

A lot of people think a garage floor pits because the concrete was weak. We’ve heard that from homeowners in Munster. The slab was usually sound on the day it went down. So salt from the drive home is what breaks the surface up. People have called us about Epoxy Flooring in Munster once the tire lanes turned rough.

You drive toward Chicago or the south suburbs for work. Crews salt those roads hard all winter. Then slush packs into the wheel wells and under the frame. You pull into the attached garage, and the warm car melts that slush onto the slab. So a film of salt water sits in the tire paths. When the garage cools off, that brine stays on the concrete for hours. We’ve seen a white crust along the tires first. After more of those nights, the paste sands off in two stripes. We’ve scraped loose material off floors that looked fine from the doorway.

Munster sits close to the Illinois line, so the drive home often runs on salted Chicago-area pavement. A lot of homes here have an attached garage, and the floor sits under the parked car. Because the roof keeps rain off the slab, people figure the floor is out of the weather. But the salt still comes in on the tires. We’ve walked into garages and found the pits right where the car parks each night.

The low spot in the slab is where the brine sits longest. Control joints catch it too. After a thaw, we’ve run a finger along those joints and come up with wet salt. So garage floors pick up that salt every time the car comes back from a salted road. An upper walk or a service walk by the side door can pick up the same film. We can look at those while we’re on the garage floor.

What Epoxy Flooring in Munster, Indiana Blocks on the Slab

Cars coming back from Chicago-area roads drag salt onto these attached-garage slabs. Epoxy is the coating that keeps that concrete from scaling. It bonds to a prepared slab and blocks salt water from soaking into the paste. Because the salt stays on the coating, the paste under it holds together. We’ve coated garages in Munster where the tire lanes were already starting to pit. So the new brine stayed on the coating after that.

A store-bought sealer can wear off in the tire lanes. Then the salt reaches the concrete again. We put down a garage floor system meant for hot tires and winter brine. When you want color in the floor, we can mix that into the epoxy. Decorative concrete is part of our residential work. The apron outside the door takes salt too. If it has scaled, that repair sits apart from the floor coating. Our photo gallery has finished garage floors from jobs like these.

How We Prep Epoxy Flooring in Munster, Indiana Garages

Salt scale has to come off before coating day. We grind the slab so the epoxy has a profile to grip. Then we fill the pits and the joints so brine can’t travel around the coating. When the surface is crumbling deep, a coating won’t hold. We tear that section out and pour it back. Concrete replacement is what those bays need, and concrete removal is part of that visit.

The grind throws dust. So we seal the house door before the grinder starts. We clean as we go. After the slab is open and dry, we lay the epoxy. We source products we trust in this climate, because a soft coating prints under hot tires. Cabe’s Concrete is a family owned and operated company. We’ve done this work since our doors opened back in 2006. We plan the day so we get in and get out. The floor is still a professional job when we leave.

So cars will keep dragging salt in from those Chicago-area roads. On a coated floor the salt sits on the surface. For the coating, our epoxy flooring work covers the garage slabs we do. Epoxy Flooring in Munster has to handle brine off that commute. Rinse the brine toward the door, and sweep what’s left once the floor dries. So keep a squeegee by the door through winter. A push of meltwater toward the driveway keeps the film from sitting all night.