Flooring contractor in South Miami - floors prepped for the slab you actually have

The city's posted permit list doesn't name floor coatings, but it ends with "other items," so the South Miami Building Department is the one to ask. That list calls for separate permits on things like doors, windows, roofing, electrical, plumbing, pools, fences and driveways, and the department reviews plans and inspects work in the field. Before we start, we check with the office that covers your address, and if a permit is needed, we handle our side of the paperwork and walk you through the part you sign.

Contractors here are licensed by the state, and Miami-Dade County licenses contractors and tradesmen too. The state licensing board issues certified licenses that are good anywhere in Florida and registered licenses that only count where the holder also has a local trade credential, so it matters which kind a contractor holds. We're licensed and fully insured, and I'm glad to go over that at the estimate.

Moisture pushing up through the slab is a common cause down here, along with coating over dirty or unground concrete. Miami-Dade sits close to sea level with groundwater just below the surface, and heavy rains sometimes leave water nowhere to drain, so a slab can stay damp from underneath. I check the slab for moisture before I write the estimate and tell you straight if it needs more prep or a different system.

The price comes down to the size of the floor, how much prep the slab needs and which coating system you pick. Stripping old paint or tile, grinding, filling cracks and dealing with moisture all add to it, and so does stepping up from a basic epoxy to something like a metallic finish. Your written estimate spells out the prep and the finish separately, so you can see what each part costs.

Most of a coating job is prep and cure time, so a bare, sound slab goes faster than one with old tile, glue or cracks to deal with. The coating's cure time decides when you can walk on the floor and when you can park on it. With the city's weekday hours in the mix, I'll lay out the days with you at the estimate.

For most garages here I'd pick a polyaspartic system, mainly because it cures fast enough to get your car back inside much sooner. Epoxy costs less and still makes a tough floor if you can wait longer to use the garage, so it's a fair choice when budget leads. Either one lasts only as long as the prep under it, which is why prep is the first thing on your estimate.