Epoxy Flooring in Bend, OR

Epoxy flooring in Bend is most of what we do, because Bend is where we are based. The city grew from 20,469 people in 1990 to 52,029 in 2000, then to 99,178 at the 2020 census. That kind of growth leaves a city full of garage slabs poured in the last thirty years. It also leaves a smaller ring of older floors in Old Bend and the neighborhoods that grew up around the mills. We coat both, and the work looks different on each.

Two kinds of Bend slab

Floors poured since the 1990s

Most of the garages we see in Summit West, Southern Crossing, Larkspur or Boyd Acres sit on newer concrete. These slabs are usually flat and solid. Their trouble is the surface. A steel-troweled garage floor is tight and smooth, and a coating will sit on top of it without grabbing. We grind until the concrete is open and slightly rough, then coat it the same day.

Floors from the mill era and before

Bend was platted in 1904 and incorporated in 1905, and its early growth came from sawmills along the Deschutes. The 1950 closure of the Shevlin-Hixon mill, after its sale to Brooks-Scanlon, hit the local economy hard, and population barely moved for the next two decades. Homes from those years and the 1970s are more likely to have thin slabs, old paint, oil that has soaked deep, and cracks that were patched more than once. On these floors the repair work can take as long as the coating.

Volcanic ground under the city

Bend has an extinct volcano inside its city limits. Pilot Butte is an old cinder cone, and the Horse Lava Tube System runs along the city's eastern edge. Much of the city sits on volcanic rock with thin soil over it. For a floor coater, that matters in two ways. First, slabs on rocky, uneven ground tend to crack where the base below them changes. Second, cinders and grit get tracked in on tires all winter. A coating with flake texture and a hard topcoat stands up to that grit and hides it between rinses.

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How Bend uses its garages

We walk into a lot of Bend garages that have stopped being car storage. Some common ones:

• Gear rooms: bikes on wall racks, skis and boards, rafts and coolers. Flake floors hide scuffs and are easy to hose off after a muddy ride.
• Home gyms: rubber mats on top of a coated floor, with a polyaspartic topcoat that resists sweat and dropped plates better than bare concrete.
• Workshops and homebrew setups: Bend has more than 30 breweries, and plenty of residents brew at home. Spilled wort and cleaning chemicals wipe off a sealed floor instead of staining it.
• Remote offices and studios: a metallic epoxy floor in a converted garage or ADU looks finished without adding flooring material that can trap moisture.

Cold mornings and cure times

Bend's record low is minus 26 degrees, and most winters bring nights between 5 and 10 below zero. Average snowfall is about 21.6 inches a year, heaviest in December and January. Cold slows every resin we use. From late fall to spring we read slab temperature before starting, and we often pick a polyaspartic system because it cures in colder conditions than standard epoxy. In summer the opposite problem shows up. A slab baking in afternoon sun can make some products set too fast, so hot-weather jobs start early in the day.

Choosing a system for a Bend garage

We install all six of our services in Bend, but most garages land on one of three builds:

• Full flake with a polyaspartic topcoat. This is the most common choice. It hides cinder grit and tire marks, gives grip on wet days and holds its color in strong sun.
• Solid color epoxy with a light flake. A good fit for shops and gear rooms where you want to spot small parts on the floor.
• Metallic epoxy. Best for indoor spaces like a converted garage office, a studio or a basement, where it will not see studded tires or road grit.

If the slab has deep cracks, spalled edges or old repairs, our concrete crack and floor repair work comes first. We would rather spend an extra hour on prep than come back to a floor that let go.

A typical Bend job, start to finish

1. Estimate. We measure, test moisture, look at cracks and old coatings, and talk through how you use the space. 2. Written quote. The quote lists the prep, the system, the number of coats and the total. 3. Install day. We grind the slab, vacuum the dust, repair cracks and lay down the base coat, flake and topcoat. Many two-car garages are done in a day or two. 4. Cure. We give you walk-on and drive-on times for the product and the weather that day.

Pricing a Bend floor

The Census Bureau puts the median value of an owner-occupied home in Bend at $718,400 for 2020 to 2024. Many owners here are protecting an expensive house, and they want the floor to last. We price each job from measurements, the condition of the slab and the system you pick. You get a written quote before any work starts.