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Concrete Repair & Prep

for Coatings That Last

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or Call us at 518-543-7699

Diamond grinding, crack and spall repair, and moisture testing before epoxy or polyaspartic. Capital Region slabs fail from skipped prep — not from the coating.

A coating only lasts as long as the concrete under it. In the Capital Region that usually means salt, freeze-thaw, older slabs, and moisture — not a clean lab floor.

Epoxy Done Right treats repair and prep as the job, not a line item we rush so we can roll resin. We diamond-grind, open cracks and spalls, test moisture where the slab is at risk, and only then talk about flake, metallic, quartz, or polyaspartic.

If the last floor peeled, the coating is rarely the unique variable. The prep is.

Send photos of the slab and the city. Call 518-543-7699.

Why prep is the job

Resin bonds to a profiled, clean, sound surface. It does not bond to paint, curing compound, laitance, oil, or dust sitting on hard-troweled concrete.

A floor that lasts 15 years and a floor that peels in two are often coated with similar material. What separates them is what happened before the first coat:

  • Old coatings and paint removed, not painted over
  • Cracks and spalls repaired so they do not telegraph
  • Edges ground, not left as a weak perimeter
  • Dust extracted so the primer sees concrete, not powder
  • Moisture checked on slabs that have a history of dampness

We write that sequence down because it is the difference between a system and a kit.

What we repair

Cracks

Hairlines from shrinkage and freeze-thaw. Control joints that have opened. Movement cracks that need a flexible fill instead of a rigid smear.

Spalls and pop-outs

Broken edges, salt-damaged garage aprons, forklift scars, jackhammer leftovers. These get cut back to sound concrete and patched before any grind finish.

Pits and scaling

Surface that has weathered or been hit with deicers. Scaling is common on older Albany, Troy, Rensselaer, and lake-effect garages.

Failed coatings

Peeling epoxy, flaking paint, and big-box kits. We grind them off. Coating over a failed film is how the next failure starts.

Joints

Saw cuts and construction joints that will still move. We honor them. Filling every joint solid and pretending the slab is a single pane is how you get a new crack in the coating.

Leveling and birdbaths

Low spots that hold water or read through a thin film. We correct what the system requires — not every dip on an old warehouse slab.

How we prep a slab

  • Walk the floor. Use, age, previous coatings, oil, visible moisture, and whether the concrete is structurally sound.
  • Moisture check where the room or history calls for it — basements, slabs on grade with no vapor barrier, rooms that have sweated.
  • Remove contaminants. Degrease where needed. Strip failing film.
  • Diamond grind to a coating profile (typically CSP 2–3 for most resin systems), including the edges. HEPA-rated dust control so the building does not eat the grind.
  • Repair. Polyurea or cementitious patch on cracks and spalls that will telegraph or collect dirt.
  • Vacuum and inspect. The slab has to be clean before primer.
  • Prime / first coat only after the substrate is ready.

That is the same discipline on a one-car garage in Clifton Park and a shop bay in Albany.
The materials change. The order does not.

Moisture and this climate

Upstate slabs deal with river-valley humidity, snowmelt, and older construction that was never detailed for a film-forming coating. Moisture vapor from below will blister a system that was rolled over a damp or untested floor.

We do not guess. If readings or the history of the room say the slab is wet, we change the system — moisture-tolerant primer, a different chemistry, or we wait. Urethane cement belongs in some of those rooms. Thin decorative epoxy does not.

Winter and shoulder-season work adds slab temperature and dew point to the same conversation. Prep in a cold garage still has to be dry and in range, or the repair will not hold the coating.

When repair is enough — and when it is not

Repair and coat when the slab is sound, cracks are non-structural, and the surface can take a profile.

Repair only when the owner needs the concrete serviceable but is not ready to coat — patched garage floors, trip hazards, spalled walks that are not getting a full system this season.

Do not coat when the slab is moving, hollow, severely scaled through its depth, or wet in a way no film will survive. We will say that on the visit. Replacing or overlaying bad concrete is cheaper than a pretty coating on a failing base.

Where this work shows up

  • Residential garages before flake or polyaspartic
  • Basements before a moisture-aware coating
  • Shops and light industrial before quartz or epoxy
  • Warehouses headed for grind and seal or polish
  • Kitchens and wash-down rooms before urethane cement
  • Standalone repair for property managers who are not coating yet

What happens after prep

Prep is not the finish. Once the slab is profiled and repaired, the system on top is chosen for the room — flake and polyaspartic for most garages, quartz for wet shops, urethane cement for thermal shock, polish or grind and seal when the concrete itself is the look.