Worked case: a 1-car metallic epoxy garage over old paint near downtown Vacaville — steps and price

The scenario

Picture an older house a few blocks from Main Street with a detached one-car garage behind it. The slab was painted gray once, and the paint has lifted in sheets near the door. The owner uses the garage as a hobby space and wants a finish that looks like a feature rather than a utility floor.

A tape measure along the walls gives 12 by 20 feet. A short flight of two steps leads to a side door, and the owner wants the same color on them so the room reads as one piece.

The old paint decides the plan. A test grind shows that it comes off in some places and smears in others, so the whole floor is ground until the surface is bare, and the dust is collected at the machine.

The slab in a house this age may have no vapor barrier under it, so a few moisture spots are checked before the opaque base goes down. The owner also asks for a copper and graphite pigment pair, which is a taste choice and has no price line of its own.

What the job involves

1. The owner clears the garage and the installer maps the old paint, the cracks and the step edges.
2. A dust-shrouded diamond grinder removes the old paint across the whole floor, and the vacuum collects the dust.
3. Cracks and pits are filled and ground flush, and moisture is checked at a few bare spots.
4. A primer soaks in, and an opaque base coat is rolled out and left to cure per the data sheet.
5. Metallic pigment is mixed into a second coat and worked across the floor with rollers and a tool to form the swirl.
6. A clear top coat is rolled over the metallic layer, and the steps are coated in the same sequence.

Materials and prep

• Dust-shrouded diamond grinder and HEPA vacuum
• Crack filler, primer and an opaque epoxy base
• Metallic pigment, clear top coat and mixing tools
• Rollers, squeegees, spiked shoes and masking for the step edges

Add-ons often paired with this job

• Coat the stem wall (garage-door threshold wall) — +$150–$400. A threshold wall under the door can be finished to match.
• Moving garage contents out and back — +$100–$300. Moving shelving and a workbench out and back is a separate line.

Why it is done this way

Metallic is the most decorative of the garage systems, and it is the one that shows every flaw underneath. A patch, a ridge or a pinhole shows through a glossy swirl, which is why grinding and filling take longer than the coating itself.

The price is built from a rate for the system, a surcharge for the old coating and a flat line for the steps. The old paint is the largest surcharge in the example because it is removed across the whole floor, not in spots.

In a Vacaville summer the early hours matter: a slab that is warm in the afternoon and cool at dawn affects working time and outgassing, and installers check slab temperature and dew point before they mix a metallic batch.

What would change the price

• The old paint is thin and a lighter grind removes it.
• A moisture test reads high and a vapor-barrier primer is added.
• The owner picks a flake system, which is cheaper than metallic.
• The cracks are wider than hairline and need extra repair.
• The garage is larger than the typical 240 square feet.