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Floor painting
Concrete floors ground back and coated in resin that survives tyres, forklifts, oil and a hose, in garages, workshops, stores, plant rooms and showrooms.
in short
AltHome coats concrete floors in resin and epoxy for garages, workshops, stores, plant rooms and showrooms across Kerry, Cork and Limerick. The slab is tested for moisture and diamond ground, never just swept, so the primer keys into the concrete. A normal floor takes one to three days, can take foot traffic soon after and reaches full hardness in seven days. New slabs need 28 days to cure first.
what decides it
Moisture in the slab is what peels the paint off
Floor coatings almost never fail because the coating was bad. They fail because of what was underneath. Two things kill them: moisture pushing up from the ground, and a shiny, sealed or oily surface the resin could not bite into. So before we price anything we test the slab. If there is no damp proof membrane under it, and plenty of older garages and farm buildings have none, water vapour rises through the concrete and lifts a standard epoxy off in sheets, so that floor needs a moisture tolerant primer or a damp suppressing system instead. Then the mechanical part: the floor is diamond ground, not just swept and mopped. Grinding takes off laitance, old flaky paint, tyre rubber and oil contaminated surface, and it opens the pores so the primer can key into the concrete rather than sit on top of it. Cracks are cut out and resin filled, joints are treated properly and pot holes are patched before the first coat. After that the choice is about what the room does. A domestic garage or a store gets a two pack epoxy, hard, cleanable and good value. A workshop with forklifts, hot tyres or chemical spills gets a polyurethane topcoat over the epoxy, because pure epoxy can chalk and soften under hot tyres and UV through a roof light. A kitchen, a wash bay or a ramp gets aggregate broadcast into the wet coat for grip, since a glossy resin floor with water on it is genuinely dangerous. We take temperature and dew point readings before each coat, because resin cures by reaction and a cold Irish shed in February needs a winter grade product or the floor stays soft and tacky.
Colour, lines and edges
A light coloured floor changes how a workshop or a garage feels, because the light bounces instead of being swallowed by grey concrete, and a dropped screw is findable. We coat the skirting and the lower part of the wall in the same resin where the floor gets hosed down, so water has nowhere to get in at the junction. Walkways, racking bays, fire exits and machine outlines are marked once the floor has cured, in the same hard wearing system rather than in ordinary paint, so the lines do not wear off where the traffic actually runs.
the work
What is included in floor painting?
- Test the slab for moisture and check what is already on it before quoting a system.
- Diamond grind the whole floor back to clean, open concrete and vacuum it as we go.
- Cut out and fill cracks, patch pot holes and treat the joints so they do not reappear.
- Prime with the right primer for the moisture reading, not a standard one on every floor.
- Apply the coats, with aggregate broadcast for grip where the floor gets wet.
- Coat the skirtings and edges, then mark bays, walkways and machine lines once cured.
4 steps
How long does it take to paint or resin coat a floor?
You get in touch
Tell us the area in square metres, what drives or stands on the floor, and whether it gets washed. We answer the same day.
We test and look
Moisture reading, existing coating, cracks and falls to any drain. Then a written price naming the actual system we will use.
We coat it
Clear, grind, repair, prime, coat. We work around your shifts and tell you exactly when the floor can take foot traffic again.
You sign it off
We mark the lines, hand over the cleaning instructions and the product data, and leave the guarantee in writing.
next door
What goes around it
A resin floor is usually the last step in turning a rough space into a working one.
asked
Floor painting: common questions
My old garage paint is peeling. Can you go over it?
No, and anyone who says yes is buying themselves a call back. Whatever is loose has to come off, which is what the grinder is for. Once we are back to sound concrete we can tell you whether the old coating failed from moisture or from poor preparation, and pick the system accordingly.
How long before I can use it?
Walk on it after about a day, park a car after two to three days, and give it a week before heavy traffic, forklifts or chemical cleaning. Cold weather stretches those times, so we give you the actual dates for your floor rather than the numbers off the tin.
Will it be slippy?
A plain gloss resin is slippy when wet, so anywhere that sees water, a wash bay, a ramp, a kitchen or a doorway in from the rain, gets aggregate broadcast into the coat for grip. You choose how coarse: fine enough to mop easily, or heavy enough for a slope. We will recommend a level for each area.
How much does an epoxy garage floor cost?
The floor area, its condition (old paint, oil, cracks), whether it needs a moisture tolerant primer, and the system chosen (thin coat or thicker self levelling resin) set the price. We test the slab before we price.
Is epoxy floor paint better than normal floor paint?
For garages and workshops, yes. A two part epoxy or resin bonds to ground concrete and resists tyres, oil and chemicals, while a one part floor paint wears through and lifts under hot tyres within a season or two.
quote
Get a fixed quote for floor painting
Tell us the address, the area and what the floor has to put up with. We work across Kerry, Cork and Limerick. We ring you back within one working day. A photo of the worst corner helps.
085 220 1422 · info@althome.ie
Written by the AltHome crew. Last reviewed September 2026.