Peeling, chipping, or lifting coatings need more than a fresh topcoat. Gatineau Concrete removes the failed system entirely, repairs any damage in the slab below, and installs a new coating with the prep work done right this time. The result holds because the foundation is sound.
When a garage floor coating peels or lifts within a season or two, the coating itself is rarely the culprit. The slab underneath was sealed, dusty, or moisture-laden when the original installer rolled on the product. Without mechanical grinding or shot-blasting to open the concrete surface, the coating cannot bond. It sits on top like paint on plastic, and the first hot tire or pressure wash lifts it.
Fixing this means stripping the failed epoxy or polyaspartic coating back to bare concrete. Cracks and spalls in the slab are then routed, filled, and profiled. Moisture is tested. Only then does the new system go down, primer, body, topcoat, in the right sequence and temperature.
The second time, the garage floor coating bonds because the substrate is prepared. Some homeowners choose a polished concrete finish instead, eliminating the coating altogether. Either way, the repair is real.
Recent work
The repair sequence
How Garage Floor Repair Gets Done Right
Diagnose the failure mode
We inspect the garage with you, identify whether the coating is peeling, chipping, lifting from moisture, or showing hot-tire pickup, and determine what substrate is sound enough to keep.
Strip the failed coating
Mechanical grinding or shot-blasting removes the old coating down to bare concrete, eliminating any half-bonded material that would cause the new system to fail the same way.
Repair and profile the slab
Cracks are routed and filled with repair mortars, pitted or spalled areas are patched, moisture is tested, and the surface is ground to the right profile for the new coating to grip.
Install the new system
The new coating, whether epoxy, polyaspartic, or polished, goes on as a complete system with primer, body, and topcoat applied in the right order and at the right temperature for full cure.
Choosing the rebuild
What Coating System Works Best for the Repair
Once the slab is prepped and ready, the choice of coating depends on your use and timeline. Epoxy is the proven standard, tough and affordable, but takes time to cure. Polyaspartic cures in hours, letting you park in the garage by the next day. Metallic epoxy adds visual depth if appearance matters. Polished concrete eliminates coatings altogether, grinding the slab itself to a sealed, low-sheen finish.
Many homeowners who had a failed coating the first time switch systems on the rebuild. If the original epoxy failed because the garage is too busy or too damp, polyaspartic or polished may be the better choice. We assess the failure and recommend what will actually hold in your space.
Why coatings fail, what stripping involves, and how to avoid repeating the same mistake.
Almost always because the slab was not mechanically prepped before the coating went on. Coatings rolled over a sealed or dusty slab cannot bond, and they peel at the tires within a season. The fix is to strip back and prep properly the second time.
No, and no honest installer would. A coat over a peeling coating just delays failure; the new coat lifts wherever the old one is lifting. Real repair strips back to bare concrete first, then rebuilds the system properly.
Depends on why the first one failed and how you use the garage. Often the original choice was right, just installed wrong. Sometimes a different system, polyaspartic or polished, is the better fit for the use.
Yes. Cracks are routed and filled, spalled and pitted areas are patched with repair mortars matched to the coating that will go over, and the surface is profiled fresh so the new system bonds to sound substrate.
Usually a few days from strip-back through new install, depending on coating type and cure windows. Polyaspartic rebuilds finish in about a day; epoxy takes longer to fully cure for vehicles.
Homeowner reviews
What Gatineau Homeowners Say About Their Garage Floor Repairs
Previous epoxy peeled by the door within months. They ground it all back, prepped right, and re-installed the same brand of product. Two years later still solid where the original lasted one season.
S. T.
Gatineau
★★★★★
Switched from a basic epoxy to polyaspartic during the repair because we cannot afford the downtime again. Done in a day this time, has held up perfectly.
C. L.
Kanata
★★★★★
Honest assessment that the failure was prep, not product. Repair was thorough, the new floor bonds to the slab like it should have the first time.
L. A.
Nepean
★★★★★
Stripped the failed metallic coating and went polished instead. No more coatings to worry about, the slab itself is the finish now.
N. O.
Ottawa
From the blog
Concrete Guides & Articles
Practical reading on planning, finishes and caring for concrete in Gatineau.
Tell us what is happening with your coating, peeling, chipping, lifting, or staining. We will assess it free, diagnose what went wrong, and provide a written repair quote with no obligation.
