Garage, basement and commercial floor coatings installed over concrete we grind open and moisture test first, with the system written into your proposal.
Brookfield Epoxy Flooring brings 20+ years of epoxy flooring and concrete coating work to homes and businesses in Brookfield, WI and across Waukesha and Milwaukee counties. We install epoxy garage floors, basement floor coatings, polyaspartic and flake systems, metallic epoxy, polished concrete, and commercial, industrial, kitchen and ESD floors, and we repair and grind the concrete underneath them.
Every floor starts with the slab rather than the coating. We grind or shot blast the concrete open, test it for moisture, read its cracks and joints, and only then write a proposal naming the product, the system build and the finished thickness. That proposal is how you check what went down against what was quoted.
Most coating failures we are called to look at were decided before the first coat was rolled: a slab that was etched instead of ground, a basement that was never tested, a garage coated in a cold snap. Our process is built to take those decisions out of the guesswork column.
What we do
Epoxy flooring and concrete coatings for Brookfield, WI homes and businesses
Epoxy garage floors over ground, moisture-tested concrete, with flake or solid finishes and polyaspartic topcoats built for Wisconsin road salt.
Polished concrete for stores, warehouses, offices and basements, ground and densified from the slab itself with no coating to peel.
Fast-curing, UV-stable polyaspartic floor coatings for garages, basements and commercial floors that need to return to service quickly.
Basement floor epoxy over a ground, moisture-tested slab, for rec rooms, gyms, laundry rooms and workshops, with no false waterproofing promises.
Marbled metallic epoxy floors for finished basements, showpiece garages, showrooms and offices, hand-worked over a smooth, prepared slab.
Crack, spall, joint and salt-scaling repair for garage, basement and commercial slabs, plus a straight answer when a slab needs replacing.
Epoxy and polyaspartic floors for offices, retail, clinics, dealerships and showrooms, scheduled around the hours your building must stay open.
Full-broadcast vinyl flake epoxy floors in custom blends for garages, basements, shops and commercial spaces, sealed under a clear topcoat.
Diamond grinding and shot blasting to strip old coatings, adhesive and sealers and profile concrete for coatings, overlays or polishing.
Static-dissipative and conductive epoxy floors for electronics assembly, labs, server rooms and clean spaces, grounded and resistance tested.
High-build epoxy, urethane cement and joint systems for warehouses, manufacturing floors and shops carrying forklifts, racking and chemicals.
Urethane cement and resin kitchen floors with integral coved bases and sloped drainage, planned around county plan review and hot washdown.
Brookfield Epoxy Flooring has more than twenty years behind it in floor coatings and concrete preparation. That time is where our habits come from: grinding instead of etching, testing before coating, and telling an owner plainly when a slab needs repair or replacement before anything goes over it.
No slab of ours gets acid etched. Each one is opened with a diamond grinder or shot blaster to a measured ICRI surface profile, matched to the product going on it, so the epoxy bonds into sound concrete rather than sitting on sealer, paint or laitance the way a rinse-and-roll job does.
Every basement and garage scope carries moisture testing as its own line, because Wisconsin’s dwelling code does not require a vapor retarder under an unconditioned attached garage slab. A dry-looking Brookfield floor can still push vapor, so we measure it first rather than finding out from a blister the following summer.
Garage systems are specified for the calcium chloride brine and rock salt that ride in on tires through a Brookfield winter, so the coating seals the surface those deicers would otherwise soak into and scale. A thin roll-on paint wears through at the tire lanes first, which is exactly where the salt sits.
Each proposal names the product, the system build and the finished thickness, and every home job gets a written contract with the products and any warranty in it before a deposit is taken. Warranty exclusions are read out before the job is sold, with moisture from below named first, rather than discovered in a claim.
Before a job is scheduled we ask City of Brookfield Inspection Services, or the village inspector, whether it needs a permit, because finishing a basement and coating a floor are different questions in this city. Restaurant floors are planned around Waukesha County Environmental Health plan review instead of a guess about who inspects them.
A garage job starts with a walk of the slab: cracks, spalls, old coatings, drains and how the floor slopes to the door. On install day we grind, repair, prime and build the system, then broadcast and topcoat it. You get a cure schedule in writing, so you know when to walk on it and when the car comes back in.
Epoxy holds by gripping a profile in the concrete, and a sealed, painted or troweled-smooth slab offers nothing to grip. We diamond grind or shot blast to an ICRI CSP profile suited to the system, which also removes old sealers. A coating rolled over sealed concrete looks fine for a season and then peels in sheets where the tires turn.
Wisconsin’s dwelling code addresses vapor retarders under floors in SPS 322.38, and that section carries an exception for an unconditioned attached garage. That means many local garage slabs sit on fill with nothing stopping ground moisture. We run an ASTM D4263 plastic sheet test or an ASTM F1869 calcium chloride test before coating rather than trusting how the floor looks.
SPS 321.203 asks for a garage floor of concrete or another noncombustible material, impermeable to petroleum products, at least 4 inches thick over 4 inches of granular fill and sloped to drain. It says nothing about sealing or coating. We work with that slope rather than against it, so meltwater still runs to the door after the floor is coated.
A slab with settled sections, heaved joints or wide structural cracks is a concrete job before it is a coating job, and we will tell you so. Brookfield’s permit table lists garages and structural alterations as permitted work, so if repair turns into replacement we ask City of Brookfield Inspection Services first rather than pouring around the question.
Calcium chloride brine and rock salt soak into bare concrete with the meltwater, and repeated freeze-thaw cycles then scale and pit the surface near the door and under the tires. A coated floor keeps that brine on top, where it can be squeegeed out. We choose chip size and topcoat so salt residue cleans off rather than sitting in the texture.
The NOAA climate normal for the Brookfield station counts about 149 nights a year at or below freezing, and a cold slab slows or stalls a coating’s cure. We check slab temperature and the dew point spread at the surface before mixing. An unheated garage in January usually waits for spring, and we say so up front.
Hot tire pickup happens when road-warmed tires soften a coating and then grab it as they cool, lifting patches where you park. Trade sources tie it mostly to product choice, film build, surface prep and cure rather than the tire. We build garage systems with full-cure epoxy and polyaspartic topcoats at proper thickness for that reason.
Concrete holds air, and as a slab warms during a coat it can breathe that air up through wet resin, leaving bubbles and pinholes. We prime to seal the surface and time coats as the slab temperature falls rather than rises. Rolling a single thick coat onto a warming floor in afternoon sun is how most pinholed garages start.
Store kits are usually water-based epoxy with an acid etch packet, applied at a fraction of a professional film build. We grind instead of etching, test for moisture, repair cracks, and install 100% solids epoxy and polyaspartic layers at a stated thickness. The difference shows up at the tire lanes within a winter or two.
The price follows the square footage, the condition of the slab, the amount of crack and spall repair, the system chosen and how much flake goes into the broadcast. A full-broadcast flake floor with a polyaspartic topcoat costs more than a solid color coat. Your proposal lists each item, so two quotes can be compared line by line.
Before any color is chosen for a basement floor, we test the slab. An ASTM F2170 in-situ relative humidity probe or a calcium chloride test tells us how much vapor is moving up. ASTM F710 puts the usual limits at 3 pounds per 1,000 square feet in 24 hours or 75% relative humidity, and above them we specify a moisture-mitigation primer.
In a humid Wisconsin summer, warm air meets a basement slab held cool by the ground, and water condenses right on the surface. That is a dew point problem, not a leak, and it affects how a coating cures. We read the dew point spread at the slab before applying, and run dehumidification when the margin is too thin.
Groundwater pressing up under a slab can push vapor and dissolved salts through concrete that looks dry. Under a coating that pressure has nowhere to go, so it lifts the film in blisters. We test for it, ask about seasonal water, and do not coat a slab that is actively taking water until the drainage side is solved.
Efflorescence is mineral salt carried to the surface by moisture moving through concrete, then left behind as the water evaporates. It is a sign that vapor is moving. We grind it off, test the slab, and decide whether a moisture-mitigation primer is needed, because a coating laid over efflorescence lets go wherever the salts keep arriving.
Edges are where basement coatings start to fail: around the sump pit, at floor drains and along the foundation wall. We grind right to the wall, detail the drains, and terminate the coating cleanly at the sump basin rather than lapping into it. Water pooling at an edge should run off the coating, not under it.
The City of Brookfield requires a building permit for a recreation room, with a fee of $0.45 per square foot, a $70 minimum and a $125 non-refundable plan exam fee. The city handout says nothing about the floor itself. When a coating is part of a basement finish, we schedule it around the permit and its inspections.
A basement used as a gym takes dropped weights, a playroom takes spills, and a workshop takes oil and rolling tool chests. We match the system to the room: a thicker build or rubber mat zone for lifting, a textured topcoat for wet play areas, and a chemical-resistant coat where solvents and oil land.
Some coating sellers suggest that sealing a basement floor helps with radon, and we hear the question often. We do not sell a coating as radon reduction. A coated floor does not replace a mitigation system, and if a test calls for one, that work belongs to a radon specialist rather than a flooring crew.
Nearly every coating warranty excludes failures caused by moisture vapor or hydrostatic pressure from below the slab. We read that exclusion out loud before you sign, along with anything else in the product terms. Testing first is how we avoid putting you in the position that clause was written for.
A vinyl flake floor is a resin base with colored chips broadcast into it, then sealed under a clear topcoat. Chip size and blend change the look: quarter-inch chips read busy and hide dirt, while larger chips give a bolder pattern. Full broadcast covers the base completely and adds texture underfoot that partial broadcast lacks.
A metallic epoxy floor uses pigments that float and swirl in a clear resin, creating a marbled, depth-of-field look. It takes a near-perfect substrate, careful mixing and hand manipulation while the resin is still workable. We grind and patch the slab smooth first, because every flaw underneath shows through a metallic surface.
Polished concrete is the slab itself, ground through progressive diamond grits, hardened with a lithium silicate densifier and polished to a sheen. How deep we grind decides how much aggregate shows, from a cream finish to full stone exposure. We test-grind a small area first so you see the slab’s real character before committing.
Gloss reflects light and makes a garage brighter, but shows dust, footprints and tire marks. Satin and matte finishes hide them better and give a more subdued look. We help pick the sheen by how the room is used and lit, since a high-gloss showroom and a working shop want different finishes.
A quartz aggregate broadcast embeds colored quartz in the resin, building texture and slip resistance in the same step as color. It suits wet areas, ramps and commercial spaces where traction matters. We set the grit and topcoat count by how slippery the floor can afford to be and how easy it needs to be to clean.
A solid color coat is the simplest system: a ground slab, a primer and one or two pigmented epoxy or polyaspartic coats. It suits shops, storage areas and utility rooms where the floor’s job is to be bright and easy to sweep. We still grind and test first, because a plain coating fails the same way a fancy one does.
Many epoxies yellow, or amber, under sunlight from an open garage door or a window. Polyaspartic and polyurea topcoats resist UV and hold their color. Where a floor sees daylight we finish with a UV-stable topcoat over the epoxy base, so the color you picked is still the color on the floor a few summers later.
Saw-cut lines can divide a polished or coated floor into a grid, borders can frame a showroom, and logos can be laid into a coating for a business or a home gym. We lay these out before any coating is mixed, since a clean decorative line depends on the substrate being cut and prepared correctly first.
A commercial floor brings traffic counts, chemicals, schedules and inspectors a garage never sees. We start with how the space is used, what rolls over it and when it can be closed, then specify thickness, texture and topcoat for that use. A plan built around the building’s hours matters as much as the product.
A dealership service lane on Capitol Drive takes road-warm tires all day, with write-up and service opening at seven in the morning six days a week. That leaves overnight and Sunday as working windows. We use fast-cure polyaspartic and polyurea topcoats so a service drive is back in use by opening.
Brookfield’s industrial and office parks hold warehouse, assembly and showroom floors carrying carts, lifts and pallet racking. We specify thicker 100% solids epoxy builds or urethane cement where loads and impact demand them, and plan the work around racking and production rather than asking a business to empty its floor.
Control joints in a warehouse slab chip at the edges once hard wheels start crossing them. We fill those joints with a semirigid joint filler before coating, so the edges are supported and cart wheels roll smooth. A coating bridged over an open joint cracks along that line the first time the slab moves.
In the City of Brookfield, restaurant floors fall under Waukesha County Environmental Health, not a city health department. A remodel can trigger county plan review, with the application asked for 30 days before construction. We plan kitchen floors with the 4-inch coved base and floors sloped to drain, the junction FDA Food Code 6-201.13 addresses.
Commercial kitchens that wash down with hot water and steam put a floor through thermal shock that ordinary epoxy can crack or delaminate under. Urethane cement handles that heat cycling and the fats and acids of food prep. We use it where hot washdown is daily, and save epoxy systems for dry back-of-house rooms.
A clinic or medical office cannot close for a week, so its floor is planned around patient hours. We phase the work room by room, use low-odor, fast-cure systems, and finish with seamless, cleanable surfaces suited to frequent disinfection. Each phase is scheduled so the next morning’s appointments can go ahead.
Retail tenant spaces and the back-of-house floors behind a shopping center storefront take carts, pallets and constant foot traffic. We work around store hours and landlord rules, using polished concrete or a durable coating suited to the traffic. Receiving areas get texture for wet days and joint filling where hand trucks roll.
Electronics assembly and server areas need floors that bleed static charge away in a controlled way. ESD and static-dissipative coatings carry conductive materials and a grounding system, and each is specified to a resistance range rather than a look. We install to the range your process calls for and verify it with a meter.
Grinding throws off dust and, on wet jobs, a gray slurry of concrete fines. We collect dust with vacuums at the grinder and gather slurry on site for disposal. Brookfield’s sanitary flow splits between MMSD and the city’s Fox River Water Pollution Control Center, which runs an industrial pretreatment program, so nothing goes down a floor drain.
Wisconsin has no state rule of its own for VOCs in architectural coatings. The federal 40 CFR 59 Subpart D rule sets the limits, and it binds the manufacturers and importers who make and sell the product. Brookfield also sits in the Milwaukee 2015 ozone nonattainment area, so we favor low-VOC systems on occupied jobs.
Offices, retail, clinics and dealerships often cannot close during business hours. We schedule grinding, coating and cure overnight or over a weekend, so the building opens on time. Fast-cure systems and a written timeline let a manager plan around the work rather than lose a day of business to it.
Brookfield Epoxy Flooring provides epoxy-flooring throughout the greater Brookfield area, with the same crews and the same standards on every job.
Good to know
It depends on the slab and the system. Grinding, crack repair and the base coat come first, then the broadcast and topcoat, and fast-cure polyaspartic systems shorten the schedule. Your proposal states the working days and when you can walk and park on the floor, taken from the product's cure data, which a cold slab stretches.
No. Every floor we coat is opened mechanically with a diamond grinder or a shot blaster, because acid etching leaves an uneven profile and residue that a coating can fail on. Grinding also removes sealers and old paint that etching cannot touch.
Yes. Moisture testing is written into the scope as its own line on garage and basement slabs alike, using a plastic sheet check, calcium chloride emission testing or in-situ relative humidity probes depending on the floor. We would rather find moisture before the coating than explain a blister after it.
The City of Brookfield's permit list does not name floor coatings, but a rec-room finish does need a building permit, and garage and structural work can too. We ask City of Brookfield Inspection Services, or the village inspector outside the city, before a job is scheduled rather than guessing.
A 100% solids epoxy builds thickness and bonds hard to ground concrete but cures slowly and ambers in sunlight. A polyaspartic topcoat cures in hours, holds its color under UV and stays workable at colder slab temperatures. Many of our garage systems use both: an epoxy base with a polyaspartic top.
No, and we will not sell it as if it would. A coating is not a waterproofing system and it is not radon mitigation. When testing shows moisture vapor above what a standard system tolerates, we specify a moisture-mitigation primer, and when water is actually entering, that problem gets fixed before any floor goes down.
Every coating warranty we have seen excludes failures caused by moisture from below, and we read that exclusion out before the job is sold, along with any others in the product's terms. The products and the warranty are written into the contract, so you know what is covered before you pay a deposit.
Sometimes. We schedule curing against the slab temperature and the dew point at its surface, not the calendar. A heated garage can be done most of the year, while an unheated one may have to wait for spring, and we will say so rather than lay down a coating that cannot cure.
Yes. Offices, retail spaces, clinics and dealership service drives are scheduled around the hours the building has to stay open, which often means overnight or weekend windows. Fast-cure polyaspartic and polyurea topcoats help a floor return to service the next morning.
Our grinders run with dust collection, and wet slurry is gathered on site and disposed of rather than rinsed into a floor drain or storm sewer. Brookfield's sanitary flow goes to MMSD on the east side and to the city's own Fox River Water Pollution Control Center on the west, and neither should receive concrete fines.
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