What is the cost to epoxy coat a single-car Ottawa garage floor

Epoxy Coating Cost for a Single-Car Ottawa Garage

A single-car garage in Ottawa typically has a floor area of 180 to 250 square feet, and professional epoxy coating for that space costs between $1,200 and $3,000 installed. The per-square-foot rate for a single-car garage tends to be slightly higher than larger garages — usually $6 to $13 per square foot — because the fixed costs of mobilization, equipment setup, diamond grinding, and surface preparation are spread across fewer square feet.

At the lower end ($1,200 to $1,800), you are looking at a solid-colour 100 percent solids epoxy with basic surface preparation and a single clear topcoat. This is a clean, durable finish that will protect your concrete from road salt, oil drips, and freeze-thaw damage for 7 to 10 years with proper maintenance. At the mid-range ($1,800 to $2,400), a flake epoxy system with diamond grinding, crack repair, a pigmented base coat, full flake broadcast, and a polyaspartic or urethane clear topcoat delivers excellent durability plus built-in slip resistance from the flake texture. At the high end ($2,400 to $3,000+), decorative metallic epoxy or a premium polyaspartic system with extensive concrete repair provides a showroom-quality finish.

Surface preparation is a significant portion of the cost on a single-car garage, often accounting for 30 to 40 percent of the total. Diamond grinding the entire floor, filling cracks with epoxy filler, repairing spalled areas, and performing moisture testing are non-negotiable steps in Ottawa's climate. If your garage floor has serious damage — deep spalling, heaving from frost, or large cracks from settlement — concrete repair costs can add $2 to $5 per square foot on top of the coating cost, potentially pushing a single-car garage to $3,500 or more.

Many Ottawa homeowners with a single-car garage consider DIY epoxy kits, which cost $150 to $400 from hardware stores. While the price is tempting, these kits use water-based epoxy that produces a film thickness of only 3 to 5 mils — about one-third the thickness of a professional 100 percent solids application. In Ottawa's climate, where your garage floor endures road salt, snowmelt, and over 50 freeze-thaw cycles per year, a thin DIY coating typically begins peeling within one to three winters. The cost to strip a failed DIY coating and recoat professionally runs $3 to $5 per square foot more than if the floor had been done professionally the first time.

Timing matters for your budget too. Scheduling your epoxy project in late fall or early spring — just outside the peak season — can sometimes get you better pricing, as many contractors are looking to fill gaps in their schedule. Just ensure temperatures in your unheated garage stay above 10 degrees Celsius for the full cure period. For specific quotes on your single-car garage, reaching out to flooring contractors listed in the Ottawa Construction Network directory at justynrookcontracting.com will give you a clear picture of current pricing.

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Looking for experienced contractors? The Ottawa Construction Network connects Ottawa homeowners with qualified professionals:

• 613Bins
• RenoMotion Inc.
• Demontigny Carpentry
• Titley Construction
• Carpet Experts