Most flooring horror stories start the same way: nobody explained what was supposed to happen, so the homeowner had no way to know when something was going wrong. We would rather you know exactly what a professional epoxy flooring install looks like before we ever show up in Fort Lauderdale. This is the process we run on every job in Broward, start to finish.

Step 1: The Site Visit

We come look at the actual floor. Not photos, not a square-footage number over the phone. Slab condition decides everything in this trade: cracks, old coatings, oil contamination, previous patch jobs, and moisture all change what system goes down and what prep it needs.

On the walk we measure, we look at drainage and sun exposure, and on any slab where moisture is a question we schedule a vapor test. Fort Lauderdale sits low and wet, much of the city is a few feet above sea level, and slabs near the Intracoastal carry more ground moisture than inland concrete in Broward County. Testing first is how we make sure the system we quote is the system your slab actually needs.

Step 2: A Fixed Written Quote

After the walk you get a written scope: the exact system (primer, base, broadcast, topcoat), the prep work included, the schedule, and one number. Not a range that grows later. If we find something on the walk that adds work, like a failed old coating that has to be ground off, it is in the quote up front, priced, in writing.

We are licensed and insured, and we say so in the paperwork because Florida law gives you the right to check. You can verify any contractor through the Florida DBPR license portal. We encourage it. The contractors who get weird about license questions are the ones you were right to ask.

Step 3: Surface Preparation

Prep day is loud and dusty and it is the most important day of the project. We diamond-grind the entire slab with dust-extracted machines, which opens the concrete so the primer can soak in and bond. Old coatings, paint, curing compounds, and contamination come off. Cracks and spalls get cut out and filled with repair mortar. Expansion joints get honored, not buried.

If your slab tested wet in Step 1, this is when the vapor-blocking primer goes down. Skipping that step on a wet slab is the single most common cause of coating failure in South Florida, and it is invisible until the floor blisters a year later. We do not skip it.

Step 4: Installation

The system goes down in layers, each with its own cure window:

• Primer penetrates the open concrete and becomes the bond layer everything else rides on.
• Base coat carries the color. On a metallic epoxy floor this is where the effect work happens, moving pigment while the resin is live so the floor gets depth and movement no two installers could repeat.
• Broadcast, on flake systems, is thrown to full rejection so the texture is even wall to wall.
• Topcoat is the wear surface. Polyaspartic for fast turnaround and UV stability, urethane where chemical resistance leads. This layer is what your tires, chairs, and cleaning chemicals actually touch.

A standard two-car garage runs two days. Larger residential floors and commercial spaces get a schedule in the quote, and we phase sections when a business needs to keep operating.

Step 5: Cure and Walk-Through

Fast topcoats are typically walkable in 24 hours, furniture-ready in two to three days, and vehicle-ready within the window we put in writing for your specific system. Before we leave, we walk the floor with you. You see the finish in your own light, ask anything, and keep the care sheet that tells you what the floor needs, which is honestly not much.

Every install carries a written workmanship warranty. The terms live in the quote, not in a verbal promise, because a warranty you cannot point to is not a warranty.

Why We Work This Way

343 Epoxy is First Responder owned and operated. The habits transfer: show up when you said, run the checklist every time, do not improvise the safety-critical steps. A floor is not an emergency scene, but the discipline that builds trust is the same, and our repeat business from Fort Lauderdale down through Hollywood runs on it.

Want to see finished work before you call? The gallery has recent installs across Broward and Miami-Dade. When you are ready, request your site visit and we will get you on the schedule.

Where Fort Lauderdale Jobs Get Specific

Broward work has its own personality. The housing stock east of US-1 runs older, which means more layered floor history: tile over terrazzo over slab, decades of patch jobs, and the occasional surprise once the grinder opens things up. Our quotes flag the likely findings on the walk so the surprises are priced before they are discovered. West Broward runs newer and cleaner, but the slabs are younger too, and newer concrete carries more residual moisture, which is exactly what the testing step exists to catch.

Waterfront properties off the Intracoastal add the salt-air conversation for exterior work, and condo projects add board approvals and elevator logistics we handle routinely. None of this changes the sequence on this page. It changes the details inside each step, which is the entire argument for hiring a crew that works these zip codes every week instead of one that learned the trade somewhere dry.