Quick answer: in Denver, a standard flake system on a bare, dry slab runs roughly $1,800 to $2,800 at 400 square feet, $2,000 to $3,750 at 600 square feet, and $3,000 to $6,000 at 1,000 square feet. A 2,400 square foot commercial floor at $5 to $12 per square foot lands between $12,000 and $28,800. Heavy prep, meaning a moisture primer plus crack repair or old coating removal, adds roughly $400 to $2,050 on the three smaller floors and $1,400 to $3,800 on the largest.
Once you have measured your floor, a per foot rate stops being useful and a total becomes the only number that matters. This guide prices four real footprints, each at two prep tiers, using the ranges we already publish for our epoxy garage floor service in Denver and in our cost guide. The figures are illustrative arithmetic, not a quote, and your slab may sit outside them. If you want to know what is inside a per foot price before you do the math, our breakdown of what builds an epoxy floor price per square foot takes one rate apart line by line.
The Four Footprints at a Glance
The table below prices each footprint twice. Standard prep assumes a sound, bare, dry slab that is diamond ground and cleaned. Heavy prep adds a moisture mitigation primer and the repair or old coating removal that our cost guide lists as an add-on.
| Floor Size | Typical Space | Standard Prep | Heavy Prep |
|---|---|---|---|
| 400 sq ft | Two car garage | $1,800 to $2,800 | $2,200 to $4,100 |
| 600 sq ft | Oversized garage or finished basement | $2,000 to $3,750 | $2,500 to $5,300 |
| 1,000 sq ft | Small shop, studio or large basement | $3,000 to $6,000 | $3,700 to $8,050 |
| 2,400 sq ft | Commercial floor, warehouse bay or large shop | $12,000 to $28,800 | $13,400 to $32,600 |
The first three rows are garage grade flake systems with a polyaspartic topcoat. The last row uses the commercial range of $5 to $12 per square foot, because a floor that size is almost always a shop or a commercial space with heavier traffic. Comparing the rows therefore shows two things at once: the per foot rate falling as a garage gets bigger, and the system class stepping up when the use changes.
How to Measure Your Floor, Including the Parts People Forget
Measure the area that will actually be coated, not the label on the building. Most two car garages fall between 380 and 440 square feet, commonly around twenty by twenty feet, but a bump out, a stair landing or a storage alcove can add or remove fifty square feet without anyone noticing.
Break an irregular floor into rectangles, measure each one, and add the results together. Averaging the overall length and width of an L-shaped or notched floor overstates the area, and an overstated area is a number that gets built into a quote. Then make three adjustments.
First, deduct permanent fixtures that will not be coated, such as a built-in workbench base or a floor drain cover. Second, add the places that are easy to forget: a landing at the house door, a utility closet, and the strip under a garage door threshold. Third, record the linear feet of wall if you want cove base, because that is priced by the foot of wall and not by the square foot of floor.
Write the measurements on a sketch and send it with your photos when you ask for a price. A contractor can then give you a number that holds up at the site visit, and you can check that every quote you collect is pricing the same area. Our guide to how to compare epoxy floor quotes covers the rest of that process.
400 Square Feet: A Standard Two Car Garage Priced Two Ways
A 400 square foot floor with standard prep costs about $1,800 to $2,800, which is the range we publish for a standard two car flake system. That works out to roughly $4.50 to $7.00 per square foot, the high end of the per foot spread because mobilization and setup are spread across a small area.
Heavy prep moves the total to about $2,200 to $4,100. The difference is two items. A moisture mitigation primer adds roughly $0.50 to $1.25 per square foot, or about $200 to $500 across 400 square feet. Crack or spall repair and old coating removal add another $200 to $800 or more, depending on severity.
Which tier you land in depends on the slab, not on how the garage looks. A newer Denver garage with a clean, bare slab usually prices at standard prep. An older slab with freeze-thaw cracking, de-icer staining or a failed previous coating usually does not. A moisture vapor test settles the question for moisture, using either a calcium chloride test under ASTM F1869 or an in-situ relative humidity probe under ASTM F2170. We explain both in our guide to concrete slab moisture before coating.
If you are choosing between one bay and several, bay count is a different way to read the same pricing. Our comparison of single car and multi car garage epoxy cost frames the totals by the number of vehicles instead of by area.
600 Square Feet: An Oversized Garage or a Finished Basement
A 600 square foot floor with standard prep costs about $2,000 to $3,750, which is the range our cost guide lists for a standard flake system in the 600 to 750 square foot size band. At exactly 600 square feet that is roughly $3.33 to $6.25 per square foot, already below the 400 square foot rate.
With heavy prep the total rises to about $2,500 to $5,300. The moisture primer accounts for roughly $300 to $750 of that, and repair or coating removal for the remaining $200 to $800 or more.
Finished basements deserve a note, because they behave differently from garages. A basement slab sits against the soil, so moisture is the first question, and many basement floors end up in the heavy prep column for that reason alone. Denver's clay soils hold water, and vapor moves upward through the slab. If the floor in question is below grade, test before you price. Our basement epoxy floor service in Denver page explains how basement systems are specified.
A 600 square foot garage, such as a three car bay or a deep two car with a workshop end, is simpler. It usually prices at standard prep unless the slab has damage. The per foot rate is lower than at 400 square feet because the crew mobilizes once and works across a larger continuous area.
1,000 Square Feet: A Small Shop, Studio or Large Basement
A 1,000 square foot floor with standard prep costs about $3,000 to $6,000, from the 900 to 1,200 square foot band in our cost guide. That is roughly $3.00 to $6.00 per square foot, the lowest per foot spread of the garage grade rows.
Heavy prep brings the total to about $3,700 to $8,050. The primer alone adds roughly $500 to $1,250 at this size, and a floor this large has more room for cracks, joints and old coating, so the $200 to $800 repair figure is a starting point. Treat the high end of the heavy prep range as a real possibility for an older slab.
This is also the size where the use of the space starts to change the specification. A hobby shop with a few vehicles can stay on a garage grade flake system. A studio, a small retail space or a shop with equipment and rolling loads usually calls for a heavier build, which moves the price toward the commercial range of $5 to $12 per square foot, or $5,000 to $12,000 at 1,000 square feet. Tell the installer how the floor will be used, because it changes the system and therefore the number. Our commercial epoxy flooring in Denver page covers what changes when a floor carries business traffic.
2,400 Square Feet and Above: Where Economies of Scale Take Over
A 2,400 square foot commercial floor costs about $12,000 to $28,800 at the published commercial range of $5 to $12 per square foot. With heavy prep, including a moisture primer at $0.50 to $1.25 per square foot, the total runs about $13,400 to $32,600. Repair on a floor this size is often well above the $200 to $800 starting figure, so ask for it to be itemized after the site walk.
The spread on this row is wide because the range covers very different systems. A light-duty storage floor and a forklift-rated production floor can both be 2,400 square feet and sit at opposite ends of the range. The use, the traffic and the chemicals decide where a project lands, which is why a commercial price is normally set after an assessment and not from a rate card.
On the large end, the per foot rate keeps falling for a while and then flattens. Spreading mobilization and setup across more area helps most between a small garage and about 1,000 square feet. Past a few thousand square feet the rate is driven mostly by material and labor, and it stops falling much. Our cost guide puts forklift-rated warehouse floors at 5,000 square feet and above at $5 to $8 per square foot, and our warehouse epoxy flooring cost per square foot guide breaks that range down by traffic level.
Large floors are also where scheduling matters. A floor that must stay in use is coated in sections, and each section is a separate mobilization. That is a real cost, and it is the reason to say so up front when you request a price.
What Falls Outside Every One of These Figures
A square footage price assumes a sound, bare, dry slab with nothing unusual about access. Several items are normally separate, and they are the ones most likely to surprise you.
| Item | Why It Is Separate |
|---|---|
| Moisture mitigation | Needed only when a test fails; priced per square foot |
| Old coating removal | Labor and equipment, priced by area or by the job |
| Crack and spall repair | Depends on severity; structural cracks are routed and injected |
| Cove base | Priced by the linear foot of wall |
| Integral drains | Detailed by hand and tied into the coating |
| Line striping and markings | Added after the coating cures |
| Minimum charge | Jobs under about 300 square feet often carry a minimum fee of $800 to $1,200 |
Moisture is the item to take seriously. A slab that fails a calcium chloride test under ASTM F1869 or an in-situ probe test under ASTM F2170 will blister a coating however well everything else is done. Surface profile matters too: a floor ground to the wrong concrete surface profile will not hold a thick system, which is why we explain it in our guide to epoxy floor prep and concrete surface profile.
Once you have a total in mind, check it against our full epoxy flooring cost guide for Denver, which covers pricing by system type, from flake to metallic to urethane cement. Then send your measurements and photos to us for a written, itemized quote.
Frequently Asked Questions
Most two car garages fall between 380 and 440 square feet, commonly around twenty by twenty feet. Measure the actual slab rather than relying on the label, and include any bump out, stair landing or storage alcove that will also be coated.
Yes, steeply at first and then it flattens. Spreading mobilization and setup across more area helps most between a small garage and about 1,000 square feet. Past a few thousand square feet the rate is driven mostly by material and labor and stops falling much.
Moisture mitigation, removal of an existing coating, significant crack or spall repair, cove base, integral drains and line striping are all normally separate. A per foot figure assumes a sound, bare, dry slab with nothing unusual about access.
Break it into rectangles, measure each one, and add them together rather than averaging the overall length and width. Deduct permanent fixtures that will not be coated, and note any step or threshold since those are detailed separately.
Most installers have a job minimum that covers mobilization, equipment and the smallest practical material order. For very small areas such as a single bay, a landing or a utility room, you are often paying that minimum rather than a true area based price.