Epoxy Flooring in Fairfax, IA

Fairfax is a commuter town, and that matters for epoxy flooring. Wikipedia places it on U.S. Route 151 about 7 miles southwest of downtown Cedar Rapids. Most people here drive to work every day, in every kind of weather. A highway that gets treated all winter sends a steady supply of brine back home on every car. Bare garage concrete in Fairfax sees that salt twice a day for months at a time.

Built mostly since 2000

Fairfax was a small town until recently. Wikipedia lists 889 residents in 2000 and 2,828 in 2020, with housing units rising from 336 to 1,127. Point2Homes, using 2019 to 2023 Census survey data, shows a median year built of 2004. About 38.9% of homes were built from 2000 to 2009 and 21.5% from 2010 to 2019. Most of these homes have attached two- or three-stall garages that have been parked in and salted for 10 to 20 winters. That is often when we start seeing the first scaling at the door and in the tire paths.

Catch it early

The best time to coat a garage is before the surface breaks down. On a newer Fairfax slab with light scaling, prep is usually grinding, filling the worst pits and filling or detailing the control joints. If the slab waits several more winters, pits get deeper and there is more to patch. Signs it is time:

• A rough, sandy patch just inside the overhead door
• White salt rings that come back after every thaw
• Fine dust on the floor that never sweeps clean
• Small pop-outs where stone shows through

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The railroad town underneath

Fairfax has an older core too. Wikipedia says the town was laid out in 1863 when the railroad was extended to the site, and it was named after Fairfax County, Virginia. Point2Homes shows 8.4% of today's homes were built in 1939 or earlier. Those older houses often have a detached garage or an outbuilding with a thinner slab. We look at drainage, cracks and any old paint before we suggest a system.

What we usually install here

For commuter garages we lean toward an epoxy flake floor with a polyaspartic topcoat. The flakes hide salt film between rinses, and the polyaspartic layer holds up well to hot tires and abrasion. For a family that needs both stalls back quickly, a full polyaspartic floor coating can shorten the time before you can park. We also coat basements in Fairfax, with a moisture test first on every one.

Families and owners

Point2Homes lists 92.4% of Fairfax homes as owner-occupied, and Wikipedia's 2020 figures show 36.3% of households with children under 18. In practice that means garages full of bikes, sports gear and a second fridge. We plan where those things go during the job and give you a written time for when the floor can take them back.

Outbuildings and shop space

Some Fairfax properties on the edge of town have a pole barn, a detached garage or a workshop. Those floors handle mowers, tools, fluids and sometimes a small tractor. Our shop and commercial floor epoxy is a thicker, chemical-resistant system made for that kind of use. We check the slab for cracks and settling first, since heavy equipment on a cracked slab can make the cracks worse.