Flooring contractor in Berkeley, CA - coatings laid on a tested slab

Most of the floors we see in Berkeley are on older houses, and that shapes the job more than anything else. The garages are often small, tucked under the house, and the concrete has years of oil, old sealer and paint worked into it. Older slabs also tend to be poured with nothing under them to stop ground moisture, so a floor that looks dry can still push water up from below. That's why I test every slab for moisture and old coatings before we talk about colors, because most coatings that peel or bubble had a problem in the concrete before anyone opened a can.

Berkeley sits close to major earthquake faults, as the city's own building code staff have pointed out, and the slabs here usually show it in hairline and settling cracks. We grind those out and fill them before coating so they don't telegraph through the new floor. A coating won't hold a crack that's still moving, though, so if I see one that looks structural, I'll say so before we go further.

In Berkeley, building permits come from the city's Permit Service Center, which covers construction work and most repairs unless the city exempts the job. Permit questions come up at my estimate, and when a job needs one, we help you work through it with that office and do the work to what the permit asks, so the city's review simply sits ahead of our start date. Before you hire anyone, look up their license with the Contractors State License Board and ask whether they hold a Berkeley business license, which the city requires of every business working here, contractors pulling permits included. We're licensed and insured, and I'm glad to answer either question at the visit.

Most of the price on a Berkeley floor is in the prep, meaning how much old coating has to come off, how many cracks need filling, what the moisture test turns up and how big the floor is, and then which system you choose. The schedule turns on the same things plus cure time and any city review, and your estimate gives you your own figure. We're based in San Francisco and come across the Bay Bridge for East Bay work, so Berkeley jobs run alongside the floors we do in Oakland.

Berkeley runs from the flatlands near the bay up into the hills, and the floors we get called for change along the way. Down low it's a lot of older houses and duplexes with small garages, mixed in with workshops, studios and ground-floor shop spaces. Up in the hills, garages tend to sit under the house at the bottom of a steep driveway, and we plan for narrow streets and a longer carry with our gear.

We see the same kind of older, well-used slabs next door in Emeryville. Whatever the street, the age of the house and what's been spilled, painted or sealed on that concrete over the years decide how much prep your floor needs.