Irving is a big city with a real mix: neighborhoods of family homes a short drive from the offices around Las Colinas, and plenty of shops and warehouses in between. Our calls from here follow that mix. Some come from homeowners tired of a stained, peeling garage floor, and others from business owners who need concrete that can take a beating. We're a flooring contractor based in Cedar Hill, TX. We come up through Grand Prairie to get here, the same way we head south for jobs in Midlothian.
Most houses here sit on a concrete slab poured right on the ground. In North Texas, a lot of those are post-tension slabs, which have steel cables pulled tight inside to hold the concrete together. Hot, dry summers and wet springs move the ground under them, so hairline cracks and old stains are normal. Most of an Irving job comes down to how much prep the slab needs before anything goes on it.
What sets the price and the timing
Three things move the price of an Irving floor: its size, the shape the concrete's in, and which finish you pick. A clean slab that only needs grinding costs less than one we have to work on first. That extra work covers deep cracks, oil that's soaked in, or an old coating we have to strip off. A decorative metallic or polished finish also takes more labor than a plain garage coating. Timing turns on that same prep, plus the weather and how soon you can clear the space. I come out, measure, look the slab over and write the estimate myself, so the number you get is for your floor.
Checking with the city before we start
In Irving, building permits come from the building official, who runs the city's Department of Inspections. The city's list of work that needs no permit covers painting, tiling, carpeting and similar finish work. It doesn't name floor coatings or concrete grinding, so I don't assume either way. Before we start, we check with the building office about your job, and if it calls for a permit, we take care of the paperwork. Keep in mind that being on the no-permit list doesn't let anyone skip the code. That's why we do the work to the same standard either way.
Getting your garage or shop ready
The most helpful thing you can do before we come is clear the floor completely, including cars, shelves and tool chests. We grind the whole surface, and we can't coat under what's sitting on it. We'll need room in the driveway for our equipment and access to power, and our grinders run with vacuums so the dust stays down. For a shop, kitchen or warehouse, tell me how the floor gets used. I'll want to know what rolls across it, what spills on it and how it gets cleaned. Those answers decide which system holds up and which one would let go.