Walk the slab. Everything depends on it
The most expensive habit in coating is quoting over the phone. A homeowner says "two car garage, pretty good shape". You give a number. Then you arrive to a failing roll on coating, six spalls and a freezer that has to be moved. Now you either eat the difference or have a conversation on the driveway that neither of you wanted.
Three questions have to be answered standing on the concrete.
- What is on the slab now? Bare concrete, sealed concrete, or an existing coating that has to come off. The third one is a different job, not the same job with a surcharge.
- How much repair? Walk it. Count the cracks and spalls. Each repair is minutes of work plus cure time, and cure time is schedule you cannot squeeze.
- Is there moisture? The expensive one. A slab with a vapor problem will lift a perfectly installed floor. Test it, or quote a test, but do not assume it away.
And measure. Do not take the homeowner’s square footage, and do not estimate from the driveway. The difference between a 400 and a 600 square foot garage is a third of your material and a real slice of your day.
Build the price before you write the proposal
The pricing is arithmetic, and it comes before the selling.
Material at your rate, plus the crew days it really takes on this slab, plus your loading and job costs. That is your direct cost. Then divide by one minus your overhead percentage minus your target margin. Divide. Do not add a percentage on top. Those two produce very different numbers, and the difference is most of your profit.
The full method is in what to charge for epoxy flooring, and the price calculator runs it. The point here is the order. Know your number before you start thinking about how to present it. Shops that price while they are selling end up pricing to the customer’s face instead of to their own costs.
Three options, built on real differences
One price is a yes or no question. And it is a yes or no question the customer takes to two other shops. Three options turns it into a which one question, and the change in close rate is not subtle.
Build the tiers on things that are really different and that the customer can see.
- System. Different base and topcoat, different expected life.
- Flake coverage. Partial broadcast versus full refusal. You can see the difference from the driveway.
- Topcoat. Standard versus the harder, more chemical and UV resistant option.
- Repair included. Up to a stated amount of crack and spall work, instead of an unknown that shows up later.
- Warranty. The quiet one. It sells more than most owners expect, and it costs nothing to offer on work you stand behind.
Two rules. Do not quote the same floor at three prices. Customers notice, and it costs you exactly the trust you needed to close. And make sure your margin holds across all three. The cheap option is a smaller job you can still make money on. Never the same job at a worse margin.
What goes on the page
Most coating disputes are not about price. They are about something nobody wrote down. The proposal is where you settle those in advance, in writing, while everybody is still friendly.
The scope
- Measured area, stated as a number
- System by name, including base, broadcast and topcoat
- Prep method. Say "diamond grinding", because the customer may be comparing you to somebody who is acid etching
- Repair included, with a stated limit
- Color or flake blend, agreed and named
The exclusions, in plain words
This section earns its space on the page every year.
- Moisture mitigation if testing finds a problem
- Repair past the stated limit
- Removing an existing coating you did not expect
- Moving the customer’s stuff. Name it, and name who moves it
- Anything that depends on power, water or access you have not confirmed
The practical details
- Cure times and return to service. Foot traffic and vehicle traffic are different dates, and this is the question you will be asked most
- What the customer has to do before you arrive, with a deadline
- Warranty term and what voids it
- Payment terms, deposit and when the balance is due
- Quote expiry date
Write change orders down, every time. "While you are here, can you do the walkway?" is the most expensive sentence on a coating job. It is almost always agreed verbally, done right away, and invoiced hopefully.
A written change order with a price, approved before the work happens, takes two minutes. It also removes an argument that would otherwise happen at invoicing, after the work is done and you have nothing left to trade.
Presenting it, and what not to do
Hand it over on site. You are still there for the questions, and you have not given the customer two days to collect comparisons without you in the room.
Walk them through the scope before the price. If the number is the first thing they see, it is the only thing they judge. If they understand what grinding is and why it matters, they have context when the number arrives.
Keep the square foot rate off the page. It is a costing tool, not a selling tool. Put it on the proposal and you invited a line by line comparison on the one axis where the cheapest bid always wins. It also makes small floors look unreasonable, because your setup time does not shrink with the floor.
Follow up more than once. Most quotes are not declined. They are forgotten. A shop with a follow up rule beats a shop with better looking proposals. Two or three touches over two weeks, and the expiry date gives you a reason for the last one.
When they say you are too expensive
Find out what the other quote includes before you move your number. The gap is usually scope, not greed. A different system. Less grinding. No patching. Thinner flake coverage. No warranty from a shop with no address.
Put the two scopes side by side and let the customer see what they are choosing between. Some will still take the cheaper one. That is a fine outcome. You lost to a different product instead of to your price.
What you must never do is quietly match the number by taking out work you did not tell them you took out. That is how a shop ends up doing a job for a price that does not cover it and owning the callback.
Discounting is worse than it looks too. At a 20 percent margin, 10 percent off the price takes half the profit, because your costs do not move and the whole discount comes out of margin.
If you need a lever, move scope, system or schedule. Never the margin.
Build the three options on the driveway
CoatHQ builds a scoped three option proposal on a phone while you are standing on the slab. Then it lands the real cost back on the job when it is done. See how the estimating engine works. Free to active Resinwerks partners.
Get the software free with ResinwerksCoatHQ is free to active Resinwerks partners. You buy the resin. No subscription and no platform fee. Resinwerks makes its money on resin, not on software.
Common questions
How do you quote a concrete coating job?
Walk the slab and measure it. Answer three questions before you price anything. What is on the concrete now, how much repair it needs, and whether there is a moisture problem. Then cost the floor from your own material, crew days and overhead, and present it as three scoped options instead of one number. Quoting from a phone call is guessing with a decimal point on it.
Should I quote on site or send it later?
On site whenever you can. A proposal handed over while you are standing on the slab closes at a different rate than one emailed two days later. You are still there when the questions come up, and you have not given the customer two days to collect other bids. It also means you priced the job with the slab in front of you instead of from memory.
What should a coating quote include?
The measured area, the system by name, the prep method, what repair is included and what is not, cure and return to service times, what the customer has to move before you arrive, the warranty and what voids it, payment terms, and a price for each option. The exclusions matter as much as the inclusions. Most disputes are about something nobody wrote down.
How many options should I give?
Three. One price is a yes or no question and it invites a counter offer. Three options is a which one question, so a price sensitive customer can pick something smaller instead of talking you down, and a customer who wants the best can buy up. Four or more starts producing hesitation instead of decisions.
How long should a coating quote be valid?
Long enough to be fair and short enough to be real. Most shops use two weeks to thirty days. Put the expiry on the page. Material costs move, your schedule fills, and an open ended quote invites somebody to call in four months expecting last season’s price. An expiry also gives you a legitimate reason to follow up.