We’d rather lose the bid than cut the prep.
Elite Coatings is Justin Thurmon’s South Houston epoxy and concrete coatings shop. Over 100,000 square feet installed across Houston, Friendswood, Pearland, and Galveston County, one honest floor at a time.
Built on the idea that prep is the product.
Justin Thurmon started Elite Coatings because he was tired of walking onto jobs behind installers who skipped the diamond grinder, sprayed acid on concrete, and called it ready. He’d been on coating crews for nearly a decade before that. He had seen what bad prep looked like six months out, and two summers out, and at the five-year mark when a homeowner’s floor was peeling in sheets under a truck tire.
So he built the company around one rule: no shortcut survives contact with Texas concrete. South Houston sits on expansive clay soil, near the Gulf, with humidity that plays havoc with cure times and slabs that breathe moisture long after they look dry. Every job we bid starts with a hydrostatic pressure test, not a sales pitch. If your slab won’t hold a coating, we’ll tell you that before you sign anything.
That transparency-first approach is the reason we’ve hit 100,000 square feet across the region without a single warranty callback for delamination. It’s also the reason our quotes sometimes come in higher than the guy with a hose and a bucket. Prep costs time, tooling, and trained labor. Skipping it costs you a floor.
The crew is small by design. Justin still stands on every residential install and runs the moisture test himself on every commercial job over 3,000 square feet. You won’t get a salesperson you never see again; you’ll get the owner’s phone number and the same two-to-three installers from estimate to final walkthrough. Ask for Justin when you call, that’s the point.
“Unless you’re standing there while we’re doing it, you’ll never see the part that actually matters. The prep. That’s where a floor lasts or fails. The fancy part is just the last 20% of the job.”Justin Thurmon, Owner
Certifications & Industry Training
The six failure modes we refuse to ship.
Every coating that fails in the field fails for one of six reasons. We built the Elite process to eliminate them, and we’ll walk you through each one during your estimate so you know exactly what to ask the next contractor who knocks on your door.
Bad prep, acid etch only, no diamond grinding.
The most common failure mode, and the cheapest to avoid. Coatings don’t bond to the smooth, curing-compound-coated top layer of a slab; they bond to the rough, porous layer one millimeter beneath it. We remove that layer with diamond grinders and HEPA vacs on every job, residential or commercial. No exceptions, no “quick scuff.”
Texas concrete breathes. Hydrostatic pressure is real.
Clay-soil slabs along the Gulf Coast sit on ground that holds water for months. That moisture wicks up through the slab and pushes coatings off from underneath. We calcium-chloride test every slab and install a standalone moisture mitigation layer when the reading says it’s needed. Most of the region needs one. Most contractors pretend it doesn’t exist.
Concrete releases gas. Experienced crews plan around it.
When the sun warms a slab through the day and cools it at night, trapped gas vents up through a fresh coating and leaves pinholes and bubbles. We time our broadcast and topcoat windows to the thermal cycle of the slab, not the convenience of the schedule.
The math rarely works out the way the kit advertises.
Grinder and HEPA vac rental runs about $700 a day. Diamond tooling is another $400 and wears out on the first job. Epoxy has a pot life, once it’s mixed, it cooks on its own clock. A $900 garage kit from a big-box store is $1.50 a square foot and lasts 18 months. Ours costs more up front and lasts a decade-plus.
Metallic is unforgiving. Dust ruins a solid finish.
Metallic epoxy is the most technically demanding floor we install. A single piece of drywall dust, a misread humidity cue, or a rushed poly flow and the whole finish is compromised. We stage the environment before we stage the material, sealed doors, HEPA filtration, and a dedicated mixing corner that never sees foot traffic.
Epoxy contracting has no industry regulation.
Anyone with a truck and a bucket can call themselves an epoxy contractor in Texas. That’s why “lifetime warranties” vanish when the company does. We don’t sell that gimmick. Our warranty is specific, in writing, and backed by a local shop that’s been working the same South Houston zip codes since day one. See what we’ve built and ask us about any of it.
Evidence, not marketing.
“I got three quotes before landing on Elite. Justin was the middle price. He was also the only one who walked my slab with a moisture meter before writing the number down. Two years in and the floor still looks like the week they left.”
Daniel R.. Friendswood, TX. Metallic garage, 1,400 sq ft“We run a commercial kitchen in Texas City. Elite did our floor overnight, chemical-rated, slip-rated, back open the next morning. They didn’t miss a prep step even on a tight window. That’s the hardest part of commercial work and they nailed it.”
Marco F.. Texas City, TX. Commercial flake, 2,200 sq ft“Pool deck in Kemah. Salt air, direct sun. Two seasons later it still beads water and hasn’t chalked out. Honest crew, honest invoice, honest conversation about what the floor would and wouldn’t do.”
Sarah P.. Kemah, TXThe questions people actually ask Justin.
Do you work on the jobs yourself, or do you subcontract?
Justin is on every residential install and every commercial job over 3,000 square feet. The Elite crew is two to three installers plus Justin; we don’t subcontract coatings work to outside applicators. The person who walks your slab for the estimate is the person who grinds it. That continuity is why our warranty callbacks are nearly zero.
How long has Elite Coatings been in business?
Three-plus years as Elite Coatings, but the team carries more than ten years of combined coating experience from prior work with established commercial applicators. Justin built the shop after years of watching sloppy prep produce predictable failures, he wanted a company that wouldn’t cut that corner even when the market pressured him to.
What certifications does the crew carry?
Pentech, Lavina, XPS, and Floor Rescue Metallic. These aren’t marketing badges, they’re manufacturer-specific training programs that authorize us to install those systems with the manufacturer’s warranty intact. We’ll show you the cert and the system spec during your estimate.
Why don’t you offer a “lifetime warranty”?
Because the epoxy contracting industry has no regulation and those promises vanish with the company that made them. We offer a specific, written workmanship warranty backed by a shop that’s been working the same South Houston zip codes since day one. If something isn’t right, we come back and fix it, and you have a local number to call, not a form to fill out.
Where are you based and how far do you travel?
Headquartered in Friendswood, TX at 4650 FM 2351, Unit 309 B. Regular service radius is about 50 miles, covering Houston, Pearland, League City, Sugar Land, Katy, Baytown, Conroe, and the Galveston Bay coast. Larger commercial projects anywhere in the South Houston metro, call us and we’ll confirm. See all service areas.
What’s the fastest way to get on your calendar?
Call (346) 624-0125 and ask for Justin, or send a message through the site. We respond same-day, walk the site within a few business days on residential, and provide a written scope-of-work quote. No high-pressure sales tactics. No “sign today to lock the price.”
Prep questions. Quote questions. Anything.
No sales script. No “introduction to our system.” Just a conversation about your slab, your conditions, and whether a coating makes sense for you.