Mirror finish. One of one. Installed dust-free.
Metallic epoxy is the showpiece of the coating world. We install it for Houston showrooms, luxury garages, restaurants, and retail spaces where the floor is part of the brand. Every pour is unique. Every install runs on a sealed environment protocol because metallic is unforgiving, and the dust you don’t see is the dust that ruins the finish.
A floor that only exists once.
Metallic epoxy is a two-part resin system loaded with mica and metallic pigments that shift and swirl while the coating cures. The result looks like polished stone with depth, movement, and reflectivity that photographs do not do justice. Every floor we install is genuinely unique. The pour cannot be copied, which is part of the point for a Houston showroom or a luxury garage where the building owner wants a surface nobody else in the region has.
It is also the most technically demanding floor we offer. The metallic pigments float on top of the topcoat during cure, so temperature, humidity, timing, and cleanliness all drive the final look. A single piece of drywall dust, a misread humidity cue, or a rushed poly flow, and the surface is compromised. That is why metallic is the system where Elite Coatings charges a premium and moves slower than the rest of the market. We build the environment first, then the floor.
We stage every metallic job with sealed doors, HEPA-rated air filtration, and a dedicated mixing corner that never sees foot traffic during the pour. Justin runs the topcoat himself on every metallic install. The crew is small on purpose: fewer people in the room equals fewer contamination paths. On commercial metallic jobs we scale the environmental controls up, not the crew.
Houston metallic jobs bring extra variables: slab moisture from Gulf humidity, clay-soil movement under showroom concrete, and HVAC cycles that can kick dust loose hours after your last clean. We build for those conditions. If your slab will not hold a metallic finish, we say so on the estimate instead of installing a system that fails in eighteen months. Browse our metallic portfolio to see what mirror-finish work really looks like.
“Metallic is the one system where the prep room matters as much as the slab. We seal the space, HEPA the air, and pour with the same crew every time. That is why ours looks like a showroom floor two years in instead of a bad nightclub floor.”Justin Thurmon, Owner
Four steps. No shortcuts.
Every metallic install is the same sequence, whether the slab is a 400 square foot garage bay in River Oaks or a 6,000 square foot retail floor in Pearland. The order cannot be changed. Skipping any step is why cheap metallic work fails within two summers.
Grind & Prep
Diamond grinders remove curing compound and the weak top millimeter of the slab. HEPA vacs run the whole time. No acid etching, no shortcuts.
Moisture Test
Calcium-chloride test on every slab. If the reading is high, we install a moisture mitigation layer first. Most Houston slabs need one.
Base & Metallic Pour
Primer, then the metallic body coat poured and worked with a poly flow tool. Sealed doors, HEPA filtration, dedicated mixing corner.
Topcoat & Cure
Commercial-grade polyurethane or polyaspartic topcoat. Foot traffic next day. Full cure for vehicles at 72 hours.
The cheaper quote is usually cheaper for a reason.
Metallic epoxy quotes across Houston range from about $5 per square foot to north of $14. When a quote comes in at half of ours, it is almost always because one or more of the items below got skipped. Here is what our price includes and what the cheap quote tends to leave out.
Elite Coatings Metallic
Starting ~$10 / sq ft- Full diamond grind with HEPA vacuum containment
- Calcium-chloride moisture test on every slab
- Moisture mitigation layer when test reading demands it
- Manufacturer-spec primer tied to the metallic system
- Sealed install environment with HEPA air filtration
- Commercial-grade polyurethane or polyaspartic topcoat
- Written workmanship warranty backed by a local shop
- Justin on site pouring the topcoat personally
The $5 / Sq Ft Quote
What usually gets cut- Acid etch instead of diamond grinding. Coating fails in 18 months.
- No moisture test. Hydrostatic pressure blows the floor off.
- No moisture mitigation. Coating lifts along control joints.
- Big-box resin kit, not a manufacturer-warrantied system.
- Open doors during the pour. Dust contaminates the metallic.
- Single-part consumer topcoat. Yellows in six months.
- “Lifetime warranty” from a company that vanishes.
- Subcontracted crew that has never met the shop owner.
The questions clients actually ask Justin.
Why is metallic epoxy roughly twice the price of flake?
Metallic demands a sealed environment, a longer install window, a premium resin system, and a more experienced installer on the pour itself. Flake is forgiving because the chips hide minor blemishes. Metallic is a mirror, which means every variable shows up in the final surface. You are paying for time, technique, and contamination control, not just more material.
Can metallic epoxy hold up to vehicle traffic in a garage?
Yes, when it is built right. The chemistry of metallic is identical to a solid-color epoxy at the load-bearing layer. It is the visual layer that differs. With a commercial-grade polyaspartic topcoat, a metallic garage floor carries the same loads a flake floor would. We spec the topcoat based on what the floor will see day to day.
How unique is each metallic pour, really?
Genuinely one of one. We pick the pigment palette with you up front and pour a small sample board first so you can see the base tonality. But the movement, swirls, and depth patterns on the actual floor are driven by cure-time physics and cannot be replicated. Two installers using the same materials in the same room would still produce slightly different floors.
What happens if a section of the metallic gets damaged later?
Metallic is harder to spot-repair than flake because the visual pattern is impossible to match exactly. For major damage we typically grind and re-pour a defined zone so the seam reads as intentional. For scratches and surface wear, we can re-topcoat the full room to restore gloss. We walk you through both options before committing. Send a photo of the damage and we will give you an honest assessment.
Can you install metallic in a restaurant or retail space during business hours?
No, and you should be skeptical of anyone who says yes. Metallic needs a sealed room with no foot traffic from primer through topcoat. For commercial work we run overnight or multi-day closures depending on square footage. We coordinate with your GC or facilities lead and publish a fixed schedule so you know exactly when you reopen.
How long before we can walk on it? Drive on it?
Light foot traffic the next day. Full cure for vehicles and heavy equipment at 72 hours. Those are our numbers for standard Texas conditions. If we are installing during a humid stretch we may extend the cure window, and we will tell you before we start. We never rush the cure window to hit a reopen date.
+30
Ready for a floor nobody else has?
Free metallic estimate. Sample board on request. Honest answers about whether your slab can hold the finish.
Coverage across the South Houston metro.
Elite Coatings installs this system throughout Harris, Galveston, and Brazoria counties, from Friendswood out to downtown Houston, Pearland, and the Galveston Bay coast. Our service radius is roughly 50 miles from our Friendswood shop.
Not sure if we reach you? Browse all service areas or ask Justin directly.