Basement Floor Coating in River Forest, IL

Laundry, workshop, playroom and the room under the stairs

Older basements are usually several small spaces rather than one open room, and the floor has to work across all of them. The laundry and utility end wants a plain, sealed floor that shrugs off water, detergent and lint and is easy to see is clean, which is where a solid color finish belongs. It runs under the appliances and around the floor drain as one surface with nothing for water to get under.

A workshop or a hobby room wants a hard floor that takes dropped tools, sawdust, glue and the odd spill, and that can be swept without raising dust off the concrete. A flake floor in a mid-tone hides the debris between cleans and gives grip underfoot, and it does not care what is dropped on it.

The finished part of the basement, the playroom, the den or the home gym, is where the floor is chosen for how it looks as well as how it works. Flake in a warm blend suits a family room under an old house; a quiet metallic suits a lower level that has been opened up and lit properly. Where the space is broken up by posts and the stair, one continuous floor across all of it is what makes it read as a single room.

Epoxy flake, solid color and metallic on an older slab

Epoxy flake is the most forgiving floor for a period basement. Colored flake is broadcast into the body coat and sealed under a clear topcoat, so the surface is textured, slip-resistant and busy enough to hide the dust, grit and small marks that a lower level collects. It also hides the slight unevenness of an old hand-poured slab better than any smooth finish would. A polyaspartic topcoat can be specified over the flake where a harder-wearing, fast-cure finish suits the room.

Solid color epoxy is the plain, uniform floor: one color across the whole area under a clear topcoat. It suits the working end of the basement, the laundry, the boiler room and the storage bays, because it shows what is on the floor and confirms at a glance that the room is dry and clean. In a light color it also lifts a low, dark space more than any lighting scheme can.

Metallic epoxy is the finished-room floor, poured and worked by hand so the color moves in depth across the surface. It belongs in a lower level that has been properly finished, with a ceiling that has been lifted or lit well, where the floor is meant to be looked at. It is an indoor finish and it needs a slab that has been brought flat, which on an older basement floor is part of the preparation rather than an assumption.

Older houses in River Forest and the basements under them

We cover River Forest and the neighboring Cook County suburbs from our shop in Roselle, and the people who come out to look at the basement are the people who lay the floor.

River Forest is a village of older houses, much of it built in the early decades of the last century, and the basements under those houses share the same character: low ceilings, hand-poured slabs that have settled, stone or brick foundations, posts in awkward places and a floor plan cut up by the stairs and the utilities. Very little else works well as a floor down there, which is why a bonded coating that adds no height and follows the slab into every corner is what we recommend for most of them.

Arrange a look at your River Forest basement

We work throughout River Forest and the surrounding suburbs from our shop in Roselle, with our own crew rather than subcontracted labor. The visit is free and commits you to nothing. Tell us how the basement is used now, what you want it to become and what the slab has been through, and we will recommend flake, solid color or metallic for each part of the space, explain how the old slab will be prepared and put the whole job in writing with a fixed price. Call (630) 206-5602 or email info@evolveconcretecoating.com to arrange a visit. We answer Monday to Sunday, 9 AM to 6 PM.