Metallic epoxy garage floor vs. flake epoxy compared

We install every option on this page. The prices come from our own price list.

Pick flake for a working garage and metallic for a showpiece room. Flake grips wet boots and hides dirt. Metallic is the glossy one, and with us it costs less: RESA Metallic starts at $5.96 a square foot and RESA Flake at $8.46. Both last 15 to 20 years or more, because the floor under the look is the same. Below is a metallic epoxy garage floor vs. flake epoxy, compared on price, wear, and looks.

What does a metallic epoxy floor actually look like?

A metallic floor looks like polished marble or liquid metal, with swirls, waves, and depth. We mix metallic pigment into a clear epoxy or polyaspartic base. Then we spread it with rollers and a squeegee. As the coat levels out on its own, tiny metal flecks drift into swirls that look like marble. The installer can steer the flow with the squeegee or let gravity do the work. Nobody can fully predict the final pattern.

That’s why no two metallic garage floors are the same. You couldn’t copy the veining on a second pass, even in the same garage a week later. We’ve watched one pigment blend cure into two different patterns on back-to-back jobs. The installer picks the colors and how bold they are, and the exact flow shows up on its own as the coating cures. Pigments come in silvers, coppers, golds, blues, and greens, and we can blend or layer them. In person, the floor changes as you walk across it and the light moves. No photo on this page can fully show you that. It’s the floor for a man cave, a showroom garage, or a high-end home.

There’s a catch, and it shows up before any pigment goes down. A glossy, mirror-like surface shows every dip and trowel mark in the concrete under it. So the grinding pass has to be cleaner than it does for a flake floor. Before anyone mixes a drop of pigment, ask how they’ll handle the flaws in your slab. Their answer tells you how the floor will look in five years, and on install day too.

What does a flake epoxy floor look like?

A flake floor has a speckled look, a lot like granite, with some texture you can feel underfoot. We build one in four steps:

1. We roll out the epoxy base coat.
2. While that coat is wet, the crew throws colored vinyl flakes into it by hand. That throwing is called broadcasting. The flakes land at random, so the pattern looks natural.
3. The crew keeps throwing flake until the wet coat won’t take any more. That’s full broadcast, also called broadcast to rejection. It takes roughly 1 to 1.5 pounds of vinyl chip per square foot.
4. Once the flakes cure, the crew sands off the high points and seals the whole floor under a clear polyaspartic topcoat.

Full broadcast is the only way we build flake. It covers 100 percent of the floor at an even depth. That’s what puts grip under your boots and hides small flaws in the slab. A light scatter, with base coat showing between the flakes, is just for looks. We don’t build garages that way.

There are more than 40 flake color blends, from plain grays and tans to bold mixes of several colors. That makes it easy to match your walls, your cabinets, or your truck. The results repeat, too. Coat a two-car garage today, add the third bay next year, and we can match the floor exactly.

How do metallic and flake epoxy floors compare on cost?

RESA Metallic starts at $5.96 a square foot installed, and RESA Flake starts at $8.46. For a 500-square-foot two-car garage, metallic runs $3,200 to $4,200 and flake runs $4,400 to $5,400, before the drive cost (our trip out to your address). Those totals also count setup, so they land a little above the per-foot price times 500. Crack repair, a moisture vapor barrier, or joint fill go on top only if your slab turns out to need them. Your own number is the base price plus the options your slab needs. The quote tool adds it up for you.

Most comparison articles put metallic on the expensive side. With us it runs the other way, and the reason is how much material goes down. A full-broadcast flake floor takes roughly 1 to 1.5 pounds of vinyl chip per square foot. Burying all that chip takes a thicker topcoat. A metallic floor is a layered pigment coat over a finer prep, with a clear urethane topcoat on top. That’s less material and more time with the roller and squeegee, so most of the gap sits in that one decorative step.

Price a metallic floor, price a flake floor, or see the full garage floor coating cost breakdown.

How does durability compare between metallic and flake?

Both floors last 15 to 20 years or more when they’re put down right. That’s because the life of a floor comes from the layers under the look. Those are the diamond-ground concrete, the primer, the body coat, and a clear topcoat that holds up to sun (UV-stable). The pigment or the flake doesn’t touch any of them. RESA stands for resin-encapsulated seamless aggregate. It’s our name for resinous floor coatings that seal the look inside clear resin, and both of these floors are built that way.

Day-to-day wear

Where the two floors really differ is how they look after a year of daily use. Flake has texture built in, so it gives you grip and hides scuffs between cleanings. Metallic is smooth and glossy, so wear shows sooner. A tire scuff or a dropped socket wrench shows up on metallic in a way it never would on a full-broadcast flake floor. We can add grit to the metallic topcoat for grip, but it will still be smoother than flake.

Both clear topcoats, polyaspartic on flake and urethane on metallic, stand up to gasoline, oil, brake fluid, and road salt. Cleaning is the same on both: a dust mop most days and a wet mop now and then.

Metallic vs. flake epoxy side by side

Both use the same base system. Only the decorative layer differs.

Which floor style works for Oklahoma garages?

Oklahoma garages get red clay dust, road salt, and heat and cold that swing from 10 to 110 degrees. Both floors handle that just as well. The base coats and the topcoat do that work, and the look on top doesn’t. About 70 percent of home garage projects in Oklahoma go with flake. That fits how most people use a garage.

If you park vehicles and track in mud, flake is the practical call. It hides dirt and grips when wet. You pay more for that grip, because the full broadcast is what puts flake above metallic on our price list. Flake is the workhorse of garage coatings, and there’s nothing wrong with a workhorse. It turns bare concrete into a floor that stands up to chemicals, hides stains, resists tire marks, and holds your boots on a wet day. The texture is built into the floor itself, so it isn’t a thin layer sprinkled on top as an afterthought.

If the garage is a finished room, metallic can be the first thing people notice. Think of a home gym, a car collector’s showroom, or a space for having friends over. It also starts at the lower number. What you pay for is skill and time on the floor, with a lot less material.

Pick the floor for how you park, not how you post it.