What equipment do I need to start an epoxy flooring business?

For surface prep: a walk-behind floor grinder, a HEPA dust extractor, a hand-held edge grinder with a dust shroud, and diamond tooling. For repairs: a crack-chasing blade and fillers. For application: a drill with a mixing paddle, squeegees, rollers and frames, spiked shoes and buckets. For testing: moisture tests and a way to read air temperature, humidity and slab temperature. For safety: respirators, gloves, eye protection and coveralls. A trailer comes once you have steady work.

How much does epoxy flooring equipment cost?

Bought new, a 22-inch dual-disc grinder costs $8,488, a HEPA dust extractor about $1,900–3,900, an edge grinder kit about $640–716 and an application tool kit about $150–320. Rent the grinder (about $90–142 a day) and the extractor (about $225 a week) and the tools you have to own cost a few thousand dollars at most. The startup cost calculator adds it up with your own choices.

Should I rent or buy a floor grinder?

Rent while you're learning which jobs you'll get. At $90–142 a day, the $8,488 purchase price equals roughly 60–94 rental days, so buying starts to pay once you grind most weeks. The rent-vs-buy calculator works it out with your own rates and job count.

What grinder do I need for garage floors?

A 10-inch single-disc grinder handles small areas, up to about 1,500 sq ft, at about 200–250 sq ft an hour. A 22-inch dual-disc does about 400–500 sq ft an hour, so one pass over a 450 sq ft two-car garage takes about an hour. Planetary grinders weigh around 400 lb, need 200–240-volt power and cost far more; they pay off on large floors.

Do I need a dust extractor for grinding concrete?

Yes. If you have employees, OSHA's construction silica standard requires dust control on floor grinders: water, or the dust collection system the grinder's maker recommends with a 99%-efficient filter, plus a HEPA vacuum between passes indoors. Working alone, the dust is just as hazardous to you, so plan on an extractor from the first job.

Epoxy Flooring Equipment List: Tools, Costs, Rent or Buy

An epoxy flooring business needs equipment for five stages of the job: surface prep (a floor grinder, a HEPA dust extractor, an edge grinder and diamond tooling), repairs, application (mixer, squeegees, rollers, spiked shoes), testing (moisture, temperature and humidity) and safety (respirators, gloves, eye protection). The prep machines are the big purchase: a new 22-inch dual-disc grinder costs $8,488 and a HEPA dust extractor about $1,900–3,900, so it usually makes sense to rent those two first and buy everything else.

This list goes stage by stage: what each tool does, what it costs to rent or buy, and what you can skip at first. To total your own setup, use the startup cost calculator.

The equipment list at a glance

Stage	Item	Rent	Buy new
Prep	Floor grinder, 22” dual-disc	About $90–142 a day	$8,488 (EDCO 2EC-NG, 230V)
Prep	Floor grinder, 10” single-disc	Varies by shop	$5,970 (EDCO SEC-NG)
Prep	Floor grinder, 20” planetary	About $350–425 a day	About $15,700–17,800
Prep	HEPA dust extractor	About $225 a week	About $1,900–2,400 (DE 110 class); $3,400–3,900 (DE 120 class)
Prep	Edge grinder kit: 7” grinder, shroud, cup wheel	About $125 a day	About $640–716
Prep	Diamond tooling, one set	Usually billed separately	About $195–530 for a dual-disc set; planetary tooling varies by bond and grit
Prep (optional)	Shot blaster, 8” walk-behind	About $175 a day, $625 a week	Rarely worth it at first
Application	Installer tool kit (squeegees, rollers, frames, spiked shoes, mixer)	—	About $150–320
Testing	Calcium chloride moisture test	—	$12–36 per test
Testing	Concrete moisture meter	—	About $25–760
Safety	Respirator, organic vapor with particulate filters	—	About $23–52 each
Transport	Enclosed trailer, 6×12	—	About $3,450–5,000

These are 2026 list prices and typical rental rates; both move, and rental rates vary by region. The rest of this guide explains each line.

Surface prep equipment

Coatings stick to concrete that is clean, sound and roughened. The high-build systems used on garage floors call for bare concrete to be diamond ground or shotblasted to a concrete surface profile of CSP 3 or more before the first coat of epoxy. That is the job of the machines below; concrete surface profile explains the scale.

Floor grinder

A walk-behind floor grinder does diamond grinding: spinning heads drag diamond segments across the slab to remove laitance, sealers and old coatings and leave a profile. Three types matter for coating work:

Grinder type	Example	Working width	Output at 1/32” depth	Power	Price new
Single-disc	EDCO SEC-NG	10 in	About 200–250 sq ft/hr	115V; plugs into a dedicated household outlet	$5,970
Dual-disc	EDCO 2EC-NG	22 in	About 400–500 sq ft/hr	230V single-phase, 3 hp	$8,488
Planetary (three heads)	Husqvarna PG 5	20.3 in	Depends on tooling and pressure	200–240V single-phase, 4 kW, 30 A	About $15,700–17,800 (20” class)

The single-disc machine suits areas under about 1,500 sq ft. Planetary machines are heavy (the PG 5 weighs 403 lb) and need a ramp and two people to move. For how the types differ in finish, weight and fit for garages versus commercial floors, see concrete grinders for epoxy prep.

HEPA dust extractor

Grinding concrete makes respirable crystalline silica dust. A HEPA dust extractor connects to the grinder’s shroud and captures it at the source. OSHA’s construction silica standard sets the bar for employers: a walk-behind floor grinder needs either water fed to the cutting surface or a dust collection system with at least the airflow its maker recommends and a filter of 99% or greater efficiency with a filter-cleaning mechanism, plus a HEPA-filtered vacuum between passes indoors.

Airflow varies a lot between models: a compact 120-volt unit such as Husqvarna’s DE 110 H moves 124 cfm, while the larger DE 120 H moves 241 cfm. Match the extractor to the grinder maker’s recommendation; dust extractors and OSHA’s silica rules covers what the standard requires in a garage.

Edge grinder

The walk-behind grinder can’t reach the last few inches along walls, around posts and in corners. Edge grinding is done with a hand-held angle grinder, typically 7-inch, fitted with a diamond cup wheel and a dust shroud; complete kits cost about $640–716.

Hand grinders need more airflow than most people expect. For hand-held grinders, OSHA requires a dust collector with at least 25 cubic feet per minute of airflow per inch of wheel diameter, so a 7-inch wheel needs 7 × 25 = 175 cfm, more than some compact extractors deliver.

Diamond tooling

The grinder is only as good as the diamonds under it. Metal-bond diamonds do coating prep; PCD tools strip old coatings and mastic. A six-piece set of 30-grit Double Dyma-Dots for an EDCO dual-disc costs 2 × $120 = $240 at list price. Matching the bond to the hardness of the slab is what makes tooling last; see diamond tooling for concrete grinding.

Shot blaster (optional)

A shot blaster throws steel shot at the floor and vacuums it back up. It can produce anything from CSP 2 to CSP 9, and many coating makers prefer it for floors, especially under thicker systems. For garage systems that call for CSP 3, a grinder with coarse tooling is usually enough. An 8-inch walk-behind shot blaster, rated up to 350 sq ft an hour on 110 volts, rents for around $175 a day.

Repair tools and materials

Cracks, spalls and joints get repaired after grinding and before the primer. What you need:

A crack-chasing blade for the angle grinder, to open cracks to a clean, square profile the filler can grip.
A shop vacuum or the extractor’s wand to clean out every crack before filling.
Fillers. Patch cracks, holes and spalls with the coating maker’s epoxy crack filler, or its 100%-solids epoxy thickened with fumed silica, and scrape the patch flush. Using the same maker’s filler keeps the whole system under one product warranty.
A plan for joints. Honor isolation and expansion joints with joint material after the coating goes down. Control joints can be filled and coated over, but the coating may crack there if the slab moves; tell the customer before you start.

Application tools

These are the tools you use on every job, and they’re inexpensive. The core set for a 100%-solids epoxy: a drill with a Jiffy-type mixing blade, spiked shoes, a flat metal spring blade or flat EPDM squeegee, notched squeegees, 3/8-inch shed-resistant woven roller covers with a phenolic core, edge rollers, chip brushes, painter’s tape, duct tape, and measuring and mixing containers.

Tool	What it’s for	Buying tip
Drill and mixing paddle	Mixing resin and hardener	Mix at 100–300 rpm; faster speeds whip air into the coating
Mixing buckets with printed measuring lines	Getting the mix ratio right	Wrong ratios are the usual cause of soft, sticky spots
Flat and notched squeegees (EPDM blade)	Spreading the base coat at the data sheet’s thickness	Notch size controls film thickness; buy the size your product’s data sheet names
18” and 9” roller frames, 3/8” woven covers	Back-rolling and the topcoat	Shed-resistant covers keep lint out of the film
Spiked shoes	Walking on wet coating	Buy two pairs if two people work the floor
Chip brushes, edge rollers	Cutting in at walls	Disposable; buy by the case
Floor scraper	Knocking loose flake off after the broadcast	A long handle saves your back

Suppliers sell these as kits for about $150–320. A full-flake kit for floors up to 400 sq ft, for example, holds two 18-inch rollers, a 1/8-inch notched squeegee, a flat squeegee, a cage mixer, spiked shoes, two 9-inch rollers and a frame, chip brushes, a scraper and a pole. To broadcast flake you need nothing more than a small bucket and a throwing arm: grab loosely, throw high, and keep moving around the floor.

Measuring and testing tools

Many coating failures trace back to something you could have measured first: moisture, temperature, humidity or film thickness.

Laser measure. For quoting square footage and ordering material; the coverage calculator and flake calculator turn the area into gallons and pounds.
Moisture tests. Calcium chloride kits cost $12–36 per test and measure the moisture vapor emission rate; in-slab relative humidity tests use probes. Hand-held meters cost about $25–760, but under ASTM F2659 their readings are comparative only and never a basis for accepting a floor. See concrete moisture testing.
Thermometer and hygrometer. Data sheets set air and surface temperature ranges, and the floor has to stay at least 5°F above the dew point. You need air temperature and relative humidity (a digital thermo-hygrometer) and slab temperature (an infrared or contact surface thermometer). Epoxy cure time, temperature and humidity shows how to use the readings.
A wet-film gauge. An inexpensive notched gauge tells you whether you’re applying at the thickness on the technical data sheet.
CSP chips. ICRI’s ten physical reference chips let you check the profile you ground against the one the data sheet asks for.

Safety equipment

Item	Why	Notes
Respirator with organic-vapor cartridges and particulate filters	Resin vapors and grinding dust	About $23–52 each; employers who require respirators need a written program, medical evaluations and fit tests under OSHA’s respiratory protection standard (29 CFR 1910.134)
Chemical-resistant gloves	Epoxy hardeners burn and sensitize skin	High-quality nitrile gloves are the standard for 100%-solids epoxies
Safety glasses with side shields or goggles	Splashes during mixing	Check Section 8 of each product’s SDS
Disposable coveralls, knee pads	Skin contact while you work at floor level	Replace coveralls when they’re soaked through
Hearing protection	Grinders and extractors are loud	Wear it whenever the grinder runs

The epoxy flooring safety guide covers isocyanates, solvents, skin sensitization and OSHA’s respirator rules in detail.

Transport and power

Trailer. An enclosed 6×12 trailer costs about $3,450–5,000. You don’t need one while you rent: rented machines ride in a pickup or arrive on the shop’s delivery truck.

Power. Check the plug before you rent or buy. EDCO’s single-disc grinder runs on 115 volts; its 3-hp dual-disc needs 230-volt single-phase; a planetary such as Husqvarna’s PG 5 needs 200–240 volts at 30 amps. Some rental dual-discs run on either 115 volts at 16 amps or 230 volts at 8 amps. In many homes the only 240-volt circuits serve the dryer, range or water heater, so ask the rental shop what plug and amperage the machine needs, and have an electrician confirm the circuit if you’re unsure.

Generators and engines. Where there’s no usable power, some supply houses rent grinders packaged with a generator, and gas and propane grinders exist. Keep engines outdoors: carbon monoxide from gas and propane engines can overcome a worker in minutes in an enclosed space, and a garage with the door half closed is one.

What to buy first and what to skip

Buy before your first job	Rent until you grind most weeks	Skip until the work calls for it
Application tool kit	Walk-behind floor grinder	Planetary grinder
Edge grinder kit with shroud	HEPA dust extractor	Shot blaster
Moisture test kits	Diamond tooling (buy your own set once you know your local concrete)	Propane or gas grinders
Respirators, gloves, eye protection		Enclosed trailer
Thermometer, hygrometer, wet-film gauge		Second set of every tool

Why this order: the left column gets used on every job and costs little next to the machines. An edge grinder kit, for example, costs about as much as five or six days of renting one at $125 a day (640 ÷ 125 = 5.1; 716 ÷ 125 = 5.7). The middle column is where most of the money is. A dual-disc grinder bought at $8,488 equals about 60 rental days at $142 or 94 at $90 (8,488 ÷ 142 = 59.8; 8,488 ÷ 90 = 94.3), so it pays to buy only when you’re grinding most weeks. The rent-vs-buy guide works through the break-even, and the rent-vs-buy calculator does it with your own numbers.

Owning equipment adds costs renting doesn’t: storage, maintenance and insurance. Tools and equipment coverage for flooring installers runs about $41 a month (median).

For realistic budgets built from these prices, see the epoxy flooring starter kit. For what you’ll rent and where, see the concrete grinder rental guide. For the materials themselves (epoxies, polyaspartics, flake) and the companies that sell them, see epoxy flooring supplies.

Watch it, replay it, then do it on the slab. In The Epoxy Playbook you watch the full installation and replay any step as often as you need. Then you do it yourself on the slab in a hands-on class. The Playbook also covers the business side: what to charge so the equipment pays for itself.

Epoxy flooring equipment: the complete tools list, with costs

Key takeaways

The equipment list at a glance