Epoxy flooring supplies: what contractors buy and where to buy it

Epoxy flooring supplies are the materials that end up in the floor: epoxy primers and base coats, polyaspartic topcoats, decorative flake, quartz or metallic pigment, crack and joint fillers, moisture-vapor-barrier primers, cleaners and consumables. Contractors buy them from manufacturers and their dealers, regional coating supply houses, online stores and home centers. Materials make up about $1–5 per sq ft of an installed epoxy floor, so where you buy matters less than buying a complete system with data sheets and support behind it.

This guide covers what’s on a contractor’s shopping list, the kinds of suppliers, how to choose one, examples of companies that sell professional coatings (not endorsements), and how to find a distributor near you. For the machines and hand tools, see the epoxy flooring equipment list.

What contractors buy

A coating “system” is a set of layers from one manufacturer, specified together in a system guide. A typical single-broadcast flake system is a clear epoxy primer, a pigmented 100%-solids epoxy base coat with 1/4-inch vinyl chip broadcast into it, and a polyaspartic topcoat, over concrete ground to CSP 3 or more. The shopping list follows from the system:

Buying flake

Flake comes in 40-lb boxes, sold by blend and chip size, and a box costs about $90–125. How far it goes depends on the chip size and how heavily you broadcast:

A single-broadcast system like Simiron’s SimFlake SB plans on 6 sq ft per lb, or 240 sq ft per 40-lb box. At 5–7 sq ft per lb, one box of 1/4-inch flake covers 40 × 5 = 200 to 40 × 7 = 280 sq ft at full broadcast, so flake adds about $90 ÷ 280 = $0.32 to $125 ÷ 200 = $0.63 per sq ft of floor. The flake calculator works out the pounds for any floor and blend.

100%-solids or water-based?

Professional base coats are commonly 100% solids content: no water or solvent evaporates, so the film you spread is the film you keep, and 100%-solids epoxy has become the norm in commercial and industrial flooring. Water or solvent carriers stretch pot life to about two hours against 30–40 minutes for a 100%-solids epoxy, but the dry film can be as little as half the wet film: 7 wet mils may dry to 3–3.5 mils. Do-it-yourself epoxy paints are often water-based, and some are light-duty latex paint with a little epoxy resin added. That’s the difference between a home-center kit and a professional system.

For how the two main resins compare, see polyaspartic vs epoxy. For the order the layers go down, see flake floor installation.

What supplies cost

Prices vary by brand and volume. One professional line in 2026: a 3-gallon kit of 100%-solids epoxy base coat costs $159, or $53 a gallon; a 2-gallon kit of polyaspartic topcoat $205.50, or $102.75 a gallon; and a 3-gallon kit of moisture-vapor-barrier primer $247.50, or $82.50 a gallon (Simiron 1100SL, Polyaspartic HS and MVB).

Spread across the floor at their coverage rates, that is:

Add primer, flake, fillers and waste and you land inside the $1–5 range. Complete kits tell the same story: a full-flake material kit (100%-solids epoxy base, flake and polyaspartic topcoat) for floors up to 400 sq ft costs about $900, which is $899 ÷ 400 = $2.25 per sq ft on a full 400 sq ft floor. Use the coverage calculator and flake calculator to turn your floor’s area into gallons and pounds, and see the epoxy flooring starter kit for what the tools and equipment add.

Ordering for your first jobs

Order from the data sheet’s coverage rates, not from the label on the box. For a 20 × 22 ft two-car garage (440 sq ft) with a single-broadcast flake system like Simiron’s SimFlake SB:

Rough or porous concrete drinks primer, so plan on the low end of each coverage range on old slabs. Buy all the base color from one batch; mixing batch numbers causes visible color differences across a floor.

Storage and shelf life

Resins have a shelf life and a temperature range. Expect about a year unopened: Simiron’s epoxies and polyaspartics, for example, keep 12 months in the original container stored indoors at 60–85°F with humidity below 65%, and must never freeze. A truck or an unheated trailer in January doesn’t meet that. Cold resin is also hard to mix and slow to cure, so bring containers to room temperature before mixing. Rotate stock, write the delivery date on each kit, and don’t carry more than a few jobs’ worth until you know your volume.

The four kinds of suppliers

Many supply houses double as training centers: most hands-on epoxy classes are run by suppliers, which is how a lot of contractors meet the supplier they end up using. Our training page compares the classes.

Dealer programs

Some manufacturers sell through dealer networks that bundle product, training and support. Penntek, for example, trains every dealer through its Penntek Academy, backs dealers with technical and sales support, marketing and lead generation, and helps with tools and inventory at launch. A program like that can shorten your start, but read what it requires before you sign: what you must buy and from whom, whether there is a territory, what happens to your customers and your brand if you leave, and the full start-up cost, in writing. Going independent means choosing your own supplier and brand, and doing your own training and marketing.

How to choose a supplier

Price per kit comes last. Ask these first:

• Data sheets. Does every product have a current technical data sheet and safety data sheet, with prep, thickness, cure times and moisture limits?
• Technical support. Can you reach someone who knows the product when a floor bubbles at 4 p.m. on a Friday?
• Local stock. Can you pick up a missing kit the same day, or do you wait for freight?
• Complete systems. Do they sell the primer, base, broadcast, topcoat and fillers from one maker?
• Warranty terms. What does the manufacturer cover, and for how long? Some product warranties run one year, replace failed material only, exclude labor, and are void if the products are mixed with another brand's. The warranty you give the homeowner is yours to back.
• Training. Do they run classes or let you practice on their slabs?
• Pricing tiers. Is there contractor or volume pricing once you buy regularly?
• Moisture options. Do they carry a moisture-vapor-barrier primer for the slabs that fail testing?

Examples of manufacturers and supply houses

These are examples to start your own research, not endorsements or rankings.

Coating manufacturers

Supply houses and online stores

How to find a distributor near you

1. Start from the system, not the store. Pick the manufacturer whose data sheets fit the floors you’ll install, then find who stocks it near you.
2. Use manufacturers’ locators. Torginol’s affiliate locator finds installers, training and distributors by zip code; other manufacturers list dealers on their websites or by phone.
3. Call the technical line. Every data sheet prints one. Ask who stocks the system within an hour of you.
4. Follow the classes. Supply houses run most hands-on classes. Our classes by state directory shows who is teaching near you; the host is often the local distributor.
5. Visit before you commit. Check stock on the shelf, ask for the data sheets for the full system, and ask what happens when a floor fails.