Frequently asked questions

A training company for people starting or growing an epoxy and concrete-coating business. The Epoxy Playbook teaches the installation on recorded video you can replay, along with pricing, quoting and selling the job. Hands-on classes then put you on real slabs with partner trainers who install floors for a living.

No. There is no territory fee and no product line you have to buy. You run your business under your own name and buy materials where you choose.

Start from what you’re missing. If you need the numbers, start with the free startup cost calculator. If you need to learn the installation and the business, start with The Epoxy Playbook. If you want to talk your plan through, book a consultation. The learning paths show where to start for your situation.

Partner trainers: installers who do coating work for a living, or companies that already run classes, in the states where students are asking for a class. Every partner class follows the school’s two-day curriculum standard.

The school runs online. The Playbook, the consultation and the free tools work from anywhere in the US, and hands-on classes are held at partner trainers’ venues, opening state by state.

No. Epoxy Business School doesn’t sell coatings, equipment or territories, and there are no paid placements or affiliate links on this site. Classes and suppliers we mention are there to help you compare, not because they pay us. How we stay independent.

Pages are drafted with AI assistance, then fact-checked and reviewed by a working coating-company owner before they go live. Our editorial standards explain the process.

If you install coatings for a living, run a supplier store that hosts classes, or already run a training school, you can apply to become a partner trainer. Partners are added state by state, where students are asking for classes. How partnering works.

Yes. Supplier stores and schools that already run hands-on classes are the first partners we talk to in a state, because they have the venue and the routine. Working installers who can host a class come next.

In the states where students are asking for classes. You can apply from any state; if yours isn’t busy yet, we keep your application for when it is.

The school. Students enroll through Epoxy Business School, complete the installation recordings in The Epoxy Playbook before class, and receive the school’s certificate of completion. The partner teaches the two days.

Two days on real slabs. Day one covers reading the slab, moisture testing, grinding and repairs; day two covers base coats, a full-broadcast flake floor, a metallic demonstration, top coats and a business wrap-up.

Classes open state by state. None is scheduled yet. Leave your state and number on the class waitlist and we'll text you when one opens near you.

Join the class waitlist for your state and complete the installation recordings in The Epoxy Playbook. When a class opens near you, we text you the dates, the location and how to book.

Anyone planning to start, or already running, an epoxy or concrete-coating business, including installers going out on their own and contractors adding coatings. No experience is needed. You’ll need a US mobile number to get our texts.

Work clothes and boots you don’t mind ruining. The enrollment page has a checklist of the protective equipment coating work calls for.

You can learn every step online: The Epoxy Playbook records full installations start to finish, so you can watch, pause and replay each one. What a recording can’t give you is the feel of the grinder and the squeegee on real concrete, which is what the hands-on class is for.

Hands-on epoxy classes in the US run from $99 for a one-day class to $1,899 for a four-day academy. Most two-day classes cost $495–999, and three- to five-day courses $1,350–1,899. Compare them per day: $495 for two days is $247.50 a day, and $1,750 for five days is $350 a day.

Hands-on classes will be offered with payment plans or third-party financing.

The membership, the consultation and hands-on classes each have written cancellation and refund terms, shown before you pay and collected on the refund policy page.

Plan for travel, lodging and time off work if the class isn’t local. The bigger costs come after class, when you set up the business: equipment, insurance and your first materials, which the startup cost calculator adds up.

It depends mostly on whether you rent or buy the grinder. If you rent, most of the startup cost is training, small tools, a dust extractor, insurance and setup. Buying a new dual-disc or planetary grinder plus a mid-size dust extractor adds roughly $12,000–22,000. Use the startup cost calculator with your own numbers.

No. The startup cost calculator and the start-a-business guide assume none. You watch every step of the installation on video in The Epoxy Playbook first, so you arrive at the hands-on class knowing what comes next and spend class time on the slab.

It can be, if the jobs are priced to carry your overhead and the leads come in steadily. A two-car garage sells for about $1,600–5,800 installed, with materials about $1–5 a square foot of that. The usual trouble spots for a new coating business are pricing, lead flow and job systems, which is what this school focuses on.

Nobody can promise you an income, and we don’t. Revenue depends on your market, your prices, your costs and how many jobs you close, and profit is what’s left after all of them. The earnings disclaimer explains how we handle income figures.

Hands-on classes run one to five days. Most of the skill comes from your first jobs, so plan a few practice floors before you charge full price.

It can work, especially with residential garages, which usually take a day or two. Rent the equipment per job, insure before the first one, and price as if it were your full-time work: your costs don’t shrink because your hours do. More in epoxy flooring as a side business.

Franchises and dealerships sell a brand, a product line and sometimes a territory; the garage-floor franchises cost five figures and up. Going independent costs less up front, and you build your own brand and buy materials where you choose.

Among five garage and concrete-coating franchises, initial franchise fees run from $38,500 (a GarageExperts micro-territory) to $69,950 (Concrete Craft’s franchise and territory fees together), and the total initial investment from $132,900 (the low end of Garage Force’s range) to $246,400 (the high end of GarageExperts’). After opening, royalties of 4–7% of revenue and brand or marketing fund fees of 1–2% are the norm. The full comparison.

The FTC’s Franchise Rule requires that you receive it at least 14 days before you sign a contract or pay any money. Items 5 through 7 set out the initial fee, the other fees and the total initial investment; Item 19, if the franchisor includes one, makes claims about sales or earnings; Item 20 lists current and former franchisees you can call.

A franchise licenses a brand and an operating system for fees, usually including a royalty on your revenue. A dealer program ties you to a manufacturer’s products: you buy and install them, and the manufacturer trains you and backs the product. Most coating dealer programs charge no franchise fee or royalty, but they expect you to use their products. Under the FTC’s rule, what a program is called doesn’t decide whether it’s legally a franchise.

It varies widely. CTi’s packages run $9,995–39,995; Floor Shield asks for a non-refundable $10,000 initial deposit and $50,000–75,000 in the first year; GarageFloorCoating.com asks for $55,000–75,000 to invest; Concrete Coatings, Inc. charges $500 for its two-day class for up to two people. Penntek and FloorTek discuss costs during their application process. The full comparison.

Renting a 22-inch dual-disc grinder runs about $90–142 a day, and a new one is $8,488. At those rates buying pays off after roughly 60–95 rental days, before you count tooling, maintenance and resale value.

General liability before the first job; for a flooring installer it typically runs about $77 a month. Add workers' compensation when you hire, commercial auto if you use a vehicle for the business, and tools and equipment cover once you own the grinder.

A floor grinder and a HEPA dust extractor (rent them at first), diamond tooling, an edge grinder kit, moisture tests, application tools and respirators. The equipment list prices each one, and the startup cost calculator adds them up.

Have a lawyer read any non-compete, non-solicitation or confidentiality agreement you signed before you contact customers you met through your employer. Whether and how it applies depends on your state and on the agreement’s wording.

From your full costs, not your old day rate: materials, your labor and a helper’s, the truck, insurance, marketing and a share for estimates that don’t close. Then check the result against what floors sell for near you. The job pricing calculator does the arithmetic.

Yes, with training. Prep discipline, estimating and customer habits carry over. What’s new is diamond grinding to the profile the data sheet calls for, moisture testing, and two-part chemistry with a fixed working time. Learn the steps from the recordings and practice them in a hands-on class before your first coating job.

Ask your agent before your first coating job. Policies are written for the work you described when you bought them, so tell your insurer you’re adding floor coatings and update the policy if it doesn’t cover them.

Start with pricing. Check that your overhead is in your price, that you have a minimum job, that multi-visit systems are priced per visit, and that discounts follow a rule. Then check what a booked job costs you in leads, by channel.

Divide the cost per lead by your close rate. At $55 a lead and one job closed for every five leads, a booked job costs $275 in lead spend before any other marketing. The lead cost calculator does it by channel.

When the jobs you turn down, or the estimates you can’t get to, are worth more than a helper costs. Budget for workers’ compensation once you have employees; for a flooring business it typically runs about $144 a month.