Epoxy flooring business insurance
Which policies you need, when, and what they cost.
Read the guide
Learning path
Installers going independent: from crew to company
You can grind a slab and lay a flake floor. Going out on your own adds everything your employer handled: insurance, licensing, equipment, pricing, selling and standing behind the work. Here's the order to set it up, what it costs, and what to learn first.
At a glance
- You are
- An installer or crew lead who wants your own customers
- Learn first
- Price, Quote, Sell and Protect
- First tool
- Job pricing calculator
- Before you quote
- Read any agreement you signed with your employer
Where you're starting
You know the work. Now everything around it is yours.
You already know the part most beginners worry about. What changes is everything around the floor. On someone else's crew, the price was set before you arrived, the customer was already sold, the grinder was on the trailer and the insurance was somebody else's problem.
On your own, each of those becomes your job, and each one is a cost that has to be in your price. Most of this path is the business side, because that's the part an installer's day doesn't usually include.
Still weighing it? Our epoxy flooring jobs page covers what installers earn on a crew, to set against what a business costs to run, and how to become an epoxy floor installer covers the crew-lead step if you're not ready to leave yet.
Before you quote anyone: if you signed a non-compete, non-solicitation or confidentiality agreement with your employer, have a lawyer read it, especially before you contact customers you met through your employer. Whether and how it applies depends on your state and the agreement's wording, so it's a question for a lawyer, not for us.
Your roadmap
Seven steps from crew to company
Set up the business
Choose a name you can use under your own brand (how to choose and check one), then form an LLC, get an EIN and open a business bank account. State LLC filing fees run $35 (Montana) to $500 (Massachusetts), most $50–200; California adds an $800 yearly minimum franchise tax. Check whether your state licenses coating work on the license requirements page, and confirm with the board.
Insure before the first job
Your employer's policies cover your employer's jobs, not yours. Typical monthly costs for a flooring installer: general liability $77 a month ($919 a year), tools and equipment $41 a month, commercial auto $208 a month, and workers' compensation $144 a month once you have employees.
Line up the equipment you used to borrow
Rent the grinder and dust extractor at first, and buy the smaller tools. The table below has typical prices.
Price from your own costs, not your old day rate
A day rate paid for your time. A job price has to cover your time, a helper, materials, the truck, insurance, marketing, the estimates that don't close and the occasional callback. Installed floors typically sell for $4–10 per sq ft, of which about $1–5 per sq ft is materials. Your overhead and profit have to fit inside the price your market pays.
Learn to sell the job, not only do it
The first call, the in-home visit, presenting options, answering "I can buy a kit for $200", and following up. It's the Sell system, and the sales process guide is its free chapter.
Write your scope and warranty before the first job
You probably never wrote them; now they protect you. Start from the scope-of-work template and the warranty template, and set a deposit policy for your customers.
Find your own first customers
Set up a Google Business Profile and build your portfolio from floors you do under your own name; photos from your employer's jobs may not be yours to use. If you buy leads, a flooring lead typically costs about $45–62 from Google Local Services Ads and about $48–122 from Google search ads.
Costs
The equipment you no longer borrow
Typical prices to rent or buy the kit that used to be on your employer's trailer.
| Item | Rent | Buy new |
|---|---|---|
| Floor grinder, 22" dual-disc | About $90–142 a day | $8,488 (EDCO 2EC-NG) |
| Floor grinder, 20" planetary | About $350–425 a day at specialty shops | About $15,700–17,800 |
| HEPA dust extractor | About $225 a week | About $1,900–2,400 (DE 110 class, 124 cfm); $3,400–3,900 (DE 120 class, 241 cfm) |
| Diamond tooling | Often charged extra on rentals | About $195–530 a set (dual-disc) |
| Edge grinder kit | Sometimes | About $640–716 |
| Application tools | — | About $150–320 a kit |
| Moisture testing | — | $12–36 per calcium chloride test; meters about $25–760 |
| Respirator | — | About $23–52 each |
| Enclosed trailer, 6×12 | — | About $3,450–5,000 |
Prices change; confirm with the seller. Check the voltage before you rent or buy: the larger grinders run on 230 volts. The rent-vs-buy calculator shows when owning pays off.
What to learn first
The four business systems
You know the installation. These are the systems your employer ran for you, in the order you'll need them. If there's a system you haven't installed yet, such as metallic, the Playbook's recordings show it start to finish.
Priority 1 · System 2
Price
Your price has to carry costs you never paid as an employee. Get it right before your first quote.
- What a floor really costs you
- Building your price
- Margins and discounts
Read free: How to price epoxy flooring · Use: Job pricing calculator
Priority 2 · System 3
Quote
A measured quote and a written scope are what protect you when the slab is worse than it looked.
- The estimate visit
- The written quote
- Contracts and scheduling
Read free: Epoxy flooring contracts · Use: Estimate template
Priority 3 · System 4
Sell
Someone used to sell the job before you arrived. Now the visit, the options and the follow-up are yours.
- The in-home visit
- Objections
- Follow-up
Read free: The epoxy flooring sales process · Use: Lead cost calculator
Priority 4 · System 6
Protect
When a floor fails, it comes back to you now. Write warranty terms you can afford to honor.
- Warranty terms
- Callbacks and failures
- After the sale
Read free: Epoxy floor warranties · Use: Warranty template
Common mistakes
What trips up installers who go independent
- Quoting your old day rate. It paid for your time on someone else's job. Your price now pays for the whole business.
- Winning on price alone. If you're always the cheapest quote, there's no margin left for a callback.
- Contacting your old employer's customers before a lawyer has read what you signed.
- Working without a written scope and warranty, because someone else always handled the paperwork.
- Buying a planetary grinder on day one. Rent until you're grinding most weeks.
- Starting jobs without a customer deposit. Materials are bought before the job; a deposit covers them.
How to price epoxy flooring
A full job price, from materials to margin.
Read the guide
Talk it through on a call
A planning call with someone who runs a coating company, about your market, budget and pricing.
How the call works
Can I take customers with me from my old employer?
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.
What insurance does an epoxy flooring business need?
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.
How should I price my first jobs on my own?
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.
Is it cheaper to rent or buy a floor grinder?
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.
I already install floors. Is the Playbook for me?
Yes, if you want to run your own jobs or take a class. The recordings show every step of complete installations, so you can check your method against them, and the business side covers the part an installer’s day doesn’t: pricing, quoting, selling and warranties. It’s also required before a hands-on class.
Price your next job
Materials, labor, overhead and margin in; a job price and a price per square foot out.