Epoxy Floor Installation in Kenya: Laid on a Slab That Is Ready
from KES 350 / m²
Epoxy fails at the slab, not at the surface
Almost every failed epoxy floor we are called to look at failed from underneath. The coating is fine; the slab beneath it was damp, or dusty, or polished smooth, and the epoxy never bonded.
Epoxy is a coating, and a coating is only as good as what it is stuck to. So the preparation is most of the job, and it is the part that gets cut when a price looks too good.
What preparation actually involves
Moisture testing. A slab that reads wet will lift an epoxy floor within months, and no amount of surface preparation changes that. On ground-floor slabs, particularly newer ones, we test before quoting a coating rather than after laying one.
Mechanical preparation. Grinding or shot blasting to open the surface. Acid etching, which is still common in Kenya, is the cheap alternative and it is markedly less reliable.
Crack and joint treatment. Filled and bridged properly, or they telegraph through within a year.
Priming, then the build coats and the topcoat.
What it costs
| Finish | Rate |
|---|---|
| Basic coating: garage, store, utility | KES 350 – 600 / m² |
| Standard finish | KES 600 – 900 / m² |
| High-end decorative or 3D | KES 900 – 1,500+ / m² |
A real worked example: a 32 m² garage in Westlands: surface preparation KES 6,000, materials KES 18,500, labour KES 9,500. Total KES 34,000, about KES 1,060 per square metre.
Where epoxy is the right answer
Garages, stores, utility rooms, workshops, clinics and any space where a seamless, washable floor matters more than warmth underfoot. It is hard, cold and unforgiving of a dropped glass: which is why we rarely recommend it for a living room, whatever the photographs suggest.
Curing
Epoxy needs time and it needs the space closed. Foot traffic typically after 24 hours, furniture after 72, vehicles after about a week. Rushing it is how a new floor picks up permanent marks in the first fortnight.
See every floor type priced, or the areas we cover.