Specialty Coatings Inc

The crew did an excellent job. Though we cannot comment on long-term wear at this time, we are VERY happy with the initial result. The crew was very professional.

Robert was able to provide me with a bid quickly and provided updates throughout the process. Speciality coatings was also accommodating of other work going on in the space and finished the job on a tight schedule. I would highly recommend Specialty Coatings for your concrete finishing needs.

Excellent. Higher VOCs than we expected, but it dissipated by a week.

unknown

unknown

I am very happy with the floor outcome.  I recently had my garage remodeled and the guys with Specialty Coatings put the icing on the cake.  They cleaned the floor and applied the flooring over two days as promised.  They also gave me instructions on care immediately and for the long haul.  Overall I am very pleased with how it turned out and how durable it looks.  These guys are great!

unknown

unknown

from start to finish, dried and drivable, in one day. Hard to believe

unknown

unknown

I would strongly recommend Specialty Coatings.  We decided to renovate our basement last spring and after getting our design, I started contacting flooring companies.  After contacting three or four, I received a couple responses that said they wouldn't be able to fit it in for a few months and a couple responses about not having equipment that could go down residential stairs into a basement.  Luckily I came across Specialty Coatings and they were excellent.  
We worked with Rob, who scheduled us originally for late June.  When my plumbers were behind, I had to reschedule for mid-July.  In mid-July, however, the new concrete wasn't cured enough and they had to delay the project, which wasn't their fault.  To their credit, they didn't charge extra or cause a big issue, but just told me that they would have to reschedule for when the concrete was cured enough and when they would have some free time in their schedule.  
They were able to work us in about mid-August when we were out of town, and worked with my housesitters without concern and I was able to return to fantastic floors.
Throughout the process, Rob was incredibly responsive and communicative.  I would recommend them without hesitation.

.

unknown

The garage floor looks amazing now. The concrete was pretty badly crack in places, and the previous owner had painted it blue for some reason.  With the new coating it looks amazing, and after all the winter rain and gunk, I sprayed it with simple green and swept it off.
If I had a complaint it was maybe that they came in a bit 'high pressure sales', even though I was already planning on buying.

They got to my house a little late, but they called to let me know. They did everything as promised and 6 hours later I parked my car in the garage.

FIRST COATING: It started slowly - the 3 person crew was late...then had a generator that ran out of gas and had to leave multiple times to get supplies, which I find absolutely unacceptable and unprofessional.  The floor prep is key and was done with a diamond grinder; however, they made a big mess with the silica from the concrete that was not properly cleaned when they left (and silica is very dangerous to breathe in and is a carcinogen).  The white dust was EVERYWHERE.  Why?  Well, I was told they would start at 8am or 8:30am, but they actually started after 9am.  The continual delays caused them to work to 10:30pm -- and it was past the 10pm cutoff for leaf blower noise and there was zero visibility, so they just didn't finish cleanup.  One of the key selling points of this product is the 1-day timeline and it was irritating to have one of the installers ask whether I'd like them back for a 2nd day.  The speedcove application (which is the floor/wall rounding and waterproof barrier) took longer than expected -- perhaps 2-3 hours and the guys seemed to have a lot of trouble with 45 degree miter cuts for corners -- a photo will be added which shows how they did the corners - sloppy holes and caps -- not sure why Angies didn't post it.  A 2nd truck and a 4th guy arrived later in the day and they eventually started putting down the coats.  First the base coat was applied, then body, then chips, then scraping the chips, then the top coat, sanding, and a 2nd top coat, and aluminum oxide...Overall, the floor looks OK, but had two major defects and some minor gaps in the speedcove adhesive:  First, I discovered three dark brown spots on the floor - one was approx 2" x 4" in size.  I was told by Jenci that this was uncured staining, due to UV, and that it would eventually clear up.  I called and talked to the head tech at BASF and he told me it was not that at all, but in fact that they put too much catalyst down and it was causing the floor to burn.  One cannot fix the burn marks -- only way to mitigate is to re-do 3 coats -- allowing you to re-apply the flakes to cover the burn.  In addition, and most disturbing, I discovered that there were HUNDREDS of holes in the floor -- all the way down to the concrete.  They holes were from the spikes on the installers shoes.  I measured them with a highly accurate dial gauge and they were between 20 and 55mils thick on the sample of perhaps 10 I tested.  It is not clear whether there were top coats on top of the holes (clearly no base and primer coat) -- the top coats are clear...The first top-coat was estimated as 15-20mils thick by Jenci and the second was stated to be 10-15...Max thickness in areas of holes is: 55+20+15 = 90mils - slightly short of 100mils as quoted initially.  Later, in email, I received more detailed thicknesses by layer from Jenci: "The primer, body and first topcoat are applied at approximately 15 - 20 mils each and the last topcoat is applied at approximately 10 - 15 mils.  The flake thickness varies depending on the size and type of flake, but generally, it adds about 20 - 30 mils.  This is a broadcast system and contains variations in the final product."  That's 75mils min. thickness by Jenci latest #s - I wish this information was more clear initially, but I thank him for clarifying it eventually (with 25% less thickness).  Clearly, this is a case of a decent to great product with a terrible installation.  UPDATE 1: What I found the most troubling was the hesitation by the company to do the "right" fix.  Jenci was focused on a fix that had LOW COST and a very low probability of success -- they wanted to come by and patch -- hole by hole -- hundreds of holes.  Are you kidding me?  They also wanted me to talk to their local (highly biased and not impartial) BASF salesman to discuss mitigation options, which also rubbed me the wrong way (I wasn't born yesterday).  By that time, I had already talked to the head tech at BASF (and the head trainer for North America on these floors) and he agreed that re-coating was a better solution and one that he'd do on his own floor.  UPDATE 2 and SECOND COATING: It took about two weeks, but they finally did the right thing and re-coated the floor.  They applied a coat of MMA to re-activate the topcoat, then applied another base layer and flakes, then two top coats with a new coat of Aluminum Oxide...This floor looks great -- it meets expectations and Jenci and his crew at Specialty Coatings should be commended for (finally, and after some delay) doing the right thing.  I wish the company would have done the right thing without so much effort on my part however and for this I am still hesitant to recommend them.  It's not clear to me whether BASF or Specialty Coatings stepped up and picked up with bill for the defective installation -- I'd like to know out of curiosity.  I'm sure my floor is above the 100mil thickness spec as well.  As a result of the mitigation, I am improving their overall rating from an F to a C, Quality from F to C, Professionalism from D to B -- I urge Jenci to train the installers to have the appropriate materials & supplies on site when they arrive.  Price is still quite high for this product at over $6/sq ft -- an F compared to Epoxy and a B compared to other installations of this MMA product...I will periodically update this review as I live & work with the floor...if it outperforms over the long term, I will note that -- I have high expectations, given the $6.36+/sq ft.  1 MONTH UPDATE:  moving price from F to B -- while this is 2x the cost of a high end epoxy, it is what it is and MMAs are expensive...the cost from Jenci is actually low compared to some applications of MMA.  WHY?  This application is rolled on -- it's called the 'neat system' by Jenci...it isn't the same way the product is applied at $10-$15/sq ft with trowels....this is a thicker, floor leveling system that used a lot more product.  In any case, floor still looks great and is holding up well so far.  6 MONTH UPDATE: the smell is still there, but I think (hope) it is getting better.  The surface appears pretty good - my only complaint so far is that I didn't tell them to retain the "gap"/"cut" into the cement that helped to keep some of the water out of the garage.  I am looking into threshold seals for that now.  Overall, good product.  I am upgrading the quality to a B and overall to B as a result.

They called ahead the scheduled day of the installation to let me know that they would be an hour or two late for the appointment due to equipment problems. One of the crew showed up on schedule to begin prep work and the rest of the team showed up an hour or so later. The sealant on my garage floor also took longer than they expected to remove. Between the delayed start and the unexpected issues with the sealant, they finished late (8 pm) but I was able to move all my stuff back and park my cars in the garage by 9 pm that night. The work was completed in a very professional manner with a minimum of mess and no damage to the wood baseboard in the garage. The process gives off a noticeable odor but it disappears a day or so afterward. I am very pleased with the work and would definitely recommend them. The coating significantly improves the look of the garage.

We added on to our house under our garage, and our contractor recommended putting in a waterproof coating on our garage floor to protect our addition (although there is no water in our garage). Specialty Coating was really the only game in town. They don't seem to have other competitors. They recommended a rather expensive product, and in fact were unwilling to put in a less expensive product due to the nature of the site (we weren't sure we agreed with them on this). So we weren't super happy with our choices, but they did an OK job on the actual work. The coating was applied as they promised. They were a little slow to finish the job due to the Home Show being at the same time. One additional piece of advice: If you get the fancy waterproof floor, be sure that's what you really want! It looks nice and cleans up easily, but is SO waterproof that simple rain runoff from our cars stands on the floor forever.

The product is as represented. The work was done in a timely manner, and the area around was left clean.

It is so beautiful. It was expensive, but worth it.

THIS WORK WAS COMPLETED IN JANUARY 2005. FIRST OF ALL, I WAS TOLD THAT THE AMOUNT OF DUST WOULD BE MINIMAL, BECAUSE THERE WAS A VACUUM ATTACHED DESIGNED TO CUT DOWN ON DUST. WELL, THIS WAS NOT SO. I CAME DOWN TO THE BASEMENT COMPLETELY FILLED WITH VISIBLE DUST FLOATING ALL OVER. I HAD ASKED IF THE AREA BEING WORKED ON NEEDED TO BE VISQUINED OFF, AND TOLD ''NOT NECESSARY''. I WOULD HAVE INSISTED, KNOWING WHAT I KNOW NOW. WE HAVE ELECTRONICS IN THE BASEMENT, IE; COMPUTER AND TV, NOT TO MENTION ALL OUR FURNITURE. THAT WAS VERY UPSETTING. AFTER COMPLETION AND INSPECTION OF THE JOB, MY HUSBAND & I NOTICED SEVERAL SPOTS THAT WERE NOT COATED & SUBSEQUENTLY SPOTS THAT ARE FLAKING OFF THE PRODUCT. PLUS, THE INSTALLERS HAD LEFT A BRUSH, THAT WAS STUCK TO THE FLOOR. I HAVE MADE MANY PHONE CALLS TO MR. BERGEN. A DATE, RECENTLY, WAS SCHEDULED, BUT NO ONE SHOWED. THE EXCUSE WAS THAT HE WAS TIED UP & DIDN'T HAVE MY PHONE #. THIS IS GOING ON A YEAR SINCE THE JOB WAS DONE AND STILL NO SATISFACTION.