Epoxy Flooring in Bethlehem, PA

Epoxy flooring in Bethlehem often goes onto concrete that is older than the people who own it. The city was founded by Moravian settlers in 1741 and grew around a steel plant that operated from 1857 to 2003, and its houses reflect every era in between. A floor coating here has to grip slabs poured over more than a century, handle Lehigh Valley winters and stay bonded in basements that sit in humid summer air. We plan each floor around the slab it is going on.

Housing from every decade

Census figures for 2019 to 2023, compiled by Point2Homes, show that 31.3% of Bethlehem's housing units were built in 1939 or earlier and another 18.2% in the 1950s. The median year built is 1957. Attached single-family homes, the twins and rowhouses, make up 27.9% of the city's housing, and detached houses another 36.0%. In a house that old, the basement or garage slab has often been patched, painted or sealed more than once. Even a 1950s garage floor has now seen about seventy winters of road salt.

For a coating, that history means old paint, sealer, tile adhesive, oil and hairline cracks are normal findings. We look for them at the estimate and put their removal and repair in the quote, so install day holds no surprises.

Snow, salt and the first few feet inside the door

The Allentown airport, a few miles west of downtown Bethlehem, averages 33.1 inches of snow a season under 1991 to 2020 normals, with January and February the heaviest months. January highs in Bethlehem average 37°F, so slabs freeze and thaw repeatedly from December into March. Each storm leaves salt and brine on the roads, and cars carry it into the garage. Bare concrete soaks the brine up, and freezing water with salt in the pores breaks the surface apart. The damage shows first just inside the door and under the tires. A sealed coating keeps that brine on the surface, where a squeegee can push it out.

Humid summers and basement slabs

NOAA data cited for Allentown puts average relative humidity at 69% over the year, peaking near 74% in September. Warm, damp air meets a cool basement slab and condenses on it. Water vapor also rises through slabs that were poured without a vapor barrier, which describes a lot of pre-war basements. Vapor pushing up under a coating is the most common reason basement floors blister, so we test before choosing a system. Modest vapor can be handled with a moisture-tolerant primer. Seepage at the wall joint, standing water or a failed sump pump is a separate problem that has to be fixed first.

Radon and limestone

The American Lung Association reports that 39.1% of Pennsylvania radon tests come in at or above the EPA action level of 4 pCi/L, and state data reported by Lehigh Valley Public Media puts average basement results in Bethlehem's 18017 and 18018 ZIP codes at 6.7 and 5.8 pCi/L. A floor coating does not mitigate radon. Test before you finish a basement, and if a mitigation system is needed, have it installed first so we can coat around the pipe.

The Lehigh Valley also sits on limestone, the rock that made it a center of Portland cement production. Pennsylvania American Water notes that sinkholes are common in the state's carbonate bedrock areas. A crack that keeps widening or a slab that is sinking needs a structural assessment before any finish goes on it.

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Systems we install

• Garage floor coatings: a ground, repaired slab with a base coat, color or flake layer and a clear topcoat that sheds brine.
• Epoxy flake floors: vinyl chips broadcast into the base coat for texture and a finish that hides grit and salt residue between cleanings.
• Polyaspartic coatings: fast-curing, UV-stable layers that let you walk on the floor the same day and park sooner.
• Basement floor epoxy: moisture-tested systems for laundry rooms, gyms, storage and finished rec rooms.
• Commercial and warehouse floors: thicker 100% solids systems for forklifts, carts, chemicals and long shifts.
• Concrete crack and floor repair: patching, joint filling and resurfacing, on its own or before a coating.

What happens on your floor

• We measure the space, test for moisture and note cracks, flaking, oil and any old coating.
• You get a written quote with the system, each coat and the total.
• The slab is diamond ground edge to edge, and the dust is vacuumed as we go.
• Cracks, chips and pitted areas are filled and ground flush.
• Base coat, color or flake, and topcoat go down, usually in one or two days.
• We leave written timing for foot traffic, furniture and vehicles, plus winter cleaning tips.

Bethlehem is home base, and we work across Lehigh and Northampton counties: Allentown, Easton, Hellertown, Fountain Hill, Freemansburg, Bethlehem Township, Hanover Township, Lower Saucon, Upper Saucon and Center Valley, Salisbury, Whitehall, Catasauqua, Northampton, Bath, Nazareth, Upper Nazareth, Palmer, Forks, Emmaus, Coopersburg and the Macungie townships. The floors change with the town. The older boroughs and city neighborhoods have more basements, rowhouses and detached garages with aging concrete. The townships that grew fastest after 2000, such as Forks, Upper Macungie and Upper Saucon, have more recently built homes, so their garage slabs are younger. Northampton, Whitehall and Bath sit in the old cement belt, and Palmer and the Macungie townships host large warehouses and plants with commercial floor needs. Each area page covers what we know about the homes and floors there.