A stained Redmond garage with steel posts got Smoke flake polyurea on the floor and up the concrete stem walls, coated tight to every edge.
Most garage floors stop at the wall. This one keeps going. In this Redmond garage the concrete foundation wall rises a couple of feet above the slab before the drywall starts, and that strip of bare grey concrete was as stained and dusty as the floor. So the coating went up the wall too.
In September 2024 Cascade's crew coated the floor and the stem walls in Certified Penntek polyurea with Smoke flake. The result is one continuous surface from the floor up to the drywall, around the steel support posts, a water heater stand and the stairs into the house. It is a garage floor coating in Redmond that looks finished at every edge.
At the consultation in August 2024 the garage was in full use, with two cars parked inside. Once they were out, the concrete told its story. Dark oil and drip stains under each parking spot, tire tracks, dust along the walls and a lot of wear around the door to the house.
The layout was also tricky. Steel posts hold up the beams in the middle of the room, the water heater sits on a raised stand, and stairs lead up to the house. Every one of those is an edge the coating has to meet cleanly.
Coating a vertical surface takes more care than the floor. The basecoat has to grab without sagging, and the flake has to stick to a wall instead of falling to the floor. Done right, there is no seam where floor meets wall for water or dirt to collect in.
Smoke Evolution mixes black, charcoal, grey and white chips. It is darker than most of our light blends, which makes it forgiving in a garage that sees real use. Tire marks, road grime and wet footprints blend in. With white walls and white posts it gives the room a crisp, high-contrast look.
Penntek's basecoat bonds chemically with the ground concrete, helped by a silane adhesion promoter. Bond strength tests at over 1,300 PSI. Before the coating comes up, the concrete will come up. That matters on a stem wall, where a weak coating would peel at the top edge first.
The polyaspartic topcoat is non-porous, so oil and road salt wipe off instead of soaking in. You can see how it handles abuse in the Penntek Hammer Test. Typical epoxy is brittle by comparison and often starts to fail in years 3–5. Our post on Penntek vs epoxy goes deeper.
Redmond has plenty of homes on sloped lots, where the garage sits partly into the hill and the foundation wall shows on the inside. Those walls wick moisture and collect grime just like the slab. Coating them is a small add-on that makes the whole room easier to clean.
Learn more about our concrete coatings in Redmond, or see a Redmond three-car garage finished in Pebble Beach.
Yes. Exposed concrete stem walls can get the same Certified Penntek system as the floor. It closes the joint where floor meets wall and makes the lower wall easy to wipe down.
The crew grinds right up to each post and stand, then coats around them by hand. The flake and topcoat run tight to every edge, so there are no bare rings of concrete left behind.
It is one of the most forgiving. The mix of dark and light chips hides tire marks and grime between cleanings, and the topcoat lets most messes wipe right up.
Curious how Smoke or another blend would look in your garage? Book a free in-home quote or call 425-226-6085. You can also browse every option on our colors page.
Here's just a few of our previous projects.
