A Shoreline Hillside Garage Where the Concrete Walls Got Coated Too

An older Shoreline garage with a cracked slab and bare foundation walls, coated floor and wainscot in a Silver Creek and Slate Stone flake blend.

Silver Creek and Slate Stone flake garage floor with wood garage doors in Shoreline

Older Shoreline homes often have garages built into the hillside, with thick concrete foundation walls on one or two sides. This garage was one of them. Board-formed concrete walls stepping down with the slope, a steel post in the middle, wood carriage-style doors, and a slab with a long crack, rust marks and white mineral bloom seeping up through it.

The homeowner wanted the room to feel finished, not like a basement. So the crew coated the floor and the lower part of the concrete walls in one matching flake blend. The result is a garage floor coating in Shoreline that wraps up the walls, done in Certified Penntek polyurea with Silver Creek and Slate Stone flake in September 2024.

A slab with history

At the free consultation in September 2024, the moisture meter read 4.7%. The slab was solid, but it showed its age. A crack wandered across the floor near the door. Around it the concrete had white efflorescence, the chalky mineral deposit that shows up when water moves through a slab and evaporates at the surface. There were also rust stains and patchy grey staining from years of use.

The foundation walls were bare, rough concrete. They hold up fine, but they shed dust, stain easily and make the whole space feel unfinished.

Two days, floor and walls

Coating walls adds time, so this job ran across two days in late September.

  1. Moisture reading and a look at every crack.
  2. Diamond grind the slab and prep the lower walls, then vacuum.
  3. Fill the crack with Penntek Mender crack repair.
  4. Roll the pure polyurea basecoat on the floor and up the walls.
  5. Broadcast the Silver Creek and Slate Stone flake blend across both.
  6. Scrape and collect the loose flake.
  7. Seal with a polyaspartic topcoat with FadeLock™ UV stability.

The coated band on the walls follows the stepped concrete, so it looks like a built-in wainscot rather than paint.

Mixing two flake colors

This floor uses two Evolution blends together. Silver Creek brings lighter grey and white chips. Slate Stone adds charcoal and blue-grey. Mixed, they land in the middle: darker than a light floor, but with enough white to catch the light from the windows and the open doors.

A medium tone like this suits an older garage with lots of concrete. It hides dust from the walls and the grit that comes in on tires, and it ties the rough wall texture and the smooth floor together.

What a flexible coating does for an old crack

That crack is the reason system choice matters here. Typical epoxy is rigid. Put it over a slab that still moves a little, and the crack can telegraph through within a few years. People search for an epoxy garage floor, but what we install is Certified Penntek polyurea, which has a flexible basecoat that moves with the slab. You can see it stretch in the Penntek Stretch Test.

The bond is chemical, with over 1,300 PSI bond strength. Before the coating comes up, the concrete will come up. For the full comparison, read epoxy vs polyurea in a Seattle-area garage.

The floor and walls carry a limited lifetime warranty backed by Penntek, registered with the manufacturer when the job is done.

Older garages in Shoreline

Shoreline sits just north of Seattle on Puget Sound, with plenty of mid-century homes on sloped lots. Garages tucked into the hill are common, and they deal with ground moisture along the walls and slab. Testing and good prep matter more here than in a new build.

Learn more about our Shoreline concrete coatings, or compare this with a new-build Shoreline garage in Slate Stone. More floors are on our durability demo page.

Questions about coating garage walls

Can you coat concrete garage walls, not just the floor?

Yes. The lower part of concrete walls can get the same basecoat, flake and topcoat as the floor. It gives a finished, easy-to-clean band where most scuffs and splashes happen.

What is the white powder on my garage floor?

That is usually efflorescence, minerals left behind as moisture moves through the concrete. We test moisture at the consult, grind it away during prep, and use a two-layer moisture barrier if the readings call for one.

Can you mix two flake colors?

Yes. This Shoreline garage blends Silver Creek and Slate Stone. We can show you samples of blends at your consultation.

Have a hillside garage with concrete walls? Book a free in-home quote or call 425-226-6085. Nicole and Sheldon will walk the space with you.