Flooring contractor in West Lafayette, IN - floors that start with the slab

The city's guidance doesn't settle it for floor coatings, so we check with the West Lafayette Building Department about your job before we start. The department issues permits for new construction, structural changes and electrical work, and its FAQ says cosmetic work needs none, but another of its pages lists any alterations, repairs or changes to existing buildings. If a permit is needed, we take care of the paperwork with you, and if you want to ask yourself, the city's building permits page tells you how to reach the department.

Check the city limits map on the city's Building Department page, because the limits decide which office handles any permit. If you're outside them, the city says to contact the City of Lafayette at 765.807.1050 or the Tippecanoe County Building Commission at 765.423.9225. Send us your street address and we'll find out which office handles it before we start.

Yes, for any work that needs a permit, the contractor's bond has to be on file with the city first, and no building permit is issued until all bonds are in place. The city sets general contractors at $25,000 and sub-contractors at $5,000 per trade. It only comes into play on permitted work, which is one more reason we sort out the permit question early.

The price comes down mostly to the slab you have and the system you pick, and I'll put your number in the estimate once I've seen the floor. Grinding off old paint or a failed coating, filling cracks, dealing with moisture and the size of the floor all push it up, and a flake or metallic finish costs more than a plain color coat. If your job turns out to need a city remodel permit, that fee is a $250.00 base plus $2.00 per thousand of estimated construction cost.

Most of the time goes into prep and curing, not the coating itself, so I'll tell you what to plan for after I've seen your slab. Heavy grinding, crack repair or moisture work adds time, a cold garage in winter slows the cure, and the system you pick changes how long you wait before parking on it. If a permit is needed, that check with the office comes before we set a start.

Usually it's moisture pushing up through the slab, or a coating put over concrete that was never ground clean. The city's older stormwater code notes that property in and downstream of West Lafayette is at times subjected to flooding, and that water can end up in and under basement slabs. On a damp basement, I'd rather check the slab and tell you to wait or pick a different system than coat over it and watch it let go.