Almost every peeling garage floor in Melbourne failed for one of six reasons, and none of them is bad luck. All six are visible in a quote before a dollar changes hands — if you know what to look for. This page is the checklist.
Floor shown is a visualisation — stock reference photography, not a completed Ironclad job.
The coating was rolled onto a sealed, smooth or acid-etched slab. Concrete has to be mechanically opened — diamond-ground — for a resin to key into it; etching does not open it anywhere near enough. A coating that sits on the surface instead of in it is paint, whatever the tin says, and it lets go first in the arc where the car turns, because that is where a warm tyre puts heat and shear into the floor at once. This is the single most common failure we see.
Slabs without an intact under-slab vapour barrier draw moisture upward. In Victoria the barrier only became a prescriptive requirement with the 1996 Building Code, adopted in August 1997 — so a large share of Melbourne's slabs predate it. Seal that moisture in and hydrostatic pressure lifts the film off in sheets, often inside a year. A moisture test before coating is the only defence, and it is the stage cheap quotes skip because it can lose them the job.
The cheapest quote wins by cutting coats. One thin pass has less body to absorb heat, abrasion and tyre shear, and it wears through at the traffic lines first. It looks identical to a full-build floor on day one. It does not look identical on day two hundred. Flake broadcast to refusal plus a clear topcoat exists precisely to put real millimetres between your tyres and the concrete.
New concrete carries construction water, and manufacturers typically require at least 28 days of curing before a coating goes down — with the real answer coming from a moisture test, not the calendar. In Melbourne's growth corridors we regularly tell new-build owners to wait. The installer who coats a six-week-old slab without testing it is gambling with your money.
Oil, silicone-based sealers and old adhesives stop resin bonding, and stains can bleed back up through a fresh coating. Grinding removes the top of the slab and most of the problem; deep contamination needs treating separately. It has to be dealt with in preparation — there is no coating over it.
A coating is only as sound as what it is stuck to. Put a new floor over old paint or a delaminating epoxy and the new floor fails with the old one — you have paid twice for one failure. The old film gets ground off, back to bare open concrete, before anything new goes down. That is what an honest guarantee is written against.
Every one of these is checkable before you sign: ask whether the slab is diamond-ground or etched, whether it is moisture tested, how many coats go down and at what build, how a new slab's age is verified, how contamination is treated, and whether existing coatings are removed. What it should all cost is covered in the Melbourne cost guide.
The Ironclad 4-stage exists because of the list above. Every job: the slab is diamond-ground back to bare open concrete, moisture tested before a drop goes down, flake broadcast to refusal for full coverage and film build, then clear sealed with the edges cut in sharp. Two days on site, the car back on it three to four days later, and a written guarantee against lifting that transfers if you sell.
If your floor has already failed, the same process applies — the old film comes off first. Send a photo of what you're looking at and we'll tell you straight what it needs: written quote in under 15 minutes, weekdays 7am–7pm.
That arc is where a warm tyre puts heat and shear into the coating at the same time, so it is where a weak bond lets go first. The root cause is almost always preparation — coating over paint, a sealed surface or an acid-etched slab. The fix is removal and re-coating from bare concrete, not another coat over the top.
Ask three questions about the install: was the slab diamond-ground back to bare open concrete, was it moisture tested, and was the film built in proper coats? Floors that get all three rarely lift. Floors that miss any one of them fail early and predictably.
Yes — hydrostatic pressure. Slabs without an intact vapour barrier draw moisture upward, and sealing it in delaminates the film, often in sheets. Older slabs — broadly pre-1997 in Victoria — need a moisture test before anyone promises anything.
Not always. Manufacturers typically require at least 28 days of curing, and the real answer comes from a moisture test, not the calendar. Coating too early traps construction water under the film and pushes it off.
One photo and rough dimensions. Written quote back in under 15 minutes, weekdays 7am–7pm — with the preparation spelled out, because that's the part that decides everything.
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