Blackline Coatings | Luxury Concrete Coatings, Chicago

Luxury concrete coating systems. Chicago and the western suburbs.

Selected Work

Floors we have finished

Garages, basements, showrooms and shop floors across Chicago and the western suburbs. Every one of these is our own work. Tap any photo to open it.

White McLaren with its doors raised on a grey flake coated garage floor

Pearl marble metallic floor running through a finished lower level lounge

Close detail of a copper and black flake floor finish

Range Rover and a red Ferrari parked on a flake coated garage floor

Solid grey metallic floor finished to a mirror gloss in a basement room

Mercedes G Wagon parked on a dark flake coated garage floor

Marble metallic floor in a finished retail salon with chairs and a counter

Charcoal flake coated garage floor photographed wide from the doorway

Black flake coated garage floor running out to an open garage door

Marble metallic floor reflecting ceiling lights in a finished retail space

Cream and grey flake coated garage floor in sunlight

Close detail of a grey and white flake floor under a clear topcoat

The Systems

Four systems. One standard underneath them.

A coating is only as good as the slab it is bonded to. Whichever finish you choose, the concrete underneath it gets ground back, repaired and made ready first.

Flake

Flake Systems

A full broadcast of vinyl flake locked under clear polyaspartic. The finish everybody knows, built the way it should be.

Flake is our most requested system and the one most often installed badly. Ours goes down as a full refusal broadcast, so the flake covers wall to wall with no thin patches, then gets double topcoated in clear polyaspartic and cut back to the finish you chose. Matte, satin or full gloss.

Full refusal broadcast, so no base colour reads through the finish
Blended flake in any size and colour mix, matched to the room
Clear polyaspartic topcoats over the top, not a thin seal
Coved base and clean cut lines where the floor meets the wall

Quartz Systems

Coloured quartz aggregate broadcast into resin. The hardest wearing finish we install, and the one with grip.

Quartz is graded silica, coloured and broadcast into the resin in layers. It builds a thicker, denser floor than flake and it holds its texture, which is why it goes into commercial kitchens, wash bays and anywhere a floor gets treated badly. It also happens to look like fine stone.

Graded quartz aggregate, broadcast in layers for real build
The most slip resistant finish we offer, with grip you can set
Takes traffic, wheels, heat and standing water
Colour blended to spec, from near white to charcoal

Concrete Restoration

Cracked, pitted, spalled or patched over. We take the slab back to something worth finishing.

Plenty of the floors we are called out to are not ready for a coating and nobody has told the owner. Cracks move, joints have failed, the surface is spalling or somebody has skimmed over it. We repair the slab properly first: chase and fill the cracks, rebuild the edges and the joints, regrind the whole surface flat. Sometimes that is the whole job. Sometimes it is the first day of one.

Cracks chased out and filled, not painted over
Spalled surfaces and broken edges rebuilt
Control joints cut back and refilled
Full mechanical grind so the slab finishes flat

Built on the part nobody sees

Blackline Coatings is a luxury concrete coatings company working out of Elburn and across Chicago and the western suburbs. We install decorative coating systems and we restore concrete that has been let go. Judah Reynolds started Blackline after eight years in the trades and four of them in concrete coatings, because he kept seeing the same thing: floors sold on the finish and failed on the prep.

So that is where our work goes. Every slab is ground back mechanically, every crack and every joint is dealt with before a drop of resin is mixed, and the coating goes down over concrete that is ready for it. That part is invisible once the floor is finished. It is also the only reason the floor is still there in ten years.

Judah Reynolds, founder
Blackline Coatings is fully insured. Working Chicago and the western suburbs.

The Full Story

Prep is the whole job

Anybody can roll on a finish. What decides whether your floor is still perfect in ten years happens before the colour goes anywhere near it.

Before You Call

The things people actually ask

How long does a floor take?

Most residential garages and basements are a one day install, and you are walking on it that evening and parking on it the next day. Restoration work adds a day, sometimes two, because the slab has to be repaired and reground before anything goes down.

Do you grind the floor first, or acid etch it?

We grind, mechanically, every time. Acid etching does not open the concrete up enough for the resin to key into and it is the reason coatings peel in sheets a year later. Grinding is slower and it costs more, and it is the whole job.

Will it lift under hot tyres?

Not with the systems we install. Hot tyre pickup is a problem with thin single coat epoxy kits. Our floors are finished with polyaspartic topcoats, which do not soften under a hot tyre.

Can you coat a floor that already has something on it?

Usually yes. Old coatings, sealers, glue, tile mortar and paint all come off in the grind. If the slab underneath has failed we will tell you that before we quote it rather than after.

Which system should I be looking at?

Flake for garages and anywhere that gets used hard. Marble metallic for interior space you want people to notice. Quartz where the floor needs grip or is going to take real punishment. Tell us the room and we will tell you what we would put in it.

Where do you work?

Chicago and the western suburbs, out of Elburn. Naperville, Hinsdale, Oak Brook, Wheaton, Geneva, St. Charles, Batavia and Aurora are all regular ground for us.

How do I get a quote?

Send the address of the space and the finish you have in mind, or just call. We will come out, look at the slab and give you a number based on what is actually there.

Get a Quote

Tell us about the space

The address and the finish you have in mind is enough to get started. We will come out, look at the slab and give you a number based on what is actually there.

Phone (331) 788-1987
Email info@blacklinecoatings.com
Hours Monday to Saturday, 7am to 5pm
Where we work Chicago and the western suburbs
Based at 640 Cambridge Ave, Elburn, IL 60119

Blackline Coatings: luxury concrete coatings and concrete restoration in Chicago and the western suburbs. Flake, marble metallic and quartz floor systems for garages, basements, showrooms and commercial floors.