It is the first question almost everyone asks, and it is the hardest one to answer with a single number. Resin flooring is not a product you buy off a shelf at a fixed rate; it is a system laid onto your existing concrete, and the concrete is different in every building. Two garages the same size can carry very different prices because one slab is sound and clean and the other is oil-soaked, uneven and cracked. So rather than quote you a per-square-metre figure that falls apart the moment we see the floor, this guide explains exactly what moves the price, so you can work out roughly where your job sits and know what a fair quote is built from.
What actually drives the price (scan this first)
| Cost driver | How it moves the price |
|---|---|
| Floor size | Bigger floors cost more in total, but the rate per m² usually drops as the area grows, because setup and mobilisation are spread over more metres. |
| Slab condition and prep | The biggest swing of all. Grinding, crack repair, oil and grease removal, patching and levelling all add labour and materials before a drop of resin goes down. |
| The finish and system | Solid colour is the most cost-effective. Flake sits in the middle. A deep, hand-worked metallic is the most labour-intensive. Fast-cure systems cost more for the speed. |
| Build thickness and use | A domestic garage needs less than a floor taking forklifts and chemicals. Heavier use means a thicker, tougher build, which costs more. |
| Access and site | A clear, ground-floor space is straightforward. Upstairs units, tight access, or a floor you need us to clear and move kit out of add time. |
| Timescale | A standard cure is built into the price. Needing the space back in a day, using a fast-cure system, pushes the cost up. |
Read down that list and you will already have a feel for whether your job is a simple one or a more involved one. The rest of this guide takes each driver in turn and explains the why, so nothing in your quote comes as a surprise.
Size: why per-square-metre is only half the story
Bigger floors cost more in total, but the rate per square metre usually comes down as the area grows. Every job carries a fixed amount of setup: getting the grinder and the kit on site, masking up, mixing, and the time it takes regardless of size. On a small single-garage floor that fixed cost is spread over very few metres, so the effective rate per metre looks high. Spread the same setup over a large commercial or industrial floor and the rate per metre drops. This is why a quoted per-m² number from one job rarely transfers cleanly to another, and why a tiny floor is rarely as cheap as people expect.
Slab condition and prep: the biggest variable by far
This is where most of the difference between two otherwise identical floors comes from. Resin bonds to honest concrete, not to dust, laitance, old paint or oil. Before any resin is laid we mechanically grind the slab back with a diamond planetary grinder to open the surface and give the resin something to key into. That is standard on every job. What varies is everything else the slab needs first:
- Cracks and joints that have to be cut out, filled and reinforced before pouring.
- Oil and grease contamination ground deep into a garage or workshop slab, which has to be removed or it will stop the resin bonding.
- Dips, falls and uneven patches that need levelling so the finished floor is flat.
- Moisture in the slab, which on some floors calls for a damp-proof membrane before the build.
A clean, flat, sound slab needs little more than a grind and a vacuum. A neglected one can need a half-day of repair before the floor build even starts. That prep is not optional and it is not padding: skip it and the finest resin in the country will lift within a year. It is the single biggest reason we will not quote a real price down the phone without seeing, or at least getting good photos of, the floor.
Where cheap quotes go wrong
The finish and system you choose
The look you are after has a real effect on the price, because some finishes are far more labour-intensive than others.
- Solid colour is the most cost-effective: a clean, seamless floor in the colour of your choice, in gloss or satin.
- Flake sits in the middle: vinyl chips broadcast through the coat for grip and a hard-wearing speckled finish.
- Quartz and heavy anti-slip builds add an aggregate broadcast and an extra coat, so they cost a little more.
- Metallic is the showpiece and the most involved: the marbled, three-dimensional effect is hand-worked on site and takes skill and time, so it sits at the top of the range.
Separately, the resin system affects cost. A standard epoxy build is generally the most economical. A fast-cure polyaspartic system costs more per square metre and demands an experienced installer working at pace, but it buys you a floor that is back in use in a day rather than a week. If downtime is expensive for you, that premium can pay for itself. We dig into the trade-off in our epoxy vs polyaspartic guide.
Want a real number for your floor?
Tell us the size of the space, what it is used for and the finish you are after. We will give you one fixed price for the whole job, in writing, with no obligation.
Why we quote one fixed price, not a rate per metre
Once we have seen your floor, you get a single total for the whole job: prep, materials, labour and the finish, start to finish. The price we quote is the price you pay, with no surprises on the day. We do this on purpose. A rate per square metre sounds transparent but it hides the part that actually varies, which is the prep, and it tempts a contractor to find more chargeable metres of work once they are on site. One fixed price means the risk of a tricky slab sits with us, not with you. You read the quote, ask anything you like, approve it when you are ready, and walk away whenever you want with no obligation.
How to get an accurate price for your floor
The fastest way to a real number is to tell us three things: roughly how big the space is, what it is used for, and the kind of finish you have in mind. Photos of the existing floor, especially anything cracked, oily or uneven, let us spec the prep accurately. From there we put together a fixed-price written quote, usually inside two working days. There is no pressure and no obligation: the quote is yours to sit on.
About this guide
Who wrote this
This guide is written by the Obsidian Resin team. We prep and pour resin floors for garages, workshops, showrooms and commercial units across Leicestershire and the East Midlands, so the cost drivers here are the ones we price up on real floors every week, not figures lifted from a brochure.
Why we wrote it
"How much does it cost" is the question we hear first, and most of what is online is either a single per-metre figure that does not survive contact with a real slab, or a page that dodges the question entirely. This is the honest explanation of what your quote is built from.
Our honest position
We have a commercial interest in you choosing a professionally laid floor, and we are upfront about that. We have not put a headline price on this page because an honest one does not exist until we have seen your floor; quoting a number we cannot stand behind would not be doing you a favour. The guide is meant to be useful whether you use us or not.
Frequently asked questions
- Why won't you just give me a price per square metre?
- Because the slab underneath decides most of the cost, and we cannot see it down the phone. A per-metre figure that ignores prep is the number that turns into a bigger bill later. We quote one fixed price once we know what your floor actually needs.
- What makes one resin floor cost more than another?
- Mostly the prep the slab needs and the finish you choose. A clean slab with a solid-colour finish is the cheap end; a contaminated, cracked slab finished in metallic is the dear end. Size, use and timescale do the rest.
- Is resin flooring cheaper than tiling or new concrete?
- It is usually laid over your existing slab, so you avoid the cost and mess of ripping the floor out. Against a like-for-like hard-wearing finish it is competitive, and it tends to last longer with less maintenance.
- Does a bigger floor cost more per square metre?
- No, usually less. The fixed setup cost is spread over more metres, so the rate per metre falls as the area grows. Small floors carry a higher effective rate.
- Is the quote really fixed?
- Yes. Once we have quoted, that is the price for the whole job. The price we quote is the price you pay, and there is no obligation to go ahead.
- How quickly will I get a quote?
- Usually inside two working days of telling us about the space, with no pressure to book.