flake
Throw chip until the base quits.
Flake blends, base coat and clear for one Lathrop garage, bought together at the Tracy bench. You lay the floor. We help you buy enough chip to bury the base from the door to the back wall.
Big chips, small chips and how tight to throw them.
Buying flake for a single garage comes down to two choices before color even comes into it: how big the chips are, and how densely they land. Both change what the finished floor hides and how it feels under bare feet.
Larger chips read as a bold pattern from the doorway and cover plenty of slab per handful. They also leave taller ridges to knock down before the clear, and more texture under the topcoat once it cures. Smaller chips make a finer, busier surface that looks closer to stone from standing height and takes a clear more smoothly. Plenty of blends mix sizes, so the floor gets a little of each.
Density is the second dial. A full broadcast buries the base completely. The slab color disappears, and every patch, trowel mark and hairline repair underneath disappears with it. A lighter throw lets the base show between chips, uses less flake and shows more of whatever is below. For a garage that will take tires, dropped sockets and yard dirt, most buyers go full.
Chip size sets the pattern. Density decides what stays hidden.
ordering
Order enough to bury the base completely.
Full broadcast means throwing chip into the wet base until it will not hold another flake, which crews call broadcasting to rejection. The loose excess sits on top until the base cures. That is why a full-broadcast chip order runs well past what the floor ends up keeping.
The floor between the broadcast and the clear.
Once the base has cured with chip locked in it, the floor looks done and is nowhere close. Every loose flake has to come off, and every chip standing on edge has to be knocked flat, or the clear will lie over a rough field and feel like sandpaper underfoot.
Sweep up the loose excess first, and bag the clean chip if you want it for a future job. Then scrape the whole floor with a long-handled scraper in overlapping passes, changing direction so no ridge survives. Vacuum the open field, then go back for the edges, the corners and the door track, where dust likes to settle. Walk the floor in socks or run a flat hand across it. Anything you can feel will show through the topcoat.
Only after all that do you open the clear. Epoxy or polyaspartic, the topcoat seals in whatever it lands on, dust and hair included.
Tan and pale blends under bright garage light.
A bright garage with the door rolled up changes how a blend reads. Pale gray and white blends bounce light around and make the room feel bigger, and they also show dark tire marks and oil drips sooner. Tan and gray blends sit in between: they still read light, and road dust tracked in from outside mostly vanishes into them.
The easiest time to settle on color is before anyone moves in, while the drywall is still taped and mudded and the bays sit empty, since there are no cars or shelves yet to throw off your eye. Hold chip samples in the light the floor will actually live in, with the door open, before you commit.
If the customer has their heart set on a pale floor, a few darker chips in the mix earn their place. Scattered brown or black flecks break up the surface, so a single scuff never stands alone.
One garage, written as a shopping list.
This is what a typical single-garage flake order carries, so the day never stalls halfway through. We fill in the exact products and counts with you on the phone.
Lathrop pages for the rest of the stack.
Chip sits in the middle of the system. These cover the layers on either side of it.
Buying flake for a garage, answered.
What chip size works best for a garage floor?
Larger chips make a bolder pattern and cover ground fast, but they leave more texture to scrape. Smaller chips look finer and take a clear more smoothly. Many garage blends mix sizes. Tell us how the garage gets used and we will suggest a size that fits.
How much flake do I need for a full broadcast?
More than ends up bonded, since a full broadcast keeps going until no wet resin shows through. Give us the measured square footage and we will size the order for full coverage with a spare box, all from one blend so the color stays consistent.
Why scrape and vacuum before the topcoat?
Cured chips standing on edge feel rough and telegraph through the clear. Scraping knocks them flat, and vacuuming removes the dust the scrape leaves. Anything left on the floor gets sealed in for good, so this clean-up step decides how the finished floor feels.
Will a pale blend look dirty in a bright garage?
A pale gray and white blend shows tire marks and oil drips sooner than a tan or mid-gray one. Scattered darker chips in the mix help a lot. Look at samples with the garage door open, in the same light the floor will live in.
What else belongs on the order besides flake?
Prep tooling and crack filler, a base coat tinted close to the blend, a scraper, a clear topcoat, and application tools like squeegees, rollers and spiked shoes. We will build the full list with you so pour day never stalls for a missing item.
Can I learn flake before my first paying garage?
Yes. Our training academy teaches these systems hands on. We sell material and train installers, and we do not lay floors in Lathrop ourselves, so the academy is where a new installer gets practice before stepping into a customer’s garage.
Flake is heavy. Tracy is close.
Boxes of chip, a base coat and a clear add up to a real load, and Lathrop sits about 8 road miles from the Tracy bench. Reach out before you head over and the whole garage order will be pulled and waiting at the bench. Crews that order often can ask about contractor pricing.
Other products headed your way are on the Lathrop supply page, with the wider San Joaquin County list one step up.
Send the garage size and a blend.
Tell us the measurements, the blend you have in mind and whether you plan a full broadcast. Someone who has thrown chip on real floors will write back.
- (209) 208-4656
- chris@exclusiveresins.com
- Tracy, CA · Ships nationwide
Planning a full chip broadcast in Lathrop?
Call with the garage measurements and your blend. We will count the boxes, match the base and clear, and stage the order in Tracy.