North to the Lehigh Valley
Alburtis, Macungie and Emmaus sit at the top of our range, straight up Route 100 from Boyertown.
Where we work
Lehigh County at a glance
Route 100 runs north out of Boyertown and lands in Lehigh County at Alburtis, then Macungie, then Emmaus on the southern edge of Allentown. That road is the reason the Lehigh Valley is on our list at all, because it puts the southern boroughs of the county closer to us than some places in our own.
These boroughs are older than the development around them. Emmaus, Macungie and Alburtis all have proper historic cores with houses from the eighteen and early nineteen hundreds, which means deep stone and block basements, small detached garages and slabs that were poured by hand a very long time ago. Then, in a ring around each of them, the last thirty years of Lehigh Valley growth has filled in with modern housing and modern concrete.
We show up, finish on time, and get it right. No hidden fees, no surprises.
Jimmy and Justyn, Cobra EpoxyWhat we get called for
What Lehigh County asks us for most
Every service runs across the whole county. These are simply the three that come up most often here.
Commercial Epoxy Flooring
Return to service quoted honestly. Foot traffic first, racking later.
Basement Epoxy Flooring
A light blend throws what light there is back up instead of swallowing it.
Garage Epoxy Flooring
Road salt, hot tires and dropped tools stop leaving a mark on it.
Towns we cover here: Emmaus·Macungie·Alburtis·Allentown·Trexlertown·Coopersburg
What we find under the paint
The valley has also become one of the biggest warehouse and distribution corridors in the north east, and that has pulled a lot of small trade and light industrial units along with it. Those buildings have hard working floors, they usually cannot afford to close, and phased overnight work is how they get coated. Our OSHA certified equipment and dust extraction matter more on those sites than anywhere else we go.
Being at the top of our range is worth being straight about. We work up here regularly and we are happy to, but we will tell you honestly if a small job is not worth the drive for either of us rather than pricing it to cover the travel and hoping you do not notice.
Valley weather and older slabs
The Lehigh Valley gets the same freeze and thaw punishment as everywhere else on our patch, roughly forty cycles a winter of water getting into concrete, freezing, expanding and pushing the surface apart. What is different up here is the age of a lot of the concrete taking it.
The historic borough cores at Emmaus, Macungie and Alburtis have slabs, steps and paths that were poured a very long time ago, often by hand, usually without air entrainment and always without anyone imagining road salt. Concrete like that has less resistance to the cycle to begin with, so it degrades faster once it starts.
The practical consequence is that timing matters more here. On a modern slab you have years of margin before the pitting becomes structural. On a hundred year old step nosing the gap between cosmetic and structural is short, and sealing it while it is still sound is the whole game.
From bare slab to finished floor
Nothing goes onto a floor until the concrete is open. Diamond grinders with dust extraction take the surface skin off, along with any curing compound, old sealer, paint or soaked in oil, and leave a clean profile the coating can key into. Acid etching and pressure washing do not produce that, which is why coatings applied over them come off.
With the slab open, every defect is visible for the first time. Cracks get cut into a channel and rebuilt, pits and divots filled, spalled areas cut back to something sound and leveled flush. Whatever we find gets told to you rather than buried.
The base coat goes down into that profile, and the flake goes into the base while it is still wet, thrown by hand across the whole area until the surface is saturated. Full broadcast, not a scatter, which is what gives the floor its depth and a good part of its thickness.
The next day the loose chip is scraped off and vacuumed, and a polyaspartic topcoat goes over the top. That topcoat is the layer that takes the wear, resists the chemicals and gives you the finish you actually look at.
On the map
Getting to you from Boyertown
Lehigh County is inside our normal working radius, which runs roughly fifty miles out from Boyertown. The county seat is Allentown.
If your town is not on the list above, that does not mean we do not cover it. Call and ask. We would rather tell you honestly than send somebody on a two hour round trip, and we would rather hear from you than have you assume.
Questions
Working in Lehigh County
The questions that come up most on calls from this part of the patch.
Which counties do you cover?
Berks, Montgomery, Chester, Lehigh, Upper Bucks and the northern end of Lancaster. That is roughly a fifty mile radius from Boyertown, and the service areas page lists every town we have written up. Plenty of jobs happen in places that never got their own page.
Are you actually local or is this a franchise?
Local, and small on purpose. Cobra is Jimmy and Justyn plus the crew, working out of Boyertown for three years. The person who quotes your job is the person holding the grinder, and there is no call center in between.
Do we have to close while you work?
Almost never. We split the floor into sections and take one at a time, and a lot of the work happens at night or across a weekend. One of the jobs Jimmy is proudest of is a dog daycare where the entire original finish came off and a new floor went in without the business losing a single day.
How do you know whether a slab is too wet to coat?
We put a meter on it. A calcium chloride or relative humidity test tells us how much vapor is coming up through the concrete, and that number decides the specification rather than our optimism. Most slabs are fine. Some need a moisture tolerant primer underneath. A few need a drainage problem sorted first, and you will hear that at the walkthrough.
Can you coat a garage floor in winter?
Yes, interior floors go in all year. A closed garage holds enough temperature to cure the system, and we will bring heat if a slab is genuinely cold. Winter is often the easier time to book because exterior work is out of season, so the schedule is more open.
What goes into the number?
Square footage, the condition of the concrete, how much repair it needs, how many edges have to be cut in by hand, whether anything has to come off first, and what the moisture reading says. Those last four are why two rooms of the same size are frequently not the same price, and why the walkthrough exists.
What about silica dust from the grinding?
Controlled at source, which is not optional. Dry grinding concrete without extraction throws respirable silica, and it is a genuine health exposure rather than a nuisance. Our equipment is OSHA certified and the extraction runs the whole time the grinders do. In an occupied commercial building that matters even more than it does in a garage.
Will I be dealing with the same people throughout?
Yes, start to finish. Jimmy quotes it and schedules it, Justyn runs the floor, and the crew at the walkthrough is the crew in your garage. That continuity is why nothing gets lost between the person who looked at the slab and the person who prepares it.
Book a walkthrough
Book a walkthrough in Lehigh County
Tell us the town, the space and roughly what condition the concrete is in. Jimmy comes back within a business day and arranges to walk it with you.
American made product throughout, an OSHA certified crew, Pennsylvania registration HIC 177204, and a lifetime warranty in writing on residential interiors.
You can call (484) 942-3219, email jfaust@cobraepoxy.com, or fill in the contact page. All three reach the same person, usually within one business day.
Tell us about the floor
A rough description of the space is plenty. Jimmy comes back within a business day.
Also covered: Berks County, Montgomery County, Chester County, Bucks County, Lancaster County. Browse the full list of services, see finished work in the gallery, or get in touch.