Where outdoor concrete gives up first
Step nosings break down before anything else on a property. Coated while they are sound, it is a cheap job. Left, it becomes a structural one.
Outdoor concrete
Why the nosing goes first
If you want to know how a property is doing for concrete, look at the steps. A step has an unsupported edge with water sitting on the tread right at the corner, exposed on two faces, taking salt all winter. It is the hardest working and worst protected concrete on almost any site, and it is where the freeze and thaw cycle shows up years before it touches anything else.
The nosing is the front edge of the tread. Water runs across the tread and collects there, then freezes overnight and expands inside the concrete at the exact point where there is least material to resist it.
It starts as small chips along the edge and a slight rounding of what used to be a square corner. Then the chips join up, the edge crumbles back, and at some point the tread is no longer full depth and the step is genuinely weaker rather than just untidy.
The gap between cosmetic and structural on a step is short, and it is shorter on old hand poured concrete without air entrainment, which is most of what sits in front of the older housing around Boyertown, Emmaus and the Berks boroughs.
We show up, finish on time, and get it right. No hidden fees, no surprises.
Jimmy and Justyn, Cobra EpoxyWhat the price covers
Every one of these, every time
None of this is an upgrade or an optional extra. It is what the job is, and anything unusual about your slab gets raised before the work starts.
Rebuilding an edge that has already gone
A broken nosing is not filled, it is rebuilt. The damaged concrete gets cut back to something sound and square, the area is prepared, and the edge is formed and rebuilt in a repair mortar that will take load and weather.
That is skilled work, because the rebuilt edge has to be the right height, the right depth and square along its length, and it has to look right from the front where everybody sees it.
Once it has cured the whole assembly gets ground and coated as one surface, so the repair disappears entirely rather than sitting there as a visible patch.
Footing in January is the point
The reason to coat steps rather than simply repair them is grip. Smooth concrete with a film of water or ice on it is dangerous, and steps are where a slip has consequences.
We finish treads with a deliberately coarse texture, coarser than anything we would put inside, chosen so a wet or snowy shoe holds. It is the same reasoning that puts texture on a pool deck, applied to the surface people are most likely to fall on.
A coated step also sheds water and salt rather than absorbing it, so the thing that broke the edge in the first place stops happening.
A floor that was ground properly and repaired before the first coat will still look right in ten years.
Cobra Epoxy and Flake Coatings, Boyertown PAThe order the work happens in
Clear and mask first, which is why the room has to be completely empty before we arrive. A slab cannot be ground in patches around obstacles, because ground and unground areas take the coating differently and the join always shows.
Then grinding, which is the longest and dustiest stage and the one that decides whether the floor lasts. Extraction runs the whole time the machines do, both for the mess and because silica off dry ground concrete is a genuine exposure issue.
Then repair, then the base coat, then the flake broadcast by hand into the wet base until it will not take any more. Those three run together on the same day because the base has a working time and the chip has to be in before it closes.
Day two is the scrape back, the vacuum, and the polyaspartic. You can normally walk on it that evening, put things back the next day, and park on a garage floor after about three days.
The cheapest thing on this site to put off, and the worst
Steps are small, so the job is small, so it gets postponed. That is the trap, because steps are also the fastest degrading concrete on the property.
While a nosing is intact, coating a set of steps is a short job with a small number attached. Once two or three nosings have broken away, a meaningful share of the work is forming and rebuilding edges before any coating starts.
If you can see small breaks along the front edge of your treads, that is the moment. Next winter makes it worse and the winter after that makes it a different job.
On the map
Where we do this work
This work goes anywhere inside our normal radius, which is about fifty miles from the shop in Boyertown and takes in four counties. Every town we have written up is on the service areas page.
If your town is not listed, that is not a no. Plenty of jobs happen in places that never got their own page, so it is worth a call either way.
Questions
Before you book
What comes up most on the first call, without the sales version.
Can I use a snow blower on it?
Yes, and a plastic shovel, and ice melt. A properly built exterior system takes all of that without complaint. What we would avoid is a steel edged blade dragged hard across the surface repeatedly and metal wheeled equipment scraped over a step nosing. Neither will destroy it, both will eventually mark the topcoat.
Are these floors slippery when wet?
No. The flake broadcast leaves a texture under the topcoat that gives real grip, and on pool decks, steps and entrances we specify a coarser texture deliberately. That is the reason flake is the standard choice anywhere water lands on the floor rather than a decorative preference.
There is a crack right across my garage. Is that bad?
Usually not. A single crack running across a slab is very often a shrinkage crack from the original cure, and if it has not moved in years it repairs permanently. What matters is whether the two sides are level. Run a hand across it, and if you can feel a step, that is movement and a different conversation.
What happens if it rains on the day?
We move it. That is the whole answer, and it occasionally frustrates people in the moment. A coating that gets rained on before it has cured is a coating that has to come off and be done again, so there is no version of pushing through that ends well. We watch the forecast and give you as much notice as it gives us.
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.
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.
Where do the products come from?
They are made in the USA, and that has been the case since the company started. It is partly principle and mostly track record, because these are the systems we have watched hold up through Pennsylvania winters on floors we can drive back to. We are not going to swap to something cheaper we cannot vouch for.
Do you offer any discounts?
Yes. There are discounts for military, police, fire and hospital workers, which is something the company has done from the start. There is also a referral arrangement where both parties save if you send a neighbour our way. Ask on the call rather than assuming it has been applied.
Book a walkthrough
Get pricing on your concrete step coatings
Send the details over. Jimmy comes back inside a business day, walks the space, checks what the concrete is doing, and puts honest pricing in front of you before anything is booked.
Six counties from one shop in Boyertown, which is about as far as fifty miles reaches in this direction.
If you would rather speak to somebody, (484) 942-3219. If photographs are easier, jfaust@cobraepoxy.com. Either way the contact page has everything in one place.
Tell us about the floor
Jimmy calls back within a business day, walks the space with you, and puts real pricing in your hands.
More of what we coat: porch epoxy flooring, walkway epoxy flooring, patio epoxy flooring. See finished floors in the gallery, read about Jimmy and Justyn, or check the towns we cover. Ready to talk? Book a walkthrough.