How EpoxyTimes Works
Every number and every name on this site comes from one of two disciplines. Prices are generated from a single rate card grounded in real installed-job pricing, so no two pages ever disagree. Installers are checked against their government license registry, in full, on the day the page publishes. Nobody pays for a price, a rank, or a place on a list. This page explains exactly how both work, in enough detail that you can check us.
Reviewed by Nick Shushan, founder. Last updated: August 31, 2026.
How we price a floor
Every price on the site is generated from one file, our rate card, and never typed into a page by hand. That single source is the reason the figure in a cost guide matches the figure in the quote tool and the figure on a city page every time. Change a number once and it changes everywhere at once, which is how a site avoids the contradictions that make most pricing pages useless.
The rate card starts from a national per-square-foot baseline for each space, grounded in real installed-job pricing, then adjusts it for the five things that actually move a floor’s price. Those five drivers are the section no contractor blog explains, because explaining them shows the reader where a low bid cuts corners.
| Price driver | What it is | How the rate card handles it |
|---|---|---|
| Slab condition | Cracks, pitting, or an old coating that has to come off | A condition multiplier, from no change on a clean slab up to a meaningful premium on a rough or previously coated one |
| Finish | Solid epoxy, flake, metallic, or polyaspartic | A finish multiplier, lowest for solid epoxy and highest for metallic |
| Metro | What local labor actually costs | A metro index that scales the national baseline up for high-cost markets |
| System build | The thickness and number of coats the job needs | Built into each space’s baseline range |
| Included scope | Prep, materials, labor, and topcoat, weighted | A fixed split that shows where your money goes |
The exact multipliers and index values are not printed here as fixed text. The published page renders them live from src/data/rate-card.ts, so this explanation can never drift from the numbers the quote tool actually uses. As a rule of thumb, prep is the single largest share of an installed floor, ahead of materials and labor, which is why the prep question decides the price.
The metro index is not a guess. It is anchored to federal wage data: the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for construction trades in each metro. When a city page says local prices run high, it links that claim to the BLS figure for that metro, not to an assertion that the city is expensive.
We do not claim a sample size, and you will not find an install count on this site. There is no counted dataset to cite, and an early mockup once carried a placeholder “1,400 installs” figure that had no source, so we removed it. The rate card reflects real installed-job pricing and current wage data. It is trustworthy not because of how many floors we say we have seen, but because the numbers render live from one file and you can check that every page agrees.
When you want a range for your own floor, the quote tool produces one in about a minute from that same rate card, and it asks about your slab before it asks about the finish, because the slab is what sets the price.
How we verify an installer
We check every company against its government license registry before it goes on any list, and we publish the full license number and the date we checked it. A masked number reads as evasive, so we never show one. This is the same discipline that put our model, the installer directory, ahead of the self-published “best in city” lists that carry no license numbers at all.
- Full license numbers, always. Named registry, real number, verified date.
- Registry named for each metro. For example the Massachusetts Construction Supervisor and Home Improvement Contractor registries, and the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. Each city page links the actual lookup tool so you can repeat the check.
- Exclusions are named. A lapsed, suspended, revoked, or unregistered license is an automatic removal, and we publish the company name and the reason. That excluded list is the part no competitor will print.
- We verify on publish day, not research day. Licenses and bonds lapse. The verification date on a directory is the publish date, and a bond or license expiring within sixty days is flagged for recheck.
- Nobody pays to be listed or ranked. Placement is verification and published criteria, nothing else.
- Affiliation is disclosed. Where a company connected to the founder appears, it is disclosed in its own listing and held to the identical criteria as everyone else.
You can see the result on the installer directory, and if you already hold a quote, you can have it checked against what the job should cost.
How we write and review content
Every article is reviewed by Nick Shushan, founder, a flooring contractor with more than twenty five years in the trade. Each one carries his byline and the date it was last updated.
Two rules govern what gets published. First, no article invents a first-person event. A specific job, customer, city, date, or dollar figure attributed to Nick’s own work has to be real and supplied, or it does not appear. Where a story would help and none is on record, the draft carries a visible placeholder that blocks publication rather than a plausible invention. Professional judgment and trade knowledge do not need a source. A specific claim about a real person’s life does.
Second, every article has to teach something the ranking pages do not. If a draft could have been assembled by rewriting the current top results, it gets rebuilt. Technical claims are cited to standards bodies and manufacturer data sheets, linked where the claim sits, not collected at the bottom. Competitor blogs are not sources. Where a governing standard exists, we name it: ASTM F2170 and ASTM F1869 for concrete moisture, ICRI Guideline 310.2R for the concrete surface profile that decides grinding versus etching.
Where we are independent, and where you should still check us
EpoxyTimes is an advisor, not a vendor. We do not sell floors or installations, so the page has no incentive to talk you into a more expensive system. No company can buy a place or a rank here.
The ownership we disclose. The people behind EpoxyTimes also operate lead generation businesses in New York and Boston that connect homeowners with flooring contractors. Those companies never appear in these rankings, and no installer’s placement here is affected by whether they work with us. They do not do installation work, so they do not hold the license the directory verifies, and they are kept off the list entirely rather than ranked. Listing our own business on a page that promises nobody buys a spot would break the promise in the first row, so we do not. If you ever find one of them in a ranking on this site, we have failed our own standard.
Being independent does not mean you should take our numbers on faith. Here is where to keep us honest:
- The rate card is a model, not a quote. It gives you an accurate range to judge a bid against. Your real number comes from a contractor who has seen your slab.
- Ranges are not guarantees. A floor priced at the low end assumes good concrete. A moisture problem or a failed old coating can move it.
- Coverage is limited to the metros we have calibrated. Outside those, the national baseline is a starting point, not a local price.
- Verify your own contractor on the day you sign. Our directory checks are current to a page’s publish date. Yours should be current to your contract date.
Frequently asked questions
How does EpoxyTimes set its prices? Every price is generated from a single rate card grounded in real installed-job pricing, adjusted for slab condition, finish, and local labor cost. The local labor adjustment is anchored to federal wage data for each metro. No price is written into a page by hand, and no install count is claimed.
Do companies pay to be listed or ranked? No. Placement on a directory is license verification and published criteria only. Nobody buys a rank, and companies connected to the founder are disclosed and held to the identical criteria.
How current are your license checks? We verify on publish day, not research day, and each directory shows the date it was checked. Because licenses and bonds lapse, you should still confirm your own contractor’s license on the day you sign.
Does EpoxyTimes sell flooring? No. We do not sell floors, materials, or installations. We publish pricing and verification so you can judge the quotes you get.
Where do your numbers come from? Prices come from the rate card and real installs. Local cost differences are anchored to US Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data. Technical claims are cited to standards bodies and manufacturer data sheets, never to another blog.
How this page is maintained
EpoxyTimes is written and reviewed by Nick Shushan, founder. Pricing is drawn from the site rate card and reviewed against current metro labor data. Installer verification is redone on the day a directory publishes. Read more about who runs the site on the About page. This page was last updated on August 31, 2026.