Here's the story:

I had epoxy floors put in my garage a few years ago and have had no issues. I sweep and mop it once every few months and it has always looked flawless. Unfortunately, when I had floor installers out last month to install new flooring in my downstairs, they kept all of their heavy duty equipment in my garage (wish I would have told them no). They dragged something across the floor and it caused a surface scratch. You can only see it if the light hits it from the right angle, but it’s one of those “Once you see it, you can’t unsee it” situations. I tried some scratch removal wax/polish and did not have any success. I also tried scrubbing with a magic eraser, which also didn’t help. The scratch cannot be felt, as there doesn’t appear to be a deep indentation. There's no in use in going after the floor company and making them responsible, as I have no way of proving they did it.

When I contacted the epoxy guy and showed him the pictures, he said the only solution is to sand down the entire floor and roll a fresh clear coat on top. In my opinion, this seems rather extreme - especially considering 99% of the floor is flawless. When I had some water damage a couple of years ago, when the drywall people ripped off the baseboard, a small chunk of epoxy came with it (leaving bare concrete behind). That repair didn't require any intensive work, beyond just simply filling in the spot and applying a clear coat. That cost me 100 bucks. You can't even tell where it happened. I'm not sure why, in this situation, he's suggesting a full-blown refinishing job.

Anyway in this case, he said spot treating would result in a mismatch of the coats and it would not blend in properly. At 1.50 per square foot for my whole garage, that’ll end up costing several hundred dollars. Plus, the additional expense of having to hire my water company to remove my soft water filtration system and then come back and reinstall it after the epoxy has been refinished.

I can’t figure out if this guy is just trying to create a worthwhile "job" out of the repair - or if there’s an easier fix? A lot of these contractor guys where I live love their big jobs, but absolutely loathe doing any type of "small" repair work since it's not lucrative. I read articles that talked about sanding down the scratch, saying the clear coat should still be intact and it would look perfectly fine, but I’m not comfortable messing around with sanding for fear of doing additional damage.

Any thoughts? I haven’t scheduled the repair yet, as I wanted second opinions first. Epoxy is tricky, because no other company except the original installer will touch it since they all use their own materials.

When I get my upstairs floor done - the installers will specifically be instructed NOT to keep any of their crap in my garage. They can use my backyard.