Epoxy Garage Floors in Temple Terrace

A 1920s golf town that boomed in the 1960s

Temple Terrace was incorporated in 1925 on land that had been Bertha Palmer’s game preserve, planned as a golf course community ringed by orange groves. Its first Mediterranean Revival homes, stucco with tile roofs, were designed by M. Leo Elliott from 1921 and by Dwight James Baum from 1926. Growth stalled after the land boom: the 1950 census counted only 433 residents. Then the University of South Florida was founded nearby in 1956, and by 1960 the city had 3,812 people and, by its own account, was the second fastest-growing city in the country. The biggest building boom ran from 1960 to 1975.

A garage in the older parts of town is likely to sit on a slab from that wave, or on one older still. Either is old enough that a moisture barrier under the slab cannot be assumed, and either has had decades to collect oil, paint and patch jobs. A moisture test and grinding down to clean concrete come before any product choice.

The river sets the flood risk

The city names the Hillsborough River as its flooding source. The worst recorded flood came in 1933, the 1960 floods from Hurricane Donna and a stalled front followed, and the Tampa Bypass Canal was built in the 1960s and 1970s in response. During Hurricane Irma in 2017, the bypass system diverted river water around the city of Tampa for about a month, easing flooding in both cities. The river gage the city points residents to sits at Fowler Avenue.

For a garage near the river, that history is the reason to test before coating. A slab that sat in floodwater, or that has damp soil against it for weeks after a high river, can hold moisture that pushes a coating off from below. If an older coating is already bubbling or flaking near the door, remove it and start over rather than patching.

Permits come from the city, not the county

Temple Terrace is its own city, so building permits and inspections are handled by its Community Development Department on North 56th Street rather than by Hillsborough County. The city’s flood page is direct about it: all development in the floodplain requires permitting, and if improvements reach 50 percent of a building’s market value, it has to meet new-construction rules. A floor coating on its own is finish work, but it often rides along with bigger post-storm repairs, and those are what trigger the review.

For a slab that may take river water again, a polyaspartic coating is worth a look. It is non-porous, hoses clean, and typically returns to service faster than a standard epoxy.

Nearby areas

New Tampa is just north past the university, and Brandon is a short drive southeast on I-75.

Temple Terrace garage floor questions