Epoxy Floors in Dogpatch and Potrero Hill, San Francisco

Dogpatch's houses went up for industrial workers. The Central Waterfront Area Plan says "In the late 1870s another residential area began to arise in Dogpatch," first "home to mainly native-born skilled craftsmen," and describes "Rows of Victorian and Edwardian-era houses, originally constructed as industrial worker's dwellings between 1870 and 1910," with the remaining homes "along Tennessee Street between Eighteenth and Twenty-second Streets." Potrero Hill, in the Showplace Square/Potrero Area Plan's words, "is an established residential community" and "is not proposed to be rezoned." SF Planning's 2025 Housing Inventory counts 9,687 units in the Potrero Hill analysis neighborhood: 1,288 single-family, 2,350 in buildings of two to four units and 5,253 in buildings of 20 or more, after a net gain of 265 in 2025. The SF floor numbers page gives the citywide housing counts for comparison.

The industrial buildings came in waves. Shipbuilding began with "the establishment of the Union Iron Works (UIW) shipyard at the site of what is now Pier 70 in 1883," and the Central Waterfront plan says ship production peaked in the First and Second World Wars. The Showplace Square context statement of October 22, 2009 describes industries "relocating out of the ruined South of Market Area after the 1906 Earthquake," then "large heavy-timber-frame brick warehouses designed in the American Commercial style," followed by concrete daylight-frame buildings from the years of the First World War and the 1920s building boom. Its survey area takes in "736 acres and 550 individual properties." Renovated warehouses became furniture showroom space, and Showplace Square, the Area Plan says, has provided "space for a well-defined cluster of furniture makers, designers and contractors."

Much of the flat ground here is made land. The Central Waterfront plan says Southern Pacific "acquired the bulk of the Mission Bay property in 1868 and 1869" and "gradually filled the bay during the later 19th and the early 20th centuries," and the Showplace statement says much of its northeastern area "was historically part of Mission Bay, a filled-in tidal cove," while south of 17th Street the ground "rises steadily uphill" toward the crest of Potrero Hill. USGS Open-File Report 2006-1037 gives fill laid on estuarine mud a "very high" liquefaction rating and says many of the damage reports from the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes "involved failures in older fill that probably was not engineered." The plan's Policy 3.4.1 asks the City to "mitigate and reduce hazard risks associated with Sea Level Rise." On this ground a floor raises two questions first: is the slab still moving, and how much moisture comes up through it?

Historic status can matter before any work. The 2008 Central Waterfront plan said "the city is in the process of designating a Dogpatch historic district," and Pier 70 includes the "Pier 70 Union Iron Works Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places." City landmarks and landmark districts are "established under Article 10 of the Planning Code," and SF Planning's application form says "A Certificate of Appropriateness is the entitlement required to alter an individual landmark and any property within a landmark district," with an administrative certificate for "Projects that consist solely of Minor Alterations." Whether that designation went ahead, which buildings it covers and whether a floor inside one counts as an alteration are questions for SF Planning, so ask before booking the work; permit questions belong with the Department of Building Inspection.

Industry still sets the pattern. The Central Waterfront plan says "PDR jobs account for nearly all jobs in the Central Waterfront," PDR meaning production, distribution and repair, and, "Because of its proximity to Mission Bay and the UCSF research and hospital facilities there," calls the area "a logical place to encourage development of life-science related research institutions." The Showplace Square/Potrero plan calls Showplace Square "an important furniture and interior design center that serves a national market," where "PDR jobs constitute the majority of all jobs."

See Dogpatch and Potrero Hill, San Francisco on Google Maps — requests from San Francisco reach independent installers who hold a California contractor license.

Commercial floor work here is largely in PDR space, where the two area plans place most of the jobs. Planning Code section 210.3 calls PDR-zoned land "an important reservoir of space in San Francisco for new and evolving industry," whose businesses generally need space with "high ceilings, freight loading docks and elevators." Next door at Mission Bay, the Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure plans a maximum build-out that includes "4.4 million sq. ft. of commercial space for office/lab uses," so lab floors join shop floors in the mix.

Commercial Epoxy Flooring for Workshops and Labs

Commercial epoxy flooring for a workshop or a life-science lab is picked for its chemicals and its static as much as its loads. In a lab, a novolac epoxy topcoat is one chemical-resistant option the makers describe, but Sherwin-Williams says novolac polymers have "a high degree of cross-linking that gives excellent chemical resistance but does not achieve full chemical resistance for up to seven days," so the room's reopening date follows the topcoat. Where instruments or electronics are sensitive to static, the EOS/ESD Association, which writes the ANSI/ESD S20.20 program standard, sets two limits for a static-control floor used with footwear, a resistance to ground through the person, footwear and floor, and a body voltage below 100 volts in its standard walking test, and says "both limits must be met."

Wax is the hazard there: Dur-A-Flex's Dur-A-Gard ESD sheet warns that top-coating with non-conductive waxes or finishes "will render the static dissipative properties ineffective." A workshop handling harsh chemicals may meet the Air District's other line: a coating formulated and labeled as an industrial maintenance coating for floors exposed to conditions such as "Acute or chronic exposure to corrosive, caustic, or acidic agents" may carry 250 grams of VOC per liter, which works out to two and a half times the 100 allowed a general floor coating. For hazard marking, federal OSHA's 29 CFR 1910.144 makes yellow "the basic color for designating caution and for marking physical hazards."

Restaurant Kitchen Floors in Converted Industrial Space

Commercial kitchen flooring in a former warehouse or shop has to meet the drain and slope rules of the California Retail Food Code. Upon new construction or extensive remodeling, Health and Safety Code section 114269 requires floor drains where floors are water-flushed and a slope of "1:50 to the floor drains," and the City's public health department, in its construction guideline, says that slope "must be measured from wall to wall within the food preparation or utensil wash area," adding that a "three to four diameter depression" around the drain "is not acceptable." Sherwin-Williams' Form G-1 lists slopes and the areas around drains among the irregularities that "must be repaired prior to the placement of the polymer system," so ask how the quote builds that slope.

Urethane cement, a resin-and-cement floor applied far thicker than a coating, is one system resin makers offer for this: Stonhard says such floors "will stand up to hot water washdowns because they are thermal shock and cycling resistant," and Sika's Sikafloor 22NA PurCem sheet gives a typical thickness of "3/16 to 1/4 inch" and service from -40 to 212 degrees F. At the wall, section 114268 calls for coving "with a 3/8 inch minimum radius," and the City's guide adds that "Topset rubber base is not approved except in customer areas."

Polished Concrete on Old Warehouse Slabs

Polished concrete fits the concrete warehouses the Showplace Square survey describes, if the old slab is hard and sound enough to grind. The Concrete Polishing Council's glossary sets the stages: grinding with abrasives of "100 grit or lower," honing at "100-400 grit" and polishing at "800 grit or higher," with a densifier, a silicate liquid that reacts inside the surface "to produce additional calcium silicate hydrate (CSH)," applied along the way. Two choices set the look: how much stone shows, from a Class A cream finish of "85 - 95 % Cement Fines" to Class C full aggregate, and the gloss, rated Level 1 to Level 4 by distinctness of image. The Council's 2017 slip study found wet readings of dynamic coefficient of friction "significantly exceeded the required DCOF of 0.42, even at very high gloss levels."

Old slabs bring old joints and cracks, and the order matters. Metzger/McGuire's Technical Bulletin T21 says repairs "should be performed prior to, or early on, in the concrete polishing process," and its Spal-Pro RS 88 polyurea filler "will not smudge or smear during grinding/polishing." In HomeGuide's polished concrete survey (February 8, 2026), a cream finish runs $3 to $8 per square foot nationally and a full aggregate finish $6 to $12.

Concrete Resurfacing on Filled Waterfront Land

Concrete resurfacing on the filled land of the Central Waterfront and the old Mission Bay cove starts with whether the slab is still moving. The American Concrete Institute's answer on overlaying a warehouse slab-on-ground says "A condition evaluation of the concrete slab is required prior to making a decision on the type of an overlay to be installed," and that "Joints in overlay slabs should be located over all joints in the existing slab." A thin topping cannot hold a moving slab together: ARDEX says "Thinly applied, non-structural overlays are not capable of restraining movement in the structural slab," and CTS warns of its Rapid Set TRU Self-Leveling that "Reflective cracks may appear due to vibration, substrate flexure or existing joints and cracks."

For a badly worn warehouse floor, the same ACI answer says "Unbonded overlays are recommended when the original slab has sufficient thickness but exhibits severe deterioration," with ACI 302.1R recommending at least 4 inches. A thin cement topping also needs a cover: ARDEX's K 301 sheet says "Product must be sealed or coated." HomeGuide's resurfacing survey of February 3, 2026 prices interior floors at $3 to $8 a square foot for a basic design and $5 to $15 for a complex one, national figures. The Bayview-Hunters Point page covers the landfill along that district's bay line.