Last reviewed 2026-10-20. Journalists, researchers, and community groups are welcome to cite any figure on this page with attribution and a link.
This page gathers the numbers behind a floor job in San Francisco and four of its San Mateo County neighbors, Pacifica, San Bruno, South San Francisco and Daly City, each with the public body or publisher that printed it and the date. Five tables follow: the houses and their garages; NOAA's 1991-2020 climate normals for two stations, Downtown and the airport (SFO); the ground as the U.S. Geological Survey and the California Geological Survey describe it; the rules that carry a number; and published cost and wage benchmarks. Read each figure with its unit and its source: a station normal is outdoor air, a survey price is national, and a wage is what a worker is paid, not what a job costs.
None of the price surveys in these tables publishes a figure for San Francisco itself, and none of the Census or NOAA numbers describes a particular slab. They describe the conditions a slab sits in: a housing stock in which most of the Sunset District's 1920s to 1950s tract houses have a garage at the ground story, cool air that lengthens the cure times on coating data sheets, filled ground along the Bay, and an air district whose rule text sets a floor coating limit below the federal one. The hiring guide explains what each rule asks of you and of the installer, and the cost page sets out the national surveys row by row.
$1,000
CSLB's minor work threshold from January 1, 2025: a floor job whose labor and materials total this much or more needs a contractor license, as does any job needing a permit or hired help.
CSLB bulletin #24-07, December 31, 2024
100 g/L
Bay Area Air District VOC limit for floor coatings in Table 2 of Regulation 8, Rule 3 (July 1, 2009 text), effective from January 1, 2011; the federal limit for the category is four times as high.
BAAQMD Reg. 8, Rule 3, July 1, 2009 text, Table 2
46.6 degrees F
January's normal daily low at NOAA's San Francisco Downtown station, 1991-2020. It is outdoor air, and it sits under the 50 degrees F that Sherwin-Williams sets as the lowest for applying ArmorSeal 1000 HS epoxy.
NOAA NCEI normals, station USW00023272
25,000+
Buildings in the Sunset District by SF Planning's count, more than 15% of the City's building stock; with few exceptions its 1920s to 1950s tract houses have a garage built into the house.
SF Planning Sunset context statement
Houses and Garages: San Francisco's Building Stock in Numbers
Most occupied homes in San Francisco are rented, and in the Sunset and the Bayview many of them stand over a garage. By the Census Bureau's estimates, the City and County held 421,342 housing units on July 1, 2025, and 38.2% of occupied homes were lived in by their owners (ACS 2020-2024). In SF Planning's Sunset context statement the house of 1925 to 1950 is single-family as a rule, with an "integrated garage at the ground story and living spaces above," and the City's General Plan says the Bayview's older housing "generally consists of one-story dwellings over a garage." For a floor, that means a slab on the ground under living space, often many decades old, which is why the moisture test comes first; the garage floor epoxy page covers that slab.
Across the county line the homes are more often owned. The Census Bureau's ACS 2020-2024 puts the median year built at 1965 in Daly City and South San Francisco, 1962 in San Bruno and 1966 in Pacifica, with owner-occupied rates from 59.0% in South San Francisco to 67.7% in Pacifica. SF Planning's context statement says the Sunset's one-story house over a garage has "no known examples outside of San Francisco (and later, Daly City)." Inside the City, SF Planning's neighborhood profiles from the ACS 2012-2016 give median years built of 1952 for the Inner Sunset, 1959 for the Inner Richmond and 1962 for Bayview Hunters Point, and SF Planning's SunsetForward profile puts 96% of District 4's housing units before 1960.
| Measure | Figure | Source and period |
|---|---|---|
| Housing units, San Francisco County | 421,342 | Census QuickFacts, July 1, 2025 (V2025) |
| Dwelling units at the end of 2025 | about 422,958 | SF Planning, 2025 Housing Inventory |
| Owner-occupied housing unit rate | 38.2% | Census QuickFacts, ACS 2020-2024 |
| Median value of owner-occupied units | $1,394,500 | Census QuickFacts, ACS 2020-2024 |
| Households; persons per household | 363,970; 2.21 | Census QuickFacts, ACS 2020-2024 |
| Buildings in the Sunset District | over 25,000, more than 15% of the City's stock | SF Planning, Sunset context statement |
| Construction peak named in the Sunset context statement | 1940, with 499 houses that year | SF Planning, Sunset context statement |
| Housing units in District 4 (Sunset) built before 1960 | 96% | SF Planning, SunsetForward D4 profile |
| Bayview housing stock built before 1950 | about 43% | SF General Plan, Bayview Hunters Point Area Plan (adopted 1995; amended 2006, 2010) |
| Median year built: Inner Sunset, Inner Richmond, Bayview Hunters Point | 1952, 1959, 1962 | SF Planning profiles, ACS 2012-2016 |
| Median year built: Daly City, South San Francisco, San Bruno, Pacifica | 1965, 1965, 1962, 1966 | Census ACS 2020-2024, table B25035 |
| Owner-occupied rate: Daly City, South San Francisco, San Bruno, Pacifica | 60.2%, 59.0%, 62.1%, 67.7% | Census QuickFacts, ACS 2020-2024 |
| Width of a new garage door | typically no wider than 10 feet | SF Planning garage guidelines, V. 09/01/2025 |
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts for San Francisco County and the four San Mateo County cities, plus ACS 2020-2024 table B25035; SF Planning's 2025 Housing Inventory (April 2026), Sunset District context statement (adopted April 3, 2013), SunsetForward D4 profile, ACS 2012-2016 neighborhood profiles (September 2018) and Guidelines for Adding Garages and Curb Cuts; San Francisco General Plan.
Climate Normals at San Francisco Downtown and SFO, 1991-2020
San Francisco's air is cool all year but rarely freezing, which matters because coating data sheets set minimum temperatures and lengthen their cure times in the cold. NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information define a normal as "the 30-year average of a particular variable's measurements," and the 1991-2020 normals below come from the San Francisco Downtown station (USW00023272) and San Francisco International Airport (USW00023234). Downtown's normal daily low runs from 46.6 degrees F in January to 55.6 degrees F in September, and the station averages 3.3 days a year at the 90 degrees F maximum threshold and 0.0 days at the 32 degrees F minimum threshold, against 4.2 days and 0.2 days at SFO. Station normals measure outdoor air; a garage slab keeps its own temperature.
Set the normals beside a data sheet and the effect is plain. Sherwin-Williams' ArmorSeal 1000 HS epoxy sheet gives foot traffic after 48 hours and full cure after 10 days at 50 degrees F, against 24 hours and 7 days at 77 degrees F, and no Downtown month has a normal daily high that reaches 77 degrees F: the warmest, September, is 70.2 degrees F. Rain sets the calendar too. Downtown's annual normal is 22.89 inches, with 44.7 days a year of 0.10 inch or more, nearly all of it from October to May. No source names the right months for coating a floor, so compare the sheet's limits with the month, and see the polyaspartic floor coating page for the fast-curing systems.
| Month | Downtown high (degrees F) | Downtown low (degrees F) | SFO high (degrees F) | SFO low (degrees F) | Downtown rain (inches) | SFO rain (inches) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 57.8 | 46.6 | 58.0 | 44.5 | 4.40 | 3.89 |
| February | 60.4 | 47.9 | 60.8 | 46.1 | 4.37 | 3.96 |
| March | 62.1 | 48.9 | 63.4 | 47.6 | 3.15 | 2.73 |
| April | 63.0 | 49.7 | 65.6 | 49.1 | 1.60 | 1.36 |
| May | 64.1 | 51.4 | 68.3 | 51.6 | 0.70 | 0.48 |
| June | 66.5 | 53.0 | 71.5 | 53.6 | 0.20 | 0.14 |
| July | 66.3 | 54.4 | 72.6 | 55.3 | 0.01 | 0.00 |
| August | 67.9 | 55.5 | 73.4 | 56.4 | 0.06 | 0.04 |
| September | 70.2 | 55.6 | 74.8 | 55.9 | 0.10 | 0.07 |
| October | 69.8 | 54.4 | 72.3 | 53.4 | 0.94 | 0.79 |
| November | 63.7 | 50.7 | 64.3 | 48.5 | 2.60 | 2.04 |
| December | 57.9 | 47.0 | 58.2 | 44.6 | 4.76 | 4.14 |
| Year | 64.1 | 51.3 | 66.9 | 50.6 | 22.89 | 19.64 |
NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals, 1991-2020 (first released May 2021), monthly and annual normals in standard units: normal daily maximum and minimum air temperature and normal precipitation at stations USW00023272 (SAN FRANCISCO DWTN) and USW00023234 (SAN FRANCISCO INTL AP).
The Ground Under San Francisco Slabs: Fill, Bay Mud and Sand
The City's General Plan describes filled ground along the Bay shore, from Mission Bay to the Bayview; SF Planning says the Richmond and Sunset were "vast foggy sand dunes"; and the State zones the ground that can fail in an earthquake. The U.S. Geological Survey's Open-File Report 2006-1037 (Version 1.1, made with the California Geological Survey) gives artificial fill over estuarine mud a very high liquefaction susceptibility, and San Francisco Bay mud and dune sand a moderate one. Liquefaction, in the California Geological Survey's words, "occurs when loose, water-saturated sediments lose strength and fail during strong ground shaking." The Survey's zones under the Seismic Hazards Mapping Act mark where cities and counties "must require a site-specific investigation" before a development permit, and its EQ Zapp lookup shows the zones for an address. If a slab has settled, the concrete resurfacing page covers when it is past a coating.
| Ground or zone | What the source says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Artificial fill over estuarine mud (afem) | Liquefaction susceptibility very high, from many past occurrences | USGS OFR 2006-1037, Part 3 |
| Artificial fill (af), in general | Very high to low, by the fill material and the deposits beneath | USGS OFR 2006-1037, Part 3 |
| Sandy fill dredged or suctioned, as in the Marina District | May be very susceptible to liquefaction | USGS OFR 2006-1037, Part 3 |
| Older fill in the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes | Many damage reports involved older fill that probably was not engineered | USGS OFR 2006-1037, Part 3 |
| Holocene San Francisco Bay mud (Qhbm) | Moderate: the clay resists liquefying, but groundwater is high | USGS OFR 2006-1037, Part 3 |
| Dune sand (Qds) | Moderate: coastal dunes typically have deeper groundwater | USGS OFR 2006-1037, Part 3 |
| CGS liquefaction zone test | Historic groundwater shallower than 40 feet in uncompacted sands and silts from the last 15,000 years, with strong shaking expected in the next 50 years | CGS, Seismic Hazard Zones |
| CGS landslide zones | Where the stability of hillslopes must be evaluated | CGS, Seismic Hazards Program |
| Seismic Hazards Mapping Act | Passed after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake; Act of 1990, Public Resources Code sections 2690-2699.6 | CGS, Seismic Hazards Mapping Act |
| Seller disclosure | Required for property in a zone, effective June 1, 1998 | CGS, Seismic Hazards Mapping Act |
| Bayview Hunters Point shoreline | Extensive landfill along the entire bay line | SF General Plan, Bayview Hunters Point Area Plan |
| Central Waterfront, including Dogpatch | Creeks, marshes and hills gave way to flat lands and fill | SF General Plan, Central Waterfront Area Plan |
| Sunset and Richmond Districts | Once vast foggy sand dunes | SF Planning residence parks context statement, October 2016 |
U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2006-1037, Version 1.1 (2006), Part 3, Description of Mapping and Liquefaction Interpretation; California Geological Survey pages on the Seismic Hazards Mapping Act, the Seismic Hazards Program and seismic hazard zones (EQ Zapp updated November 21, 2024); San Francisco General Plan area plans; SF Planning. These describe map units and zones, not any one property.
The Rules in Numbers: License, Contract, VOC and Sales Tax
Several of California's figures for floor work changed in 2025 and 2026. CSLB's minor work threshold rose to $1,000 on January 1, 2025, and from July 1, 2026 its minimum fine for unlicensed activity starts at $1,500. The home improvement contract rules apply above a $500 contract price (section 7159(b)); section 7159.5(a)(3) allows a down payment of no more than $1,000, and less when 10 percent of the contract amount is smaller; and the right to cancel runs three business days, five for a buyer 65 or older. The Bay Area Air District's floor coating limit, 100 g/L under the July 1, 2009 version of its rule (Table 2, effective January 1, 2011), is a quarter of the federal 400 g/L, and the hiring guide explains what each of these rules asks of you.
Sales tax is set by place and by contract type. CDTFA's combined sales and use tax rate, operative October 1, 2026, is 8.625% in San Francisco, a city and county with a single rate, and 9.875% in each of the four San Mateo County cities on this site. CDTFA Publication 9 (February 2025) says "Construction contractors are generally the consumers of materials" and that the contractor's jobsite "is considered the place of business for purposes of determining the applicable tax." How a given job is taxed depends on its contract, so the installer's written quote should state the tax treatment, with CDTFA or a tax professional as the final authority.
| Rule | Figure | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Contractor license needed: labor and materials on one or more contracts | $1,000 or more; any amount if a permit or hired workers are involved | CSLB bulletin #24-07; from January 1, 2025 |
| Earlier minor work limit | $500 | CSLB bulletin #24-07 |
| Minimum fine for unlicensed activity | starts at $1,500 from July 1, 2026 | CSLB bulletin #25-04, December 29, 2025 |
| Fine for advertising without a license | $700 to $1,000, on top of any other punishment | B&P Code section 7027.1(c) |
| Home improvement contract required when the price exceeds | $500 | B&P Code section 7159(b) |
| Down payment cap | the lesser of 10 percent of the price and $1,000 | B&P Code sections 7159(d)(8)(C), 7159.5(a)(3) |
| Fine for contract requirement violations | up to $5,000 | CSLB online marketplace fact sheet (undated) |
| Right to cancel | 3 business days; 5 for a buyer 65 or older; 7 for disaster repair | B&P Code section 7159(e)(6) and (e)(7); Civil Code section 1689.6 |
| Refund after cancelling | within 10 days of the notice | B&P Code section 7159(e)(6)(B)(i) |
| BAAQMD floor coatings | 100 g/L (250 g/L before January 1, 2011) | Regulation 8, Rule 3, Tables 1 and 2 (July 1, 2009 text) |
| BAAQMD industrial maintenance coatings; concrete/masonry sealers; stains | 250; 100; 250 g/L | Regulation 8, Rule 3, Table 2 |
| Federal floor coatings; industrial maintenance coatings | 400 g/L; 450 g/L | Table 1 to 40 CFR Part 59, Subpart D |
| Sales and use tax, San Francisco (city and county) | 8.625% | CDTFA-95, operative October 1, 2026 |
| Sales and use tax, Daly City, South San Francisco, San Bruno, Pacifica; statewide rate | 9.875% each; 7.25% | CDTFA-95 and CDTFA rates page, October 1, 2026 |
Statute text from Justia's copy of the 2025 California Code, with the history notes it shows (section 7159 as amended effective January 1, 2026); CSLB industry bulletins #24-07 (December 31, 2024) and #25-04 (December 29, 2025); BAAQMD Regulation 8, Rule 3 (July 1, 2009 text, Table 2 effective January 1, 2011); eCFR copy of 40 CFR Part 59, Subpart D, up to date as of 9/25/2026; CDTFA-95, operative October 1, 2026.
Published Cost and Wage Benchmarks, and What They Measure
None of the price surveys below publishes a San Francisco figure, so every price row is national and carries its survey and date. HomeGuide's national figures, dated February 3, 2026, average $4 to $10 per square foot for installed epoxy and $1,600 to $5,800 for a two-car garage (400 to 576 square feet in its table); Angi's page, updated in August 2026, gives a national $2 to $12 per square foot. Wages measure something else. O*NET's local pages, built on Bureau of Labor Statistics 2025 wage data, show the median a worker is paid in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metro area; BLS says the figures exclude overtime and the employer's cost of benefits and leave out the self-employed, so a wage is not what a contractor charges.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis's regional price parities are a third kind of number. BEA defines them as "regional price levels expressed as a percentage of the overall national price level," and says the all items figure "covers all consumption goods and services including housing rents." In BEA's December 12, 2024 release, which BEA now marks as superseded, the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley metro stood at 118.2 for 2023 against a national 100.0, with housing at 200.2; California's 2024 figure, from the February 19, 2026 release, is 110.7. A parity above 100 says the area's overall price level ran above the national level that year. It is a price level for all goods and services, not a price for floor work.
| Benchmark | Figure | What it is: source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Epoxy flooring, installed | $4 to $10 per sq ft | National survey price: HomeGuide, February 3, 2026 |
| Epoxy floor, 2-car garage (400 to 576 sq ft) | $1,600 to $5,800 | National survey price: HomeGuide, February 3, 2026 |
| Epoxy flooring, installed | $2 to $12 per sq ft | National survey price: Angi, updated August 2026 |
| Polyaspartic floor coating, installed | $5 to $12 per sq ft | National survey price: HomeGuide, November 18, 2024 |
| Polished concrete, basic finishes | $3 to $12 per sq ft | National survey price: HomeGuide, February 8, 2026 |
| Concrete resurfacing | $3 to $7 per sq ft | National survey price: HomeGuide, February 3, 2026 |
| Commercial or industrial floor, 100% solid coating | $12 or more per sq ft | National survey price: HomeAdvisor, updated June 2026 |
| Moisture testing | about $50 to $300 | National survey price: HomeGuide, November 25, 2024 |
| Cement masons and concrete finishers, median | $75,970 a year; $36.53 an hour | Wage, San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metro: O*NET, BLS 2025 wage data |
| Painters, construction and maintenance, median | $63,600 a year; $30.58 an hour | Wage, same metro and source |
| Construction laborers, median | $72,610 a year; $34.91 an hour | Wage, same metro and source |
| The same three trades, United States median | $57,020; $49,400; $47,120 a year | Wage: O*NET, BLS 2025 wage data |
| All items price parity, San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley metro | 118.2 (U.S. 100.0); goods 117.2; housing 200.2 | Price index, not a price: BEA, data year 2023 (December 2024 release, now superseded) |
| All items price parity, California | 110.7 | Price index: BEA, data year 2024 (February 19, 2026 release) |
Price rows are national survey figures as each page printed them (HomeGuide, Angi, HomeAdvisor); no survey here publishes a San Francisco price. The wage figures are O*NET OnLine's Local Wages pages for ZIP 94103, source line "Bureau of Labor Statistics 2025 wage data": wages paid to workers, not prices. Price parities are from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis: the 2023 metro row from its December 12, 2024 release, which BEA marks superseded, and the 2024 California figure from its February 19, 2026 release.
Sources & Methodology
Every figure above was taken from the primary sources below (accessed 2026-10-20). Where a number is derived (arithmetic on published figures) or covers a broader period or area, the text says so.
- U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts: San Francisco County, California
- SF Planning, Sunset District Residential Builders, 1925-1950 Historic Context Statement
- NOAA NCEI, 1991-2020 monthly normals, San Francisco Downtown (USW00023272)
- NOAA NCEI, 1991-2020 monthly normals, San Francisco International Airport (USW00023234)
- U.S. Geological Survey, Open-File Report 2006-1037, Quaternary deposits and liquefaction susceptibility
- California Geological Survey, Seismic Hazards Mapping Act
- CSLB Industry Bulletin #24-07, AB 2622 implementation (December 31, 2024)
- California Business and Professions Code section 7159 (Justia, 2025 California Code)
- Bay Area Air Quality Management District, Regulation 8, Rule 3, Architectural Coatings
- eCFR, 40 CFR Part 59, Subpart D, architectural coatings VOC standards
- CDTFA-95, California Sales and Use Tax Rates by County and City (October 1, 2026)
- HomeGuide, How Much Does Epoxy Flooring Cost? (February 3, 2026)
- O*NET OnLine, Local Wages: Cement Masons and Concrete Finishers, ZIP 94103
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, regional price parities release, December 12, 2024 (superseded)
Send the floor, its size and where it is: the request reaches an independent local installer holding a California contractor license.
Quick Answers
What is the contractor license limit in California in 2026?
A job whose labor and materials total $1,000 or more needs a California contractor license, under the minor work exemption Assembly Bill 2622 raised from $500 on January 1, 2025. Under $1,000 the exemption is lost if the job needs a permit or the worker takes on help, and section 7048(b) withholds it when a job is split into smaller contracts to evade the limit. From July 1, 2026, CSLB's minimum fine for unlicensed activity starts at $1,500. For home improvement work, section 7159.5 also limits a down payment to $1,000, or to 10 percent of the contract amount when that is smaller.
What is the VOC limit for floor coatings in the Bay Area?
In the July 1, 2009 text of Regulation 8, Rule 3, the Bay Area Air District's architectural coatings rule, the floor coating limit is 100 g/L, grams of VOC per liter of coating, listed in Table 2 as effective on and after January 1, 2011, replacing the earlier 250 g/L. Coatings labeled for industrial maintenance, meaning surfaces exposed to immersion, corrosive agents or similar extremes the rule lists, are allowed 250 g/L, as are stains, with concrete and masonry sealers at 100 g/L. Federally, Table 1 to 40 CFR Part 59, Subpart D allows floor coatings 400 g/L and industrial maintenance coatings 450 g/L, and an Air District advisory of September 1, 2011 says coatings manufactured after the effective dates must meet its limits to be sold there.
Is San Francisco too cold to epoxy a garage floor?
San Francisco is cool rather than cold, so the coating's own limits decide the day, not frost. At the Downtown station, NOAA's 1991-2020 normal daily low is 46.6 degrees F in January and climbs to 55.6 degrees F by September, with 0.0 days a year on NOAA's 32 degrees F minimum-threshold count, and no monthly normal high as warm as 77 degrees F. That matters for a product such as Sherwin-Williams' ArmorSeal 1000 HS: it is not to be applied under 50 degrees F, and its full cure stretches from 7 days at 77 degrees F to 10 days at 50 degrees F. Normals are outdoor air, so ask the installer to take slab and air readings before mixing.
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