Why We Don't Do Ceramic Coating (And Who You Should Call Instead)

Somebody asks us about ceramic coating pretty much every week. Usually it goes like this: "While you've got it, can you throw a ceramic on it?"

The answer is no, and it's always no. We don't do ceramic coating, paint correction, polishing, buffing, clay bar, wax, sealant, scratch removal, PPF, tint or wraps.

This is the post that explains why, because "we don't do that" without a reason sounds like we're hiding something.

What Ceramic Coating Actually Is

A ceramic coating is a liquid polymer applied to paint that cures into a semi-permanent layer. Done properly it makes the surface easier to clean, adds gloss, and offers some protection against light contamination and UV.

Here's the part shops gloss over: the coating locks in whatever's underneath it.

Which means a real ceramic job isn't the coating. It's everything before the coating — decontamination, then paint correction to remove swirls and defects, then panel prep, then application in a controlled environment, then a proper cure. The coating itself is the last and quickest step.

If you skip the correction and coat over swirled paint, you've sealed the swirls in and made them harder to fix later. That's worse than doing nothing.

Why We Don't Offer It

Because doing it properly is a different trade. Paint correction is machine polishing. It removes a measured amount of clear coat, and doing it well requires the right pads, compounds, paint depth readings, and years of feel. Get it wrong and you burn through the clear coat. That's a repaint, not a redo.

Because a controlled environment matters. Coatings cure. Dust, temperature and humidity during application and cure all affect the result. A proper coating shop has a space built for that.

Because we're good at something else. We've been cleaning vehicles since 2020. Mud, manure, pet hair, salt, sand, smoke, ground-in filth. That's what we're set up for and that's what we're genuinely good at. Adding a service we'd be mediocre at doesn't help you.

Because half-doing it is a disservice. Plenty of shops will add a coating to their menu, do the fast version, and take your money. You'd get a temporary shine and a locked-in problem. We'd rather send you somewhere good than be somewhere adequate.

What We Do Instead

We clean vehicles properly. That's the whole business.

• Interior Detail — $325. Full cabin, extracted not wiped.
• Exterior Detail — $250. Wash, decontamination, wheels, tires, trim, glass. This includes chemically decontaminating the paint — removing bonded contaminants like sap, tar and road film. That's cleaning, and we do it.
• Complete Detail — from $425. Both, saving $150 over booking them separately.
• Engine bay — $100. Headliner — $100.
• Quote-on-sight specialty work — heavy pet hair, odour, salt stains, leather conditioning, seat extraction.

Notice what decontamination is and isn't. We chemically clean bonded contamination off your paint. We do not mechanically abrade the surface to remove defects. That line is the difference between detailing and paint correction, and we stay on our side of it.

Full pricing is on our detailing cost page, and you can see the kind of results we're actually after in the gallery.

If You Do Want a Coating, Here's How to Pick a Shop

We're not going to leave you without an answer. If ceramic is genuinely what you want, look for these things:

• They lead with paint correction, not the coating. If a shop quotes you a coating without discussing correction first, walk. They're planning to seal your swirls in.
• They have an enclosed, controlled space. Not a driveway, not a bay with the door open.
• They quote in multiple stages — decon, correction (one-step, two-step, etc.), then coating. A single flat number for "ceramic" is a red flag.
• They talk about paint thickness. Anyone doing correction properly is measuring.
• They show you their own work up close, in bad lighting, not in a glamour shot at golden hour.
• They're clear about what it doesn't do. A coating is not scratch-proof, not rock-chip-proof, and it doesn't mean you stop washing the vehicle.
• They tell you the timeline honestly. A real correction plus coating is a multi-day job. Anything promising it same-afternoon isn't doing the correction.

Ask those questions and the good shops will be happy to answer them. The ones who get defensive have told you what you needed to know.

What a Coating Won't Fix

Worth saying plainly, because a lot of people come at ceramic as a solution to the wrong problem:

• It won't clean a filthy vehicle. That's a detail, and it has to happen first.
• It won't fix an interior. Coatings are a paint product.
• It won't stop rock chips or key marks.
• It won't remove existing scratches — correction does that, and only up to a point.
• It won't stop salt from corroding your undercarriage. Regular cleaning through the winter does more for that, which we get into in our post on getting ahead of road salt season.

The Bottom Line

We don't do ceramic coating because doing it right is a specialist trade with different equipment, a different environment and a different skill set. Adding it to our menu would mean doing a worse version of something other shops do properly.

What we do is get vehicles genuinely clean — the muddy ones, the hairy ones, the ones that smell, the work trucks people are embarrassed to drop off. Since 2020, from Chilliwack out to Hope, Agassiz and Abbotsford.

That's the job we want. Book at dirtydetails.ca/book or call (604) 845-4060. We're at 44344 B Yale Rd, appointment-based, and we'll deliver it back to you when it's done.

FAQ

Q: Can you at least wax it or put a sealant on? A: No. We don't offer wax, sealant, or any paint protection product. Cleaning is the service.

Q: Do you do clay bar as part of the exterior detail? A: No. We do chemical decontamination, which removes bonded contamination without abrading the surface. Clay bar, polishing and compounding are correction work and we don't do them.

Q: Should I get my car detailed before a coating appointment? A: The coating shop will do their own decon and correction prep on the paint, so check with them first. Getting the interior done is a separate thing and never a wasted spend.

Q: Can you remove a scratch while it's in? A: No. Scratch removal is paint correction. We'll get the vehicle clean and be straight with you that the scratch needs a different shop.