I have never seen a painted concrete floor applied by an amateur hold up. Only a professional painter has the patience and the know-how to do the proper floor prep. Be careful about using mats -- make sure they are designed to be used atop paint. Lots of odd chemicals in those sorts of things can eat through stuff. Ask the painter specifically about rubber/fake rubber mats and if it will affect his guarantee.
No offence, but you either know people who can't follow directions or chose to skip steps. Painted epoxy floors are about 90% dependent on preparation and 10% on application.. kinda like photography.. ;o) I've done several of my own and a helped family do a half dozen others and they are neither expensive nor that hard to do. A couple hundred bucks, a few gallons of Muriatic acid, and some disposables like stout scrub brushes (the type that normally last for years but will be disposable for this job) and you've got all you need. Glossy, flat, add sand for non-slip, whatever you want. Companies
such as Ucoatit are good and I've used them 2-3 times and there are others. You can get the exact same name product cheaper on Amazon, ebay, Summit Racing, and 100 other places. Shop for a deal. Try to get an extra 10-20% more product than you measure for to avoid last minute discoveries.. I like the middle grey flat.. I don't want light reflected in my studio that I didn't reflect or in my processing rooms. I've found matching anti-fatigue mats too.
Not a single floor I've been involved with as had issues not directly caused my abuse. 15 years is the first one I did. Let them season before even walking n them.. they say 24 hours, do it for two weeks and you'll be rewarded. Longer if you can. If you drive on them know that pebbles in your tires will chip away at it.. but as a work room the floor should outlast any human life.
We swept, swept again, scrubbed with degreaser several times, rinsed, repeated several times, pressure washed.. and then Muriatic acid washed each floor using a good quality respirator. When I was younger I had a job cleaning pools in Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Santa Monica, Brentwood, etc, etc.. and gunnite pools were routinely acid washed every 3-4 years if taken care of well and no algae was allowed to foster.. My boss used to pay me $100 a pool to crawl down and do the scrubbing with the acid. That was big money for me back then.. mid-70's.. I did this for years before he finally figured out I was using a scuba tank setup.. then he wanted to reduce my pay.. funny. If you prep like this or whatever the directions call for.. you'll be golden. Skip a single step and it's for naught. Epoxy is nothing more than chemicals.. and chemicals are exact in requirements.