A reinforcing underlayment including dry uniform particles evenly applied to a wet bonding material layer on a surface of a substrate. The substrate, including the layers, is then cured to harden the one or more of the layers. A final coating or topcoat is applied to the cured surface of the substrate. The dry particles are evenly distributed onto the bonding material layer creating a uniform surface for subsequent coatings. The dry particles increase the strength of the liquid coatings increasing solid particle density within the coating system and thereby imparting properties not available for the liquid coatings. The present invention enables a user to easily introduce very heavy, dense, strong particles into a liquid coating and allows the user to apply very dense, heavy particles into and onto a wet bonding material layer followed by a subsequent wet topcoat layer which is cured as one contiguous material with reinforcement and underlayment strengthening coming from the added, dry particles.