Garage flooring...

[ramairthree]

I am looking at doing my garage floor.

Probably not willing to do the everything 7 days outside epoxy treatment.

I can find tiles as low as 1.69 sq foot, not sure how good it is.
roll out matting at about same.

I have typical two car garage, about 400plus or so square feet.

Goals are,
something that does not "squish" where heavy stuff sits. Can handle the occaisional oil, power steering fluid, etc. spill,
and you can drag stuff on without scratching everything up.

Bare concrete does the trick except for looks.

What have you guys done?

I have painted the 70s paneling gray.
I have a few more Gladiator cabinets to assemble and install.
DIY shelving has been taken off the ceiling.
Flooring will be last touch.

 

[Donny]

Good questions, and respect to you sir, love that GM car, they are growing on me (see my Chevelle SS thread here on this MOPAR board).

I've done 2 1/2 floors. The first time I did it was for my media blast bay, it lasted about 3 weeks, re-applied it and it lasted another 3 weeks, now, that floor is bare concrete.

I did my house 3 car garage in a nice epoxy medium color brown with flakes, I did that back in early 2008, granted, there's no media blasting going on there, but, I have spilled crap on the floor, and have motorcycles and cars in the summer with hot tires coming on it and sitting...never any problems. The only problem was me doing a burn out in my wife's Charger RT; those marks are still there; and this didn't lift up the coating at all.

The 3rd time was absolutely the worst. At my shop, a cement floor with about 20 yrs of **** in the cement I didn't clean properly, or acid etch enough because when I use my roll around chair the wheels pull it up, it looks like ****, but, it's not that same Epoxy stuff I used at my house -- one of these days when I get motivated to do it again, I'll do it with the same stuff I used at the house, and clean the hell out of my floor and acid etch it over and over again.

Good luck, and post pics!

 

[wannadrag]

Does that epoxy stuff hold up to weld and torch spatter?

 

[iraqivet01]

I did my laundry room with a kit from Lowe's. It turned out good, and haven't had an issue with it. Heard too many bad things about it in a garage if it is not prepped right.

Torch splatter will most likely screw it up due to the heat.
It more for a garage that is a show case, not a heavy work space where metal wheeled floor jacks or stands can scratch it up.

 

[bobs66440]

I used the cheap garage floor paint from the big hardware store. Absolute crap. It didn't last and EVERYTHING including WATER lifted it when spilled. Spend the extra time and money and do it right ONCE.

 

[kdtjb]

You guys might want to look at www.garagejournal.com and see what they use over there.

 

[bobs66440]

You guys might want to look at www.garagejournal.com and see what they use over there.

Cool site! Thanks!

 

[Moose]

Epoxy

Got my stuff out of a place in Colorado.. No problems so far after a year and a half...

 

[scotts74birds]

Have I got an idea for you! Check out "concrete acid staining"! You can color and seal the the floor for chump change!

 

[Domino]

Have I got an idea for you! Check out "concrete acid staining"! You can color and seal the the floor for chump change!

That's a good idea because I've beat up my Epoxy Coat pretty good.
Does the sealant make it easy to clean up oil spills?

And yes, weld/torch splatter will leave scorch marks on the epoxy.
And yes, rolling chairs, carts, and creepers will scuff up the shiny finish.

 

[1toolguy]

I used the Rustoleum epoxy paint kit from Home Depot. It wasn't that expensive ($120 for the 2-car garage kit) was actualy quite easy, but a bit tedious, to do. The only thing time consuming was waiting for each prep stage to dry. Once we put done the paint and the flakes it was walkable within 24-hours and I parked the car back on it a few days later. Less than a week after we finishe the front seal in the tranny puked fluid all over the floor. We wiped it up, then cleaned the slick spot up with brake cleaner and it still looks great. A year later I've gotten just about every car and woodworking related chemical on it, dropped tools, solder and welding splatter don't seem to harm it either.

My wife and I are talking about moving and the next house will get this same floor BEFORE i set up shop.

 

[ramairthree]

ended up doing this...

was able to get US made tiles for only thirty cents more each than the cheapest (china) ones

 

[Satellite65]

Looks nice. Who's the manufacturer of the tile and where did you purchase it?

 

[scotts74birds]

Well......since the wife wants new carpet [for a house that Bank of America might own soon] I cant justify anything!

 

[ramairthree]

they are made by snap lok.
it is the garagetrack version.
less expensive as their racedeck version.

 

[SandDiesel]

That Snap Lok looks good and a quick install too. I used the paint kit from Lowes and it held up very well for the 8 years I owned my last house. Prep is very important but I also started with a very clean floor and an empty garage. Think it says wait 3 days to drive on it.

 

[Pistol Pete]

I agonized over what to do with the floor in my shop after it was poured. Bare concrete sucks up oil like a sponge and I do too much fab work to spend the time and money on epoxy only to trash it. In the end I opted for Sherwin-Williams' ArmorSeal 1K. It's a fairly inexpensive urethane. Not a very high solids content, but it does the trick. The floor is washable, doesn't soak up oil and since I added fiber to the 'crete, the urethane made the fibers lay down and gave it a non-slip property.

Couple of observations I made in my research:

RaceDeck and the like will trap moisture under them and they tend to "click" unless you have a perfectly flat floor, which no one does.

Epoxy is time consuming, expensive and may produce hot tire lift. Prep is laborous.

Vinyl tile will discolor and unless it's climate controlled, will most likely peel up eventually.

YMMV

 

[Moms68]

To ressurrect this old thread, has anyone installed plastic/ vinyl interlocking floor tiles in their garage? There are many choices out there, if anyone has a recommendation.

Thank you

 

[Black_Sheep]

To ressurrect this old thread, has anyone installed plastic/ vinyl interlocking floor tiles in their garage? There are many choices out there, if anyone has a recommendation.

Thank you

This is 5 year old Racedeck, there are some minor downsides to it but overall I’m happy with it…