Winter Road Salt & Garage Floors

[Bold & Old]

Hello I have made a nice way to keep out the road salt and water mix from my garage floor in the winter.

My wife uses a portion of the barn in the winter

I bought a new thick heavy duty flat roof rubber that I bought at a roofing supply in my area.

The rubber is 20' X 12' and cost of about $200.....and weighs about 80lbs.

I have had it down for several winters now and it keeps all the road salt and water mix out of my barn.

I can pull out and pull it back in fully opened myself and back in....

I roll the mat up like a rug and folds over into a small square for storage.

My tractor with chains put a couple holes in it and I repaired in with a flex-seal patch in the winter.

it seals instantly on the backside in the winter.

no dry white salt crystals in the cement cracks.

The heat from the car + the black mat almost instantly turns the slush mixture to water... and is removed with a broom-squeegee quickly.

even when its below freezing temps (15 C degrees)

Just flip up the sides to fit your size car and the water stays in the middle.

dont know how well it would work outside the barn.

The mat is durable from my stand point.

 

[themechanic]

That's using your noggin

 

[Dave6T4]

I bought a slush mat from TSC (now Peavy) to catch winter slop. It is 18' X 7' and has about a 1'" curb around the outside to contain liquids. It is fairly light and can be pulled outside easily to be hosed off. I bought it on sale for less than $200.00Can.

 

[VANDAN]

I won't park our cars in the garage during winter, unless they're clean going in. The salt and brine solutions ruin your concrete surface, with No Doubt. It's even worse, if your garage is heated, and you get the continuous "freeze-thaw" cycle, day after day. Feel sorry for those Ford owner's, with the aluminum frames, that shelter their rides...

 

[Ron H]

Great ideas, my garage floor (heated garage with floor drain) is for **** from the salt. Not having the floor sealed when I built the house 25 years ago was a sorry miss. My brother spent several grand last year having his floor redone with a decorative epoxy coating that looks awesome. It would take me a year to move all the **** l have in the garage out to have this done so my floor stays looking like...****.

 

[DeltaV]

Move south!

 

[Bold & Old]

I won't park our cars in the garage during winter, unless they're clean going in. The salt and brine solutions ruin your concrete surface, with No Doubt. It's even worse, if your garage is heated, and you get the continuous "freeze-thaw" cycle, day after day. Feel sorry for those Ford owner's, with the aluminum frames, that shelter their rides...

My garage can be heated.... but is not.

Any airborne salt so far has not created any rusting issues on bare sheet metal inside.

The key is keeping the wet salt solution pushed outside daily and allowed to dry.

(I have big over head fans for that)

going on the third year i can confidently say i am happy with the results.

my wife's car when she goes to work is clean of all frozen salt solutions and dry.

The outer outside lip of the mat keeps it from reentry..... its all down hill.

I was considering selling this idea but my remaining years must be used to complete my 67 coronet.

if one was to make a larger mat I think it would be less manageable and harder to dry.

By using clean dry silica sand lightly under the mat makes it easier to slide in and out.

the same mat can be made wider be simply by making the side folds smaller.

I have had my 4x4 Dodge diesel fits OK if its opened up to the widest position.

NO salt brine in my barn....!

 

[Moparfiend]

Great idea that salt is more corrosive than our politics! Lived most of my life in Illinois. Now in Arizona and don’t miss the “slop” you guys so eloquently described. It was sunny and 80 here today….just sayin…

 

[Bold & Old]

Great idea that salt is more corrosive than our politics! Lived most of my life in Illinois. Now in Arizona and don’t miss the “slop” you guys so eloquently described. It was sunny and 80 here today….just sayin…

I agree sir........... get rid of the latter for sure!!

I rather deal with rusty metal...... its repairable!

 

[Ranger16]

Too late for my garage floor.

 

[Ron H]

Move south!

I might if I could find a way to move my house

 

[VANDAN]

I might if I could find a way to move my house

And garage/shop !

 

[Ron H]

And garage/shop !

Lol, while my wife would disagree...the garage/shop would come first.

 

[Bold & Old]

Too late for my garage floor.

its never to late to keep your car from having no frozen salt attached to the frame.

I was surprised that the water slurry stayed in a liquid state on the mat for days in near zero.

a cheap fix with little maintenance.

Thank you all for your input...... summers coming

 

[joe smith]

Move south!

No more room, all full

 

[Ron H]

No more room, all full

Gee - whatever happened to that good old southern hospitality? Ok, never liked grits; but wish we had Waffle House's up here.