Garage Floor Recommendations ?

[DWJ Honda]

An ST rider here, I have a single bay garage about 25 feet by 11 feet, and wanting to re-do the surface of the floor in some way.

When I bought the house about 8 years ago I did a cheap-o paint job to the floor, and it has been slowly coming up and leaving little chips of paint everywhere ever since. Would like to do it right this time without spending a fortune.

My criteria are as follows:

Make the floor look great and easy to clean
Able to do the work / install myself
Not extremely costly

Have considered painting it and trying to do the "prep" work more fully this time. Any one have a good experience this route, and if so, any pointers to share or name brands to suggest?

Also considering a mat of some type, made for such usage, or the tiles that you snap into place.

AT present I have a Home Depot $20 carpet that the bike is on, its about 8 X 4, and even considered getting 7 or 8 more of those and making it wall to wall carpet (though may not be ideal in the clean-up category). At present I do not put the car in the garage, only the other bike, mower, daughter's toys, etc. Though its likely over the next 1-2 years that will change if we invest in a smaller and newer car, such as a Honda Civic, and in that scenario the carpet would not cut it.

Thanks for the ideas!

[Mcreviver]

If you are going to paint, the prep is the most important part. If you can't get all the old paint off with a pressure washer or other means, the new epoxy finish might not stick. Snap together tiles might be your best bet if the floor is flat without any irregularities that would make the tiles stick up and trip you. Plus, if you moved you could take them with you.

[kempco]

Get something to remove all existing and leave it bare concrete. I haven't seen any thing that holds up to jack stands etc.

[Highrider]

I had the same condition in my 3 car garage with 3 layers of cheap porch enamel paint. I rented a floor grinding machine with a diamond grinding pad and spent a Saturday afternoon cleaning the floor down to the concrete. Followed with an acid wash and put down a Rustoleum solvent epoxy. The prep is very critical to a long lasting floor.

[SALTYDOG56]

Greetings

This may a bit costly, But depending on what your looking for may be an option

http://www.greatmats.com/products/diamond-plate-tile.php


Sir William

[nlopitziii]

I have always liked the black and white checker board tiles. Just like on the shade tree mechanic TV show. Of curse I would not mind having all the other toys they have in there shop too.

[ST1300 Alicia]

I put in the floor tiles that COSTCO sells. They are made by the same company that makes Race Deck flooring. I'm very happy with it and it was very easy to install.

[BigTom]

Huh. If it's good enough for Alicia's Garage, it's good enough:)

I have a 3 part epoxy stuff that I install, it's pretty good, but darn spendy. In fact, once it's down, it's there to stay unless you shot blast it off...

My point is that the 2 part epoxy systems that you can buy at the big box Home stores is pretty darn good, and pretty darn easy. As has been said before, preperation is the secret. I wouldn't scrape up every scoop of paint on your floor, but I would hit it with a sander to make darn sure it is down tight, because the epoxy will have to adhere to the paint. If it comes up, so will the epoxy.

Long way around (I ought to write a book), but maybe the tiles are your best choice, unless you really want to bust it getting your floor in shape....

[MNwing]

I used a couple of 11 x 17 mats that Costco were selling last winter. The cost for each was $179.00. but felt the cost wasn't out of line after looking at what it would cost to go the epoxy route. Nice thing about these are that I can pull them out in the drive way and scrub them, esp nice due to the winters we have in the part of the country.

[STPaulK]

+1 on the vinyl mats. Easily to sweep the snow boogers off in the winter too.

[nm6r]

Get something to remove all existing and leave it bare concrete. I haven't seen any thing that holds up to jack stands etc.


I have found this works the best for me in my 4-car garage (for parking) and 1350 sq. ft. shop.

Ray

[Capt_Gruuvy]

I'm cheap and easy. Concrete paint. When I scratch it I just apply more. Light gray to reflect the light better to the nether regions of the bike and auto.