The best £70......

The best £70......

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Graham-P

Original Poster:

1,548 posts

245 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
quotequote all
......I've spent in ages, making light work of getting the floor up..

.....decided to re-lay my garage floor as it was always damp in there ever since I laid it, now I know why, it's like a sand pit with a crust on top! Weak mix or what frown in my defence money was tight at that time, but as saying goes 'do it right, do it once' should have paid someone who knew what they were doing to have laid it, I clearly didn't.....
Also going to get a mid rise scissor ramp and sink it into the floor, any recommendations?

confusionhunter

448 posts

221 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
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I Concur! I bought that one, 5kg fella, ages ago from screwfix. Ive used it a fair bit!.... currently on loan to my mate breaking up concrete for old fence posts!

Good job sir! How do you intend on finishing the floor?

Graham-P

Original Poster:

1,548 posts

245 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
quotequote all
Yes I'm guessing it's going to see use by others, my son is planning his bathroom tile removal now ......
My mate is doing the floor for me as he's a builder so I'm leaving it to him, I just said ultimately would like it to be smooth for some sort of tile to go down, plus a cover for the ramp.

Racingroj

488 posts

162 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
quotequote all
Hi Graham
I used 7mm interlocking plastic tiles. They have proved really serviceable. You could of course finish it with a 2 pack as well but will need a really good finish such as a power float.
Roj

Graham-P

Original Poster:

1,548 posts

245 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
quotequote all
Yep been looking at interlocking tiles....

Storer

5,024 posts

214 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
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I hope you are really pushing out the boat and adding under floor insulation and heating before you skim and ceramic tile.

Easy to clean and nice and warm to kneel on.



Paul

PS. Hope you made a better job of the floors in the rest of the house!


Graham-P

Original Poster:

1,548 posts

245 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
quotequote all
We did discuss running a couple of pipes from the CH system or electric mats but I decided against it as I'm not going to build and be out there at all times and weathers, electric heater should suffice.
House floors have been done by professionals. smile

ROWDYRENAULT

1,270 posts

213 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
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Our house was finished in 2004 since then I have built an Ultima, a 27 Ford Lakester, rebuilt my Renault R5 Turbo from scratch and have now started on a 69 Barracuda. All of this work was done over a floor that my wife and I applied and it still looks great. You start with two coats of epoxy then a coat of Urethane followed by another coat of Urethane that you sprinkle black and white metal chips on while its still wet. Sweep up what doesn't stick two coats of clear and the thing is bullet proof. The only thing that has caused a problem was when I welded and didn,t protect the floor where the sparks landed lee

GTRCLIVE

4,186 posts

282 months

Thursday 18th June 2015
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Recomendations...... insulate under the concrete then, 10m Rebar every 12" in both directions, then tie Pex tubing to it for the heated floor. 5" Type 35+ Concrete and it will never move... Also Bendpak Mid rise lift good enough for 6000lbs and dig down another 5" under it with lots of Rebar to help spread the load....

Then you get this roughly before you pour...





With the addition of a used water heater and a 1/8 hp pump you have warm floors :-)

Graham-P

Original Poster:

1,548 posts

245 months

Thursday 18th June 2015
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Lee, when do you find the time to work to pay for your hobbies (I'm still getting over building the Ultima!), or are you just another Californian millionaire hehegetmecoat

Clive, going to do what you said, but will probably leave the UFH, when it's cold I won't be going out theresmile as its now basically a garage not a build/workshop......

Racingroj

488 posts

162 months

Thursday 18th June 2015
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Graham
Just a thought, heating your garage is not just for you but for the Ultima and all the tools in there. When the temperature falls below the dew point (usually about 7c) rust will start forming on bare surfaces, not to mention damp in the electronics and electrical items. My garage is attached to the house and I have put in a small radiator which keeps the temp around 12c in the cold months. If yours is away from the house then a small wall mounted heater on a Satchwell thermostat to bring it on at say 10c would work.
Roj

Graham-P

Original Poster:

1,548 posts

245 months

Thursday 18th June 2015
quotequote all
Yes I've got two greenhouse oil tube heaters to take the edge off the cold set on a thermostat at 10 degrees. The garage is wooden construction and about 20ft from the house, I'm doing the floor as it was damp and I'm going to insulate the walls and ceiling, I should've done this years ago but just never seemed to get round to it. Plus it was turning into a st heap in there so it's also serving as a grand clear out exorcise.
My mates a general builder with the mandatory Howdens account so when any damaged white kitchen cabinets come up he said he'll grab them and I'll install them down one side, plus a 3m worktop as a bench. The garage is just under 4m wide and 6m long now (adding an extra metre and a roller door). Should hopefully be finished and look good for when the car comes back from its make over.

ezakimak

1,871 posts

235 months

Friday 19th June 2015
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Ok, just to round out the floor stuff, it probably cost about 70 pound, not sure what the exchange rate is at the moment, but defiantly money well spent.

this is a cut and past from another forum, but its something i have just done here. very happy with it. Haven't put the clear coat on that lee suggested


Thursday night, reverse cycle heater on, patio heater on until it ran out of gas, shut it all off before I went to bed.
Friday, before going to work, heater and patio heater on again with a full 9kg gas bottle, ran all day
Saturday, don’t think it’s going to get any dryer, clear shed floor using the blower.



Divide up decorative chips into 6 containers. My shed floor has some expansion “crack” joints cut into it that divide the floor into 6 parts. So I will aim to use 1 container per part of the floor.



I mixed all 8 litres of the paint. Didn’t want to have to come back and mix a bit more if I ran out. Figured that if I got through all that, there was every chance I would need a new roller and brush anyway. Was also on a tight time frame, so just wanted it done. Mixed in a 20 litre food grade bucket as I had head of issues with the epoxy dissolving the colour out of buckets with the clear coat. I had no issues with this approach so don’t know if I was paranoid.



Prepared, 1 x 270mm roller with foam cover, & 2 x 270mm rollers with 12mm nap rollers. The plan was to just screw on the roller pole and keep going. Paint brush and a smaller 90mm roller for a few corners.

The foam roller lasted somewhere around to the ½ way point, maybe about 45minutes in. By this stage the two part epoxy was starting to get sticky and I could see the foam delaminating from the core of the roller cover, so I switched to the 12mm nap roller before it completely came adrift. The foam roller sleave did seem to work better and stayed on the roller better. Manage to finish the rest of the floor with the one 12mm nap roller. Had to push it on a few times by turning it on its end and whacking it against the floor, but nothing major.

Had some thick rubber gloves on and a carbon filtered mask. Rubber glove was a pain when trying to put the flakes down.


Overall I think it went down very well. Very happy with how it has turned out so far. The surface is very shinny and I would recommend putting the flakes down as it will help hide any imperfections in the concrete as well as make any marks less noticeable in the future.






Hope that helps others.

Racingroj

488 posts

162 months

Friday 19th June 2015
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Nice job. Best part is that there will be no concrete dust when brushing the floor.