Garage floor laying question again

[SpanishTony]

Hi, I've a got a detached victorian garage, stone on the outside, brick on the inside. Just been a storage place up until now, we want to convert it into something a bit more decent (maybe a home gym, etc.) So proper insulation from the elements, no need to have running water etc. Also and thinking in terms of selling on, we'll plan not to seal off the garage door opening so if somone wants to keep a car in there they can do. I think that this would address any potential change of use issues.

So the list of things I think we need to do are:

• Replace the concrete floor
• Saw some wooden laminate in another thread which looked good
• Replace the garage doors
• Damp proof membrane on the walls then battens, insulation and then plasterboard
• Replace the door
• Replace windows (these are fairly small so maybe just place glass in the gaps)

So there's loads of stuff to do, some of which I can do and stuff where I'll need to bring in the experts (electrics, plastering etc.) Seeing as I'm not a powerfully built company director I'll be looking to do as much as possible to save costs.

The first question is around replacing the garage floor,

it's a mainly cement which isn't level:

But at one end there are some flags


So I want to break it and remove then what I'm not too sure, MOT then some plastic sheeting, rebar on chairs and get some barrow mix in?

One thing that might be a head-ache is the electricity meter for some reason is in the garage and the wiring comes up from some pipework:

Anybody any advice about this? other than being really careful?

[dalzo]

Save yourself a world of hassle digging it all out and just take out the loose and high points, use some sort of mortar repair or sand cement mix to fill in any large holes you dig out.

Dpm the floor then use a quality screed and it will give you a nice level finish for laying any top covering you want.

Ardex dpm1c as your dpm then something like ardex na on top, they just released ardex cl+ which is supposed to be better but I haven’t had a chance to use it yet.

Once that was all done I’d run over it with an sealer or paint

[SpanishTony]

Thanks, that's interesting. Some of the cement is OK, but I don't think it's very thick.

I need to clear it out completely and have a look in a bit more detail. Also by looking at the bricks along the floor line, you can see that the floor rises along the length of the garage.

There's a lot of information from the other thread about garage that came out at the same time about information but I'm a couple of steps before I reach that stage.

[SpanishTony]

I cleaned it out a bit more, it looks a lot worse.



The cement is about 2 inches thick or so. And you can also see that it's not level as can be seen by line of bricks going across the bottom of the floor.



The flag stones would need removing to level off the toppy bits.



However worth pointing out there is a space above the ceiling with this nice looking ladder which I'd like to keep if possible.

This looks like it's resting on top of the cement.

[SpanishTony]

Again, the intention is not to have a working garage more a gym, so I don't want to over-engineer the solution. I liked the previous suggestion to fix what's there and put a screed with a DPM in it. Is that still possible bearing mind the thickness and condition of what's there?

[dalzo]

It’s a bit of more of a mess than what I first realised

Are you going to try and give it a bash yourself?

If I was in your position I’d try and break up as much as I can then get a mini digger to get it all out and lay a new base.

The concrete being broken up isn’t as much a concern as some of those massive height differences.

Then I’d fire down something like gerflor gt1 interlocking tiles. They are bombproof and pretty easy to fit all be it a bit expensive however I’ve fitted them in gyms and oil refinery's and they have stood up to both so should you want to turn it back into a usable garage you can just drive over the top of them.

[SpanishTony]

Yes, I think I will, it's all coming up pretty easily, I haven't evened used my breaker, just an iron bar.

It's 2 inches of cement on top of what looks like cinder blocks.