Garage flooring

[Ray Singh]

Probably been done a few times before, but it is always best to get up to date information.

I have a double garage which has a rough concrete floor. It is very dusty. I have had very limited success in the past with my old garages and painting the floors and hence I am asking for ideas what else can be used.

I have been quoted £35/sq m for plastic tiles that look like jigsaw pieces. These were 7mm thick. This did look very nice, but i cant help thinking it is very expensive, when looking on ebay at similar items.

I have also heard that a screed layer can be placed on top of the current base and this can be polished up to look like ceramic flooring. Does anyone know where this can be obtained and how expensive it is?

Thanks

[Ray Singh]

I was quoted £1250 by these people
http://total-garage-solutions.co.uk/

Product looks good, but £1250 would be me a cheap classic car. I could live with the dust :-).

[Ray Singh]

This is certainly the way in which I would like to go.
I have heard of Eco tile, and always thought they they were expensive. I will give them another look.

I doubt that i will go the skirting board route as i have managed to aquire several large metal framed tambour door cubboards. Hence, the edges will never be seen anyway.

I also am considering plasterboarding the ceiling as it currently has an apex roof, which i have boarded out to create space to store 'junk. I will also look at getting at least two strip lights in there.

BTW: Anyone know where i can get suspended ceilings for free?

Once I start to build, i will start a thread to inspire others.

[Ray Singh]

This sounds great. I would be very interested to see the pictures when you start the project.

I am tempted to paint the walls, plasterboard the ceiling and add downlighters myself. The job doesnt have to be perfect as its a garage, and would make an interesting project.

All i need now is loads of time and money.....

[Ray Singh]

Eliot, These look good. Do you have any pictures of these fitted? Does the compnay provide edging strips to use?

I make this method £600 cheaper for my 5m x 6m garage.

Excited is not the word.

[Ray Singh]

After a long time toying with my choices and budget. I have sided with putting in an order for 2 pack epoxy floor paint from Regal Paints.

http://www.regalpaints.co.uk/epoxy-floor-paint.htm...

I have gone for a light grey colour - to reflect as much light as possible and have purchased 2 pack floor sealer and 2 pack high build paint.
Technical advise have told me that the sealer should be applied and left for a couple of hours, but when the main paint is applied, this should be left for about 5 days.
Further more there are two coats of the top coat to go on....

I receieved the paint today - they have sent the wrong stuff.....Groan - they have arranged to ship the correct paint early next week now - I was keen to get started today !!

Some photos of the before and after next !!

[Ray Singh]

This makes my £115 for paint look shameful.....

[Ray Singh]

Update time - after asking the initial question on this thread a long time ago, I am particularly proud of the results I have achieved in my garage. I will be the first to admit that it is not quite a 'Gucci' as some of the garages on here, but it fits my needs and was affordable.

After initially enquiring about plastic garage floor tiles and being scared by the price quoted, I took a suggestion from this thread to visit the website of Regal Paints.I spoke to John and Matt in the technical section of the company, who helped me with basic questions before during and after this project. Tehey were happy to direct me every step of the way.

I have cut/paste the details below from another forum.

I bought a new build house in Marlborough about 2 years ago. Since moving in the garage has been home to kids bikes and boxes as well as anything else not needed in the house. Now my finances are looking in better shape, I had better start to prepare for a classic car again. Thankfully, the garage is a double with two up and over doors. The internal walls were just breeze block which I painted using Screwfix Missionary paint (on special offer at the moment). I used a roller, but it will need a coat or two more to stop the white looking grey. This has stopped quite a lot of the dust that was sitting on top of everything in the garage.

I strongly recommend this paint.

I researched all different types of flooring. I had a bad experience with standard floor paint a few years ago, when I painted the garage floor in my old house. As soon as I put my car on it, it tore all the paint up. I vowed never to use this again. I spoke to people about interlocking tiles, and found them to be very expensive. I enquired about ceramic tiles and decided against it. My cheapest and best 'old school' method was to use some 2 pack epoxy paint from Regal paints (made in England).
www.regalpaints.co.uk/epoxy-floor-paint.html. It wasn’t cheap at about £200 for the paint alone and perhaps another £50 for rollers brushes etc, but I was assured that once this stuff is down, it’s down. The technical assistance offered by John and Matt at Regal Paints is excellent and they have guided me through the buying, prep and painting phases. Thanks chaps!

As my garage is a dumping ground, I decided to attack a side at a time. Thanks to my lovely wife for helping me to move everything from one side to the other!!



It will have to stay like this for two weeks at least - more on this later. But my wife will have to use her turbo trainer in the confined space - Sorry dear. I will have to have a clear out at some point very soon.

I started preparing the floor by sweeping it free of loose dust, stones, leaves etc. This was hard work and a mask is advised. It was very dusty, in fact half a bin bag full of dust was swept up. I used my wife’s Dyson on the rest and ended up killing it. Any advice on how to repair it? Anyway - One swept garage ready for paint.



I started painting at 20:00 (don’t ask me why). The first coat is a 2 pack epoxy undercoat. I opted for light grey, but it went on purple?? Once the two parts of the pack are mixed a chemical reaction begins and within 1 hour, the paint is hard. I had to work fast, but with a belly full of curry, this wasn’t easy!! I painted a small are of skirting board up the walls firstly to give me something to mop against in the future. Then a 9" roller was used to roll the paint onto the floor.
Surgeon’s tools:


I didn’t wear any gloves and to my horror the paint wouldn’t come off my hands. Gloves are advised!! I used petrol to clean it all off and will be buying some gloves for the remaining coats today. As I was so panicked about my hands last night, no photos of the finished article, but this morning it looks like:



I have to let this dry for 24 hours (until 20:00 tonight) and then will apply the first of two top coats. The top coat is more workable as the pot life is about 5 hours compared to the 1 hour I got with the primer (undercoat). However, the top coat needs 5 full days to harden completely. After this time, a second coat of top coat will be applied and I will have to wait a further 5 days prior to moving my stuff onto it. The tools are rendered useless after the paint dries, so I had to buy a few roller bodies, cheapy paint brushes and plastic trays.

Start on the top coat.
I came home from work and at 19:00 started painting the first layer of top coat.
Once again its Regal paints 2 pack epoxy. Four litres of colour and one litre of activator. Mix together and you have about an hour to get this stuff down.

The colour of the top coat is more like the silver I was after. It will reflect the light in the garage making it easier to work on bikes cars etc as well as see oil, water spillages and tools/screws/bolts etc.
The consistency of the top coat is more like gloss than the primer. I used a 9" roller a 1.5" brush and this time remembered to wear latex gloves.

The only shame is that there is quite a lot of waste as once its mixed, it will go hard in an hour. I suppose I could have decanted each of the sub parts, but I was too excited .

This is how I have left it this evening:



John at Regal has advised that I leave it for 5 days now to let it cure and then go with another layer of the top coat.

I applied the final coat and left this to dry for a further five days, prior to moving my garage items back. The garage is used as a store for junk, kids bikes and not for storing or working on the car.

This is how it looks now:


and



A big thanks for John and Matt at Regal paints for all the technical assistance they have provided at every step of this project. The paint itself is rock solid and even dragging a big screwdriver across the floor doesn’t leave a mark. It is very strong stuff and I am happy with the final result. I probably went a bit OTT with the number of coats bearing in mind it’s a storage room, but even then the total cost has been less than £250.

[Ray Singh]

Croutons said:

Dyson online support will help in the first, a DIY filter clean may be all it needs. If not they can service it and you're not far from Malmesbury so could drop it in. Put serial number in here, get some guides on how to disassemble and clean:

http://www.dyson.co.uk/support.aspx

Nice floor btw

Thanks Croutons - this is my job for tomorrow as well as the bread machine :-(.
At least I have a nice garage floor to take it apart on now though.

furtive said:

As you did one half of the garage before the other is there any noticeable "join" in the middle? As I'm going to have to do mine in 2 stages like that

Furtive - There is a noticable join even though I feathered the two sides into each other the best i could. The easy solution is to just go over this area again. I am going to do this next week. Its the price you pay for doing each side seperatly, but like my situation, it has to be done.

paulrockliffe said:

I once got expanding foam all over my hands. It rendered me incapable of doing any more work without spreading sticky stuff everywhere, so I 'quenched' my hands in plaster and brick dust in the skip and continued. Hands were black for days, petrol wouldn't touch it. In the end (ie the night before a wedding) I used my Bird's 'ped egg' to grate the skin off my hands after soaking them in hot water. Fun times.

Can't see your pics at to comment on the quality of the work, but intersted to know how much of the finish quality is down to the paint and how much is down to the quality of the underlying slab? What I mean is, is the paint more of a selant, or more of a top coat if that makes sense?

Has anyone powerfloated a polished concrete floor at all? I need to do my garage eventually, but I think I'm going to have to replace the slab, so rather than dropping £15 a square meter on tiles I could save a fair bit by polishing the slab instead.

Paul - LOL. I crapped myself when this stuff wouldnt come off my hands! I tried nail varnish remover (not mine) and even a scourer from the kitchen. The Ped Egg made me laugh!

The paint is of a thick gloss consistancy - it really does seal the slab and ouses into the cracks when wet. Its fantastic stuff.
My slab was pitted and dusty - all sorted with this stuff with no real preparation (except for sweeping). I am very happy.

Regal paints also offer a self leveling paint (yes paint) - it would have made my garage floor flat and painted it at the same time. The fact i had to paint it in two seperate sides made me decide against this as well as the cost being slightly more than this paint. Its worth looking at if you are after a flat finish and will be durable and look as good as tiles.

[Ray Singh]

Probably going to get flamed for this, but the quickest way is to sweep it and then paint it with a two pack epoxy paint. A coat of undercoat, two of top coat and jobs done.

Go back a few pages and i did a write up on my experience.

The rest of the gang will say plastic tiles, but I found painting cheaper (only slightly though).