Doing Garage Flooring Yourself

Getting ready to install your own garage flooring? I'm sure you're looking forward to saving money and ending up with a great looking floor, but you also should consider exactly what will be involved in the installation process. As this is obviously an investment, you will want to choose the method that'll be both effective and cost efficient. The purpose of this article is to give a quick summary of the install process of each of the various garage flooring types.

Epoxy Garage Floor Paint: The Most Comprehensive Of The Options

Epoxy paint is some great stuff. For all extents and purposes, using epoxy is akin to adding an extra, sort of bouncy, and also stain resistant layer to the top of your concrete garage floor. It's also the cheapest if you do it yourself. Unfortunately, though, this comes at a cost of labor hours. Not only does an epoxy garage floor coating take the longest of any of these solutions, but it's the only one with strict directions on exactly when you can install it. The weather has to be perfect, and you have to give it time to dry in between coats, as per the kit's instructions. The floor must also be very clean before you even begin.

Garage Floor Tiles: Garage Flooring That Can Be Almost As Good As Paint

Paint sound like a daunting project, but still need a good, thorough solution? Tiles will protect the concrete garage floor just as well from any stains. Not only are they almost as durable but, if needed, they can be individually replaced if they ever become damaged, providing you can find tiles of that design later on. When installing, you can take breaks whenever needed, though the install will take around as long as paint. As the tiles don't really have to dry or anything, you shouldn't have to worry too much about weather, although there may be some extremes that you will need to avoid, as per the directions. Since the tiles are going to stick to whatever happens to be on the floor, the cleanliness is just as important as when painting, if not moreso.

Garage Floor Mats: The Alternative Garage Flooring

If neither tiles nor paint sound like the best idea for you, then you may want to consider a full garage floor mat. The install for these generally includes just cutting and placing the mat. You don't even have to clean the floor if you don't want to since it's not going to be sticking to anything. If you have a heavily damaged floor, this may be your only option. However, a big mat is going to be the most expensive solution, and something as simple as driving upon it can sometimes mess them up, depending on the quality of the mat.

Compartment Garage Floor Mats: Garage Flooring For One Area

If you only need to cover a particular part of the garage, especially for a limited time, compartment mats will be your best option. A compartment mat is exactly what it seems: a single mat that you lay down in a place that is likely to get dirty, such as where a car will park or where you will be working. They run around the price of a paint kit, and can be cleaned outside of the garage if necessary. If you so choose, they can often even be turned into a complete garage floor covering by snapping them together or overlaying them, but that can become very expensive considering the sheer number of mats you will be buying.

For more information on garage flooring, visit Sweet Garage Floor.

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November 30 2009 | Home Improvement | No Comments »

Making The Choice Of Garage Floor Coverings

There are many different types of garage floors to choose from out there, and lots of different reasons why one might choose one over another. We'll take a look at some of the most popular choices, and their advantages and disadvantages. After all, the only person that is really qualified to make a decision regarding garage floors is the owner of the garage!

Using Epoxy Paint For Garage Floors

There are a couple of reasons as to why this is the most used flooring. It's permanent, for one thing. After the epoxy garage floor coating has been applied, it can only be fully removed by stripping. It's tough, durable, and leaves you with a shiny, professional look. If you can get down on your hands and knees and lay an epoxy garage floor coating on your own, then it is definitely the cheapest solution as well. Unfortunately, any money savings goes right out the window if you have to hire someone to apply your epoxy garage floor paint. This is because it is far more time consuming than any of the other options.

Using Tiles For Garage Floors

Garage floor tiles will give you about the same end result as paint from a utility standpoint, but that is about the only similarity. Although you do have to get on your hands and knees to install it, garage floor tiles could theoretically be installed throughout the garage over the course of a year and still come out just fine. To some, this is a huge advantage over paint, since paint has to be done all at once and in an exact order. Tiles are also very easy to swap if one or two get damaged without having to re-apply your entire garage floor. There are also more options for colors and designs than paint. The only downside is that tiles tend to be more expensive when everything is said and done.

Using Mats For Entire Garage Floors

By far the easiest and fastest way to cover an entire floor, garage floor mats are simply cut to fit then laid out. It's that simple. If a garage floor mat becomes badly damaged, it can be yanked out and thrown away or recycled with very little drama besides moving whatever shelves or tables happen to be sitting on it. This is probably not the best option, though, if you plan to use your garage mainly for parking cars, as the some mats are susceptible to bending and bunching underneath car tires. Garage floor mats tend to be more expensive than either tiles or paint.

Area Mats For Garage Floors

Used mainly temporarily, mats for single areas of garage floors are called compartment mats. Although they can be used on a more permanent basis they are not the most cost effective for it would take many mats to lay out one at a time for an entire garage floor covering. They can, however be easily removed to the outdoors for cleaning making them a great single area solution! Quickest and easiest by far to install, depending on the manufacturer, when stacked or snapped together they generally form a protective seal. There are, however, cheaper options if your goal is to cover the entire floor.

Check out Goddard's garage floor website for more information on garage floor coverings.

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November 26 2009 | Home Improvement | No Comments »