Garage floor ideas

lg13mza

We've recently moved and I'm in the process of renovating a double prefab sectional garage. Roof has been replaced, windows and doors on order and I will also be cladding it inside and out. Where I'm struggling for ideas is what to do with the awful concrete floor. It looks like it was laid by a 5 year old.











Originally I was thinking I could use self levelling compound and then paint it, but at 36m sq its a big area for DIY and I reckon the variation in height is around 25mm. I'm now thinking maybe I should board it in 11 or 18mm OSB3 (it appears to be damp free) and then cover with garage rubber tiles or vinyl. I do want to part cars in there so it needs to be up to the weight. As long as it looks presentable and smooth, I'm not bothered if is perfectly level. As anyone any suggestions or done something similar?

Robin9

When we moved we brought the carpets from the old house with us - now we have a carpeted garage.

Head_The_Ball

lg13mza wrote: »

We've recently moved and I'm in the process of renovating a double prefab sectional garage. Roof has been replaced, windows and doors on order and I will also be cladding it inside and out. Where I'm struggling for ideas is what to do with the awful concrete floor. It looks like it was laid by a 5 year old........

Does that really matter if you only plan to use it as a garage or storage place?

Perhaps removing the oil stains would be enough of an improvement.

gardner1

Its a garage for gods sake......just leave the floor as it is

gardner1

lg13mza wrote: »

We've recently moved and I'm in the process of renovating a double prefab sectional garage. Roof has been replaced, windows and doors on order and I will also be cladding it inside and out. Where I'm struggling for ideas is what to do with the awful concrete floor. It looks like it was laid by a 5 year old.




Originally I was thinking I could use self levelling compound and then paint it, but at 36m sq its a big area for DIY and I reckon the variation in height is around 25mm. I'm now thinking maybe I should board it in 11 or 18mm OSB3 (it appears to be damp free) and then cover with garage rubber tiles or vinyl. I do want to part cars in there so it needs to be up to the weight. As long as it looks presentable and smooth, I'm not bothered if is perfectly level. As anyone any suggestions or done something similar?

might be a dead body under the rough bit:D

lg13mza

I hear what everyone is saying about it only being a garage, but I'm likely to spending quite a bit of time in there. Probably use half of it as a home gym.

rach_k

I would leave the area where you'll park the car as it is, mostly so that it doesn't matter if you spill oil or anything but also because it will mark out the area reserved for the car clearly. "Don't leave your bike there or the car will squash it," should work quite well.

For the bit you might use as a gym, how about getting some of those foam squares you sometimes see in gym-type places? Not the small ones that are a foot square, the bigger ones 2'x2'. They slot together nicely (you can tape the underneath if you find they come apart but we always found them fine) and if you ever need more space for the car or messy stuff, you can just pick the up. The ones we had were at least a centimetre thick so even if they don't hide every bump, they'll make it better. I got ours from eBay I think. They weren't expensive.

Kunoichi73

Having had my gym in a garage in the past I would suggest sealing and painting the floor with a garage floor paint as it will help limit the dust from the concrete. Then, as suggested above, get some really good quality matting. If you are going to be lifting weights then Strength Shop have some quality mats of varying thickness: https://www.strengthshop.co.uk/equipment/matting.html. If you are not lifting heavy weights then cheaper matting will do. I saw some in Homebase recently that might do.

TheCyclingProgrammer

Giving my garage a makeover at the end of the month and I was planning to use rubber floor tiles. Its not the cheapest option (as other say its just a garage) but IMO it will make the garage look much better, keep the dust down and easier to keep clean, useful if you're mainly using the garage for storage.

To me, the advantage of floor tiles is that they can be laid over non-smooth floors (you may need to remove any major high spots and fill any major dips), are easily cleaned, easy to install DIY and damaged tiles can be replaced easily.

My garage floor isn't quite as rough as yours but it's not perfect - if you want to go for the painted look, you really need to lay a heavy duty self-leveling compound first and then paint with two-part epoxy paint - a lot of hassle and not as easy to repair if it gets damaged.

Expect to pay around at least £500-600 for a double garage if you want to use floor tiles. There's a number of suppliers with a range of colours, patterns and also quality. You want 7mm thick tiles minimum. Big Dug and Mototile both sell them.

Levelling/painting the floor will probably be cheaper if you DIY it but there's a greater risk of making a complete mess of it.

rach_k

Just to be clear, I wasn't suggesting high quality mats, just something like this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Interlocking-Soft-Tiles-Kids-Play-Floor-Foam-Mats-Baby-Exercise-Gym-Eva-title-/112230522749?var=&hash=item1a2175df7d:m:m3AI9vJ9nWRRI8HIbQeh-5A

(I haven't used that seller so can't vouch for them or their mats, but that's the type of mats we had. We used them for a playroom, outside and also under a treadmill with no problems.)

Wookey

I would go with some form of cheap matting, i would also look to paint the floor first with something like unibond on a 50/50 - 30/70 mix to help keep dust down.