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Garage flooring choices
New construction, what would be the best choice for flooring in garage bays?
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14 Replies
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Joe, can you give us a bit more detail about what you are considering, the building, where it is, type of work you will be doing in the shop, etc.
That would help us give you the best ideas. 🙂
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All types of automotive repairs. From wipersblades to engines. Something every durable. Or would it be best to just seal concrete and call it a day.
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Point of perspective for you. I built my shop in 2005 put down a military grade epoxy. It looked just like the floor in the pic when new. It lasted 15 years. We are a regular repair shop. As a specialist shop I would say we do more big work that most. The floor was mopped each week during those years. I am repainting the floor this year.
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The more you try to save here, the more it will cost later – hire a flooring professional and expect to pay around $5 a SqFt (or so) for a high quality epoxy
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The more you try to save here, the more it will cost later – hire a flooring professional and expect to pay around $5 a SqFt (or so) for a high quality epoxy
I have to echo this as I am getting ready to repaint my floor.
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PLEASE be sure you get references if you get the floor epoxy painted. I did my own with a few buddies for my first shop (1200 sq. ft. – 30 yeas ago). It was OK, but parts of it lifted due to our lack of experience in proper prep. Bought a shop with a freshly epoxy painted floor – “professionally” done for low bid by he seller (5000 sq. ft – 8 years ago, no idea the price…) that started lifting and peeling almost immediately. Just had my home workshop done late fall last year (new concrete, 1320 sq. ft., I hired it out local) and I swear if I drop a screw on it it chips. I LOVE the look and feel and cleanability of a painted floor but I’m seriously starting to wonder if ANYONE in the world cares enough anymore to do it RIGHT! I admit, I only paid just over $3.00 / sq. ft.; that was the price I was quoted. Maybe the guy charged what he was worth! I ALMOST wish I had done it myself last Fall…
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If your starting with new construction I would have the cement dyed in the cement truck before it is poured that way when your floor chips or cracks the color is 100% through. No maintenance other then washing.
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If I had to do it again I would polish and clear seal the concrete, done right it looks great.
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I don’t know what the best coating is, I can only tell you that over the past 20 years we have gone with epoxy. Not all epoxy is created equal though. Clear top cote needs to be UV resistant or it ends up yellowing which destroys the effect. I’ve also had coats that were too thin and wore away in 4-5 years. Even the best epoxy is pretty much in need of a redo after 5 years though due to the chipping that occurs when items are dropped on the floor. If memory serves me correctly, I think I’m on my 4th or maybe 5th application and we are due for the next application soon, in the next year. Probably close to 20k I’d guess to do our complete shop again.
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New construction, what would be the best choice for flooring in garage bays?
Following: I am constructing a new 4500 sq ft shop too.
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ConcreteNetwork.com
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We polished our floors up front and epoxied the floors in the rear 5 bays. I did the epoxy ourselves. I had a sandblasting company clean the floors it is outside so it made it easier. Then we bought Industrial Epoxy from EB Epoxy. Ask them what to use they make the epoxy there in Fort Lauderdale Fort half the price of any other epoxy. If you check them out you’ll see they make the Epoxy that glues bridges together. It lasted 5-6 years looking perfect. Now 14 years later it looks fairly good but not shiny. $800 for sandblasting 2000 sq ft. 1800 for epoxy 14 years ago Apx 2 days of my life rolling it on. One trick I learned is to mix the epoxy 3 hours before you want to use it it goes on thicker.
The front 3 bays I had ground -4 year’s ago apx 10k and they looked great for apx 10 years.
If I were to do it over I would do what Home Depot does. They have a company come in at night and grind and polish the floors. Then they use a water based sealer.
the first time the company told me its a expensive job after that every 5 years its 1/4 the price .
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We used RaceDeck tiles. Super simple installation helps to completely transform the entire garage in one day. In wall work trucks we used similar in small rooms, then I took note.
There have been problems with “holes for nails in concrete due to the removal of walls”, you will never know how these problems are hidden under the tiles. -
My wife and I worked together to finish the shop floor with 2-part Floor Epoxy from Home Depot. It ran us about $450 to do 3K sq. ft. Here’s a link to what we used. It took us 3 of these kits.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rust-Oleum-EpoxyShield-2-Gal-Gray-Garage-Floor-Epoxy-261845/202963950
In our experience, it lasts about 5 years then you have to touch up the areas that have chipped due to dropping stuff. Before laying down the epoxy, we etched the floor with muriatic acid then neutralized and cleaned the floor with Tide laundry detergent. We didn’t grind or sand the floor. Hope this helps shop owners who have more time than money for a cool-looking shop floor.
Here’s a fuzzy picture of what it looked like when we were finished:
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