What’s The Point Of Garage Flooring?
Why would anyone want to install garage flooring? Won't it get just as dirty, and just as damaged as the concrete itself? It seems kind of futile...until you look at the facts.
A few excellent reasons to install garage flooring come to mind. First off, some people just want a softer step in their garage. It's amazing how much nicer it can be to walk around your garage when your back isn't violently jarred with every single step, especially if you, like me, have lower back issues. A garage floor coating will also look a lot nicer than plain concrete to most eyes. In fact, many people will install something simply to cover old, cracked, and stained concrete, if not protect it from such a fate in the first place. Once you stain concrete with motor oil, transmission fluid, or brake fluid or the like, you'll appreciate just how easy every other type of solution is to clean. In fact, most garage floor covering solutions are nearly, if not completely impossible to stain.
There are many varied options to choose from when you go looking at your floor options, and you will have to factor in lots of personal factors.
Good really for only catching spills or working in one small area of your garage, containment mats would be the smallest, cheapest type of garage floor coverings. Sticky garage floor tiles are also an option, as well as garage floor mats that cover the entire space.
Probably the easiest to install yourself, and actually cover the entire garage floor, would be the type of garage floor mat that you cut to fit the entire floor. Also easy to install, but much more time consuming, would be garage floor tile. The most time consuming part there is cleaning and preparing the concrete, not to mention laying down each tile individually. Of course garage floor paint is the cheapest solution, though it won't cover any cracks, holes, or other deformities in the concrete. The most comprehensive and durable of the garage floor coatings would have to be an epoxy floor coating, though it's also the most complicated in both preparation and install. If you're willing to spend the money, though, epoxy is the most durable garage floor coating. Except for paint, pretty much all of these are designed to channel debris and liquid out of the garage. They're also all easier to clean than concrete.
There are plenty of options out there, whatever your reason for wanting to cover your garage floor. There also is always the option of paying someone to do this for you, though most of these solutions are fairly easy to install on your own. It all depends on how much time and money you're willing to invest, just like so many other things in life. You'll likely be surprised, however, at just how cost effective installing your own floor can be. Although it may seem like a luxury today, you'll eventually wonder how you ever got by with just your cold, gray concrete.
Mr Mcgee writes articles about garage floors and a garage floor mat.