Options for garage floor vinyl covering or paint??

[stuR]

So me and dad, as we spend alot of time in the garage are looking for something to tidy the floor up a bit. As it stands the floor is concrete but not leveled, its what i can only describe as wrinkly and not coated or painted. So we get alot of dust and when we have a spillage its a bit of a pain to clear up and its a nightmare finding dropped nuts and bolts.

Im guessing we either need to level it out with some sort of filler http://www.wickes.co.uk/invt/154134?utm_campaign=bazaarvoice&utm_medium=SearchVoice&utm_source=RatingsAndReviews&utm_content=Default Possibly or similar? then paint it. Which should only be a days work.


Otherwise possibly some sort of vinyl roll or snap together matting? Anyone have any ideas or experience doing similar?

[tigersaw]

I first painted it with garage floor paint from screwfix. Looks ok and seals the dust, but it chips easy. Then I carpeted the main area with cheap student flat type carpet, and used that snap together stuff in the workshop bit. Carpet is great actually, you can hoover it and I work on the bikes on a large rubber mat that catches the spills and grease.
The snap together tiles are no good for a sidestand, they dent up and dont recover.

Costco are doing a deal on the G-Floor garage floor protector just now, if you are looking for a showroom type floor covering

[stuR]

Good to know about the tiles. Im out of a job atm so i dont mind putting in the work to level it but that looks like it would cost around £100-£120 or so. Is this the stuff you mean from costco? http://www.costco.co.uk/view/product/uk_catalog/cos_11,cos_11.8,cos_11.8.1/565749


Cant find gfloor on their website but that stuff would probably work out the same cost, my only thought is whether it needs to be leveled for that

[Specialone]

Some latex self levelling compound will level the floor and leave a nice smooth finish but it won't stand up to abuse, so cover it in some really cheap Lino or a proper garage flooring.

If you do use the latex, get the stuff from a builders merchants, will be cheaper and designed to be put down thicker, vacuum floor first, can Pva if you want, mix with a paddle mixer until like soup and smooth, literally just tip bucket out and use a trowel if needed just to push it around.

Leave for a day, job done.

[maviczap]

I had got carpet in mine, but I found that moisture was wicking the entire length from the garage door and causing the whole garage to become damp, which also caused corrosion.
So then Aldi were selling clip together eva floor tiles which were supposed to be for childrens play area.
Bought 2 packs which was enough for my garage, yes it does dent, but my stuff does return to shape.
It's warm and comfy to kneel or lay on.
only problems I've noted are that nuts and bolts bounce further and don't end up where you think they should be.
I thought dark tiles would be sensible, but it makes finding lost bolts bleedy difficult!!!

Flotex would be a good, but expensive option

[tigersaw]

this is the stuff cosco are doing:

http://www.bltllc.com/tread_pattern.htm

cant do a direct link, you have to go to their website and click warehouse offers
its £132 per roll of 2.28 x 5.18 metres

[Sir Trev]

I had got carpet in mine, but I found that moisture was wicking the entire length from the garage door and causing the whole garage to become damp, which also caused corrosion.


I have carpet in mine too but left it short of the door to stop this. OK, finding things you drop is sometimes annoying, but it was free (the ghastly stuff that was in the sitting room when we moved in). If you have a slightly rough finish to your concrete you don't notice it under carpet plus it is warm.

Worth having a chat with a carpet shop Stu to see if they can let you have something they rip out of a customer's place. As they almost certainly pay to dump it you may get it free.

[tigersaw]

I got mine from B+Q - its the thin hard stuff you put in student rental bedrooms. Very cheap, something like £5 a metre I seem to remember, easy to work with and stick it down with double sided carpet tape, the thicker strong stuff not the screwfix carp, as you will be sticking to uneven absorbant concrete.

[maviczap]

I have carpet in mine too but left it short of the door to stop this. .

Aye, I had let it short, but I think that most of the moisture was seeping in from the side and back walls below the DPC, due to the levels of the earth around the garage.

So the edge of the carpet was too close to the garage wall, so was soaking up any moisture coming into the garage.

I put the carpet in the garage during the summer and forgot about the damp in the winter.

Its not an issue now :smt041

[stuR]

Cheers for the costco link. My only concern with carpet is the garage is where we do alot of servicing as well as just storage so it might be mnore practical to have something hard so i can mop up oil rather than it seeping into a carpet and having the potential for me to park my wheels on it it etc. The vinyl looks good but i will still need to level the floor, so the cheapest option seems to be to level it then paint.

[squirrel_hunter]

I used Bradite DP5LS Low Slip Floor Paint from Brewers (http://www.brewers.co.uk/). From memory I used 10l which was 2 tins at about £20 or £30 each. Had plenty left over. Used 2 coats, the first thinned down.

After 2 years its not done to badly. A couple of chips but generally I'm happy with it. If I were to do it again I think I might go for 2 thinned coats, followed by 1 top layer with a bit of sand mixed in to help grip. I would also leave it 2 weeks before using the garage if possible to allow it to fully dry out and cure as it was still soft for much longer than I expected.

[embee]

Just for info, I painted my workshop floor with epoxy floor paint. Not cheap like other paints, but it is very tough and hardwearing, only chips if I drop something big enough to chip the concrete underneath. Very glad I went to the expense.

If you do look at this, be aware the 2 part solvent based stuff doesn't give you a very long working time so be fully prepared before you start mixing it.

[stuR]

cheers for all the input guys. i think for cost we are just going to paint for now and see how it wears and it it doesnt do well i can level it out at a later date and go from there. Cheers all!