Sweet Garage Flooring

Here’s a quick and dirty guide on which types of garage floors you should be primarily looking at depending on if you want your garage to be pretty or useful.  For the purists among us, we’ll start with useful.

Useful Garage Floors:

1. Epoxy Garage Floor Paint – It’s cheap, it covers the entire concrete garage floor, and it’s nearly impenetrable.  The more expensive versions will even cushion your step.  The biggest downsides involve failed installs.

2. Garage Floor Tiles – If tools get dropped, they bounce.  Laying on good garage floor tiles is like laying on a bed in comparison to concrete.  The biggest downsides are cost, and the fact that you likely won’t end up covering your entire concrete garage floor.

3. Garage Floor Mats – Similar advantages to tiles, with the notable exception that they typically cover far less concrete.  Also, be careful that, if you’re going for function, you don’t purchase simple parking mats.  Those are not for working, but rather for trapping the dirt and debris that vehicles drag in.

4. Garage Floor Stain – Useless for anything but aesthetics.  Most stains do state that you should use some sort of sealant, though, which might provide some protection.

Pretty Garage Floors:

1. Garage Floor Tiles – Tiles can be had in a variety of colors, can include things like team logos, and some of them just look downright cool.  Even if they’re not any more functional than a good epoxy paint job, they can certainly look like they are.

2. Garage Floor Stain – Stained concrete can look downright elegant.  Some stains actually make concrete look like some sort of stone.  It’s also the cheapest option, and probably the most unique.

3. Epoxy Garage Floor Paint – Paint can be as colorful as tiles, though it sometimes takes some searching.  One can also add color flakes for extra flare.  Many garage floor paint kits can be ordered with different color flakes, too, so that you can actually make yours look unique.

4. Garage Floor Mat – It’s a mat.  It’s really not that interesting to look at, unless you just really like rubber.

Well, have you?  If not, what are you waiting for?  Once the cracks appear in your garage flooring, your options become severely limited.  In fact, if the damage is severe enough, garage floor tiles can easily be out of the question, limiting you to a ton of repairs followed by epoxy garage floor paint, or a garage floor mat.  Why do that to yourself, and to your home, especially when it’s not exactly hard to install a garage floor protector.

Although adding garage flooring can definitely make your garage look sharp, that’s not really the point here.  Did you know that installing epoxy garage floor paint or garage floor tiles will increase the value of your home by far more than the cost to apply such things?  Even if you have to pay someone to do it, it’ll be worth it in the long run.  And consider the value of  painted garage flooring versus a cracked and stained one.  Even if you don’t plan to sell your home any time soon, there’s no telling what the future will bring. By the time you do end up selling your home, it may be too late to easily improve your garage flooring.

Your garage is a part of your home, and it should be treated as such.  There’s no reason to have a bare concrete garage floor when cheap epoxy garage floor kits cost under $60.  There’s just no point in letting it go, or putting it off, especially not when you make it so much harder on yourself by doing so.  Even if all you do is put a garage floor mat down as a temporary measure, it’s much better than nothing.  It’ll protect the concrete garage floor from stains, and some of the biting winter cold until you can get around to taking care of it, or covering it with a better garage floor protector. On quick, comprehensive, and easy option is interlocking garage floor tiles. The biggest downside to them, though, is that they can be quite pricey, and typically don’t cover the entire floor, unless you spend a ton of money.

Still don’t think it’s important?  Do a quick search of “damaged garage flooring”.  You’ll find out real quick just how fast your garage flooring can become very ugly.  A bare concrete garage floor may be okay with you, but how about stained, cracked, and chipped?  It’ll happen a lot faster than you think.  Yes, just parking your expensive SUV on your garage flooring will do it.  Just changing your oil will do it.

If you’ve got a new home, don’t think that it’s immune to garage flooring damage.  All concrete is intended to be finished if you want it to last, and that’s not something that home construction people typically take care of.  Make sure that it’s been a while since the concrete was laid, but get it taken care of before you regret it.

I don’t talk much about garage floor stain because I figure that, for the most part, those who find this site are probably looking for something to protect their garage floor as well as beautify.  I do, however, recognize that there are situations where garage floor stain makes sense and not much else really does.  Here is a quick overview of why one would use garage floor stain instead of one of the other garage floor coatings or coverings.

Too Much Moisture For An Epoxy Garage Floor Coating

Sometimes, in some areas, epoxy just won’t work.  No matter what the homeowner tries, the garage floor paint just peels, or comes apart when touched by hot automobile tires.  In these cases, you may consider garage floor stain, but beware.  Stain offers zero protection to your concrete garage floor.

Some People Only Park Cars In Their Garage

Another excellent reason to consider garage floor stain.  If you don’t even do anything in your garage that would warrant protecting the concrete garage floor, then considering garage floor stain suddenly makes a whole lot of sense.  Always consider, however, that anything concrete still needs a seal, so be sure to apply whatever garage floor seal your stain recommends.

Garage Floor Stain Is Different

Everyone wants to be different, don’t they?  Well, since many people don’t even realize that you can stain concrete (in a good way, anyway), garage floor stain remains at least a little unique.  Will it stay that way?  Time will tell.

Sometimes It All Comes Down To The Money…

Staining garage flooring is pretty darn cheap.  The only thing cheaper is epoxy garage floor paint, and I suspect that’s because of the thick competition in that department.  Comparing a garage floor staining kit to an epoxy paint kit will return prices that are nearly identical, but always consider that you also have to apply a sealant after garage floor stain.  The sealant generally does not come with the stain, although the manufacturer of the stain will certainly recommend it somewhere on the product.  All things considered, you can usually get away with spending less than $200 if you do it yourself, which is less than a set of garage floor tiles.