What Floor?

richardpope50 · Post by **richardpope50** » Fri Nov 20, 2015 9:33 am

I've moved house and have a large garage with concrete floor - not totally smooth as it was not skimmed. In my last house I painted my floor and generally it lasted for 20 years but by then the paint was in poor shape around car areas. I now want to do something with the floor so what have others done?

My main concern is using a trolley jack (point loading), dropping hammers, metal bits, etc, and generally moving things around such as an engine hoist with engine lifted. My choices seem to be:

- Paint - yes paint does not stay where car tyres roll.
- Epoxy paint - similar?
- Two pack epoxy paint - how good is it really?
- Resin flooring - whilst strong, does it chip using a trolley jack?
- Commercial grade flooring - same?
- Commercial grade vinyl / PVC - floor not totally smooth.
- Rubber flooring from a roll - too soft for trolley jacks and engine hoists?
- Click together honeycomb tiles - similar problems?
- Click together higher / commercial grade tiles - similar problems or do they withstand jacks, etc..

I appreciate there are variants within each category but it's difficult to choose which one / make.

I'm covering 45m2 so it will not be cheap.

Any suggestions / help appreciated. Thanks.

Ian Anderson · Post by **Ian Anderson** » Fri Nov 20, 2015 10:01 am

Have you thought about wood?

Damn slight warmer than concrete over the winter

stevieturbo · Post by **stevieturbo** » Fri Nov 20, 2015 12:40 pm

Tiling out of the question ?

Years ago a friend got some old stock quarry tiles for his daily workshop floor, they've been superb.

Maybe a little OTT for a home garage, but never know what you might find out there for sale ? Certainly gives it a professional look

Or some of the Epoxy resins would definitely be up to the job, not cheap either though. Might be a little warmer than tiles or concrete though ?

v8250 · Post by **v8250** » Fri Nov 20, 2015 11:02 pm

Ian Anderson wrote:Have you thought about wood?

Damn slight warmer than concrete over the winter

Similar to this, years ago a neighbour [ret'd BA Captian and all round petrol head...] covered his huge concreted barn floor with polystyrene sheets on top of which he laid 22mm moisture resitant treated tonge & groove chipboard. It was the most practical and warmest garage I've ever seen. The floor is effectively 'floating' with the polystyrene sheets compensating for an unscreeded/tampered concrete surface. When raising the car he simply placed a small off cut sheet of chip board under each 6tonne axle stand; a brilliant hard wearing floor system.

unstable load · Post by **unstable load** » Sat Nov 21, 2015 5:12 am

Take a look at POLYUREA, it's pricy, but looks to be tough and durable.

DaveEFI · Post by **DaveEFI** » Sat Nov 21, 2015 9:40 am

'Proper' TV and film studios - where you want a perfect floor for tracking shots - used what was called battleship lino. Very hard wearing. But you need a perfectly level substrate too.

But the poly plus chipboard sounds the perfect way - although plywood would be even stronger. Or chipboard plus some end of range engineered oak or similar on top?

richardpope50 · Post by **richardpope50** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 6:31 pm

Many thanks for all your suggestions and I've been pondering it all. My current decision ....

- I did consider ceramic tiles but they are not cheap and 50m2 is a lot of laying.
- Paint - No as it really is not tough enough and I don't want to keep on re-doing it.
- Epoxy paint - same
- Two pack epoxy paint - seems it's just a different way of the same so no.
- Resin flooring - Most of this is only 1mm thick and expensive. You need a smooth surface so that my floor needs grinding down first. In the end I got a quote for 1mm thick professionally laid at about £1,500. 5mm thick professionally laid at a whopping £4,500 and even 3mm DIY at just over £1,200 for materials. I'm not convinced at it resisting a dropped hammer, trolley jacks, axle stands, etc, either.
- Commercial grade vinyl / PVC rolls - my floor is not totally smooth so needs the surface ground down first. It's quite expensive and some needs gluing.
- Rubber flooring from a roll - similar price as tiles and as my floor is a big area it is probably difficult to lay from heavy rolls. Can't play about with colours either(!)
- Click together honeycomb tiles - not strong enough for trolley jacks, axle stands, etc
- Click together higher / commercial grade tiles - They come in 5mm, 7mm and one at 15mm thick tiles. I have been told by several companies that they (7mm grade) are fine for trolley jacks, axle stands, etc, and will recover from dents unless point loaded for 6+ weeks so that's OK with me. Costs are around £1,600 - £1,800 and loads of colours and textures. Bearing in mind I have a large 7m x 7m garage it seems that's not a bad price. That's my choice.

Thanks again for all the feedback - blue + grey and a touch of yellow it looks like being.

richardpope50 · Post by **richardpope50** » Thu Nov 26, 2015 9:46 am

Last night I had decided but woke up in the middle of the night and realised that as I do welding, almost all the floor coverings will melt and if a red hot piece of metal falls off the bench ....

I'm just wondering if I now have to put up with paint as it kind of worked over the last 20 years.

Yours, in a quandary!

stevieturbo · Post by **stevieturbo** » Thu Nov 26, 2015 12:46 pm

Get suitable welding blankets etc for when you are welding. Or floor that area of the garage with say some chequered alloy sheet ?

richardpope50 · Post by **richardpope50** » Thu Nov 26, 2015 6:24 pm

Now that's a thought. Thanks.

richardpope50 · Post by **richardpope50** » Sun Nov 29, 2015 9:54 am

(Currently!) I've pretty much decided to now paint along the 1.2m walkway strip where my bench will be against the walls (large 'L' shaped bench in one garage corner) and the rest in colourful interlocking tiles. I'll also invest in a welding blanket to protect the tiled area and indeed any car(!).

Thanks for all the interesting suggestions and advice. It's been a worthwhile exercise for me.