looking for advice on garage floor

[EnergizerBunny]

I've read a few threads and basically I'm looking for ideas from anyone for an inexpensive way to clean or paint my garage floor. I don't need it to last a long time maybe a couple of years would be good. I'm just looking for something that will give it a nice newish or clean look.

I've looked at epoxy and concrete staining but I'm really looking for something that doesn't need to last that long. However, I might consider the concrete staining if I can work it on a budget. Is there a cheaper version of concrete staining or even epoxy if I had someone do this?

If I can find a quick inexpensive way to spruce up the garage I'll try doing the work myself as I have a very limited budget. We're in the process of selling the house so I wanted to spruce up the garage to help sell. The garage is 462sf.

I'm also looking for ways to organize the garage. I've looked at slate walls but they are too expensive. I thought about doing a section of one wall with peg board. The garage does have some old cabinets on two of the walls. We've recently have the entire garage walls white washed including cabinets.

Any ideas or suggestions please let me know. I'm pretty open to ideas.

[mrgoochio]

Why don't you tile the floor like a lot of workshops do? Depending if a finished garage is important, you'll most likely have to spend some money here. In my opinion, a finished garage is only a bonus, but not required.

[Morris9982]

If it was me, I would hold off on doing a "cheap" paint job on your floor. If you did this and it started peeling or lifting off after a couple years, it may look worse than it does now. And it would make putting down a good finish that much harder.

RustOleum makes a kit for epoxy painting garage floors. As always, cleaning the floor is the key for good adhesion and making it last. The kits are available at hardware stores. I think you would need two kits.

I had my garage floor finished with epoxy by a company that does it professionally. The worst part was that everything had to be out of the garage for about seven or eight days as they worked. It had to sit three days after the final coat before I could put stuff back in the garage.

The least expensive/easiest way I have seen to clean up the floor is to use a rubber mat. You can buy them in various colors and textures. Basically you empty your garage and roll them out like a rug. Down side is just that they are heavy and you would need some help unrolling and positioning them. For your size garage, the mats would probably be $600-800 or so.

The least expensive option would be to just give the concrete a good cleaning and not worry about it until you had the money to do what you really wanted. I used cleaners and stain removers from Griot's Garage before I had the epoxy floor installed. They did a good job of removing oil stains the previous owner had left for me.

In regards to organization, there are all kinds of options from metal storage cabinets on down. For me, I wanted open shelves so I did not have to worry about keeping space to open the doors. I bought several of those plastic shelf units you assemble yourself that are about 18" x 36" and about 5' tall. The legs are PVC pipes and they are very easy to assemble and move. They don't rust either. I think I paid about $40 each.

I also have put a lot of those shelves that use the strip mounted on the walls and adjustable shelf holders. I like these because you can adjust the shelves to the height you want and everything is out in the open.

The best suggestion I can offer is to get an idea what you want to store, how you want to store it, and how much you want to spend before you start buying things.

[EnergizerBunny]

Thanks Morris9982. You've given me a few things to think about, I appreciate the thorough input. Looks like I may just have to bite the bullet on this one.

I like the idea of new tile that mrgoochio suggested, thanks mrgoochio. Although it would be a costly option. Seems like it'll be difficult if not down right impossible to keep price down.

A couple of other things I've recently looked at is liquid stainless steel. Has anyone tried this stuff. I thought about doing this on the garage cabinets to make 'em look decent. I'll probably test it on an old board first and see how it really comes out.

One more option I just looked up today is a tile/grout cleaning system called SaniGlaze. Anyone had this done before? It sounds like this could be just what will get the house sold quickly and for a good price. Don't know if they can do this on concrete I think so but waiting to hear back from them. I'll probably have them come out and give me an estimate and see where that goes.

Wish me luck as I tackle garage fever. Thanks again for suggestions I have a point to start and more thinking to do. Either way this is going to make the garage's new owner a very happy camper. Hopefully very soon.

[twitch]

Have you ever visited The Garage Journal You might come across some good ideas there.

Although since plans are to sell the house, personally I wouldn't put much effort/money into it. I would think that getting it as clean as possible would be best.

I say this from the buyer standpoint as well. What if the interested buyer wants to use the space for a full on workshop area and you have a rubber mat or plastic tile installed? That's not going to mix well if he wants to weld in the garage so most likely he'll rip it out. You've wasted your time and money.

I thought about doing the epoxy such as the Rustoleum kit bought at Home Depot and decided against it. I found out that the floor should be grinded down first if tire dressing was ever in contact with it so I scratched the idea. Not only messy but it would have been very time consuming.

Spend your time on gargejournal to get some awesome ideas for the new garage

[EnergizerBunny]

Originally Posted by twitch

Have you ever visited The Garage Journal You might come across some good ideas there.

Although since plans are to sell the house, personally I wouldn't put much effort/money into it. I would think that getting it as clean as possible would be best.

I say this from the buyer standpoint as well. What if the interested buyer wants to use the space for a full on workshop area and you have a rubber mat or plastic tile installed? That's not going to mix well if he wants to weld in the garage so most likely he'll rip it out. You've wasted your time and money.

I thought about doing the epoxy such as the Rustoleum kit bought at Home Depot and decided against it. I found out that the floor should be grinded down first if tire dressing was ever in contact with it so I scratched the idea. Not only messy but it would have been very time consuming.

Spend your time on gargejournal to get some awesome ideas for the new garage

Awesome. Thanks twitch. I'll be looking at The Garage Journal.

Anyone ever heard of Xtrabrite light bulbs? Just wondering if these are worth the money to put in a dim garage to brighten it up among other things.

[Paladin]

Any one with experience using "pebble paving"-type finish? (small pebbles in epoxy resin, applied directly to concrete). Durability? Cost? Thx!

[cajunfirehawk]

Originally Posted by Paladin

Any one with experience using "pebble paving"-type finish? (small pebbles in epoxy resin, applied directly to concrete). Durability? Cost? Thx!

Sounds painful on the knees and hands when you have to get low? Cant cement finishers do the same thing with a washed effect just before your cement is dry, just lightly rinse off the top of the mortar revealing the pebbles? IE Washed finish..?

[Paladin]

Used fairly frequently for interior/exterior existing concrete surfacing here - you may have seen it around pools. The "pebbles" are actually very small (aquarium gravel size), smooth, and just provide some traction to the finish. They're imbedded in an epoxy matrix that is supposedly durable - 1/2-3/4"; just haven't seen any reports on "wearability" or utility for garage surfacing. Supposedly have an advantage if the slab develops cracks, because the finish is easy to resurface/repair.