If you want to make sure that the floor in your garage will resist grease, acid, and oil, you’ll need to use a good finishing compound. This is what you would call garage floor finishes that help maintain your concrete garage floor for years, sometimes decades. The purpose of these compounds is to protect your floor from any and all liquids that will hit it over the years. Without some sort of finish applied early in its life, your concrete will definitely end up stained and unattractive.

Epoxy Garage Floor Paint Is One Of The More Popular Finishes

One of the most commonly used compounds for this purpose is epoxy garage floor paint. An epoxy garage floor coating will keep your garage flooring looking great for quite a while. There are other garage floor finishes available, but if you want the best in protection, you’ll definitely want to go with one of the many epoxy garage floor coatings available on the market.

Are Garage Floor Finishes Easy To Install?

Unfortunately, these particular garage floor finishes can be a bit difficult to apply. Mixing alone can be a big job, and brushing it evenly across entire garage floors can be quite tiring. There are lots of tips and tricks that the professionals know that will help the operation go smoothly, and keep problems from cropping up in the future. At times, it simply makes more sense to have a professional apply your finish, especially if it’s an epoxy coating.

Are Modern Garage Floor Finishes Easier Than Older Ones?

It has become much simpler for the average homeowner to to apply garage floor finishes to their own garage in more recent years. Applications of these compounds have become easier and simpler due to the newer compounds which were created specifically for homeowners to install with no help. Although technological advancement certainly has played a part, increased competition from garage floor coverings like tiles and mats, which are simpler to apply, have also spurred innovation.

There Is Still Lots Of Work To Be Done

No matter how you cut it, though, applying epoxy paint is still somewhat difficult. The floor has to be extremely clean before starting, and there are time constraints involved once you begin. Make sure you consider etching as well before you apply any concrete coating. Many epoxy garage floor paint kits actually include etching fluid, and directions on its use. These etching fluids will sometimes be combine with cleaner as well.

Check out my site, Sweet Garage Flooring, for more garage floor information including everything from tiles and mats to stains and paints.

Just about every garage floor tile is either the peel and stick, or self adhesive type, or they are the interlocking type. Since many manufacturers and resellers of garage floor tiles do not make this clear, people can sometimes get confused. Let’s go over peel and stick tile, and give you a better understanding of whether or not it’s right for your garage floors.

Installing Peel And Stick Garage Floor Tile

Peel and stick garage floor tiles are simple, if not easy, to install. You simply stick them to your concrete garage floor after peeling their backings off. Before you start, though, you have to clean the floor. If you don’t, your nice new tiles will end up sticking to dust or dirt instead of concrete. Take note that, besides an epoxy garage floor coating, there is no other flooring solution that takes more cleaning. On big advantage on epoxy garage floor coatings is the ability to stop and resume the install later, just so long as the floor is re-cleaned before you start again. When it comes to cleaning and installing, be sure to read the directions for your particular tiles.

Peel And Stick Tile Is Not Terribly Expensive, But It Can Be Hard To Find

Although there are many places that you can buy this garage floor covering, peel and stick tile seems to be a bit sparse when it comes to the more traditional places to purchase flooring or home improvement supplies, such as hardware stores. They exist, but they can sometimes be hard to find, and selection may be limited. As such, prices are all over the place, and it seems there’s not particular size of garage that a set will cover. I’ve found everything from 40 square foot to 66 square foot, and prices ranging from $112 to well over $300. Be careful, before you buy, that your kit will include enough garage floor tile to at least cover your garage.

Is Peel And Stick Garage Floor Tile As Durable As Other Coverings?

There are quite a few garage floor coverings to choose from, but tile is most likely the most durable. Since they actually stick to the very solid concrete, they won’t be damaged by being rubbed around against the concrete, as garage floor mats are. Remember when you shop, though, that most of the garage floor tiles’ strength will come from their own makeup, so consider what you intend to do in your garage when you choose.

Why Peel And Stick Garage Floor Tiles May Not Be Your Best Option

Obviously, considering the “stick” part, peel and stick tiles can’t be expected to move. This means that, should you need to move your covering, you would need something like a garage floor mat. If the goal is only to cover a portion of the garage, you might want to consider something that can be moved if needed. You will end up saving money, and you might end up saving your concrete by being able to cover what needs to be covered, when it needs to be covered. As a bonus, once you do something with the whole garage floor, you’ll have a nice compartment mat to help protect the garage flooring!

Check out Sweet Garage Floor for even more great garage floor information.

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Not all epoxy garage floor coating kits are created equal and, when it comes to garage flooring, you don’t necessarily get what you pay for. When you’re diving into something that is new to you, such as garage floors, it’s easy to miss out on some features, especially when you don’t know they exist. Let’s take a look at one of the lesser known specifications pertaining to epoxy garage floor paint. Let’s examine the concept of the percentage of solids in epoxy garage floor coatings.

A Brief Explanation Of What Is Meant By “Percentage Of Solids”

Obviously all epoxy garage floor coatings start in a liquid form. Otherwise there would be no way to put it on the concrete garage floor. The term “percentage of solids” is an indication of the amount of the chemical mixture that will be solid in the end. To understand this, think about an epoxy adhesive. When you use epoxy adhesive, it’s completely solid when it dries, with no evaporation. In the case of an epoxy garage floor coating, though, this might not work this way.

Finding The Percentage Of Solids

Like most companies, the manufacturers of epoxy garage floor coatings tend to leave out any specifications that their product does not excel in. This makes it harder for the consumer to know if he is getting the appropriate product. In general, those epoxy garage floor coatings that are not 100% solid won’t tell you in so many words. Instead, they will be referred to as water, or acrylic based. Of course, any epoxy garage floor paint that is 100% solids will generally advertise it quite proudly.

Deciding If You Need A 100% Solid Epoxy Garage Floor Coating

In reality, you probably don’t. Most people will likely be satisfied using water based garage floor finishes without ever really noticing a difference, particularly if they’re using a garage floor covering over the paint any time they’re working. However, if you being comparing the prices of 100% solid epoxies to watered down paints, you’ll see that there really isn’t much money to be saved in the thinner paint. In fact, there are even some 100% solid epoxy garage floor coatings which are cheaper than those that are water based. So, I guess it comes down to this: is it okay to spend an equal amount of cash on a product that is watered down?

Why Every Epoxy Garage Floor Coating Is Not 100% Solid

I’m assuming that the main reason has to do with their profit margins. Most successful companies get there by maintaining a good reputation while making a product that costs as little as possible, and selling it for far more than it took to make it. So, in this case, they water the product down just enough to save money, but not enough to sacrifice their reputation. Should we all boycott acrylic and water based paints? You have to make a personal choice on this one. Do you buy based off of reputation, or the promise of a better product? I guess you just have to, when shopping for epoxy garage floor coatings, decide which type of consumer you’d rather be.

Check out Sweet Garage Flooring for more information to help you choose your garage floor.

So many homes are now built with something called a tandem garage. It is a great concept but it doesn’t really work for most people. A tandem garage is one that parks one car ahead of the other instead of side by side. The problem is that whenever you want to use the front car, you have to move the other to get it out. This has led to many tandem garages having extra space as homeowners choose to park only one car in them. With that extra room, homeowners need to come up with tandem garage ideas to figure out how to effectively use the extra space.

That extra space doesn’t have to go to waste, you just need to come up with some ideas for putting it to good use! A lot of men like the idea of having a hobby shop for all of their “toys”, and what a better location than their own garage. Since most women could care less about hanging out in the garage or what goes on out there, it makes a great place for the guys to hang out. Extra space in a garage can also be turned into a useful place such as an office or a workshop.

The garage lighting ideas you choose from should depend on what you are using your garage for. If you are going to use it (or part of it) for a workshop, you need bright lights that illuminate your workspace well. If you are going to be around tools you need to make sure you can see everything clearly. Safety always comes first and lighting is an important factor.

Sometimes a garage can be an excellent choice for a game room, so if you decide to go in that direction, you can go with lighting that is a little subtler. Normally, a garage doesn’t have any or at least very little natural light from the outside, so to get adequate lighting you will have to rely on artificial light. A plus to using an artificial source is that you can choose the amount of brightness that’s right for you and the space that you’ll be using it for.

Using the extra garage space for storage is another alternative. Adding some garage cabinets is something that many individuals decide will make use of the wall space in the garage. Practicality is the main purpose for these cabinets, so they needn’t be made for show. Your neighborhood home improvement store is one place to purchase your cabinets or you may also find them online. Freestanding shelves are another less expensive alternative to cabinets, and then you don’t have to go through the trouble of installation.

Are you trying to find ideas for that extra garage space? If so, please visit my website Cool Garage Ideas where you will find lots of different things you can do with your garage such as garage cabinet ideas.

I’ve written quite a few articles pertaining to garage floor coatings and coverings, but many people, I know, really don’t have much money to spend on things like that. Those of us without money, though, are the ones that are likely to be changing our own oil, which is a very easy way to stain garage floors. Some car manufacturers aren’t exactly helpful, either; I can think of a certain Subaru that I once had on which there was a plastic cover over the oil pan that was near impossible to get off without removing the front bumper cover. Of course, they included a space for the drain bolt, which made it really easy to get the bolt off, but the oil would never actually drain through that little hole, instead spraying the flooring with a nice, thick coat of used motor oil. You can imagine the mess.

Preventing The Stains From Occurring In The First Place

Had I been smart, I probably would’ve spent the money to buy a garage floor mat for under the car, or at least a compartment mat for when I did oil changes, though I don’t know that they make compartment mats big enough for the type of spillage I encountered. Either way, I ended up with a very stained floor, which would make it quite difficult to apply any kind of garage floor paint.

Clean That Spill Up ASAP!

It does matter. Don’t just let the oil or whatever sit on the concrete garage floor. Soak it up with a rag or something, and cleaning the stain will be a lot easier. The longer it sits, the darker and bigger the stain will be. Concrete is porous, so it will absorb just about anything, but it absorbs it pretty slowly, and used motor oil is kind of thick. If you can afford it, use some sort of crystals to soak the oil up. Generally all you have to do is drop the crystals onto the stain, and they will absorb much of the oil, but not always all of it. Let it sit for the prescribed amount of time, then sweep it up and throw it away. Many people swear by kitty litter, and I’ve tried that, but even though it wasn’t the clumping variety, it still clumped, so I basically ended up with an oily mountain range on my still nasty concrete

You Can Always Try Garage Floor Stain Remover…

I’ve had, and heard of, mixed luck with garage floor stain removers. They seem to be hit or miss, and I haven’t heard of any cure-all. Even the best ones tend to leave a slightly visible blemish on the concrete, so I don’t know if that’s really worth it to you. They generally run around ten bucks for a bottle that’s meant to treat a smallish area, so if you have a big oil spill in your garage, you might need to find a bigger bottle.

If You Can’t Remove The Garage Floor Stain…

If nothing else, you can always buy a garage floor covering whenever you do get the money. These can be expensive, though. Sometimes you can use an epoxy garage floor coating once the floor is cleaned to the kit’s specifications, but you’ll have to find one that supports this. There’s also the option of just buying a set of snap-together garage floor tiles, or one of the many garage floor mats out there, and not worrying about the staining, or even future stains as both garage floor tile and mats are generally stain resistant. However, if you end up with a really big stain that just won’t go away, don’t use the peel and stick type of tiles since the sticky stuff won’t last very long placed up against oil. The stain may not want to come out at your behest, but it will have no problem eating the bottoms of garage floor paint or other garage floor coverings.

For more information on garage flooring, check out Sweet Garage Floor.

So you’ve narrowed your possible garage flooring options down to a garage floor mat or epoxy paint. Both garage floors have their pros and cons, so we’ll take a look at the ones most likely affecting your decision. Hopefully, by the time you’ve read this article, you’ll have a better understanding of exactly how the two garage floors compare. Note that, for the purposes of this article, we will be comparing epoxy paint to whole garage floor coverings, and not compartment mats. Because compartment garage floor mats are not sold in a package that can cover entire garage floors, they are not really appropriate for comparing to epoxy paint.

A Garage Floor Mat Is Easier To Install Than Epoxy Garage Floor Paint

This one is sort of obvious. A garage floor mat typically just has to be cut and placed, whereas the installation for epoxy is much more involved and tedious, requiring many hours of drying as well as various coats. Preparing your floor for epoxy is a chore as well since the garage floor must be meticulously cleaned just before applying. A mat is a mat, and it will happily rest on top of dust just as well as it would a clean floor. If you need an immediate solution that will be ready within a few hours of reading this article, a garage floor mat will certainly be your best option.

Garage Floor Mats Are Most Expensive Than Epoxy Garage Floor Coating

A garage floor mat, generally speaking, is likely to cost around $200, which is around three times how much epoxy garage floor coating costs. This difference in pricing really makes sense if you think about what you’re buying, and not just the end product. A garage floor covering gives you a pre-assembled solution while epoxy garage floor paint requires some assembly. If you have to pay someone to install your epoxy garage floor coating, though, the price will change radically since it takes hours to install, so be sure to figure that in as well if you don’t plan to install your own coating. If paying someone to install it, epoxy will almost always cost more in comparison to a garage floor mat.

Epoxy Garage Floor Paint Is More Durable Than A Garage Floor Mat

Epoxy has the undeniable advantage in longevity and durability, but it also changes things. Applying an epoxy garage floor coating changes the entire nature of the garage flooring. In comparison, a garage floor mat will just cover it. It’s unlikely but possible for either to become stained or damaged and, when that happens, swapping a mat is far simpler than repairing a paint job. Of course, you’re also out the $200 for the new mat. So before choosing, you should be asking yourself how rough you are likely to be on your garage flooring.

The Verdict?

All garage floors are a little different, so there’s no one best choice. They’re both available because people buy and use both types. The consumer must decide the best option for their situation. If money’s not a concern, you could always do both, using a compartment or even full garage mat on top of a pretty epoxy garage floor coating.

Check out my garage floor site for more garage floor mat information.

Maybe you’re buying a home to remodel, and the garage flooring isn’t in the best of shape. Or maybe you didn’t realize that a concrete garage floor could crack and come apart until it was too late, and now there’s really no way to apply paint or any other type of coating. It could even be that your garage flooded or the ground shifted, damaging the concrete in a way that could be neither foreseen or prevented. Regardless, there are many times where a garage floor covering is either desired or necessary due to a damaged floor.

Can’t I Just Fix The Concrete?

Even though there are ways you can repair damaged concrete and paint over the cracks to make it not so noticeable, these methods always run the risk of returning cracks. In most cases, whatever caused the damage to the concrete in the beginning has a good chance of causing the problem again. As a result, the best objective is to forget about garage floor paint and purchase a garage floor covering in place of the repairs. Garage floor coverings are construed as garage floor tiles or mats. Most anything that does not coat the surface of your original concrete and adds another layer. You can use both of these garage floor coverings, but the first may not work in all situations.

Garage Floor Tiles Don’t Always Work

If you plan to use tiles on a floor with only smallish cracks, you may not need to do anything with the cracks before you do. This is because tiles can grip the garage flooring all around the crack, instead. Because garage floor tile really isn’t a coating, and is actually a separate material altogether, they may actually help hold things together and prevent expansion of old cracks as well as new ones. Just like any other garage floor coverings, the point is to cover any defects so that, while they’re still there, they’re not visible. Garage floor tiles are not ideal in situations where the concrete garage floor is stained, however. If you do use tiles in this case, the stains will end up “sweating”, and dissolving the sticky stuff that holds the tiles to the ground. When this happens, the tiles will lose their grip, and the floor won’t be in any better shape than it was before.

Garage Floor Mats Work In Almost Any Case

If the garage flooring is really messed up, you may have no choice but to use a garage floor mat. Luckily, mats are just as good at repelling chemicals as anything else, and they can look darn good while doing it. Unfortunately, however, you are just putting a band-aid on the problem, and it can eventually come back to bite you. If the concrete is really breaking up, it may end up with jagged corners which will tear the garage floor covering from underneath, especially when the mat is driven upon. You may not even notice just how bad the concrete is if it degrades further while covered with a mat. Should it become damaged, though, a garage floor mat can be pulled out and replaced with very little drama. That is, of course, if you can afford to purchase another one.

Your Garage Floor Covering May Be Pre-Determined…

When it comes down to it, your choice of garage floors is pretty simple: if tiles will stick, then you can use either tiles or mats. If they won’t, for whatever reason, then you’re stuck with your choice of garage floor mats.

Check out Sweet Garage Floor for more info on garage floor coverings.

When people notice that their garage flooring is beginning to peel, their first reaction is to blame the paint. If the paint is peeling, then it’s obviously inferior paint, right? Well, no, probably not. In fact, inferior garage floor paint usually will not peel so much as wear away, crack, or dull. No, if your epoxy garage floor paint is peeling, then you probably have a moisture problem.

The Effect Of Moisture On Epoxy Garage Floor Paint

Epoxy will definitely insure the protect of your garage floor’s concrete from moisture and humidity in air, but doesn’t have any defense against moisture from under. Epoxy is made to have a seal-like ability that is able to prevent moisture from most origins from penetrating through, almost completely. For example, if oil were to drip on the garage flooring, it would not be able to penetrate through the epoxy paint, and as a result the concrete will not have absorbed it and can just be cleaned up.

Concrete Is Porous

Your concrete garage floor will also absorb things from its bottom and sides, which are buried in the ground. Luckily, even if it absorbs something other than water, you wouldn’t see the stains if they were there, being underground and all. However, water will always try to evaporate, and that’s where we run into a problem. Remember that seal that the epoxy garage floor paint created? Well, it doesn’t let water out any easier than it lets water in. As the moisture from around and under the concrete makes its way to the surface, it pops up underneath the garage floor paint. The result is bubbles and then, when there is enough water, the bubbles will burst, causing the peeling effect that those who have an epoxy garage floor so dread.

Epoxy Garage Floor Paint: Killed By Humidity?

Some issues related to your area can cause this peeling effect. Humidity, for one, can play a big role. In humid areas, everything, including the earth itself, will stay moist for quite a while after rains. This creates a large area from which the concrete will draw water. The situation is even worse if water is able to pool against the concrete in any way.

Ground Water Is No Exclusion

The amount of your local water table is able affect your garage floor coating. Put frankly, a water table means the surface of ground water. When a water table is high, ground water is near the bottom of the concrete garage floor and means that it is likely that water will soak through. Take notice if the soil in your area stays damp even when in the midst of a drought. It is likely that your water table is high.

Check out Sweet Garage Floor for more information on garage floor paint.

Anything that has anything to do with garage floor coatings is talking about epoxy. The browns and grays that you’re used to associating with garage floor paint are a thing of the past. Modern garage floor finishes are bright red or blue, among other colors, or even clear. Any time you see eye catching garage floors on television, they’re probably epoxy. Resin, acrylic, and epoxy are terms that are thrown around quite a lot when it comes to garage floor coatings, but most people don’t know what those actually are. Keep reading, though, and you’ll learn about epoxy and why it’s used in so many garage floor coatings.

Epoxy, What Is It Made Of?

You may have used “superglue” or epoxy to glue together something you would have not expected to ever have fallen apart on the whole. Now, if there was any mixing at all, then it was most likely epoxy. The reason for this is because the definition of epoxy is technically a mixture including both epoxide, where the term is derived from, and polyamine. When both of the chemicals are mixed together and then cured, the resulting compound creates a rockhard adhesive that we familiarize with epoxy. The curing phase for epoxy is varied regulated by its application or use. For garage flooring, it normally takes a few hours for the curing process of epoxy, in comparison to the adhesive epoxy, which only takes a few minutes to mix up.

Is Epoxy The Strongest Of Garage Floor Coatings?

The most durable garage flooring is generally accepted to be epoxy. The nature of the chemical mixture creates a compound that will resist everything from UV rays to rainwater, in addition to anything your car may throw at it. Since it’s hard, though, it’s not always pleasant to sit on, though it is better on your knees and back than a bare concrete garage floor.

Comparing Other Garage Floor Coverings To Epoxy

If you take a look at the various garage flooring options, you’ll see some garage floor paint is labeled as water or acrylic based. These are usually also epoxy coatings, and they may or may not be mixed a bit differently with slightly different balances than those garage floor coatings that more clearly show themselves to be epoxy based. For whatever reason, it seems that some companies want to lead consumers away from thinking their products are the same as the other guys, even if they basically are. Notice that the big guys like RustOleum and Quikrete garage floor pretty clearly say that all of their coatings are epoxy.

You Guessed It, Epoxy Is Now The New Future Of Garage Floor Coatings!

Although epoxy paint has been used for some time, it can still deflect even today’s worst, most destructive chemicals. Brake fluid, which is a good example since it is capable of dissolving clothes if left alone, can be sprayed off the epoxy coating as easily as water. There’s probably some horribly destructive chemical that will make its presence known in the cars of the future, but as of know, epoxy can deflect pretty much anything. If you can swing it, the best garage floor coating should continue to be epoxy for some time.

Check out Sweet Garage Floor for more information on garage floor coatings.

It’s not difficult at all to apply an epoxy garage floor coating, but if your body isn’t up to it, it can be a chore. The first thing you should ask yourself, if you plan to install your own epoxy is: can I bend over for hours on end? If you cannot, then plan either to have someone apply the epoxy garage floor coating for you, or maybe consider a different flooring option altogether.

Follow Directions When Applying Your Epoxy Garage Floor Coating!

If you’ve decided that you’re both willing and able to install your own epoxy garage floor coating, feel free to read the rest of this to get a summary of what you’re going to be doing when you do the install. Always remember, though, that the instructions from your kit come first, and anything found here or elsewhere should be considered only as a rough guide. Only the instructions that come with your particular epoxy garage floor coating kit can tell you the best way to install that coating. Do anything else, and you’ll probably end up with a mess for garage flooring.

Picking Your Epoxy Garage Floor Coating Kit

The first step, obviously, is deciding and picking up your epoxy garage floor coating kit. Thankfully, this is one of the few items that cannot be wrong or damaged upon arrival, so buying online is a great way to save even more money. Look for a kit that includes a DVD with instructions if you are new to these types of things. Trust me, they exist, you just have to look for them, and they’re usually not any more expensive. If you want some color, be picky. There are a bunch of options, so don’t settle, because your epoxy garage floor coating is likely going to last for decades. Although garage flooring is typically not on the grand tour, you don’t want to be embarrassed by it, either.

Preparing Your Garage For The Epoxy Garage Floor Coating

After you’ve got your kit in hand, it’s time to clean the concrete garage floor. Most epoxy garage floor coating kits can be installed over the top of an existing coat, if one exists. Again, refer to the instructions for your kit. If that’s not an option, or if your existing paint is damaged, sanding down to the concrete garage floor might be a better idea.

Laying Your Epoxy Garage Floor Coating

The instructions in most kits will begin with the mixing. After the concrete garage floor is cleaned up, mixing will likely be your next step. Follow your directions to the letter since a mistake in the mixing can foul up the whole thing. Mixing is generally not difficult, but since this is the foundation of everything else, pay very close attention. Before you start, read the whole of the instructions a few times over; you’ll be glad you did. After the epoxy is on the floor, the color flakes, should they be present and you choose to use them, will come next. They are in no way necessary, and will not help protect your floor, but they do add some color. After the specified amount of drying time, the paint itself goes down. If everything has been done right by this point, it’s just a matter of waiting for the garage floors to dry, and they’ll be all shiny and professional looking!

Check out Sweet Garage Floor for more garage floor information.