I figure this is MINI related since you can't own a mini without working on them... I'm moving to a new house and trying to decide what I want to do with the garage floor. I was initially thinking epoxy coating, but now I'm kind of liking the idea of rubber/plastic floor tiles. Anybody have any experience with either of those?

 

Interested in this response also. My garage floor needs to be refinished...

 

I looked at this recently. If it's a DIY job it changes the equation on the ease and pricing of the project. Tiles look to be a lot easier to install with a high cost of materials. Epoxy was expensive to have someone else do the job. In the end I did nothing as I can't DIY at this stage in life. I did paint concrete floors as a DIY long ago before epoxy was a thing and while tedious it looked good. If you work on your cars I think tiles are better as you can replace some if you damage them.

 

I recently went the Epoxy way on my garage floor, it took a weekend (clean floors, epoxy, dry) but I am so happy with the results. It looks amazing, is easy to clean up and nice to walk on. Even my wife is happy. I just went and purchased the materials at Home Depot to get the Epoxy "paint" and the Blue Chips for color. I have a standard size two car garage and got the Double pack size. Two lessons learned: 1) Don't skimp when starting off painting thinking you will run out, you wont. 2) the rubber roller that comes with the kit is cheap and wore out quickly. You may need an extra _or_ I just did too much spreading to get the perfect cover and smoothness.

not a close up of the floor but best i have with me

 

On this topic, my garage floor has some small surface 'chunks' out of it due to something the builder did during construction. What is the secret to repairing them so that the paint job would look good?

 

epoxy is the only way to go assuming you have a decent base to work with. I paid extra and got the lifetime level package from a reputable local company thats been around for a very long time and any issues will be repaired without hassle should the need arise.

i put down plastic locking tiles (Race deck) in my gun room and every step I take makes a different noise. Went down easy though for what its worth

 

Though they look good, interlocking tiles are expensive and liquids can get in the cracks. Epoxy looks good, has many colors and cleans easily, plus it's not difficult to DIY.

 

I laid down this stuff from lowes and it works pretty nice, you can even roll a jack on it. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Perfection-...r-Tile/3693118 They have different colors.

 

I have also seen full sized vinyl or rubber matts that you just unroll on the floor, eliminating the joints found on the tiles. They can be pulled out into the driveway to be hosed/cleaned. Don't know how they respond to a the pressure of a jack.

 

Thought about do that and went with the squares so i could make checkered pattern. Its holds up well and you can run a jack on it unlike some of the softer stuff and high coin edge material. When you put a floor jack on it, you get a little mark that goes away in a day or two, piece of wood fixes that. Also i have one piece that i dropped and cut it, i can just yank it out and replace with a new square, i bought extra.

 

I can recommend Race Deck. Pricing was fair and it still looks brand new after five years. Design choices are endless.

 

Nice looking garages. The "Garage Journal" forums were the place to ask, last I heard. Be careful, it's an easy site to kill an afternoon on.

 

For epoxy what brand are people using?

 

I was looking at epoxy, racedeck, and others. My floors were beat up pretty bad from years of the former owners. If you have a smooth and pretty clean concrete epoxy looks cool. If they are kind of beat up and not really smooth the cover up matts from lowes, racedeck or swisstrax looks good. racedeck and swiss trax raise the floor level up and water goes under and down in the groves for the free flow, you can get the circle design like stuff also from RD like i got from lowes. Water goes over the top.

My garage for 2 MINIs.



I looked at expoxy seal and others and the prices do go way up for custom stuff. Some looks like marble. Good luck on the search.

 

That faux marble look is wild and probably wildly expensive as well. Also imagine sliding all over the place with that gloss.

Polyurea seems to be the new kid in town instead of epoxy. Lots of choice, head spinning from reading about all the methods and vendors.

 

Yep it is, looks cool but way out of my price range. I did everything myself so that saved a bunch. Rubber mallet and a razor knife. Good luck on the search.

 

This is what I do for a living so I can share some insight:

Epoxy pro's: last forever and stays looking the same and unlimited design
Caution: surface prep is key! MUST grind or shot blast the surface prior to installation.

​https://usa.sika.com/en/construction...BoCHKwQAvD_BwE

Rubber flooring: great if you use the space for a gym also
Bad: when you turn the wheels it can damage the flooring. Hot summer tires stick to it and can ruin the finish. Oil can become problematic!
www.regupol.us

Race deck. I have little to no affiliation with but from my understanding its fine and a lot of design potential. My buddy sells the stuff (link below)

Don't drop a screw if the race deck if yours has holes in it..

https://garageasylum.com/?fbclid=IwA...jU2iqpNTsCsovU


My website and contact if you ever want to ask questions please feel free.
Josh
206.930.2128
Www.iCMaterial.com

 

I just installed Swisstrax Ribtrax Smooth tiles. It worked out great. They were running a sale with free shipping over Memorial Day. It took about 10 days total from ordering to delivery. UPS dropped off 14 boxes of tiles and it took me about 6 hours to do our two car garage. I did a fair amount of up front work measuring and doing layouts to balance the design side to side and front to back (complicated by the fact that our garage isn't rectangular it also has some storage off on one side so there are actually 7 walls). So far I'm really pleased with the product and the ease of installation.

In hindsight, i wish we had an epoxy floor put in before we moved into the home when the garage was totally empty. Given we now have a few cabinets and other stuff in the garage, I see an advantage to a product like Swisstrax in that I can move that stuff around as the floor goes in without needing to totally clear out the garage and find an alternative storage location while the epoxy floor goes in.

 

I did Swisstrax as well, looked into Epoxy and everything else, seems like Swisstrax is the most durable option on the market.

 

I'm blown away by how much these plastic interlocking floor tiles cost. I can see why epoxy and other floor coatings cost as much as they do. Lots of prep and labor, but mass produced plastic bits I don't get.

 

I think the same thing every time I buy a Lego set for my son.