InTheAir

Well, a few weeks ago I finally started finishing up my three car garage. It originally came from the builder with drywall and mud. The floor was never that "blemish-free", thanks to painters spilling paint during construction, a few oil leaks here and there, spilled fluids, etc.

I investigated getting it professionally epoxied, but at close to $3.00 per square foot it was more than I wanted to spend on a 640 square foot garage. With so many horror stories and personally seeing the results of DIY epoxy systems, I decided to opt out of epoxy's. The Racedeck tiles are great, but are equally expensive.

So, I decided to go with the BLT Garage Flooring Mat System (http://www.bltllc.com/g-floor_main.htm). These mats come in a number of patterns--we decided on the new diamond pattern, which is similar to the metal diamond plate pattern on many tool chests--and are easy to install. Unfortunately, many of the stock sizes require three mats to be used in a three car garage. Thankfully, there are a few resellers that accept custom length orders. We decided to get (2) 10 x 33 ft mats to fit in our 20 x 32 ft garage. It took about 4 weeks to get the mats, which were delivered on a semi-truck in as two 275lb rolls. This arrangement cost a little over $2 per square foot.

After placing the order and waiting on delivery, I rented an airless sprayer from Home Depot and ended up spraying 10 gallons worth of primer and 5 gallons worth of paint on the walls, reorganized the garage, and installed a few shelves and a cabinet.

Once the mats arrived, it didn't take too much time to lay them out, cut them to shape, and bring everything back in the garage.

I also installed flourescent overhead lighting. I used two 4 bulb 4-foot units with cold weather ballasts. The cold weather ballasts ensure that the lights will light even when it gets cold this winter. However, .....

In the coming weeks, I plan on installing a natural gas 30,000 BTU heater (http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...9783&langId=-1) and a couple more pictures on the walls. This should keep the garage at about 50 degrees or more during the winter to allow for some winter detailing and maintenance.

I'm pretty happy with the results. It certainly isn't one of those incredible garages that I've seen on the web, but it is a good compromise and should resist all fluid spills, dirt, and grime.

Here are a few before and afters (to see the entire gallery http://www.pbase.com/jlsphoto/garage_before_after):

cesar

That looks great! I think I'm going to go with this instead of the DIY epoxy.

What horror stories have you heard or seen about the epoxy?

Phil

Good Job.

Very nice.

chris walrod

Awesome! I am envious!!

Bruce SEA 993

Hey InTheAir,

Looks great! I have been working on my garage as well and have gone through the same thought process with the floor covering. I have been leaning towards the BLT roll out too. My floor has moisture seeping up through it so epoxy is out. So, does the vinyl creep as you drive on it? Also, what weight or thickness did you go with and how do you like it?

Thanks

gordo993

Excellent Post!!!!

I too am working on my "Garage-ma-hall". I've got it fully insulated (exterior walls, insulated doors, and blown in in the attic). Now, I need to drywall, mud & tape, paint, and finish the floor.

Did you glue the flooring down or is it removeable?

Do those light fixtures provide enough light?

Thanks for the info!!

Air Kuul TT

Jeff,

The floor looks great. Thanks for the idea on these mats. I was thinking about installing "race deck" tiles but I think they're closer to $3.00+ per sq.ft. Good Job!

c993k

It looks great, nice and clean. But you gotta move all that lawn stuff to the other end of the garage.
I would be too worried something might scratch the car.
Great Job! Chris

InTheAir

Thanks, cesar.

I've seen and heard stories of DIY epoxy being pulled up by the vehicle tires--essentially, when the vehicle is parked it hot tires. The heat melts the epoxy partially and pulls up a patch when the vehicle pulls back out. Once the epoxy fails, there really isn't any way to fix it. That being said, the DIY epoxy is ~very~ dependent on surface preparation. My floor was pretty bad and would take quite a bit of work to etch, etc.

InTheAir

Bruce -

The mat doesn't really creep under normal use (i.e. turning the wheels while the vehicle is in motion; however, if the vehicle is parked and the steering wheel is moved back and forth, some material can get moved and pucker next to the tire. The material will lay flat again if the vehicle is pulled out.

The mat itself doesn't move. Each mat is about 275 lbs (in my case), has contact with the floor over a 10 ft by 32 ft area, has things placed on top of it (i.e. shelves, snowblower, cars, etc.), so it would take a lot of force to physically move the entire mat.

I bought the commercial grade, which is 75 mils (about 1/8th inch).

PROS:
I like the instant "clean" look.
It's nice to work on and easy to keep clean.
It resists the typical fluids (brake, oil, etc.) -- in fact, I found a few drips of brake fluid from a recent change that sat on the mat for over a week and I just wiped it up.
Cool diamond pattern.
Trimmable to fit with a razor blade
Removable when you move.
Does not require glue, tape, etc.
NOT SLIPPERY.

CONS:
It can be heavy to move around, although one person can roll it into position.
There are a few small bumps that will eventually lay flat.
The seam is a bit more conspicous than I would like.

InTheAir

Thanks, Gordo.

No, I did not glue it down. At most they say you can use the indoor/outdoor carpet adhesive tape, but you don't have to (I didn't). I ~may~ put down a strip of tape along the one seam to help it lay a bit more flat, but we'll see.

The mats ~are~ removeable, so we can take them with us when we move. Although, I have custom cut some areas to get a nice fit in the corners or under the stairs.

The lights are a huge improvement over two incandescent bulbs!! However, you can never have enough light. I'm considering putting in two more units on the ceiling and maybe one unit on the far vertical wall next to the 993 to help for detailing.

The lights are incredibly easy to install and are well worth it. But make sure you get the cold weather ballasts or you may have NO light if the garage gets too cold.

InTheAir

Yeah, I thought about moving things also, but the p-car is the shortest of our cars -- mom mobile Freestyle, EB Explorer, and the bat mobile. In a week or so, the bat mobile will begin hibernating and some of those implements will be moved.

shaynes

I did Race Deck in my main residence garage floor and that worked cool, you can get a great deal on it at www.costco.com , but they call it something else, but it is Race Deck..

Great looking Garage Jeff.

denver88carrera

That mat really does look easy, I'll be very interested to hear what you think about it with time. I had a great experience with epoxy, but it was a LOT of work.

For what it's worth, someone was nice enough to post a write up I did about five years ago to the Rennlist technical area. It may be worth reading for those deciding between epoxy and other options.http://tech.rennlist.com/911/pdf/Adv...kevinshall.PDF

I left that house this past summer, but I am happy to report that my experience with the floor during the intervening years was 100% positive. During that time I had absolutely no hot tire lift problems. In fact, the only surface failure I had was a quarter-sized area which had been heavily oil or wax impregnated before I put the epoxy down. The only other degradation I saw over time was a slight dulling/fading near the entrance to the door from exposure to Florida sun and a few lightened circles where drops of brake fluid had fallen unnoticed and sat overnight or longer.

Despite not using sand or sprinkles to enhance the texture, I never had problems with the surface being slippery when wet. That said, one of my favorite things was that the surface was smooth enough that I no longer needed a creeper--instead I was able to effortlessly (and cleanly) slide around under the car on my back. Further, the shiny surface did an excellent job of reflecting light, greatly brightening my garage and making under-car work easier.

Perhaps time has dulled my memory of how little fun that project was, but unless another product (such as this mat) makes a strong case, I will put epoxy down again.

Kevin

trojanman

Hey Jeff... very nicely done.

Your "befores" look a hell of a lot better than my "current".