Jamie140

I really need to do something. Two years ago, it was race deck. But unsure how it holds up to wet, dirt, etc. Especially melting snow and crap getting underneath.

Then, last spring I got hot on doing epoxy but the surface seems so rough, I thought it would be an impossible to keep clean dirt magnet.

Who has done what, with whom in the GTA?

Thanks guys.

pongobaz

Yeah, i'm curious too. I keep thinking that the race deck (or similar) system might be better to channel the water and snow away and keep it from freezing under foot. Jamie, I saw some kind of race deck system at CT...do you know if it's any good? How does it compare to the original brand?

Sputter

Hi Jamie, I used the rustoleum epoxy near the end of last summer, i even used the "flakes" that came with it. I liked the look. I dunno about being a dirt magnet but it doesn't hide it either lol. I just hose it off. Neither vehicle leaks so I can't speak for that.
The Boxster sits on one side and the wifes suv parks on the otherside driping slush/salt/sand etc all winter. I'm hoping to get at her side today and clean the floor to see what kind of damage (if any) all that crud did over the winter.

I've read lots of stories that say it just doesn't hold up, i'll see soon enough.
It is nicer to sit on than bare concrete.

Bob Rouleau

I also used rustoleum epoxy. Had stood up to salt, oil, wd-40, gasoline spills and best of all sticky hot R compound tires. I think the secret is in the preparation. I did two coats (just in case) and I am happy after 4 years.

Jamie140

Smaller tiles and only available in battleship grey...

Jagsiva

Has anybody looked at this stuff? i have been thinking about it for a few weeks now...

http://www.costco.ca/Browse/Productgroup.aspx?Prodid=10288837&whse=BCCA&Ne=4000000&eCat=BCCA|20076|2 0238&N=4009370&Mo=15&No=14&Nr=P_CatalogName:BCCA&cat=20238&Ns=P_Price|1| |P_SignDesc1&lang=en-CA&Sp=C&topnav=

Bob D..

I epoxied my fairly rough floor 5-6 years ago.
A bit of roughness is a good thing, because epoxy is slippery when wet.
A couple of coats of epoxy sort of smooths over the really rough spots, in my case leaving a surface easy to keep clean but not glass-smooth.

Which epoxy you pick is way less important than the preparation. I happened to use an industrial product called Stone Hard.
My garage floor is about 20 years old, and it took a while to get it clean. It's clean enough when a fine spray of water doesn't bead up at all.
I borrowed a power floor cleaner from my plant, and spent the better part of two days and a lot of cleaning solution to get it where it needed to be.

It has withstood steel wheeled jacks, dropped tools, any chemical you can name, hot tires, etc. etc. It did stain in a couple of places where water under the frame for my lift caused some rust to form.

JimV8

In a week or two I'll be putting down the checkerplate vinyl I bought at Costco. It was to be warm enough outside though to allow the vinyl to lay down. It pretty thick stuff and 7.5 ft wide and I'm hoping for the best.

Zeeman28a

Here's a pretty good site you can use for more reference.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/index.php

pongobaz

Thought I'd revive this since I'm busy planing some improvements to the "man cave" to:
a) have a better place to retire to when the tampon terrorists are on the attack in the house
b) to distract myself from the political crap on both sides of the border
c) to forget that in the market meltdowns of the last few weeks, the equivalent of a 998 GT3 RS has been vaporized from my portfolios and that "freedom 55" is now more likely "freedom 95".
but I digress....
found these tiles online and it's a local place http://www.fastflor.com/photo_gallery. Anyone know or use these? Like that they have drainage and I very much like the $1.95 a sq/ft price.

JimV8

I put the vinyl sheet down and it looks pretty good. It does expand quite a bit in the heat and that results in a buckle at the middle seam. Now that its cooling down its laying flat and I'm quite happy with it. Cost was less than $400 for a two car garage.

Christien

Holy ****. Am I ever glad I have precisely $0.00 in the markets.

Jim's garage floor looks really nice, and a good price too.

TurboS

X2, except for Jim's garage floor.

pongobaz

Not loosing sleep over it since it's only a loss when you sell. I've been in the markets for 15+ years and always think long term. Looking over things today, some of my stuff was actually up yesterday (gold stocks mostly); keeping it diversified is the key and not putting everything in the market is VERY important. Markets are only one investment vehicle. It would be nice if everything went up all the time, but even in a good market some sectors go down. In the end you have to look at your net worth and see if it's improved to your satisfaction over the years. I'm happy with those numbers vs 15 years ago.
But back to really important stuff: what about those garage tiles? I'm thinking I should go for it. I think it would be better for my space than the roll out stuff since it would prevent melted snow from pooling on the surface. Thoughts?

The Stig

Phil - I like your logic - about the flooring - forget about the market - I can't even bring myself to look at my portfolio.

There are some interesting threads in the Garage Journal forum about flooring as Zeeman mentioned. I've looked at RaceDeck and some other products. Some have opted for ceramic tile and the old epoxy standby. But I don't think the longevity is there with that stuff. Or there is too much maintenance for my lazy ***. The biggest issue (for me) is price. I can't chin myself up to $4 or $5 per sq/ft. Its also tricky to find CAD distributors for some of the more popular US products.

I did notice that there is no mention of a product warranty. But what can you expect for $2 per sq. I think this Fast Flor is the way to go. I'll be pricing this out for the new house. I would buy a few extra square feet of tiles just in case some break or stain. Thanks for posting the link.

Cliff