Out of all your DIY at home organizing projects, organizing and/or renovating your garage has probably been on your to-do list for the longest.
Don‘t feel bad; this is usually the part of the home that is left undone for most homeowners due to the incredibly daunting nature of the task. But the good news is, once you conquer it, you’ll have successfully transformed an area that is often left as a messy black hole of accumulated clutter – into a highly useful, efficient space that can serve many purposes at once.
A well-organized garage can be the best place to store tools, equipment, paint, cleaning gear, and more. If you don’t have the budget to pay a company to come in and renovate your garage space professionally, don’t get discouraged.
Anyone who is familiar with DIY projects at home knows they can get their garage into shape just as well, if not better, than professional remodeling contractors. The goal for the DIY at-home garage renovation is to make it a space that is first of all: great looking; second of all: durable; and third: easy to clean and maintain. All these aspects fall, primarily, on the flooring and how well it’s executed. Here are some easy, DIY garage flooring options to get you started on your garage renovation project:
Interlocking Tiles
Interlocking garage floor tiles are one of the simplest ways to redo your garage flooring. They can protect your bare concrete flooring from oil and chemical spills in the garage as well as give it a uniformly neat look. They are DIY friendly as all it takes is properly cleaning your garage flooring, ensuring that you are not laying the tiles over any moisture and then placing the interlocking tiles.
If you have any uneven aspects to the square footage of the floor space, such as a support beam or pole that goes into the floor in the middle of the space; or jutting edges to the walls, you will need to cut down the tiles to make them fit flush to the room.
Other than that, the interlocking edges make this a simple, straightforward installation that will provide resistance to spills, as mentioned before, and will even help prevent leg fatigue from standing in the garage for extended periods of time. They will also provide a measure of safety against slipping, thanks to the friction the tiles feature. If a single tile becomes damaged, it is simple to replace. If purchased from a credible, trusted garage flooring company, the flooring should also come with a strong warranty.
Epoxy Paint
If you’re looking for a super tough garage flooring option that can resist chemicals, oil spills, gasoline, cracks, and environmental factors tracked in from boots and tires like snow, dirt, and rain, epoxy floor paint delivers. Except it should be an epoxy garage floor coating, not a paint.
It is also visually stunning. Epoxy paint comes in a seemingly endless array of colors and designs. Water-based epoxies are fairly simple to apply. Water based products are cheap and tend to fail. We suggest high-solids to 100% solids epoxy floors.
This, however, is a multi-step process that is more complex than interlocking rubber tiles. The cleaning of the garage flooring is essential to the epoxy paint’s success with binding and sealing.
It should be clear of any oil or grease or moisture; it should also have a completely even surface prior to application, so you may need to etch the floor or fill in holes and cracks. The next step is to seal the floor with a special primer intended for concrete. Epoxy garage floor paint coatings need to be pre-mixed – the base product with the hardener before being applied. Some epoxy paint products have been pre-mixed and can be used straight from the can.
Other Coating Options
In addition to epoxy paint and epoxy coatings, some other DIY garage flooring options include Polyura coatings (our favorite), concrete densifier, which can be used if you’re not looking to mask the look of concrete in your garage – simply seal and protect it; and acrylic sealers. Acrylic sealers can be used over bare concrete or stained concrete. They offer a level of gloss that looks great as well as protects and acts as water repellents.
Garage Floor Mats
For those looking for easy, one-day installation, garage floor mats might be the best bet. They can provide wall to wall coverage, which is best for a completely revamped garage look. There are a wide variety of garage floor mats – from those that protect against the typical foot traffic a garage takes on to those that are tough enough to resist dirt, snow, moisture, oil spills, and chemicals. There are a variety of looks, too – from soft garage floor mats that are meant to be absorbent to diamond deck mats that have a diamond pattern, carpet mats and more. Most mats require light floor prep beforehand and a simple roll out for application. Like with tiles, if there are support beams or columns or uneven wall edges, some custom cutting might be required to make the mat fit flush to the room.
