Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

Ron wanted some information on my experience on garage floors so I thought I would start a new thread and everyone could contribute their experience and maybe we will find the right solution to old ugly failing concrete floors.

Snap together floor. Many of you have seen my detached garage/shop. I have a plastic snap together floor installed. My concrete was prematurely failing ruling out patching or painting so I needed a solution to cover it. I looked at rubber mats and similar solutions and settled on the snap together. There are many manufacturers of this type of product, many are from over sees. I got several samples and most were very thin, about 1/4" and very poor backing support. Race Deck has a great product but were pretty high priced. I found a source, BigFloors.com. It appears that they are a company that discounts discontinued items from Race Deck at a fraction of the cost and includes shipping costs.  They have numerous tile designs (diamond plate, circles, etc.) and on their website you can create whatever design you want and they tell you how many tiles of each color are needed. It took me less than an hour to put together a 20x24 floor for under $800. They suggested I put the foam we normally see under floating hardwood floors to prevent the tiles from hitting the concrete and cause a clicking noise which I did. The floor is free floating and can be removed for whatever reason. If you damage a tile you can order a replacement.

Good news: Easy to install and maintain and it looks great.

Bad news: I would not put this type of floor in a Minnesota garage that gets used all winter as the moisture is going to drip between the tiles and you will have a moisture and probably mold issue. When I was changing out a power steering pump a line got away from me and I dumped a bunch of fluid on the floor before I could grab the hose. The fluid did leak between the tiles but it is easy to remove tiles for cleaning.  I zipped some out, hit them with a hose and soapy water and snapped it back together.

Epoxy/Polyurea type floor. The floor in my attached garage was 25 years old and in need of help. I have always liked the epoxy type look so I went on a search for a good product. I read post after post of horror stories of epoxy floors failing and peeling from hot tires and other issues. Most garage floor companies want $2500 and up to install a floor which was not in the budget. I found a product that was then distributed by Rock Solid out of North St. Paul which was a Polyurea  coating. It came with all kinds of guarantees, yeah right, but I bit and went with it. They have a crack filler that was excellent. Apply with a putty knife, quick drying and could be immediately painted. You have to clean and etch the concrete in preparation for coating. The coating is a two part process, apply a base coat with a roller and 4-6 hours later when you can just walk on the surface without leaving footprints yo apply the second coat which is the color coat. When you are rolling on the color coat you sprinkle in color vinyl chips t make it look pretty. I have found the more chips the more durable and the less dirt shows. You can drive on the finished product in 12 hours if I recall. I believe the product is still marketed under the name Rock Solid but they were bout out last year by Rustoleum.

Good news: The process to install is not that tough, just time consuming. I found it harder to empty the floor totally of all my crap than to apply the product. This is summer three and it has held up 100% and still looks good. I am starting to get some darker areas of tire tracks where we drive in and out every day but I think this is where the additional chips would help hide those tracks.

Bad news: I installed the floor and about a month later it started to turn green near the overhead door. I called Rock Solid and their response was.....well, do you leave your garage door open? I said yes, by the way I do when I am home. The product was not UV safe. They told me they had a new product that was UV safe and although I would have to sand off the old top coat they would send me a new base coat, top coat and chips. Here we go emptying the garage again. I applied it per instructions. I have left my door open as usual and no issue. I would definitely use the product again or search for a similar and not do Epoxy due to horror stories. I suspect at least a 10 year life from this product if not more. I think for a 24x28 floor it cost me about $900. Although the Polyurea and others are marketed as epoxy they are a different product. Rock Solid says the floor is safe for floor jacks and industrial applications it does scratch some but not a big issue that I have found yet.