Garage floor covering/coating?

[Jeremy Harris]

I'm in the final stage of clearing all the building stuff out of the garage/workshop, ready to paint the walls and ceiling and do something with the smooth concrete floor.  The concrete was power floated, so has a pretty good smooth finish, but the garage will be used primarily as a workshop, with a couple of milling machines, a floor standing pillar drill, lathe, bandsaw, mitre saw etc, plus room for building things, like boats and motorcycles.

 

I was planning to just prime and paint the floor, but I'm now in two minds as to whether to lay rubber tiles or mats instead.  It needs to be a light'ish colour, as the lighting is predominately artificial, and without having given it much thought I was just going to apply two or three coats of Leyland floor paint (used it before and it's reasonably tough).

 

The area is around 24m² (it's just under 4m x 6m internally) and I don't want to spend a small fortune on it, as it's only a workshop.  Having said that, there are a lot of claims that standing on rubber flooring is more comfortable, and that's quite appealing as I get older!  The flip side is that I'm not sure how the rubber stuff would cope with metal swarf.  If I did opt for laying matting or some form of rubber tiles, then I'd probably just seal the concrete with PVA to keep the dust down.

 

Some of the fairly heavy tools are on castors, like the metal cutting bandsaw and the compressor, so I can wheel them out of the way when they aren't in use, and I'm not sure how well rubber tiles or matting will take rolling loads, which is another potential snag.

 

Has anyone any experience of garage/workshop flooring on a fairly tight budget, please?

Edited April 27, 2017 by JSHarris

[jack]

The castors may be an issue, I agree.

 

What about something harder/tougher than rubber, like those plastic interlocking tiles you can get? Or heavy duty vinyl roll?  Costco used to do the latter specifically for garage floors, but I can't see it on their website right now.

[PeterW]

I've got some foam tiles at about 80x80 with ramp edges if you want a couple to try as a working surface in front of a bench or a machine ..? I use them as it makes it comfortable to work for a while but I also have the floor painted under them so I can wash it down 

[RichS]

32 minutes ago, jack said:

The castors may be an issue, I agree.

 

What about something harder/tougher than rubber, like those plastic interlocking tiles you can get? Or heavy duty vinyl roll?  Costco used to do the latter specifically for garage floors, but I can't see it on their website right now.

 

I agree, those plastic interlocking tiles look the business but they cost  a bloody fortune (the ones I've looked at anyway)

Daft as this idea may sound, in my existing garage, in the end that I use for motorbikes etc, I fitted some carpet tiles that I managed to locate free from a job I did. They make it a lot more comfy underfoot and if you leak too much oil on them you simply take up the mucky ones and replace. They also sweep/hoover ok as they don,t really have any pile on them.

[Jeremy Harris]

Thanks for the ideas so far.  The interlocking tiles seem to vary a heck of a lot in price, and I'm not at all sure what the major difference is between the expensive ones and the cheap ones.

 

Whatever I fit has to be able to take some pretty hefty loads.  The pillar drill is a massive cast iron one, built around WWII I think (it originally had a big rotary switch before I added a no-volt contactor), so that puts a fair pressure on the floor.  I could possibly paint around the edges, where the fixed heavy stuff will go, then use matting or interlocking tiles in the middle bit

 

I suspect that metal swarf will get embedded in carpet tiles pretty easily, and that's also my concern with the foam tiles.  I'll have to have a look around to see if there's anything like wide, heavy duty, vinyl.  If I can get it in a 4m width, so I can have a joint free run, then that would be even better.

 

 

Edited April 27, 2017 by JSHarris

[joe90]

I have some old (BT) high voltage protection rubber mats that I have in front of my workbench and can say that standing on these is more comfortable than concrete. I don't produce a lot of swarf but the little I do seems to brush off fairly easily.

[jack]

11 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

I'll have to have a look around to see if there's anything like wide, heavy duty, vinyl.  If I can get it in a 4m width, so I can have a joint free run, then that would be even better.

 

I think 4m is a standard width.

[Jeremy Harris]

Thanks, I'm definitely veering towards mats or vinyl, despite the additional cost, just because I feel it might be worth it to be a bit more comfortable.

[Vijay]

4 hours ago, jack said:

The castors may be an issue, I agree.

 

What about something harder/tougher than rubber, like those plastic interlocking tiles you can get? Or heavy duty vinyl roll?  Costco used to do the latter specifically for garage floors, but I can't see it on their website right now.

 

Costco definitely still do the matting in store, saw it the other week.

 

Just noticed, it's discounted at the moment - http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/263ae8ed?utm_source=Promo&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=Coupons&utm_campaign=emailFY17MVM11#/263ae8ed/2

Edited April 27, 2017 by Vijay

[jack]

Thanks, that's interesting.  Even with the name they use in the ad, I still can't find it on their website (and it definitely used to be listed).

[AliG]

Edit - @Vijay beat me to it

 

Costco sell nice looking garage flooring in rolls sometimes.

 

I took this pic off their US website as they only sell it in store here

 

https://www.costco.com/NewAge-8'-x-20'-Versaroll-Garage-Flooring.product.100300491.html

 

I don't know if they have it currently, but I found it on Amazon, I think it might be a bit cheaper at Costco.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B00TPQL94Q/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

Edited April 27, 2017 by AliG

[Jeremy Harris]

Thanks very much, that looks to be just the job.

[Simplysimon]

they have it in store most of the time, certainly at the moment

[Roger440]

Id still paint the floor first with a decent epoxy, whatever, mats or tiles you might want to get.

 

Anything else just desnt last. The watco website has some good stuff, though its not always the cheapest. Its all DIYable.

 

If it was me id just get some nice thick mats to put where you will be standing once its all painted.

[jack]

3 hours ago, AliG said:

I don't know if they have it currently, but I found it on Amazon, I think it might be a bit cheaper at Costco.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B00TPQL94Q/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

 

Yes, a decent amount cheaper (£132 v £195) at Costco than Amazon, assuming they have it in stock.

[readiescards]

The Costco reviews are not very encouraging, anyone seen this stuff in reality?

[Jeremy Harris]

Thanks for the tip about the reviews, it doesn't look as if it is as good as it's made out to be.  I'll keep looking over the weekend and see if I can find anything else, if not I'll just paint the floor as I've done before, and maybe get a couple of mats to lay down where the benches and machine tools are.

[Onoff]

I've gone with various bought/scrounged off sites grey floor paints tipped into an old 5gal brewing barrel then broomed over the well abraded & vacuumed floor.

 

Have a number of old (again scrounged) HV mats. They're rubbed to be non slip. Swarf isn't too bad if dry but the sticky stuff if I've been tapping or using the Hilmor bender just gets smeared in the grooves.

[Ferdinand]

No one seems to want to say how thick it is.

 

What do they use in forklift warehouses?

[Jeremy Harris]

The Costco stuff seems to be about 2.5mm thick, I think.  The mats range from around 4mm to 12mm depending on make and material (the foam ones are the thickest).  The workshops in places where I've worked were always just painted, often re-painted every few years.

[Onoff]

Duramat are 12mm thick, £4 each and have a good name. 20% off at the mo too.

 

https://duramat.co.uk

 

Edit: That's £4 for black, realised you want a light colour, white or yellow are £5 each. 

Edited April 28, 2017 by Onoff

[Jeremy Harris]

Looks good, and they do a pack that's the right size, 6m x 4m.  The thing to think about is whether I want to spend £350 on the workshop floor - I could buy some nice tools for that much money................

[SteamyTea]

How about a decent pair of cushion soled shoes/boots.

When I worked in toolshops, which all had concrete floors, some days after my drive home I could hardly walk (still have same problem in the mornings thesedays, but I am older), but found decent shoes made a big difference.

[Guest Alphonsox]

The obvious answer.....