Concrete is a generally sound material to build with. It’s sturdy, it’s strong. It’s malleable. It’s better than cobblestone, a little bit easier to work with than brick. It boasts greater longevity than wood. For flooring in particular, its smooth surface and hardiness makes it perfect for garages and their like.
But even a concrete floor will take a particularly bad beating over time. It’ll have to deal with damage from steel rollers, cars, leaking oil and antifreeze, salt and snow from winter-time drives, chemical leaks from particularly potent cleaning material, and more. Your garage floor needs to stand up to quite a lot, and that’s where the right flooring comes into play.
Flooring, however, isn’t a simple choice. There are various ways to protect your concrete floors. Let’s break it down so that you can make the best choice for your garage.
Coatings
The first basic type of flooring for garages is a coating. It’s cheap, simple, and all you need to do is slather a layer of it over your concrete. Some coatings don’t require much prep at all, and others might require you to level your concrete freshly with a trowel.
Typically, coatings are either paints, sealers, or epoxy coating. Paints are straightforward, and can keep your concrete smooth, but not necessarily protected. A sealer is different. Acrylic or urethane sealers harden quickly and are UV resistant as per Concrete Network, making them the perfect solution for an outdoors concrete floor or an open garage. They’re also hardy.
Epoxy coatings are typically best, but take at least a week to properly harden. They’re used in showrooms and professional kitchens alike, as per Gardenista. These are chemical, thermal, and pressure resistant, and can look amazing.
Covering
If you want a little more texture, a covering can be best for you. Plastic tiles or rubber tiles are great for storing cars and bikes, and plastic tiles make a garage much easier to clean up. A polypropylene-based fabric carpeting can do the trick as well, although that’s more of a showroom flooring than for the practically-inclined.
