5 Cost-Effective Garage Flooring Options You Must Know
There is more to a garage floor than a mere gray surface.
A well-maintained garage floor can also bolster your home’s value. The cracks, stains, and pits on the garage floor screech how hopelessly reckless you’ve been to it, yet this unappreciated space of your home takes a beating from extreme temperatures, high pressures of heavy vehicle movement, chemicals from the pavements, and wear and tear in general.
Interestingly, the Wall Street Journal reports that during this pandemic, many homeowners in the USA, especially the city dwellers, are now increasingly turning to the garage when repurposing and maximizing the available space in the garage.
In a nutshell, the garage floor is the hardest-working part of your garage, and there is no doubt that upgrading garage flooring calls for equal emphasis as upgrading home flooring.
With that in mind, we decided to put together the five most cost-effective garage flooring options for your next garage face-lift.
Why Is Garage Flooring Important?
Your garage floor has to endure a lot of stress from the daily vehicle and pedestrian traffic to chemical fluid spills, from the moisture of rain and snow to temperature fluctuations.
A garage floor that hasn’t been protected will start to show cracks, stains, efflorescence, discoloration, spalling, etc. Over time, these issues become unsightly, perpetuate pests, and even cause accidents.
What Are The Benefits Of Garage Floor Covering?
Flooring options for the garage come in handy when you’re looking to update your garage with a wealth of benefits.
- Reinforces the durability of the underlying concrete surface.
- Resist the stain development from various chemicals.
- Absorbs impact of heavy objects.
- Even out the surface to prevent trips and falls.
- Enhances overall appearance.
- Hides flaws on the garage floor.
As a homeowner wanting to spruce up a garage floor, you’ll come across many garage conversion flooring options that fall under one of the two categories of garage floor covering.
Let’s understand them first.
Types Of Garage Floor Covering
1. Floor coating options
These are mostly applied as a thin coat with a roller or a brush, and they stick directly to the concrete floor. Paints and epoxy are some of the best garage flooring coating options.
2. Floor covering options
These come as building materials on the top of the garage floor and can be removed and reapplied if needed. Flooring mats and tiles fit into this group.
Top 5 Garage Flooring Options We Recommend If You’re On A Budget
A popular notion is that quality is expensive. Agreed, but who said you can’t get great value for your money when you’re on a tight budget.
So here’s the list of best garage flooring options worth considering when you want a spanking new garage floor without being left with empty pockets.
1. Flexible Interlocking Tiles
Want to add unique colors and patterns to your garage floor with little to no preparation for installation? You’ve got this!
Simply snap these heavy-duty vinyl or rubber squares together and get a cushioned yet sturdy garage surface in just a few hours.
Cost: $ 2 to $ 5/square foot.
Great for:
- Sweeping those ugly cracks in your concrete slab under the rug.
- Toughness
- Slip and stain resistance
- Easy cleaning
- Warding off the mildew.
2. Roll Out Vinyl/PVC Flooring
Nothing can beat the simplicity of this flooring option for the garage. These rubber or polyvinyl plastic mats are like rugs, unroll over your garage floor, trim the extra, and voila! You’re done.
Use it as a rollout mat to pad your parking space or get a more permanent installation by adhering it to the garage floor.
Cost: $ 1.50 – $4/square foot.
Great for:
- Installation that takes as little as one hour.
- Cleaning with the hose outdoors.
- Easy repositioning
- Driving on them immediately.
3. Concrete Paints
Oil-based or latex-based paints can give you immediate change in the look of your garage. Although the least durable garage flooring option (needs retouching every year), it has made its way to this list because of its budget-friendliness. It requires some surface preparation like thoroughly removing the dirt and oil from the floor, repairing any cracks with fillers, applying primers, etc.
Cost: $0.15/square foot.
Great for:
- Unlimited options of colors.
- Hassle-free cleaning.
- Mold, mildew resistance.
4. Concrete Sealer
This one is your garage flooring option if you are a proud owner of a garage with a blemish-free floor. A topical acrylic, latex, or urethane sealer covers the garage floor and gives a glass-like beautiful sheen to your bare concrete floor. While the solvent-based sealer offers superior floor protection, the water-based sealer, although less durable, is less harsh to breathe in.
Cost: $0.20 or less/ square foot for acrylic or latex
$0.25 to $0.50/ square foot for urethane
Great for:
- Ease of application
- Sealing the floor from water damage and stains.
- Strong bonding with the concrete surface.
5. Epoxy Paint
A smart and reasonably priced flooring option for a garage that boosts the durability and performance of your garage floor. With a widely available epoxy floor coating kit, you can also take the DIY route. After being rolled out, it takes approximately a week to cure entirely into a hard surface. But if you have a garage floor that absorbs moisture, drop the plan of using it.
Cost: $0.3 to $1.5/ square foot
Great for:
- Ability to withstand a considerable amount of weight.
- Stain and chemical resistance.
- A variety of colors to choose from.
Final words
There is nothing wrong with considering cost as a decisive factor when adorning your garage floor. However, not all garage floors are created equal. Hence, it would help if you also looked at other factors to determine what option from above suits the best for your garage floor. Book our free consultation and get the right advice to give your worn-out garage floor concrete a new life with Rubcorp’s high-quality rubber resurfacing solutions.
