Flooring for my garage

[darksparkz]

My garage is a two-car garage that's 20'x17'. It has a automated door and one regular door in the back. The garage is attached to the house. The flooring is most likely cement.

I have oil and tire mark stains on the flooring that are quite hard to get off, any recommendations on what's the best thing to use to remove this? I've tried Simple Green, but to no avail.

I'm considering putting some type of flooring onto this so it'll look less messy and be easier to clean up. There is quite a bit of snow in the winter, so I'm not sure what type of flooring would work best. I also don't want it slippery. Any kind of recommendations? I know nothing about garage flooring at all.

[killrwheels@autogeek]

They make concrete cleaners .... and you might need to etch the floor with muratic acid and then paint/epoxy . I always like the garage mats seemed a relatively cheap and effective way to keep a garage more tidy.

[Reddwarf]

Killr's right (as always). You have to use concrete cleaner to get the stains out. Very potent stuff. Check Lowes, Home Depot or the like. They will also sell a product to paint the cleaned floor if you like. But as Killr said, the mats and other florring systems are a lot less messy to apply.

I keep going back and foth myself on which to do. The paint method is cheaper, but I think the tiles look way better.

[NorahCRV]

Originally Posted by Reddwarf

Killr's right (as always). You have to use concrete cleaner to get the stains out. Very potent stuff. Check Lowes, Home Depot or the like. They will also sell a product to paint the cleaned floor if you like. But as Killr said, the mats and other florring systems are a lot less messy to apply.

I keep going back and foth myself on which to do. The paint method is cheaper, but I think the tiles look way better.

Be sure that the garage is WELL-VENTILATED when you use those cleaners and paints!!!

I had my garage floor professionally cleaned & painted three years ago (it was 14 years old at the time & had stains from Ford Power Steering Fluid) & it is looking great!! Of course, I don't have the snow, salt & rain that a lot of you do

[darksparkz]

So the best method for flooring is either painting it or putting on a mat?

Would painting it actually do anything? Other then obviously changing the color, would it make it have more grip or easier to clean up spills? How much would it generally cost to put acid on it then paint/epoxy it?

[Reddwarf]

Originally Posted by darksparkz

So the best method for flooring is either painting it or putting on a mat?

Would painting it actually do anything? Other then obviously changing the color, would it make it have more grip or easier to clean up spills? How much would it generally cost to put acid on it then paint/epoxy it?

My understanding is that the kits come with stuff to add some traction and it is an epoxy paint so spills are easier to clean up.

As mentioned earlier the stuff is potent. We had our living room floor stained. They had to clean the floor first and tehn apply stain. Our house smelled terrible for days. We should have gone to a hotel ... it was that bad!

[Meghan]

Diamond Pattern is a nice look!

[NorahCRV]

. . .yeah, but that ORANGE door has to go!! I clashes with the red car!!

[dirtyboy]

I've been looking into this also but I was wondering if water dripping from the car would get trapped underneath the rubber mats and create a bunch of mold?

[darksparkz]

It looks like it'll cost a bit more then $500 to buy a mat for the whole garage.

How would the paint route go? Would I just clean it, apply muratic acid, paint it some color, the apply epoxy to the top?

Are there any advantages/disadvantages between the floor paints or painting it?