Home garages have been around for about a century now. For most of that time, it was a room that looked boring and nondescript.
Then something happened towards the end of the last century. Homeowners began to view the garage as a part of the house that wasn’t merely utilitarian.
Beyond just using the garage for parking vehicles and storage, this was a room that deserved to have more attention paid to its décor and appearance.
As the room’s main focal point, the garage floor was an obvious area to look to as an upgrade opportunity. New garage floor products began to appear on the market, including sealers and paints that added a decorative touch to a surface that had stayed dull grey for so many years.
Epoxy floor coatings that had been widely used for commercial and industrial applications eventually became available for residential use as well.
We’ve come a long way since then. Nowadays, highly advanced garage floor products offer more and more color and design options that can truly transform a garage’s look from “meh” to “magnificent!”. They also do a much better job of protecting the floor.
Not all products for upgrading a garage floor are created equal, however. Let’s take a look at what your options are when it comes to getting a new garage floor and which ones work best.
What are your new garage floor options?
There are many options for upgrading a garage floor, but not all of them are ideal for decorative improvements. For example, floor patching products like crack filler and patching compounds are purely for repairs and not meant for decorative purposes.
Roll-on sealers are another option you’re probably aware of. Their primary function is for protecting the floor, not beautifying it. Clear sealers show floor blemishes and imperfections after being applied. While some types allow tints to be added for better aesthetics, in general you shouldn’t look to sealers for any appreciable upgrade to a floor’s appearance.
When it comes to decorative floor renewal products, these are the five most common options:
- Epoxy coatings: this is the type of coating found in DIY floor coating kits and can also be professionally applied.
- Polyaspartic floor coatings: introduced in 2006, this more advanced type of coating has numerous advantages over epoxy floor coatings.
- Floor paints: while they are cheap and easy to apply, floor paints do have some major limitations.
- Interlocking floor tiles: most commonly available in PVC, rubber, vinyl, and porcelain styles, floor tiles install quickly and are a cost-effective flooring solution.
- Floor stains: not as widely used as the above new garage floor options, stains add color or even a natural stone look to a floor surface.
Interlocking PVC floor tiles are one option for upgrading a garage floor’s appearance and protecting the floor surface.
What is the best product to upgrade a garage floor’s look?
Of the five flooring options mentioned above, the best overall choice for your garage is a polyaspartic floor coating. And it’s not even close, quite frankly.
We can instantly rule out floor paints and stains. They offer little to no protection for a flooring surface and only give your floor a modest cosmetic upgrade. If you’re going to the trouble of fixing an ugly garage floor, we’d advise using a product that’s not so one-dimensional.
After being applied, floor paints in particular don’t produce a high-end look. Floor paint is also notorious for chipping, flaking, and needing to be reapplied after only a year or two. Much of this has to do with the fact that roll-on paint applications only leave a very thin coat of paint on the garage’s concrete surface.
Epoxy coatings are a step up in terms of the look they produce on a garage floor. That’s because decorative flakes (also known as chips) are used during the application process to add color and visual appeal. Epoxy coatings also provide varying degrees of flooring protection.
The success homeowners have with epoxy floor coatings varies widely. Professional applications will naturally produce more satisfying results. DIY’ing your floors with an epoxy coating kit can end up with hit or miss results, however. There are four main reasons DIY epoxy coating applications fail:
- Poor preparation of the floor prior to the coating application.
- The application being done in the wrong range of temperatures.
- The floor surface having too much moisture during the application.
- A low-quality epoxy coating product being used.
Floor tiles are a viable and popular option for improving a garage floor’s look. Not only are they cost-effective, but tiles can also be installed quickly. Most types have an interlocking teeth design that allows the tiles to easily be snapped together. Tiles made from more durable materials also last longer and provide flooring protection. If a tile gets damaged, replacing it is very easy, too.
Which brings us to polyaspartic floor coatings. This type of coating does cost more than the other options, but is a much higher quality product. A polyaspartic coating is also more difficult to work with, so professional expertise and equipment is required to apply it.
Why Garage Living uses Floortex™ floor coatings
Garage Living only uses Floortex™ polyaspartic floor coatings for our flooring jobs. We believe that Floortex™ is the highest quality floor coating available on the market.
The benefits of a Floortex™ floor coating include:
- a faster curing time that allows applications to be completed in as little as a day
- can be applied year-round in temperatures as low as -40°F (unlike epoxy coatings)
- high resistance to household chemicals and leaky car fluids
- a UV-stable topcoat that preserves the glossy finish and prevents yellowing over time
- high resistance to abrasions, scratches, and general wear and tear
Decorative garage flooring transforms a room’s look
With the right product and a proper application, a new garage floor can dramatically transform the appearance of a garage. The before and after photos below prove that an expertly done makeover creates a garage that looks anything but boring.
Unlike a floor paint that just covers a cement surface in a single color, the flakes add a decorative flair that creates a whole new level of visual interest to the floor and, by extension, the entire garage.
The luxurious, modern aesthetic that is achievable with a product like a Floortex™ coating is similar to that of a high-end car showroom. Who wouldn’t want their garage to look that nice?
A great floor coating with a shiny topcoat will also reflect light better and brighten up the space. Using lighter colors for the wall and ceiling, as well as upgrading your lighting, will also help a garage feel less like a dungeon and more like a comfortable and inviting part of your home.
If you’re looking to install a new garage floor, it’s important to consider the rest of your garage’s décor and be able to customize your design choices.
You’ll want to use a flooring product that blends well with the rest of the room and reflects your design taste. The wide range of floor coating colors Garage Living offers makes this more achievable.
Because floor tiles are so easy to install and come in various patterns, styles, and colors, they also allow you to create a customized, one-of-a-kind garage floor look.
Before its makeover, this garage had the drab and unfinished look typically found in most garages.
The makeover transforms the garage’s look from drab to fab. The colors complement each other effectively and the Floortex™ floor coating adds a stylish showroom-quality aesthetic to the space.
Go “above and beyond” upgrading just the floor
Most floor resurfacing products and applications involve just covering the garage floor itself. Think beyond that – “above and beyond”, in fact.
One unique part of Garage Living’s proprietary floor application process is we give our clients the option of adding Floortex™ coating to the lower part of their garage’s walls. This adds an extra decorative touch to a floor makeover, not unlike adding baseboard to a room’s walls.
The baseboard coating and floor coating are identical, which creates a seamless look between the floor and the walls for a more cohesive garage aesthetic. The treatment also seals off any gaps that can allow cold air, pests, and water to enter the garage.
Any steps in the garage that lead into your main living space can have the coating applied as well.
It’s not just about looks – durability matters, too!
We briefly touched on why any product being used to rehabilitate your garage floor’s appearance should help protect it, too. Because it’s such an important topic, let’s explore it a little further.
Garage floors take a beating and need to be able to withstand the heavy demands of everyday use. After all, if a garage floor that has recently gotten a decorative refresh quickly starts wearing down and falling apart because it comes up short in the protection department, it kind of defeats the purpose of fixing the floor in the first place, right?
This is why you want to spend a little more to ensure that you’re getting a higher quality flooring product that has been expertly installed.
Cheap epoxy coatings don’t leave as thick a coat on the flooring surface as higher quality epoxies and polyaspartic coatings. This lower count of solid content (also known as solids by volume and volume solids) can be a major factor in the long-term durability of a floor coating.
The solid content in cheaper epoxy coatings can be as low as in the 30% range. Better quality epoxies typically won’t exceed about 70-75% solid content. Floortex™ floor coatings have a solid content of 85%. The higher the solid content number, the better. A higher number means less of the product that has been applied will be lost through evaporation during the coating’s drying process.
Another common complaint with DIY epoxy coating applications is that they don’t maintain that shiny “new floor look” for as long as expected. If a flooring topcoat loses its luster quickly, that’s a good indicator it’s also not doing an adequate job of saving your floor from damage caused by spills, leaks, and other types wear and tear.
Why a beautiful garage floor is a must if you own luxury vehicles
If you own luxury vehicles, they’ll look even more impressive with stunning showroom-quality flooring underneath their wheels.
The ultra-modern look of a high-quality floor coating and the beauty of a high-end car go hand in hand.
When you’re putting your garage design together, you can even use the color of a beloved luxury car as a decorative starting point and choose colors for the garage décor (including the flooring) that perfectly complement it.
Many of Garage Living’s clients have done just this, resulting in some truly amazing makeovers that beautifully showcase their vehicles.
Your beautiful new garage floor awaits!
Don’t settle for the status quo of a boring-looking garage interior. As a space you use every day, the garage deserves to look as nice as any other part of your home.
Getting a new garage floor is one of the most impactful ways to achieve the type of stylish, high-end look that will make your home stand out on your street.
Schedule a free design consultation with us to start planning your new garage floor project.
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