Good, Better, and Best Garage Flooring
At Carolina Custom Garages, we specialize in installing beautiful, long-lasting concrete coatings. Choosing the right option for your garage can be challenging, so we’ve put together this quick guide on garage floor protection.
Good: Garage Floor Sealer
Sealers are a good option for light-duty protection that’s easy to install. Rather than a complete protective layer, concrete sealers fill in the porous surface of your concrete. The main factor a sealer protects against is moisture and staining.
Garage Floor Sealer Pros:
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Inexpensive: Concrete sealers are a cost-effective alternative to more comprehensive floor protectants.
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Moisture resistance: Sealers keep water, oil, and chemicals from permeating your concrete garage floors.
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Appearance: Floor sealers give floors a slightly more glossy, finished look.
Garage Floor Sealer Cons:
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Less durability: While floor sealers can increase your floor’s moisture resistance, they are vulnerable to scratching, abrasion, and cracking and require reapplication over time.
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Little change to aesthetics: A sealer can add some gloss to the look of your concrete floors, but doesn’t create as much impact as a complete epoxy coating.
When to Consider Garage Floor Sealers
Garage floor sealers are best for homeowners on a budget. If you don’t use your garage much and only need minimal protection against water damage, a floor sealer may be all you need. A handy homeowner with some home improvement experience may even be able to DIY the installation. Just keep in mind that you’ll need to reapply after a few years.
Better: Garage Floor Coverings
Some homeowners prefer the versatility of a covering, such as a mat, pad, or rug, rather than a coating or sealer. Coverings make a good temporary solution for situations where you need to remove the protection. You can pack up a mat to get to the concrete floor below or move it around to protect different garage areas.
Garage Floor Covering Pros
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Easy to install: Unlike a sealer or coating, a mat or rug is as easy as choosing a spot and unrolling the covering.
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Versatility: For homeowners who use the garage for a variety of purposes, mats are easy to move or uninstall for different functions and come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors.
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Comfort: If you use your garage for projects, a covering provides some padding for improved underfoot comfort, ideal for hobbyists who spend a lot of time in the garage.
Garage Floor Covering Cons
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Less stable: Although they are versatile solutions for protecting garage floors, a mat or rug isn’t fixed to the floor and can shift and create tripping hazards.
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Temporary: One advantage of a covering is that you can remove it if need be, but that may be a drawback for homeowners who need a more permanent solution.
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Less moisture protection: Even if you cover the whole garage floor, fluids can still seep under the edges of a mat or rug.
When to Consider Garage Floor Coverings
Floor coverings are ideal for anyone who wants a temporary or modular floor protectant. Renters who aren’t allowed to make changes to the floor, for example, might want to consider a mat or rug.
Best: Epoxy Floor Coating
If you want the strongest protection for your garage, there’s no better solution than a quality epoxy coating. Epoxy seals the surface of your concrete floor and provides an additional layer of protection. It comes in various colors and finishes and resists cracking and peeling over time.
Epoxy Floor Coating Pros
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Long-lasting durability: Unlike a sealer, which requires frequent reapplication, epoxy is a permanent solution that lasts for years.
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Low maintenance: Cleaning an epoxy garage floor is as easy as sweeping and mopping or even a quick spray with the hose.
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Aesthetics: No floor protection offers a better look than epoxy, with its gloss finish and flake in your choice of colors.
Epoxy Floor Coating Cons
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Not DIY-friendly: Epoxy offers the most protection, but only when installed properly by a professional.
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Higher up-front cost: Protecting your garage floors is an investment, and epoxy costs more up-front than other solutions.
When to Consider Epoxy Floor Coatings
Epoxy is ideal for homeowners looking for a permanent, aesthetically pleasing way to protect their garage floor. Epoxy offers a sleek, high-gloss finish and protects against moisture, chemicals, abrasion, and impact damage.
Get a Free Quote on Epoxy Floor Coating
If you want to protect your garage floor for years to come, trust the experts at Carolina Custom Garages. We’ve served the greater Charlotte area for more than ten years, and our installers have decades of experience installing top-quality flooring solutions for homes and businesses.
Get a free free estimate on epoxy floor coatings!
