Garage Floor Coverings For Wrecked Concrete

By Gabriel Conway

Maybe you're buying a home that needs a remodel, and the garage floors looks bad. Maybe you didn't even realize that your concrete garage floor could crack at all, and that if those cracks are not tended to immediately, they can make garage floor paint or other coatings almost impossible to apply. You might have had problems with flooding, the ground shifting, or any of a ton of other factors that can cause damage to your concrete in ways that really cannot be controlled. Regardless, sometimes you do need a garage floor covering.

Why Shouldn't I Just Repair The Concrete?

Although there are ways to repair cracks in the concrete, and then paint over them, there is always the chance that the cracks will return. In fact, there is a very good chance that whatever caused them to appear in the first place will simply cause the same problem to happen again. Because of this, it is probably a better idea to skip garage floor paint altogether and go with a garage floor covering instead. A garage floor covering can be defined as a garage floor mat or tiles. Pretty much anything that doesn't coat the original concrete, but instead adds something more. Both of these garage floor coverings can be used on damaged concrete, but to different degrees.

Garage Floor Tiles Don't Always Work

If you plan to use tiles on a floor with only smallish cracks, you may not need to do anything with the cracks before you do. This is because tiles can grip the garage flooring all around the crack, instead. Because garage floor tile really isn't a coating, and is actually a separate material altogether, they may actually help hold things together and prevent expansion of old cracks as well as new ones. Just like any other garage floor coverings, the point is to cover any defects so that, while they're still there, they're not visible. Garage floor tiles are not ideal in situations where the concrete garage floor is stained, however. If you do use tiles in this case, the stains will end up "sweating", and dissolving the sticky stuff that holds the tiles to the ground. When this happens, the tiles will lose their grip, and the floor won't be in any better shape than it was before.

Garage Floor Mats Work All The Time

In some cases when the garage flooring is just really defiled, your only choice is to use garage floor mats. Fortunately, a mat is just as adept for resistance against chemicals as most anything, and it can be made to look great while doing it's job. Unluckily though, it is like placing a "Band-Aid" onto your problem, and may even return to reek havoc. If your concrete is seriously breaking up in spots, it might dish out some jagged edges that will tear any garage floor covering, particularly when the covering has been driven upon. It is possible that the terrible state of the concrete can go unnoticed as it degrades even further, if covered up by a garage floor mat. However, if your garage floor mat does get damaged, it can be replaced with the smallest of problems. Of course, that is only if you are able to afford to buy another mat.

Your Garage Floor Covering May Be Pre-Determined...

When it comes down to it, your choice of garage floors is pretty simple: if tiles will stick, then you can use either tiles or mats. If they won't, for whatever reason, then you're stuck with your choice of garage floor mats. - 29952

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