5 Disastrous Garage Floor Solutions! (Part 1)

Every year, I see advertisements for garage floor finishes that make no sense to me. The most recent advertisement was a small company in central Pennsylvania offering stamped concrete and stating it was a good solution for a garage. What?!?!

Not Every Solution Works!

In 2013, there was a big push on overlays, such as Nature Stone, for use in a daily garage, backed by enticing coupons to ensnare homeowners to be the guinea pigs. Ugh!

The year before that, we saw a push for garage floor coverings (garage floor mats and plastic tiles). Bad? Yes (see: Why Garage Floor Roll-Out Mats are a BAD IDEA!), but at least more understandable.

These trends, advertisements, and coupons have led to this list. In this blog and in Part 2, we'll discuss the downfalls associated with each of these proposed garage floor solutions and compare them to a professionally installed, commercial grade garage floor coating.

Stamped Concrete + Garage Floor = A Maintenance Nightmare

Typical Time Until Issue: Less than 1 Year

Stamped concrete is concrete that is patterned and textured to resemble a variety of surfaces (most commonly stone, flagstone, or brick). It looks great as a sidewalk, patio, or around a pool. As a garage floor finish, it will quickly become a maintenance nightmare.

How are you going to easily keep it clean? How are you going to protect it from oil, gasoline, and road salt? How will a textured surface hold up to the constant abuse in the tire path?

The texturing will make upkeep of the garage floor an arduous task. Simple vacuuming and mopping won't suffice. Pressure sprayers are out of the question, as this type of cleaning has a huge probability of damaging the floor finish.

The sealers used to protect the stamped concrete surface are not designed for the punishment a garage floor takes in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C. Once these sealers are compromised, the underlying stamped concrete will be irreversibly stained.

To date, we've not seen stamped concrete used in a daily use garage in our mid-Atlantic service area - much to our relief. As I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, we just saw an advertisement for using stamped concrete in a garage for the first time.

Q: Are properly installed, professional garage floor coatings by STRONGHOLD FLOORS subject to the same problems as stamped concrete?  

A: No. Coatings don't have such deep surface texturing and are extremely resistant to wear, chemical exposure, and regular cleaning. See 12 Tips for Use & Care of Your Epoxy Floor Coatings.

Overlays & Residential Garage = Partners Who Separate

Typical Time Until Issue: 1-3 Years

Homeowners often turn to overlays, such as Nature Stone (a combination of epoxy and stones that creates a porous and breathable covering) or stamp-able concrete overlays, to refinish a worn or degrading garage floor.

With the porous, breathable solutions, water passes thru the surface and leaves without puddling. That may seem attractive to a homeowner tired of puddles in the garage. The problem becomes this: water isn't the only thing to seep into those pores. Road crud, small stones, and debris also gets into them, creating a cleaning nightmare.

The solid, cementitious overlays often suffer from all the issues of stamped concrete, with the added likelihood that the overlay will dis-bond from the concrete at some point in the future.

STRONGHOLD FLOORS has removed several of these coatings in garages and even more from porches & patios. Each time, the homeowner begins to notice a hollow sound, signaling the beginning of the end for the overlay.

Q: Are properly installed, professional garage floor coatings by STRONGHOLD FLOORS subject to the same problems as concrete overlays?

A: No. Because we prepare the concrete with mechanical diamond grinding or shot-blasting to achieve the proper concrete surface profile, the bonding layer of the coatings achieve a bond strength that exceeds the strength of concrete’s structure.

Part 2

Read Part 2 to learn about the final 3 disastrous garage floor solutions.