Garage Flooring Ideas

[jm79 10]

We currently park our cars on the driveway so our attached single garage is pretty much just an empty space at the moment (other than the odd boxes of storage).

 

Im wanting to utilise the space at bit more, possibly for a home gym, utility room, etc. Our two cats also use the garage quite a lot as well for additional living space when we are out (entry via a cat flap in rear garage door).

 

At the moment, the flooring is just bare concrete. Im wanting to make it a bit more 'comfortable' without putting anything down that is permanent (in case we sell in a few years and the new buyers want to park their car in there).

 

Does anyone have any suggestions that isn't going to cost the earth? Anything other than bare concrete is a bonus really.

 

Thanks

[surfinjim 10]

Would have thought very cheap laminate flooring would do the trick. Don't fit it under any skirting board and leave a gap round the sides for movement. Easy to lay and easy to bring back up as well. Couple of packs of fibre boards and a membrane sheet.

 

Average size garage- £200-£250 if you do it yourself.

[p-and-d 10]

Floor paints a good solution

[Margarita Ma 10]

I wonder if the garage has heating very few do but some people put the boiler in there to save space in the kitchen. Garages very often are a bit damp in winter so laminate or carpet would quickly become a bit fusty if it is unheated. if the building is very old it may not have a damproof membrane under the floor or a damp course in the brickwork. Also they usually one brick thickness and are not very often insulated so any work you do should take all this into consideration.

[numero uno 10]

Paint, some rubber matting or Lino ?? As above laminate may swell you can always cover it with a Dpm paint to stop damp from below ?

[jm79 10]

Thanks for everyone's responses.

 

Yeah, we do have the boiler in the garage but the garage door leaves some big gaps (approx 1 inch at bottom and half an inch at sides) so it's very draughty. Im also looking into draught proofing at the moment, although I doubt it will provide sufficient measure to prevent heat loss, especially with the garage being single leaf brick as well.

 

I will consider the above with whatever I go with in the end.

Edited May 20, 2013 by jm79

[L00b 441]

FWIW we have the boiler in our garage, and I laid down some left-over laminate and underlay from the 'bottom end' of the garage (furthest from garage door), where I have a small bench, a second fridge and a condenser dryer. So garage floorspace is effectively 'half-covered' with laminate + underlay, secured at edges with heavy-duty tape, 'front' part of floorspace towards up-&-over door is still bare concrete.

 

It's not really heated by the boiler (which is well insulated), temp is usually half-way between inside and outside in winter (dual wall with cavity, garage is internal). Plenty of moisture in there on a regular basis, from the dryer (used daily or so) and the car when wet (car gets put in every night), but I can't see any deterioration of the laminate or the underlay after a couple of years.