[Closed] Garage flooring options

I have the big dug ones. They are great. Made the garage warmer. I pushed the boat out for grey and black check with 2x4 section in blue for the KICKR. Not cheap but I am delighted. I’ve had a painted garage floor. This is much nicer. Installation was a lot of fun too.

Office carpet tiles

I used rolls of rubbed rubber flooring for mine, one roll was almost exactly half the width of the garage and it took about 20 seconds to get down.

Check Ebay for similar. I went with ridges as the dirt settles in the channels so doesnt get walked into the house and it hoovers really well

The cheap foam tiles that they have in halfords and B&Q are rubbish ime- mine warped over time and started popping up away from the floor.

I tried painting a few times (new build 17 years ago when we moved in). Bought interlocking rubber tiles from eBay about 7 or 8 years ago, and now have various mats on top of them. Works a treat, though sometimes wonder if my neighbours wonder why I’m hoovering the garage 😀

Office carpet tiles

I've got these laid over a painted (20 odd years ago) floor and don't rate them; no insulting properties whatsoever. I've also got boxes of exhibition quality foam rubber backed carpet tiles that are much better, but black, which means finding that dropped screw a bloody nightmare.

Currently, I'm using all the junk that my wife has just chucked through the personnel door to cover the floor...

I've got the halfords foam ones and they are ok. Had them down for 12 months. Lifted them to give it a good clean the other week. Did have some fun as they have warped and took a bit of effort to get back together. Light foot traffic so worked for me.

I wouldn't paint my floor. Too uneven and lumpy with contamination so the prep would take ages. If I was to paint it I'd use a professional epoxy based paint. I'd want warm weather - >10C. Floor needs to be very clean (no oil spills). You might need to seal it before you paint it as well.

My mate owns a flooring business. I'd probably put down whatever he had cheap next time. An industrial vinyl type of thing. He does schools and hospitals so my garage is probably an end of roll.

Other option would be rubber (horse) stable matting. Relatively cheap. Very robust. Comes in big sheets so you'd maybe need 2 or 3 for a normal garage.

I had posh horse matting which was amazing, over an inch thick and green. Unfortunately it was confiscated back for another horse 🙁

I've always wanted to tile my garage with reddish quarry style tiles but the cost is a bit off putting.

I painted and then put down the thicker rubber mats with holes in that give a bit of spring.
Aldi had them cheap last month.

Mine is carpeted. Cant remember where it came from but was second hand.

I have the big dug ones.

Thank you for introducing me to the big dug website, never heard of it before, never knew looking at shelving and storage would be so satisfying!

Question for those that have installed vinyl tiles... Are they fixed to the floor, is there any prep needed, or do you just bung them down?

We have the bigDug version of this in the workshop at t'factory. https://garagefloorsdirect.co.uk/product/large-shed-pack-3m-x-2m-black-diamond-checker-plate-garage-flooring/

Its hard as nails with no give whatsoever. It does the job I wanted well, but it might be overkill for garage use. Also if you wanted to walk on it in socks/bare feet you'd want the dimple not checker plate version. The checker plate is grippy but its also quite edged - not at all comfy to walk on without shoes.

I swept, mopped and painted my garage floor with Leyland garage paint from screwfix. Been down nearly a year now and is still in good nick from foot traffic and bikes being pushed in and out. It has the odd nick in it from dropping dropping a big adjustable or other objects but has done fine.

If you have units you dont wanna move, dont paint under them, tape it for a clean edge and put some tiles or carpet tover it maybe?

Mine will be self-leveled with latex, 25mm of celotex, 22mm t&g chipboard floor boards, and some stuck down rubber sheet workshop flooring from the 'bay. That's a project for a bit later in the year. Right now I'm back to outdoors jobs because the weather is good.

I used the Halfords rubber mats/jigsaw. They do spread a bit but if you do the whole lot in one go and have some gaps around the edge then it's not as issue.

Then I put some spare office carpet over the top. This looks better and gives it a warmer feel. Floor is warm, springy and when the carpet is mucky I'll just fit another.

Bought them on Amazon but can't remember exactly which ones - rubber tiles but did my whole garage for sub £100 and they've been awesome. Loads better than bare concrete, loads warmer than paint which chips/flakes regardless of how much prep you do and loads cheaper than the plastic coating stuff which I looked into and whilst it looked amazing, was about £1k for a single garage.

paint which chips/flakes regardless of how much prep you do

Depends on the paint, of course; place I used to work all the ground floor was properly smoothed off concrete, then coated with a grey finish, I think it’s a sort of industrial epoxy, and that had to endure pallet trucks, fork-trucks, pallets being pushed across it, continual foot traffic, sometimes 24 hours a day, and it took a long time for it to really show wear, in the eleven years I was there, most of it showed virtually no significant wear at all. It’s not warm and cosy, but dead easy to sweep up on. Personally I think I’d prefer a heavy-duty vinyl or Lino type of covering, mainly because it doesn’t trap dust, and is easy to sweep out. It’s also easy to wipe up spills, which carpet or tiles is never very good for!