Reasons Why You Should Upgrade Your Garage Floor
Upgrading the concrete flooring in your garage might be low on the to-do list, but this update is important for a few key reasons. In addition to providing a more comfortable feel to this part of the home, an upgrade to the garage floor surface will transform your garage's utility and value. DIY Danielle notes that epoxy flooring can improve the resale value of your home. It may also allow you to enjoy the added space of your garage as a functional element in your home rather than an afterthought. Changing the floors of your garage is a potent upgrade opportunity.
Amazing Garage Floors reports that the approximate size of each parking space in your garage will average between $800 and $1,200 for the application of a high-quality epoxy coating. This means you can multiply the range by the named size of your garage (one-car, two-car, etc.) for a general price estimate.
Epoxy flooring transforms the utility of a garage
Garage Living notes that a newly updated floor looks much better than an old, concrete garage floor. This is a given, but the improvement doesn't stop at the aesthetic value that a new flooring provides. For one thing, concrete garages often suffer from chips, cracks, and other damage that happens over time. Garages are typically overlooked, and the result can mean that your home may never have experienced a refinishing of the garage floor or essential repairs that can make all the difference in this space.
Cracking and chipping are often minor, but these issues can make the space less useful as a staging ground for DIY projects and other typical needs. New flooring in the garage makes for a quality space that can serve as a dedicated storage space, parking area for your vehicles, and a tool shed that you actually like spending time in and using for your home improvement work.
Upgraded garage floors can better handle grease, oils, or irritants
Along with an improvement in your enjoyment of the space, an upgraded garage floor is more durable, handling spills, leaks, and the standard wear and tear that's present in the room much more easily.
House Beautiful reports that durability plays a significant role in any decision to upgrade this part of the home. With a new coating in your garage, cleaning up potentially slippery spills takes less time, and the staining effect is all but eliminated completely from the equation. While concrete ends up looking like a battle zone after many years of service, alternative flooring selections hold up to the abuse of everyday life with far greater efficiency.
The durability of an alternative to concrete flooring in the garage works across damaging substances. Oils and other leaks are taken care of easily, and the effects of UV light from the sun, heavy impact from toys or tools, and many other sources of lasting damage create a far smaller impact on epoxy flooring or other durable surface options.
Upgrades make garages more environmentally friendly
Lastly, concrete is a porous material, so potentially harmful spills can eventually leech into the soil beneath the home if left unchecked for an extended period of time. Alongside the chemicals and solvents often stored in the garage, the surface itself can include volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that pour potentially harmful vapors and chemical agents into the air you breathe (via Garage Living). Flooring upgrades consider both of these issues, building a better seal into the flooring of your utility space while reducing the amount of VOCs present in the room. This is important for your health, of course, but it also plays a role in promoting a greener environment in the surrounding community that you call home. Upgrading your garage floor is beneficial for everyone!
GarageFlex also notes that concrete flooring can soak up pooling water if it makes its way underneath the foundation of your home. This can lead to extensive cracking and even structural failure if particularly severe. With this in mind, the potential hazards of leaving a concrete garage floor in place become multifaceted and significant. Not only does an old garage floor provide a potential medium for introducing harmful agents into the environment around and underneath your home, but the floor can also facilitate an intake of damaging elements.