Increase appeal and best value to lowest investment cost?
Epoxy your garage floor.
For about $250 you can buy an epoxy kit from the home improvement box stores. You will also need a
1. broom, $20
2. large squeegee, $20
3. an extra can of cement paint, $50
4. an extra bag of paint chips. $20
5. Industrial degreaser, $20
6. Own, rent, or borrow a pressure washer.
7. If you have cracks in your floor, Concrete Patch and repair kit $20-$40
8. If you want to get fancy, fill in the divots on the knee walls in the garage with a flexible floor patch, something more like putty, so it will not run down the knee walls
Tools and material will come to about $400-$450, minus the power washer rental.
The key to adhering the Epoxy properly is prep, prep, prep.
Scrape the floor of any paint or debris. Clean the floor with an industrial degreaser, broom, power washer, and use a stiff brush broom to scrub the floor. Remember for the epoxy to set, the floor must be dry, so wait a week from the last time you use water on the garage floor.
Fix cracks with a concrete patch and repair kit. Force it with a putty knife into the cracks, when set, grind is down if you want a flat finish, after the epoxy.
However, paint chips are great for camouflaging imperfections in the floor. After the floor is set, the paint chips also provide traction and texture for when the floor is wet from snow or water.
Be sure to ‘etch’, the concrete floor, in the kits there will be an acid, it will open the pores of the garage floor so that the epoxy can bind with the floor. There are YouTube videos out there, watch a couple of them, to not miss steps and prep the floor properly.
The kit I used was a 2.5 bay size kit. My garage is 2 bays and tight, so having extra epoxy is good for a strong finish. If you have a large garage, use 2 kits. Once you mix the epoxy, you have about 45 minutes per bag. It spreads with a paint roller, the kits have special rollers that come with them. Just roll up to the knee wall.
An added step is painting the cement walls in the garage with concrete paint. Match up the color of your floor. There is no need to epoxy the walls as no one will be driving on them! As you paint throw paint chips at the wall right away, they will stick to the paint. I also painted the stairs, they were plywood, with 2x4 handrails. My garage looks spectacular, clean, and catches the eye.
My garage looks like a new car showroom. I went the extra mile and built a shed and store most everything in the shed. So, the garage is an organized, and uncluttered visual delight to behold.
If your garage is the most used entrance to your house, or if you are thinking of selling, the presentation value, and return on a garage rejuvenation, is exponential.
