Hi, we are just finishing of our house and I have a small dedicated garage for the Hypermotard. The floor is presently just a plain unfinished concrete floor. I am looking for recommendations for a suitable floor covering / finish for the floor. I need something that is durable but comfortable to work on. Preferably something I can do myself. What do you use? What would you recommend? Cheers, Gandalf
I'm in the same position with my new 5m x 4m garage. I'm going with the idea of those interlocking tiles like they use in pit garages. I know that some consider them cheap and not up to long-term usage, but I'm not a heavy garage user (servicing my own bike and using it as my man cave). Here's what I have now. I'm picturing, tiles on the floor, paint on the walls with big stencils of various bike brand logos around the top of the walls. Space for TV on the wall running my Xbox and ability to watch GP. My workbench and cupboards will be down the left, with a tall cupboard for helmet and leathers (garage is heated so no issue). Hoping the police will also let me have my gun safe in the helmet & leather cupboard but I know they can be funny about guns in the garage. It is adjoined to the house though and secure. Hopefully will get some seating in front of the rad on the right.
If the concrete is very smooth (power floated) - then some 4 mm vinyl (lino) stuck down with adhesive - like they use in UK hospitals is good. If floor is rough - then maybe something like a screed or self leveling compound first. I have ceramic tiles - looks nice - but don't drop a hammer and lethal when wet.
Used carpet tiles from eBay. I paid £25 for my 6x4.5m garage and have loads left. Really comfortable to sleep on when the wife kicks me our.
I'm going to use click together vinyl with underlay first. The underlay acts as a damp course and insulates as well. Not the cheapest but is washable and hard wearing and looks good once fitted.
I painted mine with medium grey 2k floor paint and initially it looked great. It does mark up terribly with tyres though so I'm going to tile it with ceramic tiles like you'd see in a bike dealership at some point. It does keep the dust down quite a bit compared to the concrete floor I painted over.
My dad has his painted and said the same about the marking. Warned me off and said he wouldn't do it again. The hospital style laminate sounds quite good though. My floor is quite smooth, any little bumps I can sand out. Might have to price that up against the tiles.
My bike lift weighs anywhere between 300kg ~ 340 kg with a bike on it and 140kg by itself. It has cracked the paint in places on my floor just wheeling it about. I'm worried laminate or lino wouldn't fare so well, hence going for a tile. They seem to work well in dealerships.
Always a Dilemma this one. Personally I've stuck with a concrete floor, as I've not found anything tough enough to deal with the metal wheels of my trolley jack lifting my 2.7Tn Discovery 3. It would be really nice to have a dedicated area to work on my bikes with a cleaner more comfortable surface though, so I'm seriously considering drawing a line down the centre of the garage and only painting one side. Nasher
I got a job lot of porcelain tiles for mine to keep dust down when I restored z900 They work really well for that and obviously don't mark or dent but very slippery when wet A guy I know who has his own car repair workshop has just got some plastic tiles from a company called Plasfloor in Birmingham (sure there will be other places) They will send you a free sample Think I may go that way on moving house
Halfords do a garage floor that goes together like jigsaw, quite soft, but ideal, good to walk and kneel on, can always put something under side stand, it is pretty cheap too especially if you have a trade card.
The rubber floor mat that comes on a roll from Machine mart. Had mine down for 3 years now with no issues at all. https://www.machinemart.co.uk/categories/?search=rubbere floor
I used Polymax company. Various end of roll deals to be had. I got grey vinyls roll, oil, solvent proof and has a raised diamond pattern. Just under £200 with a fair bit left over (single garage floor). A doddle to keep clean and non slip.
