You've found the famous Dave's Garden website! Join this friendly global community that shares tips and ideas for home and gardens, along with seeds and plants!
Check out the DG homepage for a brief overview of what you'll find in this gardening mega-site.
Login
If you don't have an account yet, visit the registration page to sign up.
Is there anyway to fill in long cracks in the garage and put an overlay of somesort over the garage floor? We replaced our driveway and sidewalk last year but did not want to tear the garage floor apart. I have seen the vinyl sheets of flooring for garage floors and thought this may be a choice. It comes in a roll and you roll it out. It will be around $ 900.00 to do it this way. Any other thoughts? I hate to throw money away because we have college aged boys. Thanks.
If you just want to fill in the cracks, you can buy cement that's meant for filling cracks in cement. It shouldn't cost more than $20, I don't think there's any need to spend $900 on the vinyl stuff unless you were going for a particular look for the garage. You could always stain the concrete too if you wanted something cheap but a little more decorative than plain old cement. If you want to stain, garage concrete is usually sealed which means you'll have to etch it with acid first otherwise the stain won't take.
Question- When you stain the cement does the crack stand out or does the concrete filler stain the same color as the floor? I went on the internet last night and saw there are companies that put epoxy on the floor. Do you know anything about that? Thanks.
The concrete filler might take stain a little differently than the floor, you could disguise this by doing a couple of different colors of stain in a mottled pattern, then it won't be noticeable (I've seen this done on home improvement shows on outdoor sidewalks to make the concrete look more like stone). Or if the crack is fairly small then it probably wouldn't be very noticeable.
I've also seen the epoxy coatings, never had them done or anything but I'm sure they'd cover up the crack just fine. It's definitely going to cost more than the concrete patch though.
I guess it might help to understand your goals in this project a little better--from your first post I thought your goal was to get rid of the crack and not spend a lot of money in which case the best thing to do is fill in the crack with the concrete patching material and do nothing else, but now I'm feeling maybe what you're really trying to do is get a different type of surface on your garage floor so that you have a different look than the cement?
We have a few cracks on the garage floor and they bother me. I just wanted to cover them up. They are not very deep. After filling in the cracks with the cement filler, I just wondered what the best thing to do. Some people have used cement PAINT and what a mess that turns out to be in a few years. The stain sounds good to me. I mentioned epoxy. I came across a company putting epoxy all over the garage floor after the cracks were filled in on the internet. What do you think? My Father was always a good one for advice but he is no longer around and my husband does not know much about construction issues. I really appreciate your advice. I want the cracks concealed and the floor to look nice without major cost. We live in Indiana with climate changes. Thank you...
There's nothing wrong with the epoxy, just it's expensive and you mentioned you're trying to save money, the cheap fix is definitely to fill in the cracks in the concrete and leave it alone. If you mainly use your garage for storage or to keep your cars in and don't spend much time out there, I wouldn't waste my money on the epoxy or the vinyl floor covering you mentioned in your first post, I would just fill in the cracks and that's it. On the other hand, if you have a workshop out there or an office or something else that causes you to spend a lot of time out there and you want it to look nice, then it might be worth the money to do something else with the floor.
O.k. We will fill the cracks in and really consider the staining you mentioned. Do you use muratic? acid to etch the sealant from the cement off? Or is there another product you like? We will not be doing this until summer. Weather right now is awful. Wind chill below zero. Thank you for your help...
I've never actually done it, I just know if the cement is sealed that you need to etch it first otherwise the stain won't soak in. I'm assuming cement in a garage floor would be sealed, but you should test first (drop some water on and if it soaks in right away then it's not sealed). You can use muriatic acid, but there are probably other things you can use too, I bet one of the companies that makes concrete stain also makes stuff to etch the concrete, you might pay more but it'll be the right concentration and would come with directions on exactly how to do it.
