Build a deck over broken concrete garage floor?

[EricZ]

Hi all,

I have a 100-year-old 16x16 detached alley garage in Richmond VA. Heavy wood sliding doors, too-thin concrete floor, probably not original, large areas broken and buckling, especially near the doors. I had to bust up and remove the concrete under the doors to get them to open easily, so now I have kind of a dirt trough under the doors.

The garage has a cinder-block foundation up to about 2' high, then framing and sheet metal for the walls and roof.

I have an old BMW motorcycle that I keep parked on a Harbor-Freight lift. There's not enough room in the garage to keep the lift off to one side, so I just park my bike on it. The ramp up into the garage from the alley is also all busted up, and the combination of buckling floor and buckling ramp from the alley adds to the effort of getting the bike up onto the lift.

So I was thinking last year about renting a dumpster and a SmartBox, putting all the stuff that's on the floor now into the storage box, and busting up the entire floor with a sledgehammer, and hiring a concrete guy to pour me a new floor, this time with the correct substrate etc.

But I have also been thinking about a different idea: to build a deck right over the existing floor. I could do this in stages, taking my time. It would allow me to build right up to the doors, then do a concrete ramp on the outside, leaving a sort of sunken channel for the doors to slide in.

At the same time, I could also leave an opening, or hole, where the lift is, so it would be flush, or nearly flush with the decking floor, allowing me to ride my bike right onto it from the alley. If I built the decking high enough off the concrete floor, I could also maybe have modular squares where I could lift them up for underneath access, like a computer floor, if you're familar with those. For running cat5 or a hose or something later.

Does anybody here see any problems with this idea?

Has anybody here done something like this, or seen it done?

My initial idea is a regular old backyard deck, just inside. But maybe I use composite tongue and groove, who knows.

Thanks in advance for your time and advice,

Eric

 

[The J]

I really like the idea especially seeing some really cool garages with wood floor. Having the floor even with the lift is a great idea and also keeps the static load of the parked bike of the floor.
My concern would be the gaps between the deck boards if you go that route. Stuff will fall in between. Even dry and butted will leave the grooves that will collect dirt and maybe small hardware too. If you can do tongue and groove, it may provide look and continuity that’s needed. You’ll still have gaps and more seasonal movement to consider.
There will be a lot of shimming too to get it even and some settling depending on how consistent your floor is.

Are you going to be there long term?
Have you priced both options?

Wood is stupidly expensive right now, not sure about what concrete guys are charging.

 

[73fxe]

Look up 2x6 tongue and groove boards. Install them over 4x4s it should make a solid floor.

 

[pc350]

I've been thinking of doing similar over busted up concrete between our garages. Looking forward to seeing the answers

 

[Jinks]

Short term fix over an existing problem. In a couple of years you'll have problems with both the wood deck & the concrete underneath. BTW, wood is extremely slick when riding a motorcycle. It'll make handling the bike around the lift more difficult.

Bust out the concrete, prep the surface, & pour a new floor. While you're doing that you can recess the lift into the floor so you can just ride the bike over the lift.

 

[American Locomotive]

It's a really cool idea, but the problem is the broken concrete below will still continue to shift and move around. So if you build anything on it, it will also shift and move around.

 

[EricZ]

Yeah the more I think about it, and reading the replies here, the more I come to the conclusion that it's better to fix it correctly and permanently. To build a deck, I would still have to rent a smartbox and empty the floor out, so might as well just do option A (bust up the concrete and pay for professional concrete guy).

The thing I need to figure out is how to handle the sliding doors. Originally they must have had enough clearance over the floor to slide easily, so maybe I just adopt that same philosophy and forget about a fancy sunken channel.

For the motorcycle lift, I have been looking at some ideas for adding side platforms to put my feet down on after riding up, and I think that will solve that issue, so no real need for a flush-with-floor lift.

In any case, thanks to all who replied.

Eric

 

[nh_yota]

Wood is slick enough even before you spill oil on it...

 

[GForceJunky]

I have a nearly 100 year old detached garage at my house (~20x20) and about 75% of the floor was in great shape and then in one area there was a sinkhole with buckled concrete and some shoddy repair attempts. Could've just redone half the floor or likely even less but I ended up tearing it all out, putting in vapour barrier, insulation, etc. and doing my own in-floor radiant heating system then spec'ed 6" of 4k psi reinforced concrete. Did a full epoxy finish as well as putting in a lift and it's been great. Not saying you need to go quite to those lengths but I had a similar dilemma and although the cement work was expensive it saved me headaches down the road.

My 2 cents is redo the floor. Even if you do nothing fancy to it, redo the floor. As the others said, a raised floor off a broken one isn't going to work well in the long term.

 

[mobetta]

Would the lift still go high enough for you if it were recessed??

Concrete is my vote

but if i were going the wood route i'd use 1" plywood for a motorcycle garage