Floor and Wall Questions

[Cheburator]

Greetings from the other side of the pond...

Been a lurker for a while, but decided to ask some questions.

We bought our dream house, which comes in with a integral double garage. Well, for you would be a single, but for us is a double at 19'6" x 16'11". I cannot show pictures yet as we have not completed. Don't ask - buying a house in the UK is complicated... Anyway, back to the garage and my questions:

The floor - it has a concrete floor, which seems to be in decent condition, but it is rough. I also don't like the dust which comes with it. I do a lot of work on my race car and classic Porsche, thus having a reasonably clean environment is almost compulsory. I am thinking about putting down porcelain tiles. Would I need to do any special preparation? Floor is straight - the house has been built to a very high standard in 1982.

The walls - they are clay bricks and breezblock cavity walls. For some reason they were not painted or plastered. I am thinking that ideally I would like to get a smooth white wall. Should I consider putting dry wall? Seems the easiest and likely to offer some insulation too, but I really don't want to lose width. Putting two Porsches side-by-side is almost a must. Or should I just plaster over the bricks/breezblocks and then paint white?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

This site has been inspirational and I hope to be able to put pictures up once I start the renovation process on the 2nd May.

Alex

 

[stormr]

I'd say as far as prep for tiles if the floor is straight you shouldnt have to prep much just use good cleaner for concrete and make sure the floor is smooth. Although personanly I wouldnt go with porcelain tiles, while they would look nice, I dont think theres any possible way in a garage to not accidently drop a wrench or something large with would crack a tile and then it would take alot of tile to break out and replace tiles each time. As far as the walls, seeing as it will be housing porches and judging from the tile idea I'm guessing youd be a rather clean person in there and I'd probably go with drywall, at least it would be the most professional looking interior, and rather inexpensive to do. Hope this helps, I'm sure others will chime in with there ideas soon too.

--Brian