Long thread warning.
Northern Illinois member here. Roughly a 400 sq ft detatched garage built in the 50's with no heat besides a portable propane unit. Been in this house for over 21 years and have gone through a few iterations of garage flooring. Gearing up to start over in 2026. Figured I'd post some pictures of what I'm dealing with and how I got here. It's a typical suburban garage used for parking two cars and storage for outdoor power equipment. I do personal vehicle maintenance in here, and random home projects, but no welding.
The concrete had signs of efflorescence and crumbling on the edges and pock marks and larger voids all over before I even started. I wasn't overly concerned with making it all smooth and perfect at the time, so I did an acid etch and applied Rustoleum Epoxyshield product with flakes. Was fine for a maybe 5 years, no hot tire pickup but was thin and lifted in several areas. Eventually all those little potholes and imperfections bothered me.
I decided I wanted something easy to cover it up that offered a more uniform looking so I went to g-floor small coin mats wall to wall. To avoid the large voids in the concrete from impacting the mats, I added some concrete leveler to those areas.
With our parking situation I have to back in and it was causing tire creep. During the cooler months this would deform the mats and cause them to lift in spots. Eventually it created a tear in the mat.
So my next decision was to apply an adhesive to the floor to hold the mats in place. That turned out to be a terrible idea as the temperature fluctuations caused the mats to shrink and expand so the glue did nothing to hold them in place. It just left me with a sticky residue all over the floor.
The mats are probably 12-14 years old at this point and past their prime. Paint over-spray, stains, the aforementioned tear, and constantly buckling in spots that are creating tripping hazards. Plus the lack of ventilation is causing moisture retention underneath them. I pull them out from time to time when the weather is warm and the buckling relaxes in the heat. But returns a few weeks later and just isn't a sustainable course of action and isn't feasible in the cooler months. The buckling is the last straw for me.
This past year I was looking at the Truelock HD vented tiles. Got samples, rendered my pattern online, but didn't pull the trigger. Life happens and unexpected expenses changed my plans so I'm sticking it out with the mats another year.
I was reading about the tiles again and saw tire creep could snap the connectors. As stated before given the way I have to park, it feels inevitable to cause me issues. I had thought I would lay them on top of the mats to quiet them and give a nice look through the openings instead of my beat up epoxied floor. But that won't address the moisture issues and pretty sure it will cause the tiles to lift where the mat buckles.
My plan for 2026 is to remove the mats, strip the adhesive, rent a diamond grinder to get back down to the original slab, level all the pock marks and voids, and apply a polycuarmine product with flake, traction additive, and UV stable clearcoat. I'm using the winter to research products and estimate costs. I plan to do the work myself during a work vacation over the course of 7-9 days. But can also break it up to do in parts as time allows.
So that's my story, thanks for reading along. I've been reading this forum for years and getting back into it again this winter to see what's new. I welcome product suggestions or other steps I should consider given my situation.
Northern Illinois member here. Roughly a 400 sq ft detatched garage built in the 50's with no heat besides a portable propane unit. Been in this house for over 21 years and have gone through a few iterations of garage flooring. Gearing up to start over in 2026. Figured I'd post some pictures of what I'm dealing with and how I got here. It's a typical suburban garage used for parking two cars and storage for outdoor power equipment. I do personal vehicle maintenance in here, and random home projects, but no welding.
The concrete had signs of efflorescence and crumbling on the edges and pock marks and larger voids all over before I even started. I wasn't overly concerned with making it all smooth and perfect at the time, so I did an acid etch and applied Rustoleum Epoxyshield product with flakes. Was fine for a maybe 5 years, no hot tire pickup but was thin and lifted in several areas. Eventually all those little potholes and imperfections bothered me.
I decided I wanted something easy to cover it up that offered a more uniform looking so I went to g-floor small coin mats wall to wall. To avoid the large voids in the concrete from impacting the mats, I added some concrete leveler to those areas.
With our parking situation I have to back in and it was causing tire creep. During the cooler months this would deform the mats and cause them to lift in spots. Eventually it created a tear in the mat.
So my next decision was to apply an adhesive to the floor to hold the mats in place. That turned out to be a terrible idea as the temperature fluctuations caused the mats to shrink and expand so the glue did nothing to hold them in place. It just left me with a sticky residue all over the floor.
The mats are probably 12-14 years old at this point and past their prime. Paint over-spray, stains, the aforementioned tear, and constantly buckling in spots that are creating tripping hazards. Plus the lack of ventilation is causing moisture retention underneath them. I pull them out from time to time when the weather is warm and the buckling relaxes in the heat. But returns a few weeks later and just isn't a sustainable course of action and isn't feasible in the cooler months. The buckling is the last straw for me.
This past year I was looking at the Truelock HD vented tiles. Got samples, rendered my pattern online, but didn't pull the trigger. Life happens and unexpected expenses changed my plans so I'm sticking it out with the mats another year.
I was reading about the tiles again and saw tire creep could snap the connectors. As stated before given the way I have to park, it feels inevitable to cause me issues. I had thought I would lay them on top of the mats to quiet them and give a nice look through the openings instead of my beat up epoxied floor. But that won't address the moisture issues and pretty sure it will cause the tiles to lift where the mat buckles.
My plan for 2026 is to remove the mats, strip the adhesive, rent a diamond grinder to get back down to the original slab, level all the pock marks and voids, and apply a polycuarmine product with flake, traction additive, and UV stable clearcoat. I'm using the winter to research products and estimate costs. I plan to do the work myself during a work vacation over the course of 7-9 days. But can also break it up to do in parts as time allows.
So that's my story, thanks for reading along. I've been reading this forum for years and getting back into it again this winter to see what's new. I welcome product suggestions or other steps I should consider given my situation.
