Different Types of Garage Flooring Takes Different Levels of Work

There are a lot of different ways to protect your garage floor with a variety of different types of garage flooring. Though there are many questions to answer when you are trying to decide which garage flooring system works best for you, one of them is, "How much work do you want to put into the project?"

Though there are many different flooring manufacturers, their products are similar, meaning that there are really only three main different types of garage flooring. Of these types, a different amount of effort is necessary for installation. The easiest to install are the interlocking tiles, next is the roll on flooring and last is the epoxy coating. Lets take a better look at each type of garage flooring and what is needed for installation.

There are a handful of companies that make interlocking or peel and stick garage floor tiles, including Gladiator, UltiMate and BLT (Better Life Technology). All of these come in about a 12" square tile. The tiles either interlock together using no adhesive, or are a peel and stick tile. These are very simple to install. They claim that no other tools are needed, but a utility knife can come in handy if you need to trim any tiles along wall edges or around corners.

The next type of garage flooring is roll on flooring. This type of flooring comes in a variety of widths, often ranging from 7' to 10' wide and usually up to 20' long. This type of flooring normally does not require any adhesive, though you may find some exceptions in different brands. Roll on flooring is also very easy to install, but I bumped it up to just a bit more difficult for a couple of reasons. Basically, you just remove everything from your garage, and unroll the mat, then overlap or bump any seems. The reasons I thought it might be a bit trickier is, first, the longer roll is more difficult to handle than tiles, and second, if you have to make any cuts to go around corners or posts, cutting a large piece of flooring is more work than a small 12" tile. But, if no cutting is needed in your garage, a roll type flooring would involve less labor and be quicker than the tiles.

The most intensive type of flooring to install in your garage is an epoxy coating. This process involves having to prep the area (which includes a thorough cleaning) and then often multiple layers of an epoxy coating. The process alone can take from several hours up a couple of days, and often you have to wait about 24 hours before you can use your garage. Obviously, not all system are the same, and the process will vary, but all are more labor intensive than either tile or roll-on garage flooring. But you can get a very nice finish on your floor that will add years of protection, and some companies offer really unique finishes, like the Roll on Rock finish that gives your garage floor a granite type look.

So, if labor is a primary concern, whether you want to do very little or have the time to do a lot, hopefully this information will help as you decide which type of garage flooring will work best for you.