Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[rcx822]

Someone hit the corner of my pre-fab garage with their car while navigating the corner of my alley way. The impact took down the corner of the garage so I'm having a new breezeblock garage built on the old concrete slab. The concrete base has ridges, creates dust, and is far from smooth.

The garage is 30 sq m or 322 sq.ft.

A local company has quoted £1600 for a standard duty floor using some self levelling material, but they say it won't cope long term with trolley jacks and axle stands. For a heavy duty epoxy solution it's £2600. So probably £3000 by the time I add the trims and liquid membrane.

I've read online that porcelain tiles are popular for garages in the USA, but don't seem to be available in the UK that I can find.

If I lay down screed I think it needs a min 75mm thickness so I loose some height in the garage. Will screed still generate dust? And how smooth will it be?

[47p2]

Porcelain tiles need to be laid in wet cement to ensure there are no air voids under them which could cause them to break and come away from the floor. I spoke to a client of mine who has a tiling business and he recommended quarry tiles if i had to go down that route as they are a lot harder than porcelain tiles. I eventually went for plastic tiles, easy to lay and if any are damaged easy to replace. They've been down 4 or 5 years now and still look new.

The other option you have is to hire a grinder and grind the soft top layer of concrete off your existing floor leaving a hard surface that can be sealed and will not cause any dust.

My floor was laid on the hottest day of summer, the top dried too quick even though I covered it with polythene to try and stop it drying too fast. I was left with a very chalky powdery surface that threw up plumes of white dust, so after it had cured over the winter I hired a grinder and removed the top. It's a messy job but well worth it for the end results








After finishing grinding and rinsing the floor this was the next morning





Once the floor dried for a couple of weeks I used a clear sealant to ensure there was no more dust



A couple of years later and I fitted the floor tiles


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ROVER
One of Britain's Fine Cars

[rcx822]

Someone told me about quarry tiles, apparently they were often used in workshops.

Was it levelling compound that you put down?

I don't want to grind my floor as the rebar in places was a bit close to the surface of the slab so I don't want to make things worse.

What are the plastic tiles like to work on?

[47p2]

I never put any levelling compound down. I laid the floor in 3 separate slabs, each slab approximately 3.4m x 6.7m over the course of a week, but because of the intense heat the top dried faster than it should causing the top (the cream) to go soft/powdery, so grinding the top off takes the soft top away leaving a very hard surface. I doubt if there was more than 5mm removed from the top to get to the hard surface so unless your rebar is right at the top I would doubt you will ever grind far enough down to do any damage.

Plastic tiles I used are great, I have on the odd occasion jacked up vehicles with a trolley jack directly onto the tiles without any damage, but I usually slip a piece of ply wood under first to prevent any tile damage
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ROVER
One of Britain's Fine Cars

[rcx822]

Thanks for the feedback. I haven't decided which route to take yet, but I'm thinking whichever route I take I will grind down the slab first.

[norustplease]

You can get self levelling thin bed epoxy screeds which are extremely tough, and can be coloured, non slip etc. They only add a minimal height to the floor slab. Don't go for a sand and cement based screed, they are the devil to lay and are very damage prone, as well, as you say, being around 70mm thick.
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1953 Citroen Traction
1964 Volvo PV544
1957 Austin A55 Mk 1
Boring Tucson SUV

[rcx822]

I've seen lots of epoxy layers, just not sure if they will cope with axle stands etc. I probably need to start calling the manufacturers.

[norustplease]

This material is used in factories and workshops, select a suitable industrial grade and it should be up to the job.
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1953 Citroen Traction
1964 Volvo PV544
1957 Austin A55 Mk 1
Boring Tucson SUV

[winchman]

When I sold tools for a living and visited many garages the best one I ever saw was quarry tiled, it still looked new after 20 years. The other I like is old Tram and bus garages used blocks of wood about 4" thick stood on end and secured with tar on the bottom edge as it is very tough but not cold to lie on. This could be done on the cheap with scaffold planks.
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It will come in handy even if you never use it.