MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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My garage has a fairly level but rough concrete floor. It gets bit of damp coming up through the floor and every once in while it floods during heavy rain that comes in through the single skin brick wall. Water pools on the concrete outside and I plan to cut it out along the wall and install a gulley, but I don't think it will ever be truly dry.
I've had it covered in light duty foam floor tiles, they were good in that they let the floor breath but were not up to pulling trolley jack and roller cabs over it and running a wheel barrow through to the garden. I've repurposed horse stable mats and ribbed rubber matting for horsebox ramps but they allow water to collect under then and it starts to go manky and smell.
I've always wanted to properly tile it with Quarry tiles but at just over 15sqm the price really starts adding up, towards £800 without adhesive/grout/levelling compound, and thats probably crappy indoor tiles rather than the sort of thing I see on old workshop floors.
I know there are loads of garage floor tile systems, is there anything suited to a damp/occasionally wet floor that isn't an open grid style (thats going to swallow every dropped bolt and ball bearing) and fairly easy to sweep/vacuum out? The garage needs to morph from a dusty, damp, bike mud strewn mess into somewhere we can stick a turbo trainer and be relatively comfortable!
If it wasn't for the damp I'd be tempted to floor level it and then roll out the toughest lino floor I can find, but I think its just going to go really mouldy if I do that (and possibly float when it floods, like foam floor tiles do!)
I'd try and put a french drain around the base, ideally with a perforated pipe levelled so water will drain off and your shed won't be sitting in wet soil that soaks into the base
I did similar in my own shed and it has stopped water off the field getting in. Now it goes around in the pipe and away to a soak away I dug
The pipe was in a trench full of 20mm, topped with 10mm. The pipe sits in a geotextile sock to keep fines out.
Once you done that the base should dry out over time. Personal I wouldn't cover it, you want the damp to dry off and covering will just hold it it
Its a 60's concrete floor, I can't imagine it has a moisture barrier in it so I think it will always draw damp through it. Hopefully I can stop the actual flooding with the drain.
I have a 50 year old garage built of concrete sections on a concrete base which extends 6" out from the walls. I solved the majority of the damp issues. First, using mortar I added a bit of a slope to the part of the conrete slab the water was pooling on so it drained off. Part of the concrete base was well above ground level. That was enough there. The other sides where the slab was near ground level I dug a foot of soil away from the edge of the slab and replaced with gravel.
It did not appear to have a dpc under the slab. I waited until it dried out in summer then put two coats of bitumen paint on top of the floor and 2 feet up the walls. Solved. In as much as any unheated concrete building will ever be dry.
My concrete floor was smooth enough to use as is after bitumen treatment. If it was particularly rough I would do what I did for my 14x10ft shed with a concrete floor. Buy a cheap offcut of carpet. Cheap to buy and cheap to replace in a few years if it gets manky.
I built a garage last year and used the interlocking pvc tiles. Can't remember exactly but think it was Duramat although I reckon they'll all be much of a muchness. Was about £500 for a mix of red & black tiles plus edging strips for the doors, more than enough to cover 18m²
Took about 4 hours to fit - I did have a table saw & plunge saw to help me with the cutting - and it is really excellent stuff. I've got bikes, motorbikes, gym gear, tools, etc. getting ragged about every day but a quick sweep/mop and it looks like new.
I had this in an old garage, I'm bitumen painted it with 3 coats then applied a self leveling screed which did the job. Previously stuff was rusting really quite badly, this certainly worked whilst i still had the house.
Thanks guys, I think I'll go with the tiles especially as the X joint ones say they are suitable for damp floors. I might throw in an extra £150 to epoxy seal the floor and bottom of walls too.
Don’t waste money on epoxy if it is damp - it won’t stick.
Ideally cure the water ingress at source by improving drainage. Paint the floor & 0.5m up the walls with bitumen or tanking slurry.
Thanks Tilly. Think I'll lay the tiles when they arrive and once its summer, the drainage is sorted and everything is nice and dry, I'll empty the very cluttered garage onto the drive for a weekend and get it properly swept out and painted, and then relay the tiles. Like I said I would when I moved in 10 years ago!
Surprisingly, Screwfix appears to be the best price, I'm going for the X Joint ones that seem to be sold under a few names but they look identical so I guess they are all the same and from R-TEK. The Screwfix instructions seem to be re-written but basically the same as R-TEK.
Bostik E570 epoxy DPM and then looselay interlocking tiles inside. Improve drainage outside
Bookmarked. Have a garage with the same issues
PS Screwfix wasn't the cheapest, had toggled the site prices to ex VAT by mistake.