Best Garage Floor Coatings: Walk All Over It

Top 7 Best Garage Floor Coatings

If you’re reading this and lucky enough to have an enclosed garage, we salute you. Owning a place in which to wrench on vehicles is an important life goal for a lot of gearheads; lying on one’s back and fixing transmissions in a mud puddle begins to lose its allure after about two hours.

Once you have a garage, it’s not the worst of ideas to treat the floor with some sort of coating. This will help protect the surface from those inevitable spills that occur when you rush an oil change or get distracted by a Pirelli calendar while adding coolant to your Chevy’s radiator.

Here’s a sampling of a few products we found online.

Continuing a tradition stretching back, oh, weeks at least, we’re leading off a list of these products with one on which your author has spent his own hard-earned money. This garage floor coating is easy to apply (after all, if I did it successfully so can you) and won’t break the bank. Different colors are available, with your author choosing red because he is extroverted and annoying.

The standard grey color comes with these painted chips for decoration, making the whole thing look like a showroom floor. I decided to add these chips to my selection of red paint, creating a unique look that I enjoy immensely. Make sure to pepper the floor with plenty of these flakes for a good finished look. This two-part system doesn’t require a week’s worth of prep and you can drive on it within three or four days. Best of all, it seems impervious to spills and hot-tire pickup, even after enduring a series of demolition derby cars. Fun fact: you can still leave burn-out marks on it.

Continuing a tradition stretching back, oh, weeks at least, we’re leading off a list of these products with one on which your author has spent his own hard-earned money. This garage floor coating is easy to apply (after all, if I did it successfully so can you) and won’t break the bank. Different colors are available, with your author choosing red because he is extroverted and annoying.

The standard grey color comes with these painted chips for decoration, making the whole thing look like a showroom floor. I decided to add these chips to my selection of red paint, creating a unique look that I enjoy immensely. Make sure to pepper the floor with plenty of these flakes for a good finished look. This two-part system doesn’t require a week’s worth of prep and you can drive on it within three or four days. Best of all, it seems impervious to spills and hot-tire pickup, even after enduring a series of demolition derby cars. Fun fact: you can still leave burn-out marks on it.

A good concrete floor paint is highly durable, easy to clean and won't scuff, fade, crack or blister easily, even from hot tires and other heavy activity. This single component, water-based floor paint is formulated to last in hard to clean areas like basements and garages.

As it is resistant to staining and damage from chemicals found in oil and gasoline, it’s a decent choice for a quick spruce up, but don’t expect it to last the length of an epoxy coat system. A gallon should cover about 350 square feet in your author’s experience, meaning you’ll need a couple to comfortably finish a standard suburban double garage.

A good concrete floor paint is highly durable, easy to clean and won't scuff, fade, crack or blister easily, even from hot tires and other heavy activity. This single component, water-based floor paint is formulated to last in hard to clean areas like basements and garages.

As it is resistant to staining and damage from chemicals found in oil and gasoline, it’s a decent choice for a quick spruce up, but don’t expect it to last the length of an epoxy coat system. A gallon should cover about 350 square feet in your author’s experience, meaning you’ll need a couple to comfortably finish a standard suburban double garage.

Here we have a durable, non-slip, texture coating that provides a decorative finish for concrete and masonry surfaces. Think places like pool decks and walkways, meaning it can technically be used on a garage floor as well to spruce up a tired surface or simply change the look of the place.

Paintable and tintable, this premium acrylic formula is said to hide surface imperfections while providing a tough finish that resists damage from salt, oil, and gas. The seller says it has been performance-tested on commercial traffic sites, outwearing conventional anti-skid coatings and paints. Fun fact: it’s also suitable for wood stairs, so go ahead and paint your steps with zeal.

Here we have a durable, non-slip, texture coating that provides a decorative finish for concrete and masonry surfaces. Think places like pool decks and walkways, meaning it can technically be used on a garage floor as well to spruce up a tired surface or simply change the look of the place.

Paintable and tintable, this premium acrylic formula is said to hide surface imperfections while providing a tough finish that resists damage from salt, oil, and gas. The seller says it has been performance-tested on commercial traffic sites, outwearing conventional anti-skid coatings and paints. Fun fact: it’s also suitable for wood stairs, so go ahead and paint your steps with zeal.

This stuff from the “does what it says on the label” company called Supercoat is available in half a dozen colors including the natty blue shown here. The kit includes a cleaner/degreaser for preparing the surface to be coated, the two-part epoxy coating, an anti-slip aggregate to prevent the floor from being slippery.

After the prep, which doesn’t sound like too much of a chore since no acid etching or mechanical preparation is necessary, one simply follows the instructions and applies it to the floor with the ease of painting a wall. You do know how to paint a wall, right?

This stuff from the “does what it says on the label” company called Supercoat is available in half a dozen colors including the natty blue shown here. The kit includes a cleaner/degreaser for preparing the surface to be coated, the two-part epoxy coating, an anti-slip aggregate to prevent the floor from being slippery.

After the prep, which doesn’t sound like too much of a chore since no acid etching or mechanical preparation is necessary, one simply follows the instructions and applies it to the floor with the ease of painting a wall. You do know how to paint a wall, right?

No, this item doesn’t place Jeep’s new truck in your garage nor does it cause Russell Crowe to appear and shout Roman phrases at you. This easy to install tab and loop garage floor tile system snaps together quickly and is assembled without adhesives. This means you can take it with you to your next home.

The tiles are 12 inches square and measure a half-inch deep. Matching garage floor tiles, drain tiles, and trim pieces make it easy to create professional-looking designs, causing your friends to think you splashed out big bucks for a designer. Alternatively, you can design the layout such that it spells a crude phrase (not that your author has ever helped assemble such a thing; no, sir).

No, this item doesn’t place Jeep’s new truck in your garage nor does it cause Russell Crowe to appear and shout Roman phrases at you. This easy to install tab and loop garage floor tile system snaps together quickly and is assembled without adhesives. This means you can take it with you to your next home.

The tiles are 12 inches square and measure a half-inch deep. Matching garage floor tiles, drain tiles, and trim pieces make it easy to create professional-looking designs, causing your friends to think you splashed out big bucks for a designer. Alternatively, you can design the layout such that it spells a crude phrase (not that your author has ever helped assemble such a thing; no, sir).

You’ve seen the YouTube video in which auction staff on stage at a snazzy event go down like a row of synchronized dominos thanks to a car locking its brakes on slipping carpet, right? Well, according to the seller, that won’t happen here thanks to a waterproof backing grip.

Its surface is made from an absorbing fabric, apparently, which can be cleaned but gives your author pause. The ad says this mat should hold liquid and “sludge from the car” without seeping through and staining the concrete floor underneath. Given the leaky nature of most of your author’s vehicles, it would have to be very absorbent.

You’ve seen the YouTube video in which auction staff on stage at a snazzy event go down like a row of synchronized dominos thanks to a car locking its brakes on slipping carpet, right? Well, according to the seller, that won’t happen here thanks to a waterproof backing grip.

Its surface is made from an absorbing fabric, apparently, which can be cleaned but gives your author pause. The ad says this mat should hold liquid and “sludge from the car” without seeping through and staining the concrete floor underneath. Given the leaky nature of most of your author’s vehicles, it would have to be very absorbent.

Ludacris released a track called ‘Roll Out’ nearly 20 years ago. Why am I mentioning this in a post about garage floor coverings? Because if that song is stuck in my head after reading the name of this product, then I’m going to do my utmost to make sure it’s stuck in yours, too.

Here we have a vinyl roll of garage floor covering embossed with diamond plate patterns so your space looks like the truck accessory section of a 1980s JC Whitney catalog. It is available in a number of sizes, up to 25 feet wide. The seller says the mat is designed not to slip but does recommend applying double-sided carpet tape to the edges if you’re paranoid.

Ludacris released a track called ‘Roll Out’ nearly 20 years ago. Why am I mentioning this in a post about garage floor coverings? Because if that song is stuck in my head after reading the name of this product, then I’m going to do my utmost to make sure it’s stuck in yours, too.

Here we have a vinyl roll of garage floor covering embossed with diamond plate patterns so your space looks like the truck accessory section of a 1980s JC Whitney catalog. It is available in a number of sizes, up to 25 feet wide. The seller says the mat is designed not to slip but does recommend applying double-sided carpet tape to the edges if you’re paranoid.

From time to time, TTAC will highlight automotive products we think may be of interest to our community. Plus, posts like this help to keep the lights on around here. Learn more about how this works.

(Editor’s note: This post is meant to both help you be an informed shopper for automotive products but also to pay for our ‘[s]90s sedan shopping habits[/s] operating expenses. Some of you don’t find these posts fun, but they help pay for Junkyard Finds, Rare Rides, Piston Slaps, and whatever else. Thanks for reading.)

[Product images provided by the manufacturer.]