If you have a dirty garage floor or even cracks in the concrete, it’s tempting to ignore it. After all, this is the spot where, more times than not, you’re rushing in and out, loading up a trunk, or heading inside with an armload of groceries.
But pause for a minute to consider what a durable, pro-finished floor can do for you and this high-traffic space. A sleek, seamless surface is low-maintenance and easier to clean. (No more tracking dust into the house.) Without cracks, moisture and odors don’t get trapped. An expertly applied flake floor also hides wear and tear and holds up longer than raw concrete. A great-looking floor can even motivate you to keep the rest of the garage clean and clutter-free.
Knowing this, we were curious about how a vinyl flake floor actually comes together. So we tapped the gurus at Garage Kings—a North American residential floor-coating company headquartered in Wilmington, DE—to lay it all out at House Beautiful’s Whole Home 2021 in Fredericksburg, Texas.
“We fill in any cracks or pitting in the concrete and apply a premium base coat, using a polyaspartic coating, which is UV-resistant and more flexible than epoxy,” says Ty Rainsberg, a Garage Kings franchise owner in Albany, NY. “After that, we apply our signature vinyl flakes and then add our premium top coat. For our highest-quality floor, we add another layer of base coat, flakes and top coat for additional durability and smoothness. All the layers fuse together to create a strong, beautiful floor.”
Turns out, that multi-step process entails some surprisingly mesmerizing sweeping, pouring, and sprinkling steps that pretty much, uh, floored us.
