How I upgraded my garage floor (HUGE Difference)

hey i'm glenn and today we're gonna make this floor look a whole lot better best part is it's so simple you don't even need a lot of skills to do this we don't need a lot of tools let's do this so i've spent a lot of time trying to find a perfect solution for this base when i originally built the cabinets on the back wall i saw a few comments saying that i should epoxy this floor while i considered that the obstacle in a way really pushed me away from that option although i like to finish up this space i work on this in between projects so i get to it when i get a chance now as you can see the garage floor has paint on it and i didn't want to go through the trouble of removing this now i'm not sure if the original paint was done during the construction of the home or not but personally i don't want to go through that phase again so after looking at many options i've set it on the pvc floor by husky which i'll be installing in this video but before i get started some prep work needs to be done now as i was inspecting the floor i noticed there was some sort of fabric or shredding that was protruding through the paint i'm not sure if this fell in as they were painting the floor or they just painted right over it good thing i'm not epoxy in the floor because otherwise i'd have to remove this possibly sand it up and i'm definitely not into that there used to be a safety bollard here that would prevent any cars from driving into the hot water heater i removed that when i eventually installed the cabinets but now i need to remove the bolts i decided to use a hacksaw cut into the bolt enough for me to hit it with the hammer and finish breaking it off i want the tile to be as close to the wall as possible based on its rating i wanted to clean up everything that was in its way even if that means chipping off some of the stucco that was sticking out into the floor i also looked around for anything that i felt would lift the tile or create a hump in it while this spot is not too bad i went around and look for areas that may have a dip in it to fill this out i mix some bondo and flatten it out [Music] after about 20 minutes i went over it with a sander now i have the floor to a state that i'm happy with it's time to clean it now that the floor is free of debris it's a good time to take a measurement and lay out the tiles i'm actually going to take three measurements one towards the front the middle and near the back so these measurements are going to tell me how accurate the garage is from the front to the back i had a difference of about an inch from the front to where i took my third measurement knowing this will let me know that i have to make custom cuts towards the end i'm going to take the measurement closest towards the garage find the center of that and make a mark on the garage floor i would also find the center of the two areas that i measured from the front to back then i'll double check these two indications to the first one i marked just to see how they line up once i confirm the center of the garage then i'm ready to roll i measure one of the tile to find the center of it then place the mark on it and line it up to the first indication i made towards the entry of the garage door now i'll keep that tile in the center and start branching off towards the outside the tiles have an interlocking system so as long as you line them up you can then use a mallet and hammer them together now it's recommended that you use a rubber mallet do not use a hammer now i'll continue connecting tiles until i get as far as i can towards the edge typically you'll install the tiles and then come back and install the trim kit in this case i'm going to start off the tile in the exact position that i want the end result to be so i'll put the trim on now and shift this around until i get it right to the spot and then i'll begin the rest of the installation with the trim kit installed and the first row tile is in the exact position that i want it to be which is about an inch from the edge of the slab i'll then measure both sides to make sure i have equal distance on either side now to kick off the rest of this i'm going to install the first tile in the second row in the very center and work that all the way back as far as i can go so for a quick tip here be careful when you're opening up a box of tile because you can easily score the top of them i'm not sure why they didn't flip the tile upside down this way when you cut the box you're not cutting the visible side i'm liking where i'm going so far i've made the row going across the front and now i've also made a row going through the middle i'm going to work my way from the middle and just do that entire side i'm going to leave the perimeter until the end but i'll then come on this side of the center and work my way all the way towards the wall as well and we'll see how we do let's go once you get to the point that i'm at right now the instructions do say you should go from side to side and work your way all the way towards the back but i was keeping an eye on my hot water heater and i figured i'll just do one side and just work my way to that side because i needed to take the heater out so i can put the tile under it and to be clear i ran into no issues going with this method seems that either one would have worked i wanted to see big progress as i proceeded so i decided to work on two rows at a time installing two tiles as i go now as i was going i was double checking to make sure i wasn't creating any air pockets under the tile i was installing or the previous row this was a good indication that the tiles were going down flat and the row was straight [Music] [Music] [Music] now that i worked my way over to the hot water heater i was ready to drain it so i can move it out of the way i put the hose on and i open up the valve and nothing the valve was either clogged or just not working i didn't want to get hung up on this so i decided to pivot and finish up the tiles to finish off the perimeter of the floor i need to cut a full tile and in order to do this and do it at least close to accurate here's what i did i measure from the inside of the interlocking section on the tile already installed to the wall once i have that number i'll subtract a quarter inch from it then i'll measure the tile to be cut and measure from the outside of the interlocking section and place a mark in this case i'm taking two measurements if my first measurement is on the left side of the tile installed i'll place the mark on the left side of the tile to be cut i'll do this for both sides of the tile now to cut the tiles all you need is a utility knife and a straight edge depending how sharp your blade is you can get through this rather quick the market method i use seems to work out very well so i continue to use that and to speed things up i'll take all the measurements and marking for this side then i'll cut it all at once and there will be no steps skipped here i'll work this tile all the way under the cabinet and to the wall and luckily once i get to the back of this wall i'm able to take off the parts that was cut away from the sides and install them here once i got to this section of the garage i made an executive decision to shrink the gap around the door entry so it's not as visible all right so at this point i've tried to run water through the heater but it's not coming so i seem to have a plug drain here and i want to try to avoid replacing that because i found out that these can be a challenge to replace so i'm going to try to basically dig into this and see if i can remove some of the debris that's inside so i'm hoping i don't get too wet right now i have this tarp here so i don't get water under the towel because i couldn't get this to drain i thought about just replacing this for a tankless hot water heater but after doing some research i just do not have the proper circuit in this area so i'm going to leave it alone and let that be a future thing for now i gotta figure out how to get this thing to drain i tried using a cloth hanger but i guess i couldn't get past the ball inside the valve so to bring you up to date i managed to just use my air compressor to sort of push up in here to relieve that and a whole bunch of rocks came out of this hot water heater i guess that just shows you how dirty um the water is coming from the city supply so i think i got it cleared out now i'm going to hook my hose to this thing and just drain it all right so now i hear the water coming out of the heater so we're doing pretty good i'm just going to drain this and then i'll try to lift this without taking it out the way i'm just going to drain it and see if i can hoist it up and just get up under it with the towel if you're doing this you need to turn off the breaker turn off the water and disconnect the water line or call a plumber because i have flexible water lines and i do not have plumber's putty on hand i see that there is some on the threads of the water line i do not want to remove the water lines unless i really have to once i got all the water out of the heater i was able to hoist this up so i can work under it mission accomplish now i'll get this thing back into place turn on the water turn on the heater and make sure i keep the valve open so get all the air out of the line and i'm done here i thought about how i want to finish off the front and i decided to keep it simple by going straight across [Music] when i first started off this installation i noticed the trim kit didn't sit flat on the floor and over time it seems to flatten itself out now i will keep an eye on this edge and if it becomes an issue i'm gonna take liquid nail run it across and permanently hold this down aside from the heavy toolbox and hot water heater which i had nowhere else to put i kept the floor weight free for 48 hours allowing everything to settle and stretch itself out considering this is the floating floor one of the things i was concerned about was what would happen with the floor once you roll weight on top of it and the answer to that is nothing for a second i thought this would bubble up as if you're pushing weight across carpet but nope it's amazing how a new floor can transformer space with the same things in this space the painted floor was a huge distraction away from everything else that was changing and even with the floor being done my eyes moved up and now i see a new distraction in here which is the wall the baseboard area now i'm possibly nitpicking but i'm gonna feel empty if i don't tackle this now as much as i wanted to be done i had to make a trip to go pick up some pvc trim not only will this hide the ugly area on the wall but will also hide the edge of the tile making it look a bit more professional since i'm dealing with a cinder block wall brad nails will not work here so i'll have to use liquid nail to attach this to the wall i apply the liquid nail favoring one side of the pvc trim and that's because the wall has a taper to it so it tapers in towards the bottom and it would be just wasted now the right way i think to do this is to fill in the bottom so you have a straight flat surface from top to bottom you can fill that in with stucco or you can rip thin strips of wet rated wood but you know how expensive wood is nowadays so i dare you i also didn't want this to turn into a big project and i didn't need this to be an eyesore and if this fails in the future i'll just take it off and apply more liquid now for additional details on this check out the written article on my website at diycreators.com so i still have more work to do in here i'm thrilled with the outcome of the floor and i really felt like it improved the space a lot but as i tell you i'm working on this in between projects so it's going to be a slow process but i will get you to finish results once i'm done in here you

Channel: DIY Creators

Views: 3,444,627

Rating: 4.9178362 out of 5

Keywords: DIY, DIY Creators, diy room decor, diy projects, garage floor, garage floor tiles, garage flooring, how to install garage flooring, garage flooring installation, garage floor tiles interlocking, How I upgraded my garage floor (Using Interlocking PVC Tiles), garage floor mats, garage tile, garage flooring options, pvc flooring, pvc flooring installation

Id: o-LEpiFFoa8

Length: 15min 45sec (945 seconds)

Published: Sun May 23 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/MisterSlosh]

How does this compare in cost of product versus the epoxy pour you mentioned?

I've always wanted to try the simplicity of a tile like this but scaling it up to a 2.5 car garage makes my wallet cry.

[u/glemlin]

The 'fabric' sticking up is fiberglass, it's mixed into the concrete when pouring to give it more tensile strength. A bunch of loose strands are mixed in and spreads around reducing substantial cracking. Sticking up likely just means it wasn't finished as nicely as it could have been.

[u/Global_Mixture_4077]

It came out really nice. I wouldn't have guessed it would look that good. I like the trim you used to cover of the stemwall around the edge. Your garage is looking very neat and professional.

[u/pdxchris]

You forgot the hardest part... Having an empty garage.

[u/Calling-Out-Stupid]

I think the “rocks” from the tank are calcium buildup. Make sure you’re replacing the rod in the tank every few years, and you want to drain that thing completely every year.

Depends on your water supply, but it’s relatively easy maintenance

[u/dddghhbh]

Well done - thanks

[u/JohnC53]

I wonder how this would work over a garage floor that 'sweats' not a ton, but it'll get damp for sure. I'd hate to get mold or something growing under these. OR, maybe these tiles would act as an insulator so they didn't sweat??

To OP: great video and format, nicely done.

[u/maxirabbit]

Nice job.

[u/diycreators]

Check out the written article on the floor tile installation for a full walkthrough https://diycreators.com/husky-pvc-flooring I add additional points I didn't address in the video over time.