The Garage Fleckels
So we are going to do a little throw back today. I'm even going to add a little hint of Fall since it's just around the corner.
I'm going to take you through the Garage Remodel of October 2012. The Fall is the ideal time to do any garage remodel. This is an unofficial (and unqualified) "how to" on remodeling your garage. Specifically, how to redo your garage floors.
I wish I had more pictures from this process to share with you, but you're going to have to settle for the basics.
Here we go:
Step 1 - Determine the layout you need in your garage in order to fit your vehicles and/or junk.
For us, we have a pretty small garage that has to fit a refrigerator, cabinets, and shelving. Because of this, we can only fit 1 vehicle in the garage (my lil' bitty car). Despite the single car limitations, we wanted to make sure we could fit a large vehicle in the garage just in case we ever upgraded vehicles. (I've always dreamed of a Tahoe or 4 Runner - a girl can dream!)
After deciding we needed to have the ability to fit a larger vehicle in the garage, we determined that we needed to rearrange the cabinetry. Luckily for us, the cabinetry was not screwed to the floor/walls.
Step 2 - Do your prep work. Every garage is different so for us, our garage remodel scope was bigger than most. We had drywall tape hanging from the ceiling and missing on the walls. We knew there was a need to patch those areas and paint the walls just for general maintenance. We figured out that we should acid wash the floors, tape & re bed the drywall, paint the walls, and THEN focus on the floors. For those of you only focusing on the floors you can skip ahead.
Step 3 - Empty the garage. This sounds horrible, I know, but it was necessary. Resist the temptation to go through every item when you are emptying the garage. Just get it out of the way for the moment. Our living room became a scary place to be.
Step 4- Acid wash the concrete. We chose to do the acid wash before we did anything else because we didn't want to damage newly painted walls with the acid. With the raw walls, we had much less to worry about if something got splashed.
We used regular concrete acid cleaner from Home Depot and it worked great. Granted, the instructions suggested 1 part acid to 10 parts water (1:10), and we used equal parts acid and water (1:1). Twice. But our floor was dirty folks. Dirty! It had to be done. REMEMBER to wear your safety clothes and gear. The acid is strong and can seriously hurt your lungs or skin if you get it on you. I also suggest that you do this step with at least a 2 person team. It is helpful for someone to man the water hose while the other person handles the acid solution.
Power wash or use a powerful water hose to clean all the acid off the floor once the acid has done it's job. Do this twice to be thorough and squeegee the water off the floor if you can. The more you clean the floor, the better the paint will adhere.
Let the floor thoroughly dry for a day or 2.
Step 5 - We hired a contractor to tape and re-bed the drywall. I would suggest this to be a DIY project if you are handy, but Jordan and I decided it was way too much for us to take on. The professional got it done much faster!
Step 6 - Our contractor also painted the walls and ceilings for us. Again, this could easily be a DIY project but we got a package deal from the contractor. Plus, the ceiling can be tricky to paint. We decided to use "Canvas Tan" from Sherwin Williams Paint. We love those guys and that color looked very clean. If you need to repaint the walls or ceilings, remember to have the painter lay down several drop clothes. If you've just acid washed the floor, the last thing you want is paint drippings that you have to wash off. Clean the floor once more with a powerful water hose and let it dry.
Step 7 - Decide on the paint color and deco flake color you want for your floor. The flakes (nicknamed "fleckels" by Jordan and I) come in all different colors.
Step 8 - Decide how you are going to paint yourself out of the space. Jordan and I decided that we would start with the trim along the walls and garage door. We did these areas by hand and didn't worry about adding any deco flakes. Don't worry, it will still look very good at the end. We also decided to use a roller for the rest of the floor. Our strategy was to paint in long stripes from the back wall towards the drive way. Each stripe was about 30 inches because that is as far as my arm could reach to properly "fleckel" the floor. Whomever has the job of sprinkling the deco flakes on the wet paint needs to be very careful. If you mess up, it is difficult to fix. The sprinkle job requires an even disbursement throughout the whole garage.
Step 9 - Mix the paint. Epoxy paints come in a part A and part B. Once mixed the are almost "activated." You can think of it as glue that has a color in it. We mixed the two parts together evenly reserving about 15% of each can. The 15% is a little cushion if we need to make a patch or repair in a few years. Since paint colors can be difficult to match, we thought this would be smart. Also remember when estimating your paint, part A and part B equals 2 whole gallons of paint. We found this to be plenty for our small garage.
Step 10 - Go fast - Remember this paint is like a glue so you want to work quickly but cleanly! Remember to let it dry according to the paint instructions. We let our floor dry for 72 hours. That's NO cars, no foot traffic, nothing.
These are a few shots during the process. Notice how each stripe of paint is a drying and darkening.
Step 11 - Move back in - We moved our cabinetry back into the garage placing the cabinet units in their new places (to make room for my future Tahoe). Now comes the hard part; you have to organize all your stuff. If you've reached this step, hopefully you're feeling proud of yourself and will be extra selective about the items you chose to put back into your garage. This can be a tedious process but will be worth it if you take the time to organize and find a home for each item.
Step 12- Admire your work! - Jordan and I felt so good about the work that we had accomplished! We had an impromptu champagne picnic on our garage floor! We were so happy to have everything done that we didn't care about our $8 champagne in Dixie cups. Plus, we figured out that our new garage made a perfect dance floor!
I hope this "how to" helps those of you who are interested in remodeling your own garage! Have fun!
I'm going to take you through the Garage Remodel of October 2012. The Fall is the ideal time to do any garage remodel. This is an unofficial (and unqualified) "how to" on remodeling your garage. Specifically, how to redo your garage floors.
I wish I had more pictures from this process to share with you, but you're going to have to settle for the basics.
Here we go:
Step 1 - Determine the layout you need in your garage in order to fit your vehicles and/or junk.
For us, we have a pretty small garage that has to fit a refrigerator, cabinets, and shelving. Because of this, we can only fit 1 vehicle in the garage (my lil' bitty car). Despite the single car limitations, we wanted to make sure we could fit a large vehicle in the garage just in case we ever upgraded vehicles. (I've always dreamed of a Tahoe or 4 Runner - a girl can dream!)
After deciding we needed to have the ability to fit a larger vehicle in the garage, we determined that we needed to rearrange the cabinetry. Luckily for us, the cabinetry was not screwed to the floor/walls.
Step 2 - Do your prep work. Every garage is different so for us, our garage remodel scope was bigger than most. We had drywall tape hanging from the ceiling and missing on the walls. We knew there was a need to patch those areas and paint the walls just for general maintenance. We figured out that we should acid wash the floors, tape & re bed the drywall, paint the walls, and THEN focus on the floors. For those of you only focusing on the floors you can skip ahead.
Step 3 - Empty the garage. This sounds horrible, I know, but it was necessary. Resist the temptation to go through every item when you are emptying the garage. Just get it out of the way for the moment. Our living room became a scary place to be.
Step 4- Acid wash the concrete. We chose to do the acid wash before we did anything else because we didn't want to damage newly painted walls with the acid. With the raw walls, we had much less to worry about if something got splashed.
We used regular concrete acid cleaner from Home Depot and it worked great. Granted, the instructions suggested 1 part acid to 10 parts water (1:10), and we used equal parts acid and water (1:1). Twice. But our floor was dirty folks. Dirty! It had to be done. REMEMBER to wear your safety clothes and gear. The acid is strong and can seriously hurt your lungs or skin if you get it on you. I also suggest that you do this step with at least a 2 person team. It is helpful for someone to man the water hose while the other person handles the acid solution.
Power wash or use a powerful water hose to clean all the acid off the floor once the acid has done it's job. Do this twice to be thorough and squeegee the water off the floor if you can. The more you clean the floor, the better the paint will adhere.
Let the floor thoroughly dry for a day or 2.
Here is a picture of the floor after 1 acid cleaning. As you can see, the walls were still rough.
Step 6 - Our contractor also painted the walls and ceilings for us. Again, this could easily be a DIY project but we got a package deal from the contractor. Plus, the ceiling can be tricky to paint. We decided to use "Canvas Tan" from Sherwin Williams Paint. We love those guys and that color looked very clean. If you need to repaint the walls or ceilings, remember to have the painter lay down several drop clothes. If you've just acid washed the floor, the last thing you want is paint drippings that you have to wash off. Clean the floor once more with a powerful water hose and let it dry.
Here is a jar of some of the Canvas Tan we had left over.
Step 7 - Decide on the paint color and deco flake color you want for your floor. The flakes (nicknamed "fleckels" by Jordan and I) come in all different colors.
We chose to us a color called "Cityscape" as our base color. It was a gray that had very little blue in it.
We chose a "Beige/Ivory" blend of the Deco-Flakes. Again, I wanted to stay away from blue.
Step 8 - Decide how you are going to paint yourself out of the space. Jordan and I decided that we would start with the trim along the walls and garage door. We did these areas by hand and didn't worry about adding any deco flakes. Don't worry, it will still look very good at the end. We also decided to use a roller for the rest of the floor. Our strategy was to paint in long stripes from the back wall towards the drive way. Each stripe was about 30 inches because that is as far as my arm could reach to properly "fleckel" the floor. Whomever has the job of sprinkling the deco flakes on the wet paint needs to be very careful. If you mess up, it is difficult to fix. The sprinkle job requires an even disbursement throughout the whole garage.
This is a picture of Jordan just before we started painting. Notice the blue 2 inch tape along the floor as we prepared to paint the trim first.
Step 9 - Mix the paint. Epoxy paints come in a part A and part B. Once mixed the are almost "activated." You can think of it as glue that has a color in it. We mixed the two parts together evenly reserving about 15% of each can. The 15% is a little cushion if we need to make a patch or repair in a few years. Since paint colors can be difficult to match, we thought this would be smart. Also remember when estimating your paint, part A and part B equals 2 whole gallons of paint. We found this to be plenty for our small garage.
There is a picture of the Armorseal paint we used.
Jordan mixing part A and part B together.
Step 10 - Go fast - Remember this paint is like a glue so you want to work quickly but cleanly! Remember to let it dry according to the paint instructions. We let our floor dry for 72 hours. That's NO cars, no foot traffic, nothing.
These are a few shots during the process. Notice how each stripe of paint is a drying and darkening.
Step 11 - Move back in - We moved our cabinetry back into the garage placing the cabinet units in their new places (to make room for my future Tahoe). Now comes the hard part; you have to organize all your stuff. If you've reached this step, hopefully you're feeling proud of yourself and will be extra selective about the items you chose to put back into your garage. This can be a tedious process but will be worth it if you take the time to organize and find a home for each item.
We found so much junk, the trashcan became the focus of the garage. This shot is from the move in process.
Step 12- Admire your work! - Jordan and I felt so good about the work that we had accomplished! We had an impromptu champagne picnic on our garage floor! We were so happy to have everything done that we didn't care about our $8 champagne in Dixie cups. Plus, we figured out that our new garage made a perfect dance floor!
This is a finish shot of the floor just before move in.
Champagne picnic. Excuse the exhausted dirty flare we are sporting.
We finally got to hang one of our favorite piece of art! Yes, art can go in the garage! Pictured above is the cake stand for Jordan's grooms cake from our wedding. This was lovingly made by Jordan's brother, Kevan, as a gift to us. It is really beautiful and represents a lot of special things in our lives.
This is a close up of the floor. Notice the expertly distributed fleckels.
I hope this "how to" helps those of you who are interested in remodeling your own garage! Have fun!
Comments
Post a Comment