Guys,
Have been in our new house just over a month now and I'm starting to clear all the cardboard boxes out of the garage!

The garage floor is rough finished concrete (looks like it's been raked) and is lower than the block paving on the drive (there's a bullnose slab/lip to stop water coming into the garage) and the DPC of the house. Seems to be about 50-75mm lower.

I was thinking of getting the floor screeded, power floated, sealed and then painting with floor paint.

Now I know this is probably not the best time of year to be messing with screed/concrete etc and also thought it might be bit pricey as I'd have to get someone in to do it as my concrete laying skills are rubbish! especially for an area the size of a garage.

My brain-wave (or brain-fart depending how you look at it....) is to use 600x600 paving slabs and bed these on compo, they'll be butted up to each other so won't need pointing, then I was going to paint the slabs with garage floor paint.

Can anyone see a problem with doing it this way?

Cheers.

[Edited on 14/12/11 by cjwood23]

It'll never be as good and you will regret it. The joints will show and so on, so bite the bullet and get a man in for the day, probably not a lot more expensive either, especially once you consider how long it will take you to slab it.
Downside is it will take a while to dry out, especially this weather

I'm interested in this, having moved into a new place and having the same problem.

The garage floor is 'solid', ie. very stable, but its uneven with raised shingle one end - a nice depression in the middle - and a good deal of cracking and (solid) repair where the garden path may well have been at one stage.

It's too cold, but yes, I'm eventually either going for a screed or to have the whole lot dug out and re-laid. Can't afford it at the moment, so waiting until the weather warms up is the best policy at any rate.

I was toying with the idea of a sexy coloured epoxy alternative....

http://www.antel-uk.co.uk/tds/epoxy-floor-screed.html

anyone used this - is the result brittle or tough? (it's epoxy, so it's unlikely to be both...)

not chep that epoxy, at about £70per square metre (5mm thick)
About a grand for a single garage
Way cheaper to use a screed, even having to pay somebody to do it.

Cheers chaps.

Any ideas as to what it would cost to screed a standard sized single (I miss my double garage ) garage?

down here a plasterer and mate is about £200 a day......should do a screed in a day I reckon, but I am usually over optomistic.

if you have direct access to your house through a door from your garage this difference of height may be there for a reason.Building regs needs to see a burning liquids barrier.Mr garage floor is 100mm lower for this reason.

No access from the house.
Will check the heights but its a fair way from the level of the dpc.
looks unfinished with the way the foor is at the mo.

Why dont you just screed it yourself and then to make it look good put ceramic floor tiles down get a job lot to do a garage for about £150 if end of line stuff etc

Had 4 different homes in 30 years. Garage floors from muck (old barn) to the current one, which is a double: lengthwise. Bit of a pain if the car and quad are the wrong way round. Floor laid by the German builder of the house. Ultra smooth screed and painted (grey). Wonderful, maintenance free and a doddle to keep clean.

At the moment you can get tradesmen very cheap, we need the work! I would screed it and paint it.

If you screed it you could alway put in some electric underfloor heating