Your home’s garage floor goes through a lot of work with the constant foot and vehicle traffic. But during those winter months, its workload increases. Along with the continuous exposure to dust, dirt, mud, car leaking, and rain during the winter, your garage floor also has to battle the snow, ice, salt, and other chemicals.
Having your garage floor constantly coated in wetness can cause great harm to your garage floor concrete and eventually will weaken the garage flooring leading to cracks, chipping, or more.
What Can Winter Do To Your Garage Floor?
Having an ice-cold, slippery floor during the winter is only half the battle. What you really need to be aware of is what happens underneath the surface of your concrete if it isn’t coated correctly. Having concrete in your garage that doesn’t have a top seal and coating can produce harmful lasting damage that will only result in repairing or replacing your garage floor.
Without a concrete coating, your floors are more prone to foundational deterioration from the water and de-icer chemicals that enter your garage during the winter. Your floor will start to expand and contract with the varying temperatures of winter and thus will cause more stress to your concrete as water seeps through.
These repeated thaw and freeze cycles that occur during a Minnesota winter will eventually result in existing cracks in your concrete becoming more prolonged and deeper, creating new cracks in the concrete. This straining process can also cause pitting and spalling in your concrete, causing your concrete to flake and crumble apart.
What Protection Measures Can You Take Each Winter?
One way to keep your garage floors dry is by reducing the humidity your garage can hold. Driving into your garage and immediately closing the garage door will only cause the humidity levels to rise and lock in all the moisture your car brings in. To reduce these levels, don’t park your car in your garage if it’s covered in snow and ice. Take a few minutes to brush off any excess snow and large clumps of ice before parking it inside. If the humidity is still a problem, installing a drain might be the best way for the water to escape your garage floor.
Another way to keep your garage floors dry is to maintain your driveway during winter. Keeping a clear driveway will help prevent your tires from picking up any extra snow and bringing it into your garage. It’s also important to have a driveway with a good drainage system. You always want your driveway to have a bit of a slope to it, so the snow doesn’t build up right outside of your garage.
Lastly, consider purchasing mats for your garage floor. Garage mats are the simplest and easiest solution to having a dry floor as they absorb any water, chemicals, and motor oil. It also prevents any salt or harmful chemicals from reaching your garage floor if it isn’t sealed. You will have to pay attention to when they need cleaning as the salt and debris can build up if left untouched. As winter ends, you can remove the mats, clean them, and store them until next winter.
Lasting Protection – Coating Your Concrete
To have a more permanent solution to protecting your garage floors, coating and sealing your concrete is the way to go. Coating and sealing your concrete will act as a barrier on top of it and prevent any water, salt, or other chemicals from seeping into it and destroying it.
The best coating for garage floors is an epoxy coating. This material is durable, affordable, and easy to apply (by a respected company, of course). Epoxy is resistant to any chemicals, like motor oil and salt, but you still need to be aware of any excess water to reduce the risk of slipping. Concrete Coatings of Minnesota specializes in coating concrete with epoxy and can even do the job during winter!
Call (651) 458-0196 or visit our website today to receive a free estimate for your garage floor coating.