polyaspartic flooring Archives

Should I Hire a Professional Garage Designer or Do It Myself?

March 13, 2014 by Rick Scully

Home and garage renovation projects can be fun. For anyone inclined to try his or her hand at it, there’s no shortage of DIY books and television shows to help. Completing a renovation project yourself can offer a potential savings. However, it doesn’t always work out that way.

The Hidden Costs of Doing It Yourself

One of the primary reasons we tend to take on a renovation project ourselves is to save the cost of labor, which can be considerable. We hope to trade a few weekends and a little elbow grease for a renovated space at a fraction of the cost. However, when unexpected issues arise the DIY cost advantage can quickly disappear. Here are four factors we often fail to consider when doing a renovation project:

The value of expertise and experience. We can learn a lot from a half-hour television show or a how-to book. However, neither is a substitute for an experienced professional on-site.
The project always takes longer than expected. Ever planned a quick weekend project that ended up taking a month of weekends to complete? Time is your most valuable asset; the only one which can never be replaced. Make sure the trade-off is worthwhile.
The cost of specialized tools. Many garage renovation projects, like applying polyaspartic flooring, require expensive, specialized tools. Purchasing such an item can wipe out the savings you hoped to achieve while leaving you with a tool you won’t likely use again.
The cost of fixing mistakes. Remember those episodes of The Cosby Show where Cliff would try to fix something and inevitably make it worse? He’d eventually have to call a plumber in to fix it. In the end, it cost more than if he’d let the plumber do it in the first place. When flooring, cabinetry and other garage projects go wrong, it can be quite costly.

Renovating the garage yourself seems simple enough, but doing it wrong can cost a lot more time and money than you ever imagined. An experienced, professional garage designer will get the project done right, in less time, and offer exciting new possibilities.

The Professional Garage Designer Advantage

Creating a customized garage design that fits your space and meets your unique needs can be challenging. Here are a few of the advantages of working with a professional garage designer:

Knowledge and Experience

Garage renovations pose unique challenges. While every garage is different, the extensive knowledge and experience that a professional designer brings to the project provides a distinct advantage. A pro designer is current on construction codes, understands how garages are constructed and is familiar with the latest garage storage and décor products and materials. Additionally, the experience of working on a variety of garage design projects gives a pro designer an extensive knowledge base from which to draw when planning and completing your renovation project.

Innovative Space-saving Solutions

Garages offer limited floor space. Then there are odd spaces that homeowners never quite know how to use. With a growing number of possessions and limited space in which to store them, it can be difficult to envision how to get all of your things in your garage along with your vehicles. However, a professional garage designer can see the potential in your space and offer innovative solutions like slatwall, movable shelving and overhead storage to maximize available space.

Design and Engineering Skills

Garage design professionals know how to use available space efficiently while also following fundamental design and engineering principles. Therefore, the proposed renovation will fit your lifestyle while resolving perplexing design issues, like what to do with an odd corner space. Custom-designed overhead shelving and other storage structures will be well-made and safely installed. The selection of colours and finishes will truly enhance the space.

Turning a chaotic garage into an organized space that houses your car and all of your belongings can be a challenge. Doing it yourself might seem like the cheapest solution, but DIY garage reno projects can quickly go awry. A knowledgeable, experienced professional garage designer can maximize your space so that it’s organized, functional and safe for many years to come. Interested in what a professional garage designer can do for your space? Request a consultation.

Protection where Garage Walls meet Garage Floors

April 2, 2013 by Rick Scully

Achieving a really finished look that makes the garage an extension of the rest of your home means thinking about the interior design just as you would any other room. Instead of thinking about the wall, floor or organization as their own projects, think of the wall treatment as part of a whole design especially where the wall meets the floor.

Polyaspartic Coated Wall Base & Floor

treating cement block garage walls & cement garage floors - before

BEFORE – right garage wall

AFTER – left garage wall

You can design the space simply by finishing the floors, adding some slatwall, baskets, racks, and hooks. Or you can transform your garage into a room that your family will enjoy using by designing a stunning space with cabinets, a workbench, or even a second level. Whichever route you choose, an important consideration will be where your floor meets the wall. You wouldn’t think of laying carpet or hardwood in your house and not finishing it with a baseboard. The same is true for the garage. And depending on the type of flooring and walls you have, baseboards provide protection from dust, dirt and water seeping behind the drywall or slatwall.

When you’re choosing a baseboard, look first to what is on the walls and the floors. Wall protection is essential in garages where the drywall goes right down to the floor. Water can seep into the drywall at the bottom of the wall and cause crumbling over time.

If your garage floor is PVC tiling, you can use 6-inch vinyl baseboards. The baseboard is glued to the wall and will protect against any water that may seep into the drywall, or under the tiles and create mildew.

Polyaspartic flooring is always a great choice for any garage, but especially those with drywall that extends down to the floor. You can go with the standard 6-inch vinyl baseboard, or we can create a baseboard from 3/4″ plywood and then apply the polyaspartic flooring and continue it up over the wood to create a neat and unified baseboard.

Drywall higher up can also be damaged from, spray from hoses, moisture from damp weather, or water dripping from skis, toboggans and tools. A wainscoting treatment protects against this and looks great too.

Punched Aluminum Wainscoting
Where Garage Wall meets Garage Floor

punched aluminum wainscotting - wall covering meets polyaspartic coated floor

Punched aluminum wainscoting provides a modern industrial look that also provides great protection for the drywall. It can be used with any type of flooring. The walls are protected and the wall/floor joint is caulked to prevent any water seepage. Car enthusiasts love it because they can wash the car or spray down the aluminum and floors after using the garage as a workshop without fear of water damage to the garage or home. It also protects walls from damage when the car doors swing open inside the garage.

Now, most garage floors are not level but sloped to allow water run off in the correct direction. Another advantage of using a wainscoting is the top can be leveled to the eye rather than follow the slope of the floor.

When using an epoxy flooring, it’s best to install a simple vinyl baseboard. The product is too thin and will run if you try and apply it to a baseboard or a wall. It’s another reason why we recommend using polyaspartic flooring. For the small cost premium, it gives you so many advantages.

The big decisions are important when designing your garage, but it’s the small details, such as baseboards and wainscoting, that really complete the look.

Custom Fitting

March 19, 2013 by Rick Scully

Off-the-shelf storage products are great as a simple solution to organizing your garage. But custom-built storage can turn your garage into a room with truly functional storage and workspace.

Just because it’s custom-built doesn’t mean it has to be more expensive. Having a storage unit designed specifically to fit an area of your garage often costs no more than buying a read-made product that may not fit as well in the space.

Custom-built is all about creativity and effective use of space. Here are some ideas:

Workbenches

If you’re a gardener, car-enthusiast or DIYer, a workbench is a nice addition to any garage. Workbenches can be designed to any size or shape. A workbench that folds up to be stored when you aren’t using it is a great space-saver for small garages.

Overhead platforms and mezzanines

As I wrote in my previous blog, overhead storage is a great way to create extra space in garages with high ceilings. It can be as simple as a plywood platform to store seasonal items or as elaborate as a full mezzanine, which allows for another level of storage and workspace.

Ladders

Ladders or stairs are useful if you have a mezzanine or just need an easy way to access overhead storage. They can be designed to save floor space by pulling down when you need them and retracting out of the way when you’re done.

Thule or canoe slings

The best place to store canoes, kayaks or Thules is overhead. We build slings out of sturdy foam-covered chain with loop-and-eye hooks to safely and easily hoist these bulky items up and down.

Baseboards

Having a custom-built baseboard in your garage not only looks good, it protects against water leaks and rot. Wood baseboards allow polyaspartic flooring to wrap up the sides of the drywall. Stamped aluminium is a great modern, industrial look and provides excellent water protection.

Custom-built boxes

There are often unsightly items in the garage that can benefit from being covered up. We’ve built boxes to cover irrigation systems, electrical panels and central vacuum canisters. They can be finished to fit seamlessly into the rest of the garage design.

Designs for irregular-shaped spaces

As mentioned before, garages are rarely standard squares or rectangles. By having something custom-designed and built, you make the best use of all nooks and crannies and odd-shaped corners. When I visit a garage to do a consultation, or often when I’m on the job doing the renovation, I spot areas that would really benefit from a custom-built solution so I’d be happy to make a few suggestions.

Custom finishing

Finishes really up the wow factor in any garage renovation. We’ve done everything from finishing slatwall panels in an oak stain, in keeping with the cottage-look of the house, to installing custom wood worktops. We can even custom-mix paint chip colours to make the perfect shade of polyaspartic flooring.

Have a look around your garage and see if you have any odd-shaped areas or things you want to change. If you do, a custom-built storage solution is what you’ll want to consider to maximize the storage capability of your garage.

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