Garages

Behold!

Wall is fixed, render is fixed.

Inside view of fixed wall:

New doorway:

If anyone has recommendations for a firm that would grind the floors down to a clean, even layer of concrete please let me know.

I spoke with one company, their budgetary quote was £750/day to grind the floors, which of course prompts the question "how many days will it take".

I'm wondering how flat I could get it without entering a hell of dust and rubble, then bang rubber tiles down.

how uneven is it? could you add a small lip behind the door and use self leveling screed or something?

How not flat is it? I laid Duramat recycled PVC tiles in my garage - they're fairly flexible and cope with a bit of unevenness.

That won’t stick to oil sadly

Bolt some boards down first?

Would you consider DIY... it's not rocket science?

That's a lot cheaper than I'd seen previously for a days hire, the place I looked at would have been around £600/day for grinder and dust extraction (big hoover), plus consumables.

Ok, I called them.

You need the grinder, the transformer, and the dust extraction - that's:
Grinder £177
Dust extraction £145
Transformer £81
Cables and stuff £30
Grinding blocks £240
For a total of £673, plus the VAT gives us £807, and then we need to add the damage waiver.

This seems unreasonably expensive...
You ought to be able to buy a 3.3kva 110v transformer for what they're charging you in rental unless they're offering a 5kva or something a bit more hench... even at that a 5kva costs less than £200 so they're really going hard on you there...

Ok... did a Google... try Brandon Hire instead... much better prices from what I can see and I've actually hired from them before and found them very good.

I wouldn't get het up too much on getting a beefy extractor either as you'd be better off to keep the floor wet while you're working. You'll use less of the consumables and it'll keep the dust down for you. A decent "commercial" wet vac will be fine, keep the hose on and the doors open.

Grinder £144
Dust extraction £52
Transformer £24
Cables and stuff £8 (automatically added with grinder)
Grinding blocks £? (give them a call to check)

Total: c. £228+ consumables

You could probably forego the damage waiver too to be honest... you'd need to be extraordinarily cackhanded to break any of this stuff...

Happy grinding!

The grinding blocks do bump it up a fair amount. With that said, I'm having zero luck with getting a company to get back to me, so DIY may be the option to take.

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Normally anytime I've hired a tool that has a consumable bit/ blade (core saws, con saws etc.) they just charge you for how much of the consumable you've used when you return it... might be worth checking if there isn't some miscommunication here and you don't actually need to buy the grinding blocks yourself?

I've ordered the doors, apparently I'll get an install date in a couple of weeks. 50% deposit paid.

Jambon's floor chap emailed me last night and promised me a quote today - be interesting to see what that is.

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Yeah, I have no context for this other than the quotes from other companies - it's a lot of money, and I don't know whether I was meant to say "get to fuck - three grand is as far as I'll go".

Garage floor colour- what’s going to be the best colour with regards to me being able to spot a bottle cage bolt that I have dropped?

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I'd guess yellow for that criterion. may not meet aesthetic requirements though.

I quite like the yellow. Would it rapidly look shit though?

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I went with silver grey #7001 and feels spot on. Martyn also offers a non slip coating (sand mix) and went with the lightest version, without it the flooring would be lethal.

I've no experience of painted floors. We put terracotta tiles in the kitchen, which are a bit of pain but they clean up ok.

Are you planning on putting some mats down?

Roger that, thanks.

A lot of not much has happened, Martyn has yet to quote for his new suggestion, and the lady who was going to provide power has stopped responding to me. Hopefully she is on holiday and will respond when she gets back, but lack of power would be a problem.

My thinking, currently, is to either grind the floor myself or get a contractor to do it, then put down plastic interlocking tiles - which would be much more tolerant of damp than a sealed membrane. But the power issue is haunting me at the moment.

Martyn starts on the tools a week on Monday - which is very exciting, as the floor is key to the fit-out of the workshop being straightforward and then working efficiently.

Electricity lady has got back to me and that's all looking good, which is nice.

Looking forward to actually be able to post about genuine progress.