Asphalt for garage floor?

I would think that asphalt would be far to soft and subject to damage for a garage floor.

Reply to
SQLit
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uh, ever notice how they rough up the concrete before paving a road? Maybe the contractors near your old house were just a bunch of incompetents?

Reply to
tm4525

They did that on a couple of bridges near my old house. It appears that asphalt does not adhere very well to concrete because they scraped it off after a number of years since it continually peeled off and caused the bridge to shake and vibrate the windows in nearby homes....my 2 cents....I wouldn't do it....good luck....Ross

Reply to
Ross Mac

I have an old one-car garage (about 20'x10') that I use only for storage. The concrete floor (no rebar, prolly built around WWII) is badly cracked and buckled in the center with that area maybe 3 inches higher than the rest of the floor, and there a gaps of up to several inches in the middle between the cracks. I want to do something to make the floor smoother and more usable but am not willing to spend the $3000-plus to redo the foundation. Somebody suggested pouring asphalt onver the concrete. Is this workable? Any other suggestions for improving the surface that aren't so expensive? Thanks.

Reply to
Zen Cohen

If the floor is as bad as you say. It shouldn't be too hard to bust up the rest with a sledge and dig it up to see why the one spot is up three inches

use the busted up concrete as a bed for the new. pack it down, (bring it down to 1 or 2 inches lower than the finished height)

Then pour new concrete. For a "shed" 1" thick is enough, but 2" would be better, any more is pointless.

If you can get an asphalt truck and roller in there, it will be just as easy to have the ready mix truck in.

Where I am, concrete is cheaper than asphalt.

If you aren't in a big hurry, just tell them to come when they have extra left from another job. You might save a fair amount.

Not sure what you mean about "redo the foundation." But if the walls are shifted/rotting and the floor is gone, you haven't got much to save.

AMUN

Reply to
Amun

My garage floor is asphalt. While I would rather it was concrete, I have to say I haven't had any significant problems. The biggest irritation is that it isn't flat. My tool chest, table saw, etc. wobble a bit. As noted, it is soft. If I put something up on jack stands in there, I'll put plywood under the stands. Other than that, it gets the job done.

Reply to
JC

I had a garage that I did this too, and it worked fine. The disadvantages of asphalt apply of course -- it's not smooth, so sweeping (with a broom) doesn't work as well as concrete. It's soft, so things like jackstands and motorcycle kick-stands will dig holes in it.

It's not as nice as a concrete floor, but it's cheap. For me that was an acceptable compromise. Any company that lays asphalt driveways can do this for you.

However, if the center is actually 3" higher than the rest of the floor, you're going to have to lay a lot of asphalt to get the floor "flat". This may make your garage door not close properly, though you can probably adjust it (assuming it's an overhead). Depending on how the walls are constructed, you may not want to go up that high -- eg, if the sides are wood frame with plasterboard, set on concrete blocks, and the 4" of asphalt goes over the top of the concrete blocks to lay against the walls, this will cause problems when you hose down the floor.

If you do this, think about how water will drain out of the garage. You might have a drain, though with a garage of that age I suspect it's just designed to drain through the garage door opening. So when laying asphalt you want some pitch towards the garage door. Asphalt companies aren't used to thinking about water drainage and pitch, so stress this with them. This was a problem on my garage floor, it ended up pitched towards the back, so when I hosed down the floor, the water would pool at the back of the garage, which was a pain.

Also, if there is something going on that is continuing to move and crack the concrete in the center, then putting asphalt on top will not help -- it will just crack and buckle as well.

Terry

Reply to
Terry

UHHH.....can you spell "expansion joints"???? The asphalt breaks away at the expansion joints and slowly leaves a sloppy mess. You will find yourself repairing this on a regular basis...especially if you have heavy vehicles....

Reply to
Ross Mac

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