Summary: Building a Garage floor require expert’s advice and support. There are lots of concrete companies today that can provide useful information about how to build your concrete garage floors. Based on the guidelines of many companies, this article will highlight basic concepts and information required for building concrete garage floors. Most of us know that a garage kit can easily be anchored on the ground without the need of a concrete floor. It can also be anchored on a concrete slab.

First of all, you have to note whether you live in an area that has a frost line or not. If your answer is yes, then in order for your anchoring system to work properly, you need to be at least 12”under that frost line of your area. However, the following concrete applications don’t account for any requirements related with frost line.

Installation of the concrete:

Make sure that you read the following points carefully in order to properly build your concrete garage floor.

·   The first step is to size the slab. One important tip to calculate the size of your slab is to make it 4” wider than the width of the building and it should be 6 “ longer than it’s length. For example, if you garage is about 20’ * 30’ then you should build your slab about 20’ 4”* 30’6”. This is to ensure that you don’t accidently break the edge of the slab while affixing expansion bolts into your slab. Even if the slab doesn’t break, it can get cracks if the size hasn’t been calculated properly.

·   After you have carefully calculated the size of the slab and other dimensions, then comes the task of ordering the concrete. You should consult the concrete company and discuss with them the estimated amount of concrete required. Estimating the amount of concrete is another vital factor in the success of any concrete project. Always order the concrete a little more than what is required according to your estimation. For instance, if your requirement for concrete is 6 and a quarter yard then you must order concrete for a 6 and a half quarter area. This is called calculating margin for safety.

·   If you have chosen to mix concrete yourself and you have a small batch of concrete then you are not required to buy a cement mixer. You can use various plastic cement mixing pan to do the job for you. You can also use big cake pans that are about 6-8 inches deep. You might have to use concrete hoe in order to mix the concrete yourself. Concrete hoe looks like a garden hoe. The only difference is that it has two holes in the blade. Make sure that you have all necessary tools before mixing the concrete.

·   Although a 4 “floor is thick but you should always make it 6” thick if you are intending to bring large vehicles inside your garage like trucks etc. Depending upon the intended usage of the garage, you can add various reinforcement agents as well. If you are intending to park heavy vehicles in your garage then it is recommended that the concrete should be minimum of 2500 psi concrete along with fibre-mesh as reinforcement or rebar. If you think that the garage would be hosting more than normal weight then you can think about extra two inches of concrete.

·   It is always advisable to order the concrete after taking advice from the concrete company. For getting useful advice from the company, you need to tell them the exact dimensions of your slab. After you give them the exact dimensions of your slab, they will be in a better position to comment on the amount of concrete required. It is difficult to estimate the cost of the concrete straight away but according to the approximate, the cost of the concrete slab (formed and poured) with the inclusion of expansion joints costs around $2.75 / sq foot.

·   There are certain footing requirements in order to make garage floors. At the time when you pour the floor, you have to pour the perimeter footings as well. This process is called as monolithic pour. General requirements for perimeter footings are around 12” deep and 16”wide. The footings should have two number 4 rebars bottom and top. The footings cost around $11.5 per lineal foot.
·   Now comes the turn of ground installation. While installing your complete kit to the ground that is bared, you will have to dig a post hole that should be approximately 10” in diameter and should be around 30” deep after every four or maximum five feet. This distance is dependent upon the garage type; 4’on-center garage or a 5’ on-center garage.

·   After pouring all the concrete, the next step would be to cover it properly. Covering the concrete is considered to be one of the most important steps in any concrete project. You should protect the concrete from water. The purpose here is to let the concrete dry effectively. You should at least wait for six days in order to let the concrete set before you move on. The more you let it dry, the stronger the concrete will be. Let the concrete dry slowly and steadily.

Remember, the more slowly it dries, the stronger it will be. You should always take necessary actions to cover the concrete. One useful tip is to pour the concrete on a really cool day so it won’t dry early. If you have no other option than pouring concrete on a hot day, then also make sure that you spray water all the times in order to slow down the process of drying.

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