Last spring I started to clean out my garage so that I could get ready for the summer. I was a bit annoyed to find that leaves had managed to blow in through a broken window which had added to the mess. Without the leaves there were still piles of stuff all over the floor of my garage. When I was moving the junk and clearing my garage out I noticed the floor was cracked, normally I would have just left it, but this time I decided I would replace it.

I started by breaking up the old concrete which was extremely difficult. It may have been possible to lay the new floor over the top, however I decided to take my time and make sure it was all done properly. Anyway who wouldn't enjoy waving a sledge hammer around? If you do plan on doing this yourself it is very important to wear a mask so that you don't inhale any of the concrete dust caused by breaking it up. When you've broken everything up you should throw the big bits away, the finer gravel can possibly be used as a rough course as long as you spread them out evenly.

And Then What Happened?

Grass can grow through the new flooring as it is down onto bare earth, to prevent this happening you can spread quite a large amount of straw over your floor. Then I made a frame out of four pieces of wood which filled the room, this made a slab which would then be filled with concrete. This prevents the concrete from going any further than wanted.

After the wooden frame has been fitted you should then start to mix the concrete. I did this in a wheel barrow, although you could hire a machine to do this for you. You should mix it to one bag of concrete mix to three gallons of water. Stir the mixture well using a hoe and shovel and make sure everything is nice and wet.

When the concrete is at the preferred consistency you should then start to pour the concrete into the frame. A hoe should be used to level out the concrete so that you can make sure it is all laid evenly. You will need to repeat this until the frame is filled with concrete. When the floor has almost dried just use a broom to brush the floor and give it the texture that you want. Then make sure you keep everyone off your floor until it has dried completely.