Have you considered your garage floor as a canvas for your creative juices?

Is your garage door up to protecting the floor?

Have you ever looked at your garage floor – really looked at your garage floor? You may see a dreary, flat, plain-grey surface. Then again, maybe you never really look at your garage floor. It’s there. It holds your car off the ground but, otherwise, what’s the point? You may be passing up a tremendous opportunity.

How about thinking of your garage floor as a blank canvas where your imagination can run wild? With some imagination, you can transform your garage floor so that it makes a statement about you and how you use your garage. In fact, it can transform your entire garage while enhancing its value as a part of your home.

There are a number of ways you can paint your garage floor. The marketplace is full of epoxy finishes that will bring flat-grey to life. For instance, there are a variety of speckled epoxy paints that come in a myriad of colors. Or, if you’re someone with a particular appreciation for more horsepower, you may want a black-and-white checkered-flag approach.

If you’re transforming the garage into a Man Cave, a decorative surface on the garage floor is a must. But, an epoxy surface on the garage floor makes more sense than simply aesthetically. That coat of epoxy will go a long way to protecting your garage floor.

Moisture is the enemy of concrete. It eats away slowly but consistently at a concrete surface while constantly searching for a chink in the concrete. In the winter, when you add the effects of cold, snow, ice and road salt, the moisture approaches your concrete floor with an adrenaline boost. This is when garage floors suffer the most.

An epoxy coating on your garage floor doesn’t have the absorbency of concrete; it’s like a protective shell. While protecting your floor from moisture, it also holds other substances at bay, such as dirt, grease and oils. It makes the garage door easier to clean. But, there is another vital element to consider when putting an epoxy coat on your garage floor.

WHAT ABOUT THE GARAGE DOOR!!! 

Does your garage door sufficiently hold back the cold and the elements? Doing so is among the duties of a garage door (along with holding nefarious individuals back from taking your belongings and protecting you and your loved ones). Make sure the seal at the bottom, and around the top and sides, of your garage door seals properly – that the seals are supple and able to do their job. Also check that your garage door isn’t so old that it is loosening up and failing to seal between the panels when closed.

If your garage door is in good condition, it’s time to turn your attention to that big, gray canvas under your car.

Is your Zion garage door making noise as a symptom of a problem?

Since the day your garage door was installed in the garage of your Zion home or office, it has begun to age. Every day, it’s a day older. Every year, it’s a year older. Every decade … well, you get the idea. Over time, you’ll notice that it is louder and louder when opening and closing. This is somewhat normal. But, there are times when the noise your garage door makes could indicate a problem you should address.

If you never used your garage door, rust would still represent a threat. The bearings, gears, springs, hinges and other parts won’t experience the wear-and-tear normally experienced by a garage door that is well used but rust will still attack. The thing about rust is that it will attack the metal parts of your garage door whether you use it or not.

Assuming you do use your garage door with frequency, which is likely with most garage doors on most homes in Zion, rust is not the only issue. Parts will begin to loosen over time. Bearings can become loose or rigid. Springs can lose their mojo.

 Inevitably, these changes will reduce the efficiency of your garage door and garage door opener while increasing the amount of noise they make when in use.  If parts outright break, the first indication you may have is the volume of the noise your garage door makes when raising or lowering.

Broken parts can also quickly incapacitate your garage door. They can even make your garage door dangerous to use. This is why maintenance is essential for your garage door. Timely maintenance (usually about once a year) will go a long way towards the avoidance of broken garage door parts or garage door openers.

Along with annual maintenance of your garage door, using your sense of sound is essential to monitoring the condition of your garage door. If the garage door begins making more and/or louder noise, have it checked out promptly. You could catch a problem early before it spreads and causes other problems while increasing the cost of repair.

Still, regular maintenance is the best way to avoid problems with your Zion garage door. It will keep it operating more efficiently and quieter, too.

Heating garage offers multiple solutions for North Chicago winter

It gets cold in North Chicago during the winter. No doubt that will be the case this winter, too. And, when it’s cold outside, unless your garage is heated, it’s darn cold in your garage, too.

The solution to a cold garage in winter is to heat your garage. The comfort associated with a heated garage is not the only reason you should consider heating your garage. In fact, there are several advantages to a heated garage that go beyond comfort.

Your car will love your heated garage: The oil thickens in your car in winter. This puts an additional burden on your car’s starting system. The battery needs more than its usual juice; it needs enough juice to turn over an engine with frosty sludge inside. A heated garage will keep the oil warmer and, as far as the battery and starter are concerned, it might as well be the middle of a North Chicago summer when you go to start your car. Your snowblower will also start better in a heated garage.
Your garage door and garage door opener will love your heated garage: Winter plays havoc on garage door parts and the garage door opener. Parts freeze. The change from warm to cold will cause parts to expand and contract.
Items you store in the garage will love your heated garage: Not everything you customarily keep in garage is conducive to extreme-cold temperatures. If the garage isn’t heated, you would do well to move these items, such as liquids – paints, stains, garden items – into the house.
You’ll love your heated garage: Go out to work on a project in the garage in the winter and, if it isn’t heated, you’d better bundle up. Remember – LAYERS!!! But, if you have a heated garage, you can go out there wearing the same clothes you wore inside he house.
Your Man Cave will love your heated garage: If you’ve turned your garage into a Man Cave, a heated garage is essential, assuming you want to use the garage in the winter, too. Kick back on the sofa and enjoy some suds while watching a football, basketball or hockey game, and you’ll be in the lap of luxury.

The point is that a heat transforms your North Chicago garage into another room for your home in the winter.

Things to consider when heating your garage:

• Install a safe, approved and properly sized heating unit
• Install the heating system properly so fumes from your car engine can’t get into the house
• Ensure that the walls and garage door are insulated (will go a long way towards keeping the heating bill down).