Where to Put Garage Items During an Epoxy Floor Job
If you’re getting an epoxy garage floor, everything has to come out. The space must be completely empty because concrete grinding fills the room with dust, and the new coating needs three full days to harden.
If you put your stuff back too soon, you will dent the coating, leave permanent impressions, or scar the finish.
Most homeowners don't plan for this part of the project. The real challenge isn’t the epoxy itself—it’s where your belongings go while the floor cures.
Common Places to Store Your Items
To keep the floor completely clear during those three days, most people choose one of these options:
- Rent a storage unit — adds cost and requires driving
- Load a truck or POD — expensive and takes driveway space
- Stack items under tarps — risks theft or weather damage
- Move boxes into the house — creates clutter indoors
All of these solutions work, but they add cost and double the labor of moving heavy items.
After the Floor Is Completed
Once the epoxy is finished, the garage finally looks the way you imagined it would.
Clean. Bright. Finished.
This is when homeowners want to see the floor, not cover it back up.
Many realize something important: putting everything back on the floor defeats the purpose of upgrading it. The best epoxy floors stay open, visible, and easy to maintain.
Keeping the Floor Visible
This is where overhead storage makes sense. However, most homeowners don’t realize the structural limits of their garage ceiling trusses.
By moving items up instead of back onto the floor, a floor-supported overhead system like ARackAbove allows the garage to stay open and polished while still holding everything that used to sit on the floor.
The result:
- The epoxy stays visible
- The space stays clean
- The garage remains open, walkable, and parkable
The Structural Limit No One Talks About
Garage ceilings were engineered to hold the roof and drywall — not additional hanging storage weight.
Every truss is built to specific load numbers listed on the truss drawing. If the drawing shows 0 psf bottom chord live load, then overhead storage was never included in the design.
That means any ceiling-mounted rack adds load the structure was never engineered to carry.
IRC Section R802.10.4 states:
“Truss members and components shall not be cut, notched, drilled, spliced, or otherwise altered in any way without the approval of a registered design professional.”
In plain terms:
- Trusses are regulated structural components
- Drilling into them counts as an alteration
- Any alteration requires engineering approval
This rule exists because trusses are designed as a complete structural system based on the loads listed in the original truss drawing.
ARackAbove — Overhead Storage That Protects Your Epoxy Floor
ARackAbove was designed for garages meant to stay clean, open, and finished.
It is a floor-supported overhead storage system that keeps items elevated while leaving your epoxy floor fully visible and undamaged.
- No drilling into ceilings
- No stress on roof trusses
- No ladders required
- Minimal floor footprint
