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 stuff goes while the floor cures.
Common Places to Store Your Stuff
To keep the floor 100% clear for those three days, most people choose one of these:
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Rent a storage unit (Costs money and requires driving)
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Load a truck or POD (Expensive and takes up driveway space)
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Stack items under tarps (Risks theft or rain damage)
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Move boxes into the house (Creates a mess in your living space)
All of these work, but they add cost and double the labor of moving your heavy items.
After the Floor Is Completed
Once the epoxy is complete, the garage finally looks the way you imagined it would.
Clean. Bright. Finished.
This is the time homeowners want to see the floor, not cover it back up.
It’s also when many realize something important: putting everything back on the floor defeats the point of upgrading it. The best epoxy floors aren’t hidden. They’re left 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 down, 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:
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The epoxy stays visible
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The space stays clean
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The garage looks open, not cluttered. Walkable. Parkable and worth showing off.
The Structural Limit No One Talks About
Garage ceilings were engineered to hold the roof and drywall — not new hanging storage weight.
Every truss is built to specific load numbers listed on the truss drawing. If that drawing shows 0 psf bottom chord live load, then no additional overhead storage was included in the design.
That means any ceiling-mounted rack adds load the structure was never engineered to carry.
Most homeowners think they’re just “adding a shelf.” The building code sees it differently.
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:
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Trusses are regulated structural components.
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Drilling into them counts as an alteration.
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Any alteration requires engineering approval.
This rule exists because trusses are designed as a complete system, based on the loads listed in the original truss drawing.
Understand how you might be overloading the weakest part of your roof.
ARackAbove —Overhead Storage That Protects & Presents Your New Epoxy Floor
ARackAbove was designed for garages meant to stay clean, open and finished—not covered back up.
It is a floor-supported overhead storage system that keeps items elevated while leaving your epoxy floor fully visible and undamaged. strong.
- Unlike ceiling-mounted racks, ARackAbove:
- Does not drill into the ceiling
- Does not load roof trusses
- Does not require ladders (feet stay on the ground)
- Occupies only a few inches of floor space
