Every family cycles through phases—and so do their garages. The Big Wheels change over to bikes and helmets, then extra furniture for when the kiddos are between college dorms and apartments. At each point along the journey, the experts at Encore Garage Ohio can help. Over the past 20 years, Encore Garage owner Mike Padden has offered trend-inspired, decorator-worthy spaces for this new frontier in home renovation. “Whether your goal is to create a cozy family room or entertaining space, or simply purge with purpose and organize your excess stuff in the garage, we can make it happen,” he says. From floor to ceiling, they do it all. Most jobs begin with Encore’s Flexcore polyaspartic floor coating, which adds a luxurious look covering old, stained concrete. It’s nonporous and repels oil, grease, paint, salt, etc. Then Mike and his seasoned crew customize organizational systems and cabinetry that’s as gorgeous as anything you’d select for a kitchen or bathroom renovation.  “Renovating your garage comes with significant value-added appeal, too, boosting any home’s esthetic appeal,” he says. “It’s no longer a domestic dumping ground, but rather prime real estate for stylish home reinvention.”

I know the last thing you want to think about right know is snow, ice, freezing temperatures and rock salt. How does a favorite winter song lyric go, “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch?” But in a few short weeks, these cunning wintertime Grinches will be wreaking havoc on your garage floor. The time to stop these wintertime Grinches is right now—before they have the chance to do their worst. Some of you may already be living with damage from previous ravaging winters, your garage floors bearing the nasty scars from years of punishing abuse in the form of pitting, cracking, and staining. Others may have newer garage floors and wish to extend the beauty—and lifespan—of their floors before the Grinch of winter can cause damage. Regardless of where the condition of your floor falls on the spectrum, consider having it resurfaced with EncoreGarage’s Flex-Core Polyaspartic floor coating system. Our Flex-Core Polyaspartic coating system surpasses traditional epoxy coating. It is non-porous, more abrasive and stain resistant. It repels oil, grease, paint and road salt to name a few. EncoreGarage’s Flex-Core Polyaspartic Floor Coating system comes in a range of color choices that project a bright, aesthetically pleasing site when entering and exiting your garage. On top of that, there’s minimal upkeep. For a clean and pristine surface, just hose it, mop it or squeegee it. Our Encore Signature Series cabinet systems keep clutter at bay. Our customizable cabinets are garage-tough, transforming the garage of many domestic dumping grounds into a well-organized space. Now is a perfect time to have a new EncoreGarage Flex-Core Polyaspartic coating system and a Signature Series cabinet system installed, before the Grinch of winter invades your garage. 

The real estate landscape is starting to come back down to earth amid rising mortgage rates. Buyers are less likely to exceed the list price and pay top dollar, even as the available housing stock remains low. You can sell yourself short by giving buyers an excuse to back out or reconsider. Some buyers may not even reach the front door when they see the garage’s worn, discolored concrete floor. A simple curb appeal correction can reverse the trend and earn you top dollar, explains Mike Padden, owner of Encore Garage Ohio. Here, Mike explains the options to enhance the garage’s concrete floor. Q: How can a homeowner protect and restore the garage floor?  A: It’s better to take care of your concrete floor before another winter in Northeast Ohio rolls in, depositing another layer of salt and sludge, adding to the deterioration. Tearing the concrete out and replacing it wouldn’t add more protection than what’s there already. After the considerable cost of replacing the concrete, you could protect it with an over-the-counter clear sealer, putting time and energy into repeated labor-intensive applications. While snagging a bucket of epoxy from a big box store might save a few bucks, within 18 months you’re back to square one when it starts peeling. Our Encore Flexcore polyaspartic coating is more economical in the long run and adds value to your home, creating instant curb appeal. Q: Why is polyaspartic coating better than new concrete? A: Unlike concrete, it’s nonporous, repelling oil, grease, paint, salt, and other chemicals. That’s the beauty of it, plus it’s easy to clean.

T he garage is what we put into it. Bit by bit, bric-a-brac piles up, and unsightly stains cover the concrete. Inevitably, homeowners reach a point and say, “enough is enough” and decide to take control. The garage is ground zero for home maintenance and refurbishing it might seem like another DIY project. But not every DIY project is worth the time, energy and expense. DIYers who snag a bucket of epoxy from a big-box store are bound to walk away dissatisfied when it starts to peel in six to 18 months. Mike Padden, owner of Encore Garage Ohio , explains how a professional can make the garage work for the DIYer instead. Q: What does a pro do differently from a do-it-yourselfer? A : Professionals have the expertise and equipment to do the job right the first time. Before applying our Encore Flexcore polyaspartic coating, we prep the surface for a superior bond the DIYer can’t get with a bottle of acid etch found in an off-the-shelf coating kit. Our diamond-studded grinders—nicknamed Zambonis, as we like to call them—expose and eliminate impurities to allow the base coat to penetrate the concrete pores and create excellent adhesion. Q: What about the flooring materials? A : Off-the-shelf, consumer-grade products are significantly diluted. Professional-grade products have 100 percent solids. The DIY kits come with a small packet of color flakes, resulting in a substandard appearance and poor wearability. We do a dense distribution until the floor rejects the chips, delivering a far more aesthetically pleasing look as part of our layering process, offering strength and traction.  Our quality control makes for a quality installation.

F or many of us, the garage is our front door, and passing through on the way in and out can be a harrowing journey. Although it might be our home’s primary entrance, it’s the last thing on the list for spring cleaning. “People feel frustrated when the time comes to clean out the ugly mess winter left because it usually means tackling more than a few months of buildup,” says Mike Padden, owner of Encore Garage Ohio . “Often, it’s years of neglect and accumulated junk as the garage turned into a domestic dumping ground. It’s enough to stress anyone out.” Enough is enough. Bikes with flat tires, balls that don’t bounce, bags of golf clubs gathering dust, outgrown scooters and a Slip ’N Slide past its prime, tools, ladders, snow shovels, bulky bottled water stacks and unpacked moving boxes all need a new place to call home. If any of these usual culprits Mike and his crew uncover describe your own garage, it’s time for a transformation. Add making your garage into something worthy of the rest of your home to the top of your to-do list. “Take a look at the garage floor, the unsightly stains and areas where salt has eaten away at the concrete,” Mike says. “We can restore it, sealing it with our Encore Flexcore polyaspartic coating system, so there’s no distracting eyesore every time you pass through the garage.” The state-of-the-art coating makes concrete better than new and comes in various colors. “The cost to put in another concrete floor is through the roof,” Mike says. “Our Encore Flexcore polyaspartic coating is economical and adds value to your home. Unlike concrete, it’s nonporous, repelling oil, grease, paint, salt and other chemicals so that these substances do not collect and get tracked inside the house. That’s the real beauty of it. On top of that, it’s low- maintenance. To clean it, simply mop it and squeegee it.” The garage is no longer just the garage. “The garage has become another room in the house that people proudly show off,” Mike says. From floor to ceiling, Encore Garage uses its know-how and system of heavy-duty cabinets, spacious work surface, sturdy organization systems, and showroom-quality lighting to reclaim and redefine the space, reinvigorating garages to their rightful places as a natural extensions of the home. “We match every job to the homeowner’s needs and personality—building a storage area and workbench for the resident gearhead or wrapping cabinets around a big- screen TV and emblazoning a Guardians logo on the wall for the sports fanatic,” Mike says. “If someone likes to garden, we can make a custom workstation to exercise a green thumb, rain or shine.” All Encore Garage’s organizational systems are custom-made. “Custom doesn’t mean costly,” Mike says. “It means we design with the homeowner to deliver the optimal organization system. We’re not pulling cabinets off the shelf like a big box store, and we mount—never hang—our cabinets 4 to 6 inches from the floor for easy cleaning. They’re what I call ‘garage-tuff’ and can withstand moisture and extreme swings in temperature. Doing the floor and remodeling the garage is usually less costly than remodeling a half-bath.” As tax season coincides with spring cleaning, it bears mentioning that transferring the momentary joy of getting a return into a garage worthy of the rest of your home can turn a harrowing journey passing through on your way and in and out into many happy returns. Top 10 Garage Clutter Culprits The technicians from EncoreGarage have come up with an amusing checklist of common items you will often find in the average Northeast Ohio garage. How many do you have? Bikes with flat tires. (More bikes than people living in the home) Golf clubs, so many golf clubs! Water bottles in bulk. (Can anyone possibly be this thirsty?) A minimum of three ladders, all the same size. Deflated balls. Too many to count. Scooters, skateboards, and skates, oh my! Tools, tools, tools. A menagerie of defunct plastic water games, such as the Slip ’N Slide that has neither slipped nor slid for many years. 9. A plethora of snow shovels. (One for every member in the house) 10. Mystery moving boxes from your last move—13 years ago.  Set the stage for a clean, organized and aesthetically pleasing extension of your home with Encore Garage Ohio, based in Akron at 1570 Akron Peninsula Road, Suite 6. Get started and visit EncoreGarageOhio.com or call 330-922-4411 to schedule a free consultation.

When you open the garage door, it’s open for anyone passing by and, for better or worse, reflects on the rest of your home. When a passerby pauses and rummages through a stack of old books you’d forgotten about or makes an offer on a box of baby clothes, you know it’s not for the better. If it looks like you’re having a garage sale anytime you open the garage door, it’s time to declutter and make the space as stunning as the rest of your home. A Domestic Dumping Ground “After a lifetime of purchasing bikes, holiday decorations and gardening tools, the garage became a domestic dumping ground,” says Mike Padden, owner of Encore Garage Ohio. “After the kitchen and baths, it’s the final frontier.” Encore Garage uses its know-how and system of heavy-duty cabinets, spacious workbenches, sturdy organization systems and showroom-quality lighting to reclaim and redefine the space, reinvigorating garages long in hibernation. “Many of our customers come to us after encountering lackluster results with their spring garage cleaning, when they tried to clear out the dirt and salt left over from the winter slush. But there’s always more than a few months of dirty build-up, and usually years of neglect,” Mike says. A New Garage Floor After so many years of deterioration, it’s time to refinish the concrete floor. Today, many are stepping up to a polyaspartic floor that’s flexible, durable, and designed to hold up through the years against anything it’s put through. With new technological advancements, the garage is no longer just the garage. “Polyaspartic floors are easy to clean, abrasive resistant, and the finishes are phenomenal,” Mike says. “The garage has become another room in the house that people are proud to show off.” And it’s not as expensive as it looks.  “Doing the floor and remodeling the garage is usually less costly than remodeling a half-bath,” Mike says. “A garage sale might even cover it.”

Every homeowner wants a great room, but few realize they already have one. While it may not be great yet, the garage can is most often the largest room in the house which makes it a wonderful canvas upon which a great room can be created. Most homeowners hate their garage, they pass thru it everyday when they leave in the morning and return to it everyday when they arrive home. Since it's the last room you see when you leave the home and the first you see when you return it is the room that creates the most lasting impression. When the garage is a messy, dirty, unorganized space filled with stuff, it's easy to develop negative associations with the garage. Those negative association can grow knowing that guests often enter the home through the garage, Having been in the garage enhancement business for almost ten years I have experienced many people reaching that disorganized garage breaking point. It begins with a phone call where within the first thirty seconds the caller proclaims "I can't stand my garage anymore, it's a complete disaster and I need help." Once someone reaches the point of being appalled by this large room, I know they have begun to open their mind to the possibilities of how great this room can be. There is true benefit for a homeowner when the garage is redesigned of as an extension of the interior living space as opposed to a warehouse for cars and stuff. Approaching the garage from this prospective creates an excitement about the possibility of gaining living space and creating more order in one's life for a relatively modest investment. For some just the thought of having a garage space that reflects the style of the rest of the home is enough to energize them through this project. I believe garage organization is about both style and functionality. A complete garage renovation should create a space that is clean, neat and organized. Aesthetics are a key element because we want the garage interior to feel like an extension of the interior space. This promotes the sense that the garage is part of the home versus an outside space. Organization is the other key element because the garage is the storage area for so many items that play a big part of everyday life. Whether it be bikes, sports gear, hobby equipment and the like, the garage's role is to storage them safe and securely while at the same time making them easily accessible. The satisfaction of a complete a garage renovation can not be underestimated. Many home owners report it was one of the most gratifying home improvement they ever completed. I became involved in the garage enhancement business because one day several years ago I too got to the garage breaking point. Since then my garage has become a source of pride and a significant part of my families overall organization. We get compliments on our garage all the time, but nothing beats the feeling of pulling my car into a great room everyday. #encoregarage #epoxy #floorcoating #garageenhancement #garagefloor #garagefloorcoating #garageflooring #garageorganization #garageorganizers #garagecabinets #garagemakeover #storagecabinets 

Utilizing the most advanced Floor Coating, Cabinetry and Organizer Systems, EncoreGarage of Ohio combines products, techniques and years of expertise to create garage space that is organized and attractive. EncoreGarage of Ohio designers can help create advanced garage solutions to fit your life style and aesthetic preferences. Designing side by side with you we’ll help you select a garage floor coating system and cabinets that compliment your home and needs. We have endless options to transform your garage into any space you want it to be. We will find you the perfect solution to add beauty and organization featuring our cabinets and floor coating systems. Visit our website at EncoreGarageOhio.com. Serving Areas in Northern and Central Ohio, including Akron, Canton, Medina, Cleveland, Columbus and Pittsburgh, PA. #encoregarage #customertestimonials #garagecabinets #garageflooring #garageorganization #akron #cleveland #strongsville #medina 

A deteriorating, stained concrete floor can not only ruin the look of your garage, but it also devalues your home, laments Mike Padden, owner of Encore Garage Ohio. Here, Mike explains the options for restoring your garage floor. Q: What can a homeowner do to replace a deteriorating concrete floor? A: There are four main options. The first is to do nothing and agonize over the way it looks, but it’s only going to get worse. At the other extreme is having your concrete floor torn out and replaced. That is a messy, expensive process that puts you back to square one with another high-maintenance, porous concrete floor that will begin the same slow deterioration process that befell your original floor. The other two options both involve covering and protecting your floor with an epoxy coating. One is doing it yourself with an over-the-counter product from a home improvement retailer. You’ll save money on your initial investment, but it can cost you in the long run. T he do-it-yourself products ar e not of durable, long-lasting quality. Not being installed with professional equipment by skilled professionals, they typically begin to delaminate and wear out after a couple of years. The final option is a professionally installed epoxy-based product like Encore ’s Flex-Core advanced polymer floor coating that not only beautifies your garage floor, but also protects it from damage. Q: Why is epoxy better than concrete? A: Our Flex-Core epoxy flooring is seamless and non-porous, so liquids can’t seep down and attack the concrete below. It is stain resistant, even against oil and grease, and couldn’t be easier to maintain. All you need is a water hose and a squeegee to keep the floor looking like new for many years. Flex-Core has a nearly unlimited variety of attractive colors and patterns, it’s long-lasting and you can only get it from Encore. #epoxyfloorcoating #epoxyflooring #garageepoxyfloor #restoringconcrete #deterioratingconcretefloor #stainedconcrete #fixgaragefloor