Most garage floors become dirty, ugly things we would don't associate with our (usually) clean houses. This is to be expected. We drive our cars through slush, snow and mud, rain, and then park in the garage. Cars can also leak oil, gas and transmission fluid, and we spill just about anything you can think of on the poor, unprotected floor.

I get hundreds of calls asking how to clean, seal, and paint the floor. That's fine. You can do all of these things. All it takes is hard work and/or a relatively fat checkbook.

Whatever you do has drawbacks. Clean the floor and it just gets dirty again. Seal the floor and it usually becomes shiny or turns yellow. Stain the floor and it can still peel and flake.

As I get younger, easier, less labor-intensive options become more and more attractive. If you are tired of all the hard work, here is a labor-saving alternative that can give you an easy-to-clean, attractive, easy-to-install two-car garage floor for under $700.

The secret is Better Life Technologies' (913-894-0403, www.bltllc.com) G-Floor Roll-Out Garage Flooring. It comes in several different colors, patterns, and thicknesses and is shipped in rolls that fit the most common garage dimensions. The best price I found was at Sam's Club ( www.samsclub.com, $138.72 per 7 1/2 -foot by 20-foot roll). Other Web sites such as www.griotsgarage

.com and www.garagefloor.com have broader selections.

Here's all you have to do

Materials needed: Better Life Technologies (BLT) Floor Covering, indoor/outdoor carpet tape optional).

Tools needed: Utility knife or large, sharp scissors.

Instructions

1. Clean the garage and driveway. Be sure to clean up any chemical spills.

2. The easiest way to get the garage floor protector to uncurl is to unroll it on the driveway in the sunlight. The warmer the day the better. If you can't do that, unroll it in place, directly on the garage floor.

3. When it has completely flattened, drag the floor protector into the garage and put it in place. Push out all the air pockets with a push broom. Allow the mat to relax in place for a couple of hours before cutting to size.

4. When perfectly flat, tug into the exact place and trim around corners with scissors or utility knife.

5. 10-foot wide G-Flooring has a 1 1/2 - to 2-inch wide unpatterned flap so that you can overlap the mat. Taping is unnecessary because the G-Floor mat will lay flat, but some people like to make the mat one unit.

6. You're done! It looks great. Brag about it.

The real beauty of this flooring is when it gets dirty you drag it out to the driveway and hose it down.