Swisstrax Pro - ribbed VS smooth thoughts?

[cre8fun]

Laying out my floor. decided I'm going to go with Swisstrax (yup, I have some of big Racedeck samples, prefer the Swisstrax).

trying to decide ribbed vs smooth, wonder what others have thought/decided.

Smooth - much easier on the knees when working, Jack rolls easier and moves better when jacking and lowering (little wheels don't get caught on the ribs), but in the samples I have, surface holds dirt more, shows scuffs more and quite quickly showed stress marks from a jackstand that did not have a car on it.

Ribbed - shows dirt less, holds less dirt on surface, but not as knee friendly, jack friendly , etc.

garage is 28x30. gave thought to using smooth where I park and work, ribbed elsewhere. then there's a piece of me that thinks just use the ribbed everywhere and rubber mat it when working on car. I did see that "normal guy supercar" started with Ribbed and sold it to put in smooth. chatted with him and said he'd probably go Polyaspartic if he did it all over again. I'm not doing $8K on my floor. if it failed or I scratched it, I'd hang myself.

figured others have been down this road, what were your thoughts/conclusions.

 

[Shea]

Laying out my floor. decided I'm going to go with Swisstrax (yup, I have some of big Racedeck samples, prefer the Swisstrax).

trying to decide ribbed vs smooth, wonder what others have thought/decided.

Smooth - much easier on the knees when working, Jack rolls easier and moves better when jacking and lowering (little wheels don't get caught on the ribs), but in the samples I have, surface holds dirt more, shows scuffs more and quite quickly showed stress marks from a jackstand that did not have a car on it.

Ribbed - shows dirt less, holds less dirt on surface, but not as knee friendly, jack friendly , etc.

garage is 28x30. gave thought to using smooth where I park and work, ribbed elsewhere. then there's a piece of me that thinks just use the ribbed everywhere and rubber mat it when working on car. I did see that "normal guy supercar" started with Ribbed and sold it to put in smooth. chatted with him and said he'd probably go Polyaspartic if he did it all over again. I'm not doing $8K on my floor. if it failed or I scratched it, I'd hang myself.

figured others have been down this road, what were your thoughts/conclusions.

We don't have experience with the SwissTrax Smooth Pro, but we do have samples coming for us to evaluate. What we do know from doing some research is that the Smooth Pro will appear less glossy and lose some of the two-tone color effects that many people like with these types of tile designs. The main reason for this is due to the flat profile. The standard ribbed design is curved and reflects light differently. It really comes down to aesthetics and determining which would be best for your needs. Both are high-quality premium products.

Your observations about showing more dirt and scuffs for the Smooth Pro are accurate, as well as it being easier on the knees. We had a RaceDeck floor for 8 years with a small strip of the Free-Flow at the front of the garage. Kneeling on it hurt, but laying on it was fine. We found that jacks rolled much more smoothly over the Free-Flow tiles than the diamond design. I would think they would roll smoothly over the SwissTrax Ribtrax as well.

As for floor jacks, we highly recommend that you use a cut piece of 5/16" or 3/8" plywood (or similar material) to place your floor jacks on when using them to lift a vehicle. As much weight as these tile floors can withstand, it is imperative that loads be spread out on a flat surface. Unlike pneumatic tires that create a flat profile at the surface under load, steel jack wheels do not. All that weight being lifted is concentrated on a very thin (bottom curve of the wheel) strip of steel that is only 3/4" to 2" wide depending on the jack. That is why you will see stress marks. Indentations by the jack wheels can develop and permanently deform the tile. Conversely, that same amount of weight that the floor jacks lift can easily be supported by a flat plate with a surface area of one square inch.

We had cars up on jack stands all the time with that floor and had no issues as long as the jack stands had flat bottom plates for the feet and plywood was used with the floor jacks.

 

[cre8fun]

thanks for your input. yes about jacks, I did see one guy uses something akin to a piece of a metal road sign to put under his jack. not as heavy as plywood, but same effect (no stress concentration and allows wheels to roll smoothly as the jack goes up and down. I might mount some plywood on my jack stand bottoms, but use the sheet metal answer for jacks. as for knees, starting to lean toward just doing all ribtrax and finding a foam pad to layout when working wheels/brakes, etc. for me, that work is maybe 10-15 days a year.

 

[BroncoAZ]

Seems like these Esco stands with the flat steel feet would be perfect for the ribbed tiles. I think for the floor jack a piece of UHMW plastic that covered the entire bottom of the jack rather than wheels might be effective to slide the jack around under the vehicle.

I’m heavily considering the ribbed tiles, the Race Deck free flow, my space is 34’x21’. My current previous homeowner DIY epoxy isn’t holding up great.

https://www.amazon.com/Esco-Performance-Stands-Truck-10497/dp/B0B8T3978K/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[Shea]

The image below is a great example of how we used the interlocking tile floor in our old garage. We were changing out coilovers, upper control arms, and rear shocks. You can see one of the Esco jack stands supporting the front of the truck and a floor jack and plywood at the back. The floor at this particular time was approximately 7 years old and has had numerous car modifications, repairs, and maintenance performed on it.

 

[Garage Flooring]

First, I want to address the jack issue with an unpopular answer. Be it a piece of plywood, metal, or jack plates, we recommend using something under your jacks for every floor we sell. While many of the flooring options we have are more than adequate, taking an extra 30 seconds to protect the floor can save a lot of frustration later.

I will not address the Swisstrax product specifically because we do not offer the brand.

Flow through vs solid tiles.

In addition to owning Garage Flooring, I also own a Ceramic Pro Elite Dealership. Between the two companies, we have four buildings, and some space is dedicated and some it not. From our showroom to our clean bay for tint and coatings, we work on every surface from coated to bare concrete, solid tile, and flow through. I have not found a single instance where I do not prefer the flow through (and I have solid tiles at home).

You can see some of the different surfaces we work on here (playlist not a single video)