PVC garage floor tiles- opinions?

[Steves32]

I still haven't pulled the trigger on a new floor yet.

Epoxy is out- too much work & I'm hard on floors.

Race Deck type products- I've been looking at this stuff for awhile & all the knock-off's of it.
Sears had their brand of it installed in their display area & it has hairline (and wider) spaces between the pieces that would collect dirt & debris. Plus it sounds so cheap when you walk on it. I visited a friend who instyalled some over the summer & while he likes it- I was drawn to the dirt filling in between the cracks & the clackety-clack sound when walking on it. And his has landscape cloth under it!

VCT- not going there, does not appeal to me.

Tile- This was what I planned to use. A friend of mine did his garage in porcelain tile & I can see where he's dropped impacts on it & chipped tiles. Just this weekend, I was changing wheels & tires & dropped the 1/2 impact....twice! Left a nice dent in the concrete. So for right now, that's on hold.

PVC- Now this looks interesting. I was at a customers house who had this installed in his 2,000 sq ft garage for 2 years now & it looks wonderful! No spaces between the tiles to trap dirt & it's dead quiet when you walk on it. It appears to be about a buck per sq ft higher than race Deck products but I only want to do this once. Also looks easier to replace a tile later if you damage one.


So, does anyone have any experience with this stuff. Appears alot of it is made by Norsk-Stor.

NORSK-Stor PVC Garage Floor Tile Features:
•Unbeatable strength and durability
•10 Year Warranty
•Patented Mushroom Tooth Locking System makes installation easy
•Patent Pending Air-Dry Technology to improve airflow and allow moisture to escape
•Raised Coin Tile, Raised Diamond Tile, Drainage Tile and Sport Tile can be used interchangeably within one NORSK-Stor flooring system
•All four NORSK-Stor tile designs are available in multiple colors with matching trim pieces
•18.3" x 18.3" x .25" tile size makes installation quicker and requires fewer tiles to buy
•Easy to clean, using common household cleaning products
•Acoustic and Thermal Insulation help keep your NORSK-Stor PVC garage floor tile system warm and quiet
•NORSK-Stor PVC construction offers both cushion and support
•NORSK-Stor PVC flooring tiles can be used in a variety of settings, not just a garage
•Resistant to most stains and chemicals

Anyone have this or similar in their garage?

 

[Steves32]

Here's a different manufacturer- more color choices & bigger tiles.

http://www.flexitiles.com/shopping.htm

 

[JimVonBaden]

They have the same thing, or similar, at Lowes for $6.50 a square, 20x20" squares. I looked at it, and it looked pretty solid.

Jim

 

[Steves32]

Sears has it too. Looks nice.
Home Depot has it but by website only.
Haven't seen it in Lowes.

I believe the Norsk is virgin PVC, the others are recycled.

 

[TigerGA]

I looked at this, but wanted to do a checkerboard patteren and didn't like the sawtooth look between colors. I guess if you're doing one color, it would work fine. There's a company I looked at that has a similar product in which the sawtooth edges conceal (tuffsealtile.com)...I stayed away from it because of the cost. Found another company that produced a PVC tile with a diamond plate look (jnkproducts.com), but these were self-stick tiles and I thought they'd eventually come up. Eventually determined there was no perfect garage tile, epoxy, etc. and went with RaceDeck. BTW, I'm picky and used two layers of underlayment and the sound doesn't bother me...thought it would though. Good luck.

 

[Steves32]

The sawtooth checkerboard doesn't bother me a bit if i go that route. I'm more interested in how this stuff works out in a garage enviornment.
I went by Lowes & in the back of store, they have samples. Black & grey are $3.49 sf, colors are $3.99 sf. Stuff is very tough, I tried to tear off one of those teeth to no avail.

 

[Carnut12]

Check out armorgarage, looks like a really good PVC product as well.

100% Virgin PVC according to their website

 

[Carnut12]

By the way it looks like the Craftsman is made by Norsk

 

[tomstin]

Looks interesting, but I don't see any personal experience with any of these???

 

[Steves32]

I thought there would be more people who had tried it here.

 

[lineman88]

I was at the Auto show this weekend and i think I'm going with this. They had a local company there with TEC-tiles.I think the PVC stuff is all pretty similar. I was going with epoxy but this is a lot less work and I think looks great. I'm also surprised more people haven't used it. Is it new?

I was also looking at Craftsman's.

http://www.tecequip.com/tec_tile.htm

 

[A_Pmech]

If you truly are hard on floors, I doubt any of the plastic snap-set tile options will last very long and they're extremely expensive for what you get.

 

[lineman88]

If you truly are hard on floors, I doubt any of the plastic snap-set tile options will last very long and they're extremely expensive for what you get.

I looked at the more rigid hard plastic tile options and I agree they don't look like they would hold up to hard use - I may be wrong though. I didn't care for how noisy they were to walk on. The PVC tiles didn't seem that way. This guy at the auto show had a lift sitting on one and tiles seemed to take it but I was wondering about year after year and with temperature changed - I live in New England. Do they hold up???

On Amazon there are some negative reviews about the Norsk tiles (and I think they make Craftsman). Apparently large color variations and not holding up to gasoline! So I don't know.

 

[Kevin54]

I like the looks of it, but I have a question about this particular pic. The tiles interlock with the patented mushroom style locking tab. Why does it not show up on these white and black tiles.

If you look at this pic, you can clearly see where the tabs interlock

I don't know right off, but the tabs don't show in a RaceDeck like they do these do they?

 

[964haus]

I'm currently researching an appropriate flooring for my shed (12x16). It will store a motorcycle and be used for some light maintenance work, so this floor is really appealing at the moment. Will try and speak with a local distributor on this type of application....

 

[LoanRebel]

Just something else for you guys to remember, some of these PVC tiles dent when they are actually used for a working garage, like with jack stands or jacks.
just my $.02!!

 

[ESEL]

"I like the looks of it, but I have a question about this particular pic. The tiles interlock with the patented mushroom style locking tab. Why does it not show up on these white and black tiles".

That is a different type of style some of them they sell. I think it is called "Slate tile"..it is still PVC but just has the tabs underneath the edge to lock together..

Interesting floor concept... I may be tempted to do mine since I have been considering porcelin tiles but not looking forward to the work it would entail...

 

[bazzateer]

They have the same thing, or similar, at Lowes for $650 a square, 20x20" squares. I looked at it, and it looked pretty solid.Jim

So it should at that price!

 

[JimVonBaden]

So it should at that price!

Jim

 

[Steves32]

Still thinking about it. I do like the fact that the pieces fit tight & seams are waterproof.

 

[BoCRon]

I have had those tiles in my basement for about 5 years. While it's not the garage, my husbands woodshop is in there, plus we have 8 German Shepherds that run, sleep, eat int he rooms where this flooring is. It has held up very well, but it is a pain to clean. But that is a by-product of the raised circle designs in general. No matter what you do, one side of the circle always seems to have a film line. Not the end of the world, but just thought I'd mention it.
If I wanted to do that type of floor again I think I'd go with the Greg Smith Equipment type since they don't show the puzzle like connection pattern like the ones in my basement.

http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/BigFoot-Rubber-Garage-Floor-Tile-Grey

Each 13" x 13" tile costs $2.50.

Lowes now carries an 18" square tile in gray with a slate type pattern that I really like.
It is by Novalis, but for some reason is not on their website. Each tile is $6.50.

 

[slickgt1]

I still haven't pulled the trigger on a new floor yet.

Epoxy is out- too much work & I'm hard on floors.

Race Deck type products- I've been looking at this stuff for awhile & all the knock-off's of it.
Sears had their brand of it installed in their display area & it has hairline (and wider) spaces between the pieces that would collect dirt & debris. Plus it sounds so cheap when you walk on it. I visited a friend who instyalled some over the summer & while he likes it- I was drawn to the dirt filling in between the cracks & the clackety-clack sound when walking on it. And his has landscape cloth under it!

VCT- not going there, does not appeal to me.

Tile- This was what I planned to use. A friend of mine did his garage in porcelain tile & I can see where he's dropped impacts on it & chipped tiles. Just this weekend, I was changing wheels & tires & dropped the 1/2 impact....twice! Left a nice dent in the concrete. So for right now, that's on hold.

PVC- Now this looks interesting. I was at a customers house who had this installed in his 2,000 sq ft garage for 2 years now & it looks wonderful! No spaces between the tiles to trap dirt & it's dead quiet when you walk on it. It appears to be about a buck per sq ft higher than race Deck products but I only want to do this once. Also looks easier to replace a tile later if you damage one.


So, does anyone have any experience with this stuff. Appears alot of it is made by Norsk-Stor.

NORSK-Stor PVC Garage Floor Tile Features:
•Unbeatable strength and durability
•10 Year Warranty
•Patented Mushroom Tooth Locking System makes installation easy
•Patent Pending Air-Dry Technology to improve airflow and allow moisture to escape
•Raised Coin Tile, Raised Diamond Tile, Drainage Tile and Sport Tile can be used interchangeably within one NORSK-Stor flooring system
•All four NORSK-Stor tile designs are available in multiple colors with matching trim pieces
•18.3" x 18.3" x .25" tile size makes installation quicker and requires fewer tiles to buy
•Easy to clean, using common household cleaning products
•Acoustic and Thermal Insulation help keep your NORSK-Stor PVC garage floor tile system warm and quiet
•NORSK-Stor PVC construction offers both cushion and support
•NORSK-Stor PVC flooring tiles can be used in a variety of settings, not just a garage
•Resistant to most stains and chemicals

Anyone have this or similar in their garage?

I don't know what porcelain he used. But I have dropped a lot of stuff on mine, PEI 4 and 5 checker pattern, not one chip. Strange.

 

[tomstin]

I like the idea of these floor tiles in the garage. I do mainly maintenance work on my cars but no fabrication work. Installing the tiles in stages versus empting the garage for a week to use epoxy seems reasonable to me. My garage is roughly 480 square feet, so before committing I want to test things out a bit.

I went to Lowes and picked up a box of 8 of their hidden interlocking tiles manufactured by Norvalis. These 18 x18 tiles cover 12 square feet at $52 works out to $4.33 a square foot.

They fit together real well and are fairly idiot proof as you can only lay them one way. I tried a brick pattern but the way the tabs are designed, that won’t work. I do like the hidden locking mechanism.

Initial thoughts:
1) I like the way they feel under foot. Not soft but not like your walking on plastic tiles
2) No noise when walking or driving the car on them
3) Jacked up one side of my 4k lb car on with the floor jack. The jack was free to move on the floor as the car was raised and lowered. The slight indention from the jack wheels bounced back quickly.
4) Brake fluid and gasoline wiped up after 15 minutes without staining.
5) Seems easy to maintain. As mentioned in an earlier post the coin patter will always leave some dirt after moping. I think these will clean up well.
6) The groves between the tiles are slight but will retain some dirt or dust.
7) No mark from the car tires after sitting for 48 hours

I had an interesting development one morning. After shuffling the cars I had to cut the wheel hard and the tiles twisted with the turn of the tire. I only have 8 tiles down and only one wheel was on the tiles but the whole group turned. How will this work with the entire floor covered and you cut the wheel hard?

An email sent to the info site has not been answered in 6 days and counting.

I’m thinking about buying another box for some extended testing. This solution is far from cheap so I want to be sure before making the leap.

I can’t seem to find them on the Lowes web site. I guess I’ll have to go back and ask some more questions.

 

[Kevin54]

I had an interesting development one morning. After shuffling the cars I had to cut the wheel hard and the tiles twisted with the turn of the tire. I only have 8 tiles down and only one wheel was on the tiles but the whole group turned. How will this work with the entire floor covered and you cut the wheel hard?

I would venture to say the whole group turned because only one wheel was on them. Once you get the weight of a complete care on them, the other wheels would keep them from turning. Plus if you have a complete floor done wall to wall, how could they turn?

BTW...I like the looks of the texture on them. What does the underneath look like?

 

[tomstin]

BTW...I like the looks of the texture on them. What does the underneath look like?

In the pictures above one of the tile is flipped to see the back, but here it is again. The texture is what caught my attention.

Also, I agree with the small sample set twisting because they were only under one tire. With them all in place I hope they wouldn't move. Another reason why I think I'll put down another box just to see how they handle turning on them.

 

[ESEL]

I, too, really like the look of them. Please keep the thread updated if you buy additional boxes. I am curious to see if the color remains consistent and how they perform once you get them the width of your garage and then turn your wheels.

 

[Garage Flooring]

We sell NORSK PVC stiles as well as the BLT Self Adhesive PVC Tile. I have never had any complaints with either. Not one. If it were my floor and I was doing checkerboard I would lean to the BLT product. If I was doing a solid color where the jig saw that some find objectionable would not stand out, I would lean towards the Norsk.

A couple things I have found that I like about Norsk.

• 
  Does not tend to separate
  Provides an Air Gap

The self stick maybe a little more work but they now have a coating available that even the worst (or best) tire wont stain

 

[unpredictable1]

In the pictures above one of the tile is flipped to see the back, but here it is again. The texture is what caught my attention.

Also, I agree with the small sample set twisting because they were only under one tire. With them all in place I hope they wouldn't move. Another reason why I think I'll put down another box just to see how they handle turning on them.

Wow I'm a big fan of this tile. Seems a bit pricey though.

That said, are you able to get other colors? I would be interested in a beige.

So have you tried a car on a jack stand? I have a Lowes near me, I should take a trip over there this weekend.

 

[LI LT Owner]

First post so please be kind to the newbie!

I bought Racedeck to put down in my new garage space. The decking will sit on top of 3/4" plywood which is sitting on top of a concrete slab. Do I need to put anything down on the plywood as a barrier?

I'm afraid of liquids seeping between the the racedeck flooring and into the plywood. Thoughts?

 

[Kevin54]

First post so please be kind to the newbie!

I bought Racedeck to put down in my new garage space. The decking will sit on top of 3/4" plywood which is sitting on top of a concrete slab. Do I need to put anything down on the plywood as a barrier?

I'm afraid of liquids seeping between the the racedeck flooring and into the plywood. Thoughts?

Why are you putting plywood down over concrete then Racedeck over the top of that? If you get any moisture at all, it will soak into the plywood, then you have the possibility of mold growth and mildew. Why not just put it down directly over concrete as most people do? Plywood sandwiched between the RD and concrete just doesn't sound like too good of an idea. But that's my $.02 on it.

 

[unpredictable1]

First post so please be kind to the newbie!

I bought Racedeck to put down in my new garage space. The decking will sit on top of 3/4" plywood which is sitting on top of a concrete slab. Do I need to put anything down on the plywood as a barrier?

I'm afraid of liquids seeping between the the racedeck flooring and into the plywood. Thoughts?

Lol, dude, welcome aboard! Your question definitely warrants you starting your own thread about it. Cheers, lbrowne

 

[Duffinator]

Any updates on projects?

I've narrowed it down to RaceDeck for hard flooring or Norsk for PVC. I have samples of RD and have requested samples from Norsk. To me it looks like you can't lose with RD but I like the PVC style a bit more. The Tuff-Seal tiles look the best to me (I have samples) but I can't justify the cost at 2X RD. The Norsk is basically the same price at RD but they lack color options. Any further input is appreciated.

BTW this is a great forum!

 

[SS_396]

Hey Guys,

New member, great site!

I'm also researching floor tiles vs. epoxy and am leaning towards tiles, RaceDeck in the lead as of now. I leak the clean, hidden-interlocking look as opposed to the PVC jig-saw lock. The Novalis tiles are nice too but don't care for the relatively deep groove around the tile edge; wouldn't these grooves pick up all kinds of junk and be hard to clean?

My biggest issue with RaceDeck is that I don't know how well they will keep fluids from seeping through to the concrete. I've got a 1970 Chevelle that drips constantly, and even though I will have something underneath to catch the oil and AT fluid I want a tile that's fairly impervious. Can anyone help here?

Also, I will be jacking my cars up a lot, putting on jackstands, etc...will RD hold up here as well?

Thanks in advance, and great info!

Derek

 

[jerry7]

hi i had PVC tiles in my old garage for 5 years, took them up when we moved, stored them for 3 years and have just put them back down. needed some more as new footprint much bigger. the old tiles have some minor colour variation (silver) but haven't broken any. my motorcycle hydraulic workbench left some indentations, but they are warm, comfortable to work on and clean up well. i sealed my concrete slab with garage floor paint before i put them down.
overall, very happy

cheers

jerry

 

[SS_396]

A neighbor mentioned this PVC product from ArmorGarage. Anybody used it?

http://www.armorgarage.com/armortiles1.html

Prices start at $3.55/sf.

 

[SS_396]

Link or pictures didn't come through Michael.

 

[kurnakiuun]

Garage tiles can be made from numerous raw materials. One of the most popular materials garage floor tiles are made from today is durable PVC. Garage floor tiles made from PVC feel soft and pliable to the touch and many people often say they feel like rubber. These tiles were originally designed to be used as a garage floor covering since the tiles are resistant to most chemicals commonly found in garages however their softer more pliable surface under foot has made these tiles work well as a multiuse floor covering. Some common places you may find PVC tiles in use are as a gym floor tile, as kitchen flooring, utility room flooring, and in many other locations. PVC Interlocking tiles are available in numerous surface patterns including a coin pattern, a diamond pattern, and a slate pattern just to name a few. A wide variety of color options are also available which offers the customer the chance to make custom floor patterns such as checker board patterns or whatever else you can dream up. Free samples are available of each garage tile so please feel free to order them so you can see and feel the difference yourself.

 

[Full Throttle]

Captain obviouse ^^^^^ spammer^^^^^^^

 

[RVDan]

I just bought a generic brand of these, haven't installed yet but I layed a dozen out as a test. They're great to walk on. Almost silent when you drop a tool on them. Driving the car on them didn't make a difference but the bike kickstand left a dent so I'm having concerns about dragging the bike lift around on it.

 

[PeterN]

I just bought a generic brand of these, haven't installed yet but I layed a dozen out as a test. They're great to walk on. Almost silent when you drop a tool on them. Driving the car on them didn't make a difference but the bike kickstand left a dent so I'm having concerns about dragging the bike lift around on it.

I'm also planning on using tiles and was wondering what surface pattern you installed. I've got a couple of motorcycle table lifts as well as the smaller bike lift that I wheel around on the floor. Kinda figured that the sidestand (how about centerstand) would dent the surface since the surface area of the stand foot is rather small.

Pete