Best floor for garage

[Shopguy]

So this is my first post......and no, I am not a troll. I've been lurking here for years, but only registered now so someone doesn't make the same mistake I made.

Absolutely do NOT use Swisstrax (unless you are only using garage for parking). I installed Swisstrax based on some reviews on other sites. Unfortunately those reviews were based on Swisstrax's old tiles. Their tiles use to be 12"x12", but recently changed to a larger format tile. When they went to the new size, they drastically reduced the amount of underside support. They reduced the number of support "ribs". They thinned the ribs. And they scalloped the ribs (ie: removed support material). I'd guess about a 70% reduction in support!
I discouvered this when I went to the Canadian distributer in Delta, BC, to return some damaged tile (from floor jack use). The company claims you can use floor jacks, but I crushed the tile when lifting my Harley (which is much lighter than lifting a car).
When I was in the Delta showroom, they had some old tiles on the wall so I was able to do a comparison.
Night and Day difference. I have no doubt the old ones would have held up, but the new ones are complete junk.
I should have been suspicious when I saw the claim of handling 5200psi of pressure. That's 2000psi more than concrete. I asked the Canadian distributor how they came up with that number and he said he didn't know. Don't know? You sell one item....you're the distributor for an entire country...and you don't know your (single) product???

I apologize that my 1st post is a rant.
Great site BTW!!

 

[kram71]

So this is my first post......and no, I am not a troll. I've been lurking here for years, but only registered now so someone doesn't make the same mistake I made.

Absolutely do NOT use Swisstrax (unless you are only using garage for parking). I installed Swisstrax based on some reviews on other sites. Unfortunately those reviews were based on Swisstrax's old tiles. Their tiles use to be 12"x12", but recently changed to a larger format tile. When they went to the new size, they drastically reduced the amount of underside support. They reduced the number of support "ribs". They thinned the ribs. And they scalloped the ribs (ie: removed support material). I'd guess about a 70% reduction in support!
I discouvered this when I went to the Canadian distributer in Delta, BC, to return some damaged tile (from floor jack use). The company claims you can use floor jacks, but I crushed the tile when lifting my Harley (which is much lighter than lifting a car).
When I was in the Delta showroom, they had some old tiles on the wall so I was able to do a comparison.
Night and Day difference. I have no doubt the old ones would have held up, but the new ones are complete junk.
I should have been suspicious when I saw the claim of handling 5200psi of pressure. That's 2000psi more than concrete. I asked the Canadian distributor how they came up with that number and he said he didn't know. Don't know? You sell one item....you're the distributor for an entire country...and you don't know your (single) product???

I apologize that my 1st post is a rant.
Great site BTW!!

Welcome to the board. If you can't rant on the internet where can you rant?

 

[PCMusicGuy]

Just use a good PEI 5, through body porcelain tile and be done with it.

 

[ProjectROTM]

For a project at work recently we used EcoTile floor tiles. They seem really good, but the cost soon starts to add up when you add ramps, sealer etc.

 

[Jason B]

VCT hands down. I've had for over 12 years and can't beat a glossy floor that looks like a museum.

 

[kram71]

VCT hands down. I've had for over 12 years and can't beat a glossy floor that looks like a museum.

That looks great! Did you install yourself?

 

[Garage Flooring]

Welcome to the board. If you can't rant on the internet where can you rant?

I don't sell swisstrax but they have always been a decent product. They were 13x13 for years. Did something change?

 

[kram71]

I don't sell swisstrax but they have always been a decent product. They were 13x13 for years. Did something change?

I do not know since I have never used any tiles yet. I think that is a question that Shopguy can answer.

 

[Jason B]

That looks great! Did you install yourself?

Yep. Wasn't bad to do and was fun. The amount of compliments I get on this floor is nuts. Cost me around $480 back then and the tiles today are still super reasonable.

 

[kram71]

Yep. Wasn't bad to do and was fun. The amount of compliments I get on this floor is nuts. Cost me around $480 back then and the tiles today are still super reasonable.

It really does look good. I might go that route if I knew anything about laying floors and had the patience to do so.

 

[Jason B]

It really does look good. I might go that route if I knew anything about laying floors and had the patience to do so.

I didn't know anything about laying floors either. There only one thing you have to do right. Snap a chalk line! Make sure it's straight. As long as you do that, you can't mess up. If you aren't confident your chalk line is perfect, have someone else snap it for ya.

 

[Shopguy]

I don't sell swisstrax but they have always been a decent product. They were 13x13 for years. Did something change?

Sorry for the late response. The new tiles are 16x16 and the support "ribs" are fewer and thinner than the old tiles. I'm extremely disappointed in the product. Doesn't come anywhere near their strength claims.

 

[Angelfire]

Just use a good PEI 5, through body porcelain tile and be done with it.

A year and a half after installing my porcelain floor, I am still convinced I installed the best flooring there is! Not a single issue with mine and I haven't treated it well. Yeah, it's a bit costly up front but given the number of complaints I see regarding epoxy/plastic tiles/etc....I made the right choice. I don't think I've seen a single "my porcelain floor has failed/bubbles/discoloration/pick up/makes noise/etc....."
Cheers.

 

[Dakota00]

The best permanent flooring solution is porcelain tile, end of story.

 

[pbon]

Particularly small size porcelain tile that is less likely to crack when you drop something. Most people are installing household porcelain. If you go into a shop like my bmw dealer, you see red ceramic tile the size of a brick, not 18x18 tiles or 1x2 planks.

 

[fwillison]

I'm considering a concrete polished glossy finish for my large working garage. This finish looks good, involves no new materials like tile or epoxy, can't lift or peel, and is relatively nonporous thus good for spills.
What do you guys think?

 

[Shea]

Polished floors are not recommended for a busy garage. The reason is that contrary to what some are lead to believe, the surface of polished floors is porous to some degree. It's not porous like a regular concrete surface, but chemical and petroleum products can stain if not cleaned up in a reasonable amount of time. And when they do stain, it's almost impossible to get the stain out. There are special stain guard sealers that are sometimes applied to the surface of some polished floors, but these are not impervious like a regular coating is.

The article in the link below explains how floors are polished and why it may not be a good choice for busy garage floors.

https://allgaragefloors.com/polished-concrete-garage-floor/

 

[Angelfire]

Particularly small size porcelain tile that is less likely to crack when you drop something. Most people are installing household porcelain. If you go into a shop like my bmw dealer, you see red ceramic tile the size of a brick, not 18x18 tiles or 1x2 planks.

If properly installed, the size of the porcelain shouldn't matter. 100% back coverage is key. My 12x24 tiles are doing just fine. And at PEI 5, not quite "household porcelain" although PEI 4 and 5 are readily available even at the BB stores.
Cheers.

 

[pbon]

Drop a hammer on your 1x2 from 4’ and let us know what happens. For a car parking garage, big tiles should be ok. For a working shop, I would not recommend it and doubt you will find any working shops with big tiles.

 

[Shea]

Drop a hammer on your 1x2 from 4’ and let us know what happens. For a car parking garage, big tiles should be ok. For a working shop, I would not recommend it and doubt you will find any working shops with big tiles.

You might want to read this article and view the video near the end.
https://allgaragefloors.com/porcelain-garage-floor-questions/

 

[pbon]

Exactly. The show garages in the article use larger tiles, probably because they look nice, and they are probably fine for show garages. The working shop uses small ceramic tiles because they are more durable and less likely to break.

 

[Angelfire]

Drop a hammer on your 1x2 from 4’ and let us know what happens. For a car parking garage, big tiles should be ok. For a working shop, I would not recommend it and doubt you will find any working shops with big tiles.

I've already done worse. Dropped a driveshaft from about that height on it. Not a scratch. Dropped a chunk of granite I was looking to use as for a flat sharpening surface....shattered the granite....not a scratch on the porcelain. Numerous hammer drops/wrenches/etc... The porcelain forms a harder surface than the concrete itself and like I said, if installed with 100% coverage of thinset, it is highly impervious to breakage. Have you seen Jack's video of him beating his Ceramic tile with a sledge?

Cheers.

Edit: Sorry, didn't realize the video was embedded in the link above.

 

[pbon]

Ok. Then you have tested it. I still think there is a reason why working shops with ceramic tile floors use small brick size tiles, like the shop in the photo in the all garage floors link, like my bmw dealer shop, and like any other working shop I have seen.

 

[Angelfire]

Jack's tiles look to be 12x12 but he'd have to chime in to confirm. The point is, if you attach them with zero voids underneath, the size of the tile shouldn't matter. I suppose you could actually argue it might even be stronger due to fewer grout lines. Trouble is, not many install the larger stuff properly. Small stuff is easy to slather on a quick back butter and away you go. Getting a back butter on a 24x24 tile can be a real chore (and isn't done enough to be honest....most house applications don't get back buttered and lead to the belief that tile is easy to crack...I pulled tile up at my house a few years ago and the installers just threw a few dollops of thinset into the corners and called it good....this would not have worked in a garage!).

And note as well that Ceramic is typically softer than Porcelain. Jack used Ceramic on his and had trouble busting it up with a sledge.
Cheers.

 

[kram71]

Jack's tiles look to be 12x12 but he'd have to chime in to confirm. The point is, if you attach them with zero voids underneath, the size of the tile shouldn't matter. I suppose you could actually argue it might even be stronger due to fewer grout lines. Trouble is, not many install the larger stuff properly. Small stuff is easy to slather on a quick back butter and away you go. Getting a back butter on a 24x24 tile can be a real chore (and isn't done enough to be honest....most house applications don't get back buttered and lead to the belief that tile is easy to crack...I pulled tile up at my house a few years ago and the installers just threw a few dollops of thinset into the corners and called it good....this would not have worked in a garage!).

And note as well that Ceramic is typically softer than Porcelain. Jack used Ceramic on his and had trouble busting it up with a sledge.
Cheers.

I had a porcelain 36 inch long tile replaced in my house due to a color issue. It took the guy what seemed like and hour to crack it up with a claw hammer.

 

[pbon]

Ok. Maybe the big ones are tougher than I thought. I regularly see them cracked, however, but maybe they were improperly installed.

 

[RaceDeck1]

"Best Garage Floor"- really I think whatever you feel is best, There is no doubt you will have many options with fans who say "this is the best" - from bare concrete, vct, modular flooring, ceramic, carpet, epoxy, polished, etc... All have the +/-'s, from proper installation, overcoming a sub-floor issue, ease of maintaining, to performance under intended use.
So as long as Your Garage Makes You Happy, then you have the right option.

 

[Ryan Matheson]

Hello folks,

I was wondering if I do my garage floor with swisstrax, epoxy or rocksolid formula.

I do live where I have 4 seasons. Spring, summer,winter and fall. I will do some basics mechanics for myself in the garage and our winter is rough. Around -15F.

What do you guys suggest me to get and why?

Thanks

Interested what flooring option you eventually went with? pics?

 

[PhilJohn]

Diamondgrind, densifier, apply guard.

No nonsense, lasts forever. Easily maintained. Here are some photos of my "shop".

 

[RaceDeck1]

This RaceDeck TuffShield Diamond garage floor is going on approaching 10 years since installed and a lot of vehicles and mechanical upkeep throughout the years - The subfloor was terrible with saturated oil stains, pitted & cracked and dips in concrete that were leveled. The RD floor itself was a 1 full day installation.




quick image uploader

 

[kram71]

This RaceDeck TuffShield Diamond garage floor is going on approaching 10 years since installed and a lot of vehicles and mechanical upkeep throughout the years - The subfloor was terrible with saturated oil stains, pitted & cracked and dips in concrete that were leveled. The RD floor itself was a 1 full day installation.




quick image uploader

How much does your wood look tile cost per sq foot?

 

[JimVonBaden]

The best permanent flooring solution is porcelain tile, end of story.

I chose VCT for my garage 7 years ago. It has held up fine, but requires a LOT of work in a working garage.




Consequently, in my workshop addition, I chose Porcelain tile. We shall see how it does, since it is not quite yet installed.

 

[metroarea]

I live in Massachusetts. I had my garage floor done in epoxy. The water forced its way up through in a couple spots and cracked it.

Yep, mee too. I thing epoxy is best modern material for garage or non-living rooms. It's not expensive, and good in cleaning. My favourite is that you can doo table with epoxy, color it, fit something into it. It cool way to DIY something. Personally I see a lot DIY projects that with make in future at this site