Considering Porcelain Tile
- Thread starter Onesip
- Start date
1953mercury
Well-known member
How well does porcelain hold up to traffic, droped tools and such. Thanks, Mike
Shea
Well-known member
Wow... it came out great!
Dakota00
Well-known member
When using the proper materials for the application, nothing that winter throws at a tile floor will affect it!
Miss the Pontiacs
Well-known member
Great results!! I never thought porcelain tile was a fit for a garage. Appears it works and looks great! I porcelained my front step and it looks great. People would say be careful don't drop anything on it or it will crack. I did buy a few extra tiles for insurance. I wil have to have some form of heat for my garage build. Roughed in the tubing for infloor heat only hope there will be enough budget left to go the boiler route versus natural gas blower. A heated porcelain floor does sound like a great idea.
P.S. I like the staggered method never thought about the grout lines being a little more forgiving.
P.S. I like the staggered method never thought about the grout lines being a little more forgiving.
I would not have considered porcelain before reading this forum. I just didn't even think of it as an option for a garage flooring. Friends of mine have expressed concerns about the floor cracking or chipping and before starting the flooring project I had to convince myself this wasn't going to be an issue so I studied up a little bit. Most people's experience is with standard ceramic tiles made for light abuse like a dropped pan but the porcelain tile with PEI 4&5 is super hard and is very resistant to wear. However, even if you manage to chip the tile it's hard to notice with the color through, and if you do end up dropping a boulder on a tile and cracking it, it's pretty routine to replace it.
A plain old porcelain tile floor looks great, but you can get creative with it also and make some cool patterns such as Dakota00's floor. Porcelain tile also comes in every type of look now like stone or wood. I think a garage floor done in the wood tile would look great.
I'm not sure why you don't hear more about using porcelain tile as an option for garage flooring, it seems like a no-brainer. The go-to surface seems to be epoxies, which I think also looks good, but prices for going epoxy vs porcelain are comparable either having it professionally done or DIY.
A plain old porcelain tile floor looks great, but you can get creative with it also and make some cool patterns such as Dakota00's floor. Porcelain tile also comes in every type of look now like stone or wood. I think a garage floor done in the wood tile would look great.
I'm not sure why you don't hear more about using porcelain tile as an option for garage flooring, it seems like a no-brainer. The go-to surface seems to be epoxies, which I think also looks good, but prices for going epoxy vs porcelain are comparable either having it professionally done or DIY.
Miss the Pontiacs
Well-known member
Good research Onesip!
Didn't know of the about the PEI ratings before. Appears a PEI of 3 is where the hardness of floor tiles start and a rating of 5 is the hardest. 1&2 are sufficient for walls. Well I have learned something new today so it was worth getting up this am. I've worked with porcelain on a few jobs, since it is basically glasslike the colour is uniform through out the tile. I've seen some kitchens done in a beautiful clay glaze of a brown tone but when chipped the lighter base clay shows up and ends up looking like hell.tc-cad
Well-known member
Great read. I also am leaning toward porcelain tile 660 square feet. HOBO outlet has large tile at a decent price $1.19 - $1.59 per square foot.
larry4406
Well-known member
Onesip - good read and nice floor! Love the half stagger look.
Thanks for the cost breakdown. The labor really is the killer on the total price, slightly over half of the total! Your first post indicates 820 SF (900 SF of tile bought, extra 10% for waste) for an installed unit cost of $3.72/SF. No expert, but isn't this the same price range as epoxies?
What transition piece did you use at the garage doors?
My 670 SF garage has some sort of painted coating on it that is peeling, and I need to do something.
Thanks for the cost breakdown. The labor really is the killer on the total price, slightly over half of the total! Your first post indicates 820 SF (900 SF of tile bought, extra 10% for waste) for an installed unit cost of $3.72/SF. No expert, but isn't this the same price range as epoxies?
What transition piece did you use at the garage doors?
My 670 SF garage has some sort of painted coating on it that is peeling, and I need to do something.
Wow time flies... I'm pretty negligent about responding here, sorry about that. Here are a couple of pics of the transition. We just used porcelain tile trim pieces. I can't attest to the long term durability of this solution, but so far so good and I think it came out looking pretty good by choosing a different colored tile (more because I had too, but still). This may not be a great solution if you're rolling or moving heavy stuff over the threshold that may catch the lip, but in may case only tires...
