Flow through tiles for very dirty garage?

[Cbehr]

Hello, I quickly have gone from DIY poly floor to having a local company doing it to now most likely doing tiles for a 1/3+ cost savings.

Our garage is heavily used and with the door(s) regularly left open in the summer it collects a lot of leaves, dirt, hay, and chicken poop from them strolling in. We park a UTV in there that drops mud/dirt etc. and blow out the garage w/ a leaf blower a few times a week. Curious if I'll love the flow through design for collecting and hiding this dirt or am I going to hate it for collecting it forcing me to vacuum or remove and clean out under the tiles several times a year? Anyone have experiences in a rather dirty garage and what tiles worked well?

The garage also functions as the main entrance to our house with almost everyone coming thru this area.

 

[budget76]

no firsthand experience so take it with a grain of salt:

i intend to, eventually go flow-through in my home garage which is also a main entrance to the house. reasons are twofold: 1. keep dirt in the garage and 2. keep metal shavings and bits underneath so the little kids don't step on them, since i actually do work in the garage

i'm guessing you'd get sick of trying to vacuum dried mud and poop out of the cracks. unless you hosed it down instead?

maybe you're a candidate for mixed tiles - flow-thru in the foot traffic area for the containment thought and solid for the UTV area? chickens though.. good luck maybe they won't like walking on the flow thru if you're lucky

 

[InjectorService]

Id say that depends a bit. I recently bought them for my garage, and absolutely love them. My garage is fairly clean, but we do have a gravel driveway which does track in dirt and dust usually. We also have snow in winter which tracks a lot of much & slush, but I havne't experienced these in winter yet. That will be the true test.

Dirt & dust falls right through it, I often walk on it from the house in my socks and it never seems to really be dirty because everything falls through it, I would never do that when it was just concrete, way too dirty.

Do you have floor drains? most mud / dust will fall right through and could be washed to the drains. Leaves will have to be blown out. Chicken poop.... not sure I don't have that issue.

 

[endofwed]

You can search on youtube for people cleaning their floor tiles. I've seen some where people actually disconnect the tiles and hose down the concrete for a deep clean.

 

[CSRPenFab]

Three Idaho winters with my FreeFlow floor, and I’ll admit I rarely clean it. A quick shop vac every few months and it’s as good as new. Garage sees lots of car and bike work and messes clean up easily.

 

[Cbehr]

Thanks for the input, I'm still torn but leaning more towards free flow. I have two drains so a quick rinse down could help? Do you guys use a leaf blower to help blow out dirt or is that just going to take care of bigger leaf type objects? I'm going to search around a bit more for pictures when floors are really dirty and grids are decently packed w/ debris.

 

[InjectorService]

I don't leaf blow mine, I have washed it down though. I've washed my car in it, you can just about do it in socks, the tiles drain all the water awy very fast.

 

[budget76]

Thanks for the input, I'm still torn but leaning more towards free flow. I have two drains so a quick rinse down could help? Do you guys use a leaf blower to help blow out dirt or is that just going to take care of bigger leaf type objects? I'm going to search around a bit more for pictures when floors are really dirty and grids are decently packed w/ debris.

i could see hosing/blowing to be futile it it really packed into the grid. you'd probably need to lift it up a little to get some area for the crud to flow out?

maybe that'd be as easy as a long 2x4 under the center to creat a little gap? again no firsthand experience so I don't know if that'd be feasible

 

[Cbehr]

i could see hosing/blowing to be futile it it really packed into the grid. you'd probably need to lift it up a little to get some area for the crud to flow out?

maybe that'd be as easy as a long 2x4 under the center to creat a little gap? again no firsthand experience so I don't know if that'd be feasible

That seems like a great idea, slide a few long 2x4's to prop up a bit then blow out!

I think I'm sold on it but my wife isn't as convinced, she's concerned the grids are gonna get packed with dirt in no time.