Free flow or Polyurea

[wiegs1]

Want to fix up our garage floor from a fail DIY epoxy job I did when we bought the house. Live in Wisconsin so winters can be harsh. Been going back fourth about which way to go. Garage is 3 stalls and about 700 sq ft.

Option 1: Grind floor and coat with a Polyurea product. 1 coat color, flake, and 2 top coats. Overall this seems like a straight forward process. Only part that seems like a real pain is the grinding and cleanup after.

Option 2: Install free flow tiles with landscape fabric underneath. We would purchase containment mats to keep the winter mess contained.

I am leaning towards the tile option because you can get creative with colors and patterns. I do have concerns how they will hold with winter garbage and when I am cutting our boat into the garage. I would think it could put strain on the tiles.

What are thoughts and experiences?

 

[CJDave]

I laid my Free Flow tiles about 4 1/4 years ago and have no complaints. My floor is 20' x 25'. Her daily driver and my '69 Mach 1 reside there. Of course her suv drags in road grit, rain, snow, ice and salt but that all trickles through the tiles and follows the slope of the concrete to the overhead door and out under the door. I don't know about your boat. I assume you are referring to backing the boat and trailer into the garage and the trailer tires pivoting on the tiles. The steering tires of a car will sometimes wrinkle the tiles up but only if the steering wheel is being turned while car is stationary. If the tire is rolling as the tire is steered I have had no issues. I did not use any fabric or such. I will say that there was a slight but not objectionable clicking noise when walked on. That went away fairly quickly possibly due to the weight of the vehicles causing the tiles to take a set to the floor? I dunno but all is quiet. Across the back wall of the garage I have storage cabinets, a small work bench, a 3.6 cu. ft. fridge, a upright deep freeze and my rolling tool box.Seems to anchor the tiles quite well. I used the tapered edge pieces at the floor's frost lip. And the color patterns are endless. Easy cleanup and floor jacks and tool boxes roll nicely. One caution is using jack stands. Make sure that the base of the jack stand has a rolled under edge or else the sharp edge will make a dent in the tile. A thin plywood pad will protect the floor nicely. I love my floor as you may be able to tell. My avatar shows part of my floor. I have other pictures if you want. Good luck. CJDave.

 

[wiegs1]

I laid my Free Flow tiles about 4 1/4 years ago and have no complaints. My floor is 20' x 25'. Her daily driver and my '69 Mach 1 reside there. Of course her suv drags in road grit, rain, snow, ice and salt but that all trickles through the tiles and follows the slope of the concrete to the overhead door and out under the door. I don't know about your boat. I assume you are referring to backing the boat and trailer into the garage and the trailer tires pivoting on the tiles. The steering tires of a car will sometimes wrinkle the tiles up but only if the steering wheel is being turned while car is stationary. If the tire is rolling as the tire is steered I have had no issues. I did not use any fabric or such. I will say that there was a slight but not objectionable clicking noise when walked on. That went away fairly quickly possibly due to the weight of the vehicles causing the tiles to take a set to the floor? I dunno but all is quiet. Across the back wall of the garage I have storage cabinets, a small work bench, a 3.6 cu. ft. fridge, a upright deep freeze and my rolling tool box.Seems to anchor the tiles quite well. I used the tapered edge pieces at the floor's frost lip. And the color patterns are endless. Easy cleanup and floor jacks and tool boxes roll nicely. One caution is using jack stands. Make sure that the base of the jack stand has a rolled under edge or else the sharp edge will make a dent in the tile. A thin plywood pad will protect the floor nicely. I love my floor as you may be able to tell. My avatar shows part of my floor. I have other pictures if you want. Good luck. CJDave.

That looks great. Yes, I am concerned about the pivoting. When I back the trailer in the wheels do drag and I’m concerned this can ruin the tiles. The boat is about 5000lbs.

 

[CJDave]

Maybe someone with personal experience will chime in about a boat trailer.
Where in Wisconsin? My parents vacationed near Hayward for 30+ years some of that time with friends from Milwaukee. The Milwaukee people retired and moved to Rhinelander. Love the scenery and fishing in the Hayward area.
CJDave.

 

[wiegs1]

Maybe someone with personal experience will chime in about a boat trailer.
Where in Wisconsin? My parents vacationed near Hayward for 30+ years some of that time with friends from Milwaukee. The Milwaukee people retired and moved to Rhinelander. Love the scenery and fishing in the Hayward area.
CJDave.

Live 10 min south of Madison

 

[burleyfarm]

Did you like your DIY epoxy when you first installed it? If you did you’ll love Polyurea.
Sure there’s more prep work but I believe it’s worth it. Just my .02.

Regarding tile products I would be concerned that moisture is going to be trapped under any tile products from snow or wet vehicles and create a moisture problem in the garage. This can lead to mold and rust on metal tools and machinery.

I had an epoxy put down on my 1000 sq ft garage in northern Michigan about 10 years 6 years ago and never regretted it. If any water accumulated I just squeegeed it to the floor drain and periodically mopped the floor. Easy clean up and nothing hiding under the tile. I’m going with polyurea in our new garage this spring.

Good luck with your decision.


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[CJDave]

Did you like your DIY epoxy when you first installed it? If you did you’ll love Polyurea.
Sure there’s more prep work but I believe it’s worth it. Just my .02.

Regarding tile products I would be concerned that moisture is going to be trapped under any tile products from snow or wet vehicles and create a moisture problem in the garage. This can lead to mold and rust on metal tools and machinery.

I had an epoxy put down on my 1000 sq ft garage in northern Michigan about 10 years 6 years ago and never regretted it. If any water accumulated I just squeegeed it to the floor drain and periodically mopped the floor. Easy clean up and nothing hiding under the tile. I’m going with polyurea in our new garage this spring.

Good luck with your decision.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The Free Flow tiles that he referenced are the tiles with the slots in them. The whole idea behind this tile is to allow drainage. The bottom of the tiles have a pattern of tabs to space the tiles slightly above the floor to allow drainage under the tiles. Even the solid tiles lock together so tightly that fluids don't seep between them. CJDave.

 

[Garage Flooring]

Want to fix up our garage floor from a fail DIY epoxy job I did when we bought the house. Live in Wisconsin so winters can be harsh. Been going back fourth about which way to go. Garage is 3 stalls and about 700 sq ft.

Option 1: Grind floor and coat with a Polyurea product. 1 coat color, flake, and 2 top coats. Overall this seems like a straight forward process. Only part that seems like a real pain is the grinding and cleanup after.

Option 2: Install free flow tiles with landscape fabric underneath. We would purchase containment mats to keep the winter mess contained.

I am leaning towards the tile option because you can get creative with colors and patterns. I do have concerns how they will hold with winter garbage and when I am cutting our boat into the garage. I would think it could put strain on the tiles.

What are thoughts and experiences?

We offer all of the products in question. Before recoating with any product it would be important to go back and determine the real cause of the original failure. Make sure you don't have hydrostatic pressure, oil stains, soft concrete, etc.

Flow through tiles offers a simple, effective and almost foolproof way to cover a garage floor. I would not use landscape fabric with them and generally speaking, I would not use a containment mat either.

Landscape fabric is used to deaden the sound of solid tiles. Flow through do not have that issue. The purpose of flow through is to let everything through. If you don't want to do that, use a different tile.

IMHO containment mats over tiles with holes in them won't last if there is any risk of you coming into the garage with gravel or anything else stuck in your tires.

 

[wiegs1]

Justin, the original epoxy application failed because I did not properly prep the floor. Do you know how tiles will hold up when pivoting a heavy boat? Maybe it won’t be a problem and the tires will just slide over the tiles. Thoughts?

 

[CJDave]

Live 10 min south of Madison

Don't know much about the area as we passed through there on the way to Hayward. Do you sled in the winter? I understand Wisconsin has about a gazillion miles of trails. Dave R.

 

[Garage Flooring]

Justin, the original epoxy application failed because I did not properly prep the floor. Do you know how tiles will hold up when pivoting a heavy boat? Maybe it won’t be a problem and the tires will just slide over the tiles. Thoughts?

Boats have never been an issue for us

 

[RaceDeck1]

Cool garages ^ - I really like the color scheme on the grey colors.

 

[Garage Flooring]

Cool garages ^ - I really like the color scheme on the grey colors.

Me too. That is what we have in the showroom too. Less the boat

 

[wiegs1]

Thinking about this design!

 

[RaceDeck1]

Thinking about this design!

That looks great!

 

[wiegs1]

That looks great!

Could you pm me the sqft price please?

 

[Garage Flooring]

Thinking about this design!

I like it!

 

[jonshonda]

I was always curious how the free flow tiles would deal with all the sand that is dragged in off the road during the winter. Obviously the boat won't be out much (if at all) in the winter, but if that fancy ford is a dd then you will accumulate a lot of sand.

We have two dd in the garage and I sweep my floors every few weeks as the sand builds up. That reminds me, I need a bigger broom!!

 

[CJDave]

I was always curious how the free flow tiles would deal with all the sand that is dragged in off the road during the winter. Obviously the boat won't be out much (if at all) in the winter, but if that fancy ford is a dd then you will accumulate a lot of sand.

We have two dd in the garage and I sweep my floors every few weeks as the sand builds up. That reminds me, I need a bigger broom!!

If the "fancy Ford" you are referring to is my Mustang Mach 1 in my avatar then no, it is not a daily driver. 1474 miles on it since the restoration was completed in April, 2015.
Her dd does drag grit into the garage and I get no build up. The run-off from the rain and snow of her suv I guess supplies enough of a flushing action along with my washing the Mach 1 in the garage several times a year. No problem with **** building up in my FreeFlow tiles. CJDave.

 

[yeldogt]

I was always curious how the free flow tiles would deal with all the sand that is dragged in off the road during the winter. Obviously the boat won't be out much (if at all) in the winter, but if that fancy ford is a dd then you will accumulate a lot of sand.

We have two dd in the garage and I sweep my floors every few weeks as the sand builds up. That reminds me, I need a bigger broom!!

That's always been my concern/ question ..

 

[wiegs1]

If I go the tile route, I expect I would need to pull up the tile in the spring to clean out the winter mess.

 

[Garage Flooring]

Here is the deal with free flow or ribbed tiles no one really gets until they own it. **** is going to get under any tile at some point. With the ribbed tiles, you can shop vac right through them, even pressure wash if you do not have drywall to the floor.

We had a party at the office a few weeks back. 50-70 people. Next day free flow tiles looked perfect after 5 minutes of cleaning.

 

[jonshonda]

If the "fancy Ford" you are referring to is my Mustang Mach 1 in my avatar then no

I was referring to the OP's fancy Ford RAPTOR. I'm gonna guess that brings some junk into the garage in winter.