Looking for advice on garage tile

[TNBoater]

My 3 car garage is in need of a new floor. I put on an epoxy coating when my house was built 14 years ago. I've continually struggled with the tires pulling the coating off and I've repaired those areas several times. So,I think its time for a change.

I've been looking at putting tiles down. I looked at polypropolene tiles but they seem "noisy" and I'd like to get something a little more comfortable to stand on.

I've been impressed with the "claims" by some of the PVC flex tile manufactures. They claim that they are softer, yet hold up well to and active garage. I need something that will hold up to the activities in a residential garage, i.e. floor jacks and jack stands, tool cabinets, spilled gasoline, oil, etc. but will still be easy to maintain and keep clean.

I've been looking at the Flex Nitro brand, but I know there are others out there. Anyone out there using any of there products? Any advise that you can offer would be appreciated.

 

[Cairo94507]

Welcome to Garage Journal. Porcelain tile. Do it once and never do it again. I blow mine out once a week and mop it once a month and it looks like new. I use my garage and roll jacks on it occasionally. Sure, it's more money up front but the return starts from day one when you no longer have to deal with lifting, bubbling, staining, yellowing from the sun, etc.

 

[James-W]

Welcome to the forum.

I have Racedeck tiles and I have been VERY satisfied with them. Mine "click" a little when you walk on them, I don't find it to be objectionable, but putting down landscape fabric first would eliminate that issue entirely. A really big plus to having these tiles is that if you should happen to wreck one, you can pop it out and replace it fairly easily.

 

[chernomorez]

I'm also about to pull the trigger on RaceDeck tiles. Just came across a site called mygaragestore.com (sorry, cannot post links) which offers the lowest price I've found so far. Has anyone bought from them before?

 

[RaceDeck1]

I'm also about to pull the trigger on RaceDeck tiles. Just came across a site called mygaragestore.com (sorry, cannot post links) which offers the lowest price I've found so far. Has anyone bought from them before?

HAVE you contacted RaceDeck and mention you're a GJ member?

 

[chernomorez]

@RaceDeck1, I haven't yet. Thanks for the tip. Would you be able to match the prices from the site I've mentioned above?

 

[Garage Flooring]

My 3 car garage is in need of a new floor. I put on an epoxy coating when my house was built 14 years ago. I've continually struggled with the tires pulling the coating off and I've repaired those areas several times. So,I think its time for a change.

I've been looking at putting tiles down. I looked at polypropolene tiles but they seem "noisy" and I'd like to get something a little more comfortable to stand on.

I've been impressed with the "claims" by some of the PVC flex tile manufactures. They claim that they are softer, yet hold up well to and active garage. I need something that will hold up to the activities in a residential garage, i.e. floor jacks and jack stands, tool cabinets, spilled gasoline, oil, etc. but will still be easy to maintain and keep clean.

I've been looking at the Flex Nitro brand, but I know there are others out there. Anyone out there using any of there products? Any advise that you can offer would be appreciated.

Landscape fabric under PP tiles will fix noise issues and unlike PVC they won't stain from tires.

PVC tires are amazingly industrial but they can stain.

I went Polypropelene in my garage

 

[Jason B]

VCT, 13 years and counting.

 

[Armorpoxy]

Take a look at our www.supratile.com industrial grade PVC interlocking tiles. Many, many satisfied GJ users, and not noisy since they are not hollow.

 

[Maiku]

NewAge Products offers a very easy to install flooring. I had my heart set on epoxy but I was dreading the prep work on my garage floor that was built in 1952. I’m ordering the NewAge cabinets and came across their new floor, ordered a sample and decided to go that route. Not much out there at all for reviews since they are new but they seem very well built and reasonably priced at $3.86/sqft right now.

 

[Mge2093]

I agree. newage flooring is good

 

[Zaxxn]

I've got Supratile in a couple areas of my shop, and am very happy with it. Definitely not noisy at all. Actually, if anything they are kind of sound dampening when walking on them. And very tough.

--Zax

 

[Gerald O]

VCT, 13 years and counting.

I think after 13 years you could start parking cars in there now.

 

[Hivolts]

Any cracking/breaking issues with the Racedeck tiles while using a floor jack or jack stands?

HAVE you contacted RaceDeck and mention you're a GJ member?

 

[RaceDeck1]

Any cracking/breaking issues with the Racedeck tiles while using a floor jack or jack stands?

Hi
No cracking issues at all. What can happen ( with any floor) is, if you are using cheap style jack stands with angle-iron legs < ^ > they can act like a cookie cutter. The best style stands are the one with foot pads or base plate ( or you can just put small metal or wood square pad under the cheaper stands). the weight is not an issue at all.

 

[Garage Flooring]

Any cracking/breaking issues with the Racedeck tiles while using a floor jack or jack stands?

Hi
No cracking issues at all. What can happen ( with any floor) is, if you are using cheap style jack stands with angle-iron legs < ^ > they can act like a cookie cutter. The best style stands are the one with foot pads or base plate ( or you can just put small metal or wood square pad under the cheaper stands). the weight is not an issue at all.

I've had Racedeck and TrueLock both in my own garages and What Jorgen says is absolutely correct.

I still use a piece of plywood.

 

[Shea]

Use stands like these. We jack up cars all the time in a family garage that has RaceDeck. We have a 3/8" thick piece of plywood that we place the jack on. It works great.

 

[kolky]

I've got Supratile in a couple areas of my shop, and am very happy with it. Definitely not noisy at all. Actually, if anything they are kind of sound dampening when walking on them. And very tough.

--Zax

Does the supratile have the same issues with tires staining them as other PVC tile does?

 

[Zaxxn]

Does the supratile have the same issues with tires staining them as other PVC tile does?

Really couldn't tell you. The only tires ever been on mine are forklift tires. LOL. Not sure what parking a car every day on them would do, but there should be people here that have them in their shop. I know they do entire fleet garages and fire departments and such with that tile.

 

[pbon]

I have the Advanta Tuffseal and they stain. Not from daily use, but if you spill some gas or certain other fluids, you get a stain patch. Maybe also if you let the car sit for months but I have not done that. Obviously you won’t notice on black tiles, but I have a few light brownish patches on my gray tiles.

 

[Armorpoxy]

Hi, we can report that we have never, ever, had a tile crack on us. Super heavy loads can cause a slight indentation that 'comes back' when the load is removed.

Of course good common sense is advised if jacking up on a hard/sharp point put a piece of plywood, or a pc of tile scrap left over from the installation under the point.

 

[Garage Flooring]

I have the Advanta Tuffseal and they stain. Not from daily use, but if you spill some gas or certain other fluids, you get a stain patch. Maybe also if you let the car sit for months but I have not done that. Obviously you won’t notice on black tiles, but I have a few light brownish patches on my gray tiles.

PVC tiles can definitely stain. Certain tires etc. I would never call anything stain proof, but I have not had a manufacturer on the rigid side refuse to replace a stained tile

 

[pbon]

I will clarify that my stains are from tires or tires after soaking in some oil or gas. I have spilled brake fluid, trans fluid, oil, coolant, etc. and cleaned it up without issue. Certainly if you parked on exactly the same spot and that meant hitting a couple of gray tiles, and there was stain, you could replace them every few years. My floor has been down 2.5 years and I don’t feel any need but may buy some tiles as spares for the future.

There is no perfect floor. There are compromises with every choice. Each person has to decide. I know cheap hard plastic tiles are easiest and cheapest, but there is a reason you don’t find them in any mechanic shop or industrial application.

 

[Armorpoxy]

Hi, since staining from certain tire compounds can leach into tiles (and epoxy and other types of flooring at times) we recommend using black under the cars. It looks sharp, can't stain, and is virtually indestructible. Many of our clients make 'parking pads' in black under the cars and go with gray or other colors for the surrounding areas.

 

[SJMaye]

Landscape fabric under PP tiles will fix noise issues and unlike PVC they won't stain from tires.

PVC tires are amazingly industrial but they can stain.

I went Polypropelene in my garage

Hello - New to the forum. I, too, am building a garage.

I was on-board with the plastic tiles until I watched a video and heard the clicking. Can you tell me more about the landscape fabric?

Also, PVC vs Polypropylene. Is there really a difference? I thought all these hard plastic tiles were PVC.

 

[Garage Flooring]

Hard / rigid plastic is Polypropylene

Softer tiles are PVC

I prefer rigid in my garage but there are applications where PVC is better — above a basement, certain shops, industrial, commercial, non auto use.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SJMaye]

Hard / rigid plastic is Polypropylene

Softer tiles are PVC

I prefer rigid in my garage but there are applications where PVC is better — above a basement, certain shops, industrial, commercial, non auto use.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the explanation. Can you tell me about the landscape fabric comment? Does it really eliminate the clacking sound?

 

[Garage Flooring]

Thanks for the explanation. Can you tell me about the landscape fabric comment? Does it really eliminate the clacking sound?

I have it in my garage and I am very happy with the way the landscape fabric works. We also have all our offices and showroom here done that way

 

[frankd]

Hello - New to the forum. I, too, am building a garage.

I was on-board with the plastic tiles until I watched a video and heard the clicking. Can you tell me more about the landscape fabric?

Also, PVC vs Polypropylene. Is there really a difference? I thought all these hard plastic tiles were PVC.

I went with Garagedeck tile from Bigfloors.com. I did use landscape fabric underneath but wonder if it did more harm than good. I personally do not notice any clicking/snapping or anything like that and my garage floor is VERY uneven. You do hear the sound of footsteps on hollow plastic but its not a big deal at all.

One thing I will say about ALL of these interlocking tile floors is that they expand with heat. Especially if exposed to direct sunlight. If I have my garage door open for over 30 minutes in the sun, my tiles will expand and lift/buckle. I left plenty of space around the perimiter for expansion and it still does it. In my case, I think the bottom of the time might be getting caught on the landscape fabric not allowing it to expand. I do wonder if I hadnt installed the landscape fabric, if the tile would expand better.

To the OP, do a search on this forum, there are TONS of threads about this and lots of different products. I had narrowed it down to Garagedeck and the Truelock HD from Garageflooringllc. I went with the Garagedeck because it was a few hundred dollars cheaper and I was already spending way more than I expected to spend. I got a sample of the nitro tiles but they were kind of thin. All of the other samples I had gotten seemed very similar. I did not get samples of racedeck or swisstrax just because they were outside of my budget

 

[Armorpoxy]

Expansion in direct sunlight we agree is a potential issue. Our instructions review this and advise to affix with adhesive the first few rows which get the sunlight, and let the rest of the floor float.

One of the advantages of the solid PVC like our Supratile is that they have a solid or waffle (depending on selection) rear side which works well with adhesive inline hollow grid type tiles which can’t be easily affixed.

We have sold 1,000 plus fire houses which often leave their doors open to the sun and using this type of solid tile is a real advantage to avoid expansion buckling. In a fire house environment buckling could be a huge safety issue.

 

[Garage Flooring]

I went with Garagedeck tile from Bigfloors.com. I did use landscape fabric underneath but wonder if it did more harm than good. I personally do not notice any clicking/snapping or anything like that and my garage floor is VERY uneven. You do hear the sound of footsteps on hollow plastic but its not a big deal at all.

One thing I will say about ALL of these interlocking tile floors is that they expand with heat. Especially if exposed to direct sunlight. If I have my garage door open for over 30 minutes in the sun, my tiles will expand and lift/buckle. I left plenty of space around the perimiter for expansion and it still does it. In my case, I think the bottom of the time might be getting caught on the landscape fabric not allowing it to expand. I do wonder if I hadnt installed the landscape fabric, if the tile would expand better.

To the OP, do a search on this forum, there are TONS of threads about this and lots of different products. I had narrowed it down to Garagedeck and the Truelock HD from Garageflooringllc. I went with the Garagedeck because it was a few hundred dollars cheaper and I was already spending way more than I expected to spend. I got a sample of the nitro tiles but they were kind of thin. All of the other samples I had gotten seemed very similar. I did not get samples of racedeck or swisstrax just because they were outside of my budget

I know you did not buy from us but if you can PM me some photos of your installation, we should be able to address the tenting. Do you have 3" edges or 1.75.

 

[frankd]

I know you did not buy from us but if you can PM me some photos of your installation, we should be able to address the tenting. Do you have 3" edges or 1.75.

I appreciate the offer but for me it's not a big deal. I don't often leave the garage door open for extended periods of time. When it does buckle I can usually just smooth it out a bit with my hands and that seems to help. I never bothered to take any pictures. I have the 3" border across the front of the garage.

Overall very happy with the tile. Only drawback is that my garage looks so nice that I dont want to get it dirty so I put down a tarp if I'm doing any work that will make a mess.

 

[Shea]

One thing I will say about ALL of these interlocking tile floors is that they expand with heat. Especially if exposed to direct sunlight. If I have my garage door open for over 30 minutes in the sun, my tiles will expand and lift/buckle. I left plenty of space around the perimiter for expansion and it still does it.

Just as a quick tip for those that are worried about this. The self-draining free-flow style of tiles will rarely expand like this. They have much less surface area and the tops of the ribs are slightly rounded as well. As result, they absorb much less heat and expand very little.

A simple solution is to use the self-draining style for the first few rows if you like the solid top tiles. We did this for a family member with a south facing garage and it works great. The garage door stays open for long periods of time and the only thing that happens is that the black ramps might lift ever so slightly since they are a solid top surface.

 

[Bigsky2021]

Stick with racedeck