Need help deciding between PVC or polypropylene tiles

[Metal Jockey]

Hi guys, long-time lurker, but I believe this is my first post.

I’m having a tough time deciding between PVC vs. polypropylene floor tiles. Here’s my situation:

I have a standard two-car residential garage. I’m just a weekend warrior who does occasional wrenching on street motorcycles and dirt bikes and maybe one or two car oil changes per year. I also do some occasional light woodworking from time to time that creates a bit of sawdust, but nothing significant. I’m not pulling car engines or doing major automotive work or anything like that. The garage always has two cars parked inside year round along with two or three motorcycles. I don’t tend to spill chemicals on my garage floor. Even when doing oil changes, I lay down extra cardboard and keep towels underneath to make sure nothing gets on the floor. If I paint something or working with nasty chemicals, I do it outside. My garage is unfinished concrete but in good shape with no cracks. I’m in the northeast, and water in the garage is not an issue.

I prefer the feel and low sound of PVC tile, but my biggest concern is the issue of staining. All that said, how much of a problem is staining with PVC tiles? Seems that the biggest potential issue with staining is from car tires, but I haven't been able to find any pictures of how bad it looks. Is there a reason I should go with hard tiles instead? I’ve been specifically looking at True Lock PVC tiles, but if I decide to go hard tiles I’d probably go with the True Lock HDXT. I like the coin pattern best. I have samples of each on the way so I can see what the differences are.

Appreciate the wisdom and experience of the forum and any input you guys may have. Thanks.

 

[pbon]

PVC stains. I have black and gray checkered. The gray have beige stains where the car tires sit. Not terrible, but they are there. The black tiles don’t show any stain. I could have done all black or black where the tires would be. The cheap plastic tiles don’t stain.

 

[Shea]

We have an article below about the differences between polypropylene and PVC tiles. They both are nice and both have their drawbacks as any other flooring does. There is a picture further down in the article that shows typical tire staining for PVC tiles.

Based on how you plan to use your garage, I don't think you would have anything else to worry about other than the staining. Even if you spill oil, the PVC tiles clean up nicely. With the exception of the chemicals that leach from car tires, they are fairly stain resistant. If you use black tiles where your tires will sit it's not that noticeable. However, if you are OCD about the floor, you may not care for it.

Interlocking Garage Floor Tiles | Get the Real Facts | All Garage Floors

What are interlocking garage floor tiles? Learn how durable they are, the drawbacks, plastic vs. PVC, and how to install this popular garage flooring.

allgaragefloors.com

 

[Metal Jockey]

We have an article below about the differences between polypropylene and PVC tiles. They both are nice and both have their drawbacks as any other flooring does. There is a picture further down in the article that shows typical tire staining for PVC tiles.

Based on how you plan to use your garage, I don't think you would have anything else to worry about other than the staining. Even if you spill oil, the PVC tiles clean up nicely. With the exception of the chemicals that leach from car tires, they are fairly stain resistant. If you use black tiles where your tires will sit it's not that noticeable. However, if you are OCD about the floor, you may not care for it.

Interlocking Garage Floor Tiles | Get the Real Facts | All Garage Floors

What are interlocking garage floor tiles? Learn how durable they are, the drawbacks, plastic vs. PVC, and how to install this popular garage flooring.

allgaragefloors.com

Thanks Shea, that is a very helpful article.

 

[Armorpoxy]

We sell both types of tiles but 90% of our sales are the solid PVC. Yes certain tires may contain additives which can leach into the tiles and give the gray tiles a slight yellowish stain. We normally recommend black for parking over and then you can border around the parking areas with gray or other colors.

 

[Metal Jockey]

We sell both types of tiles but 90% of our sales are the solid PVC. Yes certain tires may contain additives which can leach into the tiles and give the gray tiles a slight yellowish stain. We normally recommend black for parking over and then you can border around the parking areas with gray or other colors.

Thanks for your input.

Do you think that 90% sales of the harder polypropylene tiles is because of ease of installation, greater availability, or some other factor such as people being concerned with staining issues of the PVC tiles?

 

[Armorpoxy]

Hi the 90% is the PVC not the polypropylene. Usually the reason for this is they are quieter since they aren’t hollow and have a sturdier feel to them, and have 1/4 the joints since they are oversized greatly reducing the potential for water getting under them.

We have very large installed base of fire houses for this reason. Lots of opinions one way or another but this is our experience. That being said they both work great and will give almost unlimited years of service.

 

[pbon]

You won’t find the cheap plastic tiles in any automotive shops or industrial warehouses. They are mostly for home garage or show applications. You won’t find pvc in automotive shops, either, but unlike plastic you will see them in warehouse type applications. They are the heavier duty, more commercial choice, but most people with home garages don’t need heavy duty or commercial and opt for the cheap plastic tiles.

I think ceramic tile is the ultimate. I would probably choose epoxy after that. Unfortunately my garage shop has a wood floor so neither were options. I chose pvc over plastic, but in hindsight a few years later as light staining is present and there are areas where the tile seams are buckling due to expansion, I probably should have used wood again.

I can pull up and reset the buckling tiles, but that means clearing out the garage and doing some work. I know the sellers talk about floating but when you put your 4 post lift on top and park a car and install cabinets, the float hits obstacles that stop the float. Same expansion problem exists with plastic. And if you open your doors and get direct sunlight on the floor, you can have temporary heat related buckling in that area.

 

[Armorpoxy]

We have sold over 1,000 commercial auto type environments with our www.supratile.com solid PVC industrial grade tiles. These include new car dealers, automotive and transmission shops, detail center, lube centers, used car dealers, etc.

For these applications we often recommend using our adhesive in the 'core' of the floor to prevent any tile shifting from sudden starts/stops. Generally the entire floor does not need to be fully affixed, just the core and the rest of the sheet floats.

We do note in our installation instructions and on website that any garage areas may need to be affixed with adhesive since they can expand with direct sunlight and buckle a bit. The adhesive solves this problem (almost all fire houses have this issue since they leave the doors open quite a bit). Another advantage to PVC tiles is that since they are solid and not hollow/waffle type construction they can be easily affixed with adhesive. Polypropylene tiles are difficult to affix with adhesive since they have very little surface area to bond down.

PVC tiles are very comfortable to walk on, and dropped tools just bounce off. They are though since they are oversized more difficult to create interesting patterns with.

With a PVC tile floor if any tiles have any issues with movement and such, that area only can be easily pulled up, adhesive applied, and the tiles re-installed.

 

[kngelv]

The bad thing about PVC is staining from tires or getting stuck with black. Black ***** light which is a negative for sure. They are quieter and a bit more comfortable though. If I was doing a workshop I think PVC would work but if you’re rolling dirt bikes in and out then PVC is not the way to go unless you like black. You can see on this site that over 90% who have some type of tile go with the RaceDeck type. I’m 10 years from my first inquiry about tiles and have still yet to purchase either one. I just can’t make up my mind. I have seven various RaceDeck tiles connected and four PVC tiles in my garage just to see how they are with occasionally walking over them and rolling dirt bikes over them. I just recently cleaned them for the first time in like six months other than with a quick sweep. Thoughts? Pebble grain PVC is by far the most difficult to clean. TuffShield from RaceDeck gets fine scratches pretty easily but is the easiest to mop. Extreme Coin from Garage Flooring LLC is harder to clean because it has so many edges for grit to get caught. Regular RaceDeck is easier to clean than the other tiles they make for vendors on here. RaceDeck FreeFlow barely did not look dirty at all in comparison to the other tiles.

James

 

[pbon]

If you can keep thinking about it for another 10 years, maybe you will come to the conclusion that you don’t need either type of tile…

 

[kngelv]

If you can keep thinking about it for another 10 years, maybe you will come to the conclusion that you don’t need either type of tile…