Newbie Tile Questions

[jschuman]

Hi All,
Over the last couple of days I've been thinking about enhancing the flooring in my garage and have been reading up on options. At this point I can safely say that I am going to go the interlocking tile route. In addition, this is for my residential 2 car garage that we use for our (heh) 2 cars. I'm not an enthusiast nor someone that does a lot of handiwork in my garage. So our requirements are pretty simple:
- Low(ish) cost
- Ease of installation
- Good looks
- Maintainability/durability

With that in mind, I'm looking at the GarageTrac options from BigFloors. I understand that there are 'higher' quality/premium tiles out there (Racedeck, Gladiator, Swisstrax, etc.) but even with the generous discounts afforded as a member of this forum, I don't think they will come close to the value of the GarageTrac tiles.

So, I have a few (hopefully not stupid) questions:
- Is the only difference between GarageTrac and GarageDeck tiles the diamond vs. coin pattern?
- If I plan on doing my garage wall-to-wall, do I only need the female edging pieces for the front of my garage? Or do I need any corner pieces?
- Another bargain option I was considering was the TrueLock Diamond tile. From what I can tell they are both good options (though at the moment, there seems to be significant savings - around 10% - on the GarageTrac tiles). One thing I noticed is that the TrueLock tiles have 6 connector pieces per side while GarageTrac has 4. Has anyone found that to be a significant advantage to the TrueLock tiles?
- I'm very impressed with the patterns a lot of you have come up with for your floors and am looking forward to designing my own. Any tips? I guess my best bet is to find the ones I like and just 'borrow' from them.

Thank you for indulging me.

- Jeff

 

[BRIANBB]

Modutile out of Houston? You might try them.

 

[Shea]

We just posted an article on this exact subject. The best values in low cost garage floor tiles. You may want to check out this thread that was started earlier on the same subject. http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=248551

 

[JimVonBaden]

Sounds like interlocking tiles ARE your best bet. Considering you will be just basically parking on them, you should go with solid tiles and pick the ones that best fit your budget and style.

You can use this tool to lay them out: http://www.racedeck.com/designer.php

It worked great for me, though I went with VCT, it will work for any 12" square tile type.

These are my designs:

I went with the last one:

You should gap the sides and back at 1/2" or so, depending on the tile manufacturer's instructions, and have a nice cap design on the entrance.

 

[jschuman]

Played around with the floor designer and came up with this design:


(my wife I and I each attended colleges with red/white/black colors, thus the choices)

Critiques?

 

[48RON54]

It's a life sized checkerboard

 

[jschuman]

heh. Yeah, I suppose. That's my biggest fear - that I won't be able to design anything that looks good.

 

[48RON54]

Lol....

It's your floor man. As long as it makes the wife happy and you can tolerate it, you are golden. I think some guy on here made one where the tiles were laid out to look kind of like a road with the yellow lines and all. I thought it was kind of cool. Someday I hope to be having the problem you are having at the moment lol.

 

[Dakota00]

heh. Yeah, I suppose. That's my biggest fear - that I won't be able to design anything that looks good.

Don't go crazy, keep it a simple design / pattern. Otherwise you might find yourself getting sick of the pattern down the road.

 

[JimVonBaden]

Don't go crazy, keep it a simple design / pattern. Otherwise you might find yourself getting sick of the pattern down the road.

I agree. Also, if you are off just a bit, the line shows more with color differences (grout and tile).

Do you see it.

 

[Shea]

I've seen the above picture a few times now. I have to say it's a nice looking front porch with that tile.

 

[JimVonBaden]

I've seen the above picture a few times now. I have to say it's a nice looking front porch with that tile.

Thanks, my wife loves it. I like it OK, but every time I look at it I see the flaws. My first tile job, but still...

 

[Munich77]

If you want a good price for the tiles - wait until Costco has their Motofloor tiles on sale. They price is pretty good and they are made by Snaplock (the parent company of Racedeck).

 

[Shea]

If you want a good price for the tiles - wait until Costco has their Motofloor tiles on sale. They price is pretty good and they are made by Snaplock (the parent company of Racedeck).

For some people deals like this from Costco and other warehouse outlets can work out well if you are doing your floor in 1 color only or a checkered pattern, but there are many drawbacks.

The first is that you have to buy the tiles in packs of 48. You are going to end up with additional tiles that you do not need in most cases. Depending on the size of the floor, you may need to purchase a 48 pack to use only 10 or 12 tiles. This contributes to the overall price when compared to purchasing 1 tile at a time. Paying sales tax at a walk-in warehouse vs buying online can sometimes affect overall price as well.

Another problem is that it severely limits your creative abilities to design a floor of choice because of the limited colors available along with the minimum buy-in for packs of tiles.

These are just some of the issues you need to evaluate when comparing deals like this from warehouse clubs to buying from reputable manufactures and distributors online.

 

[jschuman]

I wish that the tile design tools had preset patterns that you choose/start from. I would think that it would be easy for a competent designer to crank out lots of patterns in a short period of time for users to select.

 

[jschuman]

Are RaceDeck Free Flow tiles compatible with GarageTrac or GarageDeck tiles? If not, is there a 'free-flow' solution for GarageTrac/GarageDeck installs?

 

[BRIANBB]

How about this pattern in Ceramic tiles