My porcelain tile has been down 2 years now. I've dropped a rotor on it, dropped tools on it- even dropped a transmission on it & no chips or cracks. All my tile was back buttered when installed so it's as solid as the concrete floor below it. Mine is PEI 5 but not rectified. I have 1/8" grout lines that line up perfectly. I did not use epoxy grout but used a gray colored grout that we used a latex product in place of water. Really made the grout creamy going down. One tip when cleaning dried on thin set or grout (probably not for epoxy) is buy some drywall sanding sponges for tile cleanup. Works great & speeds things up. Also works great for cleaning your tools.
Porcelain Tile Horror Story
- Thread starter 2slow
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Sorry but I gotta laugh at your post!
(Only because I went through the same mental math of time & expense, and ended up going with 5 days of epoxy hell vs. potential 2+ weeks of tiling floor myself hell.
)
If it's any consolation your floor looks awesome.
(Only because I went through the same mental math of time & expense, and ended up going with 5 days of epoxy hell vs. potential 2+ weeks of tiling floor myself hell.
)If it's any consolation your floor looks awesome.
I just finished mine last week. NEVER again will I tile a garage floor. It simply took way too long if you are any type of a perfectionist to tile 400 sq feet. I wanted to save money but in the end it was $1800 + a tile saw and so I didn't save any money compared to having someone come out and epoxy it. It will never stain, looks great, tough, but requires cleaning. With a bare concrete floor you might sweep it and that's about it. With tile you clean tile like any other hard floor in your house, so it's not maintenance free. I spend 15+ days doing it. I wanted things to roll smoothly so I made sure to get the grout lines as close to level with the top of the tiles as possible. So I sped days scrubbing off dried grout. Next time I'll do painted concrete. *edit* Actually I'd choose those tuff seal tiles! even at $6 sq foot to me they would be worth it.
BigGarage
Well-known member
.Cairo94507
Well-known member
I have had my porcelain tile floor down for over 2 years now and could not be happier. It is so easy to maintain- blow it out with a leaf blower twice a month and mop it monthly. Looks like new. Dakota00's floor project convinced me this was the way to do a garage and he was 100% correct. This probably only makes sense if you are a long-term owner as it of course costs more money. But do it once and never do it again.
I'm a little confused by this post. Does that mean bad reviews of tile are not allowed?
Dakota00
Well-known member
Bad tiling reviews are certainly allowed. What I meant, when possible we are here to answer, give advice and guide those members with their tiling questions. In all my years here (that I can recall) I never came across any bad tiling reviews.
Cairo94507
Well-known member
Like everything else, the key to a great job is in the prep, using quality materials installed by an expert. If you try to cut corners, go with cheap materials, you get what you get.
Thank you.
Bringing this great thread back from the dead as I dive into my project. Tiling a 6 car garage in Phoenix AZ. I have the tiles - 2” x 11” porcelain. Going to do an herringbone pattern. Grinding off old epoxy to start from scratch. Concrete is 15 years old and does have expansion joints. What is the consensus on how I need to handle those? Given the climate here can I just tile over them or if not what product would I need to use? Thanks in advance for any advice!!
duneslider
Well-known member
Control joints have to be honored in some way. No matter what you may think your concrete slabs are moving, or are gonna move. Porcelain tile isn't very flexible and will crack with movement.
You can use crack isolation membranes to relocate movement joints to a more convenient place but with a herringbone pattern I don't think there is a convenient place.
Nobody ever wants to hear it but I personally would install it over the joints then do a saw cut with the thinnest blade I could find directly over the control joints in the slab and then fill that joint with a flexible sealant that matched the tile. You will see this on commercial jobs a lot.
You can use crack isolation membranes to relocate movement joints to a more convenient place but with a herringbone pattern I don't think there is a convenient place.
Nobody ever wants to hear it but I personally would install it over the joints then do a saw cut with the thinnest blade I could find directly over the control joints in the slab and then fill that joint with a flexible sealant that matched the tile. You will see this on commercial jobs a lot.
ace10
Well-known member
I cannot even grasp the scale of attempting to DIY >1000 ft2, 22 square inches at a time.
I can't seem to finish my floor, and I've only got to lay ~450 2x2 tiles. With basically zero cuts.
Best wishes, that is a serious task.
I can't seem to finish my floor, and I've only got to lay ~450 2x2 tiles. With basically zero cuts.
Best wishes, that is a serious task.
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tcianci
Well-known member
I don’t often reply on the flooring forum, but as a guy who has set miles of tile over the past 40 years, I don’t understand the love for porcelain in garages.
Despite some of the claims, it is not sledgehammer proof and with a sufficient impact from the right car part, it will chip.
It is however, just about the toughest tile you have ever seen. I think running floor jacks across it would drive me bonkers.
Pay special attention to the surface texture, a lot of tile is slippery as all get out when wet or covered in sawdust.
As others mentioned, surface prep, the right mortar and attention to detail on the install are critical for a long lasting job. You tile supplier will likely suggest large format mortar. Checking for flatness and using sufficient quantity of mortar goes a long way for bonding and impact resistance, but it’s not hammer proof, how do you think we remove failed pieces to repair a floor? If the floor dives in the area of the drain, you can address that by laying diagonal cut pieces in the sloped areas allowing the job to “bend”to conform to the floor, or you can cut a sufficient quantity of porcelain into 2x2” mosaics and tile an feature into the job, equidistant from the center of the drain. Porcelain tile has color all the way through so your cut edges will pretty much match the edges of your full size tile. I also recommend hitting the cut edges with a stone to break the sharp edges before setting.
I used a commercial epoxy on my garage floor over 20 years ago and it has had the snot beat out of it. But never a delamination.
For the way it’s been treated, I couldn’t have asked for better service from a floor.
Sent from my iPhone using Garage Journal
duneslider
Well-known member
I'm in the same boat. I could do tile, I could afford it, I think it could look nice but...maybe I am cheap, maybe I don't care, maybe I don't make my garage be a shrine. I don't know the final answer. For my wants, I just don't see tile, I struggle to even see epoxy as a viable option. I am mostly leaning towards a sealer to help a little with oils absorbing before I get around to wiping them up. I have a tendency to spray paint stuff on the ground with NOT enough cover and end up with overspray on the floor, or I do some other stupid thing that would damage the floor. I demo old tile floors fairly often, want to guess how I get it out? A hammer to start, so it certainly will break when hammered...
Anyway, I think its great when people want to do the tile and I will offer suggestions to make it successful but for me I just don't see the draw to it.
I am just wrapping up about 1600sqft of wood flooring in my house, I think the next garage trend should be wood floors in the garage. Who wants to start doing that? I have seriously thought about adding ply on the floor in the work space of my garage, sure would be nice to walk on and kneel on compared to concrete.
Angelfire
Well-known member
Dakota00 has and said so in post 34 above (regarding the 4 post). I’ve dropped an awful lot on my floor including metal hand tools, a heavy driveshaft, and a block of granite.....not a scratch
Angelfire
Well-known member
I did a rough cut T&G flooring in half of my workshop over concrete. Really like it for my application (wood working).
duneslider
Well-known member
I remember one time we were putting tempered glass panels on floors around desks to roll chairs on. Works great and they last a long time. We were bragging about how great they are, dropping hammers on them to prove how strong tempered glass is, etc, etc. On the way out one guy dropped a screw driver and the glass exploded. It just takes the right impact and tile will crack or chip. It is generally pretty durable though. I have very few locations on my concrete where an impact caused an issue too but it can happen. Proper install certainly leads to fewer issues. I have dropped pans on the tile in my kitchen not had any issues but some how sliding a stool at the island chipped a tile. No flooring option will resist ALL damage.
duneslider
Well-known member
How did you install it? Floating, or glued down? We are still pretty dry in Utah but I still suspect we have too much moisture in the concrete for a glue down to stay looking good. I would probably have to put a vapor barrier down and then "float" a T&G over it to have it last and not curl up like crazy.
I am seriously considering T&G ply laid over a vapor barrier in the 3rd car side of my garage that I mainly use for a workshop area. Just lay it down and maybe put a waterbased poly on the top to make sweeping a little easier.
Plywood is so freaking expensive right now I probably won't do it for a while. 1.60+sqft for 3/4 ply just seems insane in my mind at the moment.
Angelfire
Well-known member
I did a floating install. I can’t remember the exact product but essentially installed a membrane. Sleepers. And 3/4 ply over that. Then ran the T&G. If you can accommodate the added height, it works well.
Edit: So I dug up my notes and I used a dimpled membrane like Delta-FL and then put the ply over that.
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duneslider
Well-known member
That is basically how I have done basketball floors over concrete. Generally have two layers of ply though, one diagonal and one straight. The "sleepers" are rubber pads stapled to the bottom of the first layer of ply. I have seen it done as you describe too.
inphx
Well-known member
A few years in on mine and still happy. The tiles are not indestructible but despite careless use I have no significant damage that compels me to replace any tile. The jack stands I use under the lift don't have any plastic feet and I'm careful about dragging or dropping those down. I broom sweep and wet mop maybe in quarterly cleaning.
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Troy32323
Well-known member
I have read so many good reviews about tile from people that have it in their garage. It seems all the bad reviews are from people that would never tile their garage.
I would never imagine using tile in the garage if I have not seen the proof. I could never do it because subconsciously I would always be worried I was going to break the tiles. Not sure I could ever get past it even though I know they would not break.
I had my floor polished. It is still the 15 year old cement that was dyed and polished to a shine. There are no coatings on it. I love it. Low maintenance, looks great and holds up to abuse. Great option I do not see often.
I would never imagine using tile in the garage if I have not seen the proof. I could never do it because subconsciously I would always be worried I was going to break the tiles. Not sure I could ever get past it even though I know they would not break.
I had my floor polished. It is still the 15 year old cement that was dyed and polished to a shine. There are no coatings on it. I love it. Low maintenance, looks great and holds up to abuse. Great option I do not see often.
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aiyer
Member
Looks really nice! Do the floors get slippery when wet? What does that usually cost square footage wise?
Troy32323
Well-known member
It was about $12 a sq ft. Keep in mind I am on Long Island. Everything is super expensive here. I had a guy that was going to do it for half that but backed out at last second. I owned my old house for a month after I bought new house specifically so I could get the garage floor polished then move everything over. He backed out and only had one shot to do it so hired the guy who charged me double. He said the diamond pads for grinding cost him about 70% of what he charged me. He said the other guy would have had to skip a lot of steps for that price. I have read of people in other areas getting it done for a lot less. I was in a bind so could not negotiate
Everyone told me not to do it as it would be slippery. Go into Home Depot. The floors are polished cement. If you start looking you will see there are so many stores and showrooms etc that are polished cement. Mine is dyed dark grey first and polished to a little higher shine but has never felt slippery. I keep my snowmobile and snow blower in it and it gets wet but has not been an issue. It is really easy to clean and all the dust and dirt blows right off with a little electric blower. It makes the garage look like a showroom haha. It’s been 6 months and I am very happy with it so far.
Everyone told me not to do it as it would be slippery. Go into Home Depot. The floors are polished cement. If you start looking you will see there are so many stores and showrooms etc that are polished cement. Mine is dyed dark grey first and polished to a little higher shine but has never felt slippery. I keep my snowmobile and snow blower in it and it gets wet but has not been an issue. It is really easy to clean and all the dust and dirt blows right off with a little electric blower. It makes the garage look like a showroom haha. It’s been 6 months and I am very happy with it so far.
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aiyer
Member
Troy32323.... thank you for the details response. Much appreciated! Love the toy collection you have there! Enjoy them in good health!
Troy32323
Well-known member
Thanks. It’s an addiction. I always want to be riding something.