After several years in my new house, our garage floor was cracked and the finish was de-laminating. It was looking really ugly. I considered epoxy and a tile to finish it off and restore the great look of my garage. I have a car lift and it's a large garage (5 car) with 2 support poles. I have HVAC and water softener and heater installed on the floor too. There are several doors and entryways. After comparing products at Hot August Nights in Reno we decided to install the Swisstrax system. They designed the floor plan, estimated the number of each color of tile and worked with me the whole way. I measured and re-measured the floor and purchased about 20 extra tiles just to have them if I screwed up cuts or how I was going to install them. (Much to my surprise their estimate of the quantity of tiles was right on and I didn't need the extra tiles and I didn't make any bad cuts.)
It took 2 days to completed the whole installation. I had to measure my garage door openings to center the red/black pads with the doors. (If you don't do this, your car, centered as it came in the door, may not be centered on the pad.) This required me to cut my first course of tiles so the pads aligned with the door openings. I used the cut off portions on the other side cutting them to fit as needed to finish the full course across the front of the garage. These tiles were easy to cut with my table saw. Cutting around the posts and the HVAC etc equipment was a little harder but I was able to use a coping saw to cut the odd shaped holes need to work around them. I installed the car lift on the tile as they said it was rated to hold it and it does hold my lift with my Chevelle on the top. The only drawback I have with the tile is it is uncomfortable to walk on with bare feet. Other than that, it looks great, doesn't shift or move with cars turning on it, I can clean it with a wet mop or a blower and it was a DIY installation project.
Going into winter, it will be the challenge to see how it wears with wet or snowy cars parking on it and how easy it is to clean up. I also want to see how it wears with snow tires driving/parking on it. I will follow up later on these issues.
It took 2 days to completed the whole installation. I had to measure my garage door openings to center the red/black pads with the doors. (If you don't do this, your car, centered as it came in the door, may not be centered on the pad.) This required me to cut my first course of tiles so the pads aligned with the door openings. I used the cut off portions on the other side cutting them to fit as needed to finish the full course across the front of the garage. These tiles were easy to cut with my table saw. Cutting around the posts and the HVAC etc equipment was a little harder but I was able to use a coping saw to cut the odd shaped holes need to work around them. I installed the car lift on the tile as they said it was rated to hold it and it does hold my lift with my Chevelle on the top. The only drawback I have with the tile is it is uncomfortable to walk on with bare feet. Other than that, it looks great, doesn't shift or move with cars turning on it, I can clean it with a wet mop or a blower and it was a DIY installation project.
Going into winter, it will be the challenge to see how it wears with wet or snowy cars parking on it and how easy it is to clean up. I also want to see how it wears with snow tires driving/parking on it. I will follow up later on these issues.
