Should I TILE my Garage Floor
 

I am thinking about tiling my garage floor. I read a lot about epoxy floors and it sounds like a major PITA and risk it won't come out unless you grind the floor. (Mine is >40 years old with oli leaks and grime ... )

The Benefits of Porcelain Garage Floor Tile | All Garage Floors

What does the brain trust say? I have laid tile before and it being a garage floor, I am not too worried about it coming out perfect. The proper rating tile and slap it on in 16x16 or 24x24 should be a fun project!?

Do you think it would hold up to a scissor mid rise lift on top of the tile? Or should i plan on sinking that in?

G

do not install the lift on top of the tile, it will crack the tile. Tile around it after the lift is installed

That's what I figured. Thanks for confirming!

Looks like I'd sink in the lift for a clean look. Unfortunately, unless I put a lift table like Jack O., I will have a hole in the middle of the floor where the lift sits. This is an issue when I would move and / or sell as most people are not interested in a lift.

Maybe I should just give up on the lift in the garage idea. I can buy a nasty old unit and put it in the side yard and just become a fair weather mechanic!?

G

light duty lift? How thick do you think is that slab? Most will cut out for a footing and screw the lift on there, tile and be done with it. when you sell, unbolt and remove lift. Cut screw and tile over that. No one will ever know there was ever a lift there. Just keep some extra tiles. Is the house up in SF or here in LA?

Do you plan to use a creeper, floor jack, roll-around tool box? Seems like rolling these on tile would be a major PITA.

If you're interested in VCT tile I can vouch for that. A creeper will roll just fine and the only way I was able to damage any of it was when I put the car on jack stands. Using a small piece of plywood underneath the stands kept that from ever happening again.

edit: previous owners had an ATV or small boat in the garage that leaked a little oil. That never caused any problems with the glue or tiles lifting. It was a big part of why I went that route to begin with instead of going with paint or epoxy.

I hate to be negative but why bother? It's a garage after all.
They're for working in and if you tile the floor all of a sudden you'll be worried about what your doing in there.

Tile looks awesome but is a lot of work to install. Also keep in mind it's one of those projects that YOU will like. When you sell the house you won't get anything back for it since most people won't care whether it's concrete, tile, epoxy or whatever.

The only functional difference I noticed before vs. after was that it became a lot easier to locate dropped hardware and I tracked less dust in to the house. The blue/white checker pattern seemed to help brighten up the room a little too but adding lighting would have had the same result.

The person who I sold the house to mentioned something about turning the garage into a sort of man cave with a pool table. He loved it.

It all depends on the type of tile you want to use. Porous is not good=stains.

No comment on the tile but... just sayin.
If I were buying a house a lift in the garage would be a huge plus...
Again... Just sayin. ;)

Interested in the comments, I have done epoxy on my garage floor twice, both times professionally done, full shot blast beforehand, full meal deal.

Well, between the expansion/contraction, salt dripping down from cars, normal abrasion from gravel in the tread, neither coating lasted much beyond 5 years.

So, I am planning on tile as well. Most European shops have tile on the floor, and yes, the lifts are solidly mounted onto concrete and not through the tile.

My reading is to use good tile (not the cheapest Home Despot type), use the right thinset and grout and double butter every tile to avoid voids and such.

My only real problem is how to get the wretched epoxy off the parts where it still is and is still stuck!

Dennis

Why not go with SwissTrax or Racedeck plastic floor squares, especially if you might move? You could always pick them up and bring them to your next garage.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...9a1425491a5013

I purchased my home from a guy who owned a flooring company which was great cause all flooring in my home is top notch however the worse part is that he tiled my garage floor

I see you're in LA so this is not a big deal to you but when my floor gets wet from snow or rain it is a death trap....I ended up covering most of it with outdoor carpet cause I didn't want my wife or kids breaking their necks

I have a scissor lift on mine for my 911 and there have been no issues with tile cracking however my lift is on top of the carpet

my opinion is that I would never tile a garage..I have contemplated covering it with the hard rubber squares but they are $$$

I guess my research would suggest that he used the wrong kind of tile. From what I read, there is a vast difference in gloss/surface finish between floor tiles and wall tiles. The ones I am looking at are essentially industrial commercial building floor tiles intended for foyers and lobbies of large buildings. There is a thing called an R rating which measures the amount of slippage up to R19 (the least slippery).

I gather at the higher R ratings, the slipperiness is pretty well non-existent...so that is what I am looking for.

Dennis

I put porcelain tile in the garage at my last house. I would NEVER do it again.

I went all the way, even having them grind/shave the entire floor to make sure it was perfectly flat. Even the best thin set and tiles will have cracks if the floor has any low spots or foundation cracks. After restoring a 67 Bronco, chips were everywhere from dropping wrenches etc. The chips filled with dirt. I used a pencil thin grout line, but it still looked dirty. It's great if you're just parking cars in there, but for a working shop/garage…Just not practical. Plus, done right its BIG $$$

This house I went with industrial grade VCT in my Mancave. It's much cheaper, much more durable, and I'm much happier with it. Is does get dirt fast, but strips and cleans easily. You need to keep a good floor wax on it. I strip and wax it once a year and it looks great. Hot tires will make a yellow spot on the light color. I put a black section under the car.

Epoxy is terrible. I put that on the garages attached to the house. Fives years now and it looks like crap.


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I checked into VCT tiles a while ago, my concern was up here where there is snow/ice/salt drippings from the cars and lots of road grime that it would just sit on the concrete under the VCT tiles and ruin the concrete just out of sheer exposure.

The grout issue is one that appears to be fixable by both using a dark grout and secondly putting a really good industrial grout sealer on it so that the dirt can't stick. Near as I can tell it is a silicone-like product that just prevents the grime from sticking to grout, does not stick to the tiles at all and so does not make them slipperier.

Your thoughts on that? Any issues with that kind of thing from your end?

Dennis

Check out the swisstrax garage tiles. Easy to put down and pick up. That's what I'm going to do in my garage when I get around to it.

And what if you spill something on this? How do you clean it? Looks great, but I'd be afraid doing extended projects on it.

G

I want to get a scissor mid-rise lift. Like this one:

https://excel-equipment.com/titan-6-000-lb-mid-rise-scissor-lift.html?utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=cpc&utm_ca mpaign=Excel%20Shopping&gclid=CLuSp9eS4sMCFReTfgod XTwA7g

I guess these generally have one side fixed and held down by the weight of the vehicle, while the other side slides on rollers. I can see that this won't be too pretty on a tile floor with grout.

G

I have not thought about VCT - that looks like a nice option. But what if you cut or weld over it - is it going to melt?

The more I look at this, the more I wonder if I shouldn't just leave it alone? Then I can roll in and out the scissor lift from the side yard and keep it there as a default location, no digging pits or even better, spending $ on a floor that may not hold up?

G

I did go with a lighter grey grout, a big mistake, but with off-white porcelain tile I do not like the look of a dark checkerboard grout line. I did use a heavy silicone grout sealer. The grout sealer gets dirty just as fast, it just cleans up. I got tired of cleaning grout and just let it turn black.

Slippery??? I went with a tile that was supposed to be a "less slippery" high traffic area type. It was great dry, but add water and the kids could use it as a Slip-and Slide. It was treacherous wet. :eek:

Like I said, as a place to park finished cars it was beautiful. As a working shop and Mancave…frustrating.

Yes, welding on waxed VCT will leave brown burn specks (ask me how I know). They buff lighter, but don't go away. I put down 1/4" plywood and a 3'x4' drip tray now.

No floor surface is perfect for all use.

-Wet and dry weather parking - Rubber Tiles (just hard to keep clean)
-Show car garage showroom - Porcelain tiles
-Cool man cave that sees a lot of car work, but you want it to look cool - VCT or Epoxy (VCT is yearly strip/polish)
-Garage or workshop with heavy work, welding, etc - Bare slab for sure!

Thanks - that's a great summary. I would really love that VCT look, but then I always think I will do some big project one day when I slow down at work.

Let's talk VCT - it looks reasonably inexpensive and I could do a dark color with a lot of specks / structure. How hard is a DIY install? High on glue fumes? :)

G

It's really easy IMO. I did it before working with ceramic or porcelain tiles and as a complete novice it came out great. To set the pattern I started at the middle of the garage door, made a few lines and got to work.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c5...arageafter.jpg

I'm considering some of the snap-in garage tiles that have holes for drainage. Just hose the floor off once and a while, as long as you have positive drainage towards the door it will just run out underneath the tiles.

Tiles ... going into my heavy duty man cave next week.

Runner up was epoxy, was leading first 700 meters. Final 100 meters tiles made it.

A commercial grade quarry tile would be very durable.
Just have a small supply of replacement tiles for occasional repairs.
Use epoxy grout and there will be zero issues with stains.

Small plywood pieces for jack stands and floor jack to protect against breakage.

Quite a few car dealerships have tile floors in the showroom.

This is not a complicated or expensive project.

Supposedly you just wipe it off with any common cleaner. Could pull it all up,and power wash if you had to.

I would leave bare concrete where you put the lift. I have a mid rise and yes one end stays stationary, and one has two rollers. It would munch flooring I would think.

That's a complete summery.

With VCT, the adhesive ideally should seal the seams and the concrete underneath from oil/chemical spills.
I wish I had it.
I've dropped a wrench next to my ear and it was still ringing an hour later.

The older style 2-part epoxy (not the new water based junk!) from Lowes I once used here in Mich about a decade ago has held up with every chemical or part dropped on it. They don't sell that product anymore. Most chemicals are all garbage now. I've re-coated the asphalt driveway twice with two different products under ideal conditions and prep which didn't last more than a year.

Yes, my lift will go on bare concrete. I will also switch all those nice iron casters for ones with a polyethylene tire on it, if nothing else for the noise...

I think I am still committed to tiles...have an expert tile guy coming out in the next few weeks to do our bathroom, I will ask him his view....and feed back to all you guys of course!

Dennis

I painted mine with a very nasty concrete paint. I beat the heck out of it, and it is really hanging in there. I think it cost me under 200.

Mine has iron casters on bare concrete and they don't make any noise. Id be worried about the plastic flat spotting over time. Realize that half the weight of your car will be on the casters that are about 4sqin of contact total.

If you haven't checked out this forum, you should, Flooring - The Garage Journal Board.

They have everything you need to know about tile in the garage. I would love to do porcelain tile in my garage but it would be a big project.

Basically you're looking for through body, rectified edges, PEI-5 tiles. You can see videos on youtube of guys hitting the tiles with a hammer, rolling floorjacks, lifting cars with floorjacks, etc. No problem at all.

Had pretty decent results with the two part Home Depot epoxy. No grinding, 50 year old far-from-perfect concrete.
Not perfect, however it does stand up pretty well. The white colour certainly brightened things up.
Inexpensive.

If you install ceramic tile I'd suggest you by some anti-fatigue mats. I have several that I've placed in front of my workbench. Grangers has many styles, some with tapered edges, some connect together, etc. Kinda gives the shop that "attention-to- details" look.

Antifatigue Mats - Matting - Grainger Industrial Supply

My lift weighs 900lbs. Yes it rolls, but no way in hell am I going to roll in and out of the garage any time I want to work.

You might want to consider the mats they use in horse stalls

Rubber Horse Stall Mat, 4 ft. x 6 ft. - Tractor Supply Co.

4' x 6' x 3/4" = $40
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http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/stall-mat-kit-12-ft-w-x-12-ft-l
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Royal Mat 12 ft. x 12 ft. x 3/4" Interlock™ Stall Kit = $500

Horse stall mats...
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