Tile a garage floor. Bad idea??

[davem]

A friend at work was telling me how he was thinking of doing the epoxy thing on his garage floor. I immediately said "Hey, why not tile it?" Then I thought I had better check here to see what you guys think. It's in MI of course, attached 2 car garage, insulated and drywalled. They actually do use it to park their cars too.

[e3]

other then dirt I cannt think of any reason why not. snow melding off the car then refreezing??? the weight is not a problem.

[John Bridge]

New car dealerships are tiled all the time, the showrooms AND the service areas.

[Art in Stone]

I did my garage down in Florida with 12x12 Porcelain, best thing I ever did.

[Vader,Darth]

They get slippery if you get any oil or anything on em though.

[tileguytodd]

I worked on a place in ceouer de elene(i will never be able to spell it thats why i left)It had an 11 car garage all 4x8 herringbone pattern AO tile with base.Unfortunatly,i was only there to do some pool tile repair work and didnt get the big job

[davem]

Ramon, how about a picture of your garage? What would be a good way to handle the driveway/garage transition? Schluter maybe?

[KChurch1]

Because of possible oil spills, should epoxy grout be used in an application like this?

[dmoolenaar]

I'm in the same boat with the 3 car garage in our new house. I have an older Porsche that drips some oil and wanted to coat the concrete garage floor to avoid oil stains and also eliminate the dust that sluffs (sp) off and ends up tracked through the home.

- Epoxy paint. Professionally done runs ~$2K and is guaranteed for 10 years. DIY kits available for $300 but results can be less than spectacular. It all depends on your concrete slab and how well you prepare. I've seen folks work for 3 weekends cleaning, sweeping, etching, only to have the paint come off after a couple of months.

- VCT (Vinyl Composition Tile). Available from HD for .58 sq/ft and what you typically see in grocery stores. I can install the whole garage for <$500. Possible disadvantages are the adheisive and oil stains in the tile seams. I've heard about waxing the floors to proctect them but then they might be dangerous when water enters the equation.

- Plastic floor tiles (www.toughdeck.com). Still debating these however they are expensive and I still have a oil seepage issue. Positive is that the floor unsnaps and you can take it with you if you move.

- Ceramic tile. I'm concerned about grout stains. What about dropped tools cracking tile and will jacking up a car put too much pressure on tile?

Of course a $1.00 piece of cardboard or $5.00 aluminum catch tray will address my oil issues ($$$$ to fix the leaks) but I still want a low maintainence garage floor that looks good. I'm leaning towards the VCT at this point, the color goes through the tile and can be sanded and polished if something bad happens. Maybe use black tiles (or checkered flag look) for the car spaces and grey for the walk ways. What do you all think, cause I just can't make up my mind on this one.

[dmoolenaar]

Here is a picture of the VCT tile installed in a fellow p-car owners garage. The checkered flag look is a bit much but you get the idea.

[Sonnie Layne]

One of my clients owns a 63 Stingray, can't stop the leaks. He doesn't have a tiled garage, but he's a stickler for clean. His solution was to place a shallow pan in place where the engine gets parked. I think it's just a pan like you'd use under an attic installed AC unit. A bit unsightly when the car isn't parked, but works.

[Paul D.]

If my wife ever caught me tiling the garage....!

[KChurch1]

My hubby thinks I'm nuts because I want to install marble and other natural stone tiles on our concrete circular driveway. I think it's a great idea... it would look nice and I can try out all the new natural stone products (equiptment, polishes, cleaners, sealers...) in a harsh environment.... see which ones really do work the best... I know if I win this argument I'll be the one installing the stone.... my only concern is all the cuts I will have to make around the curves...

[Art in Stone]

K,
Go with granite or travertine pavers. They look great.

Dave, I'll ask my brother -in-law to take a picture of it for me. It's regular 12"x12" porcelain. As to the transition, there isn't any. My garage sits higher than the driveway right where the garage door closes. It was about an inch higher before and right outside the door there is an expansion joint. By the way, I grouted it with epoxy and have never had a stain problem. That was actually the first epoxy grout job I ever did. It was the most horrendous thing I can remember. I had to call in the troops to help me finish that one. Thank god my best friend at the time had just finished the Naval Base in Key West with the same type epoxy.

[tileguytodd]

Hey now thats a VCT picture on a Ceramic and stone Forum,Sacrilige!!! burn him at the stake,
Actually tile put in properly,( a good quality tile) will withstand more abuse from dropped tools than your VCT, sorry its a fact.If you were to use the new epoxy Grout spectralock i think you would have a fantastic floor.Much nicer than the checkered flag(although i thought that was pretty nice.Must be a nafco tile

As a side note,I have hit tile with a 28 oz framing hammer as hard as i could and just dented it(compressed the bisque) It took a cold chisel and a framing hammer to actually get it to break.