Checking to see how many have, or have had experience with tile in their garage, how it holds up, pros and cons. Etc.

I'm in the processing of having a house built, it will have a 790sqft garage, I'm in FL, so no worries with snow/cold.

 

No direct experience. You might search over on http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/

for specifics on porcelain. It's a great site for all garage aspects. A search here might have a post or two as well.

 

I've had ceramic tile in my two-car garage for four years, now. I'm very happy with it.




Porcelain is even stronger. The key is to install it with thinset on both the tiles and the floor. Also: use dark-colored grout so you don't have to worry about anything staining it.

 

Woow nice garage!! Nice 911

 

Thanks for the reply, Have you ever used a floor jack on the tile? And what did you do at the front of your garage, to the 1/2"-3/4" lip the thinset + tile created?
Chris

 

In most ways, the tile is stronger than the concrete it's sitting on. Here's a clip that has me hitting it with a 4-lb sledge hammer:


I have ceramic tile, PEI 4. They were .59/ea from Home Depot.

It is not slippery or brittle the way bathroom tiles are. I haven't had any kind of oil or solvent leave a mark on it. Old, dried, oil-base paint comes right off of it with a razor blade. It's a pretty great garage floor surface.

I used patching concrete on the edge, basically making a wedge/ramp transition from the edge of the tiles to the concrete. Bullnose tiles would be a better-looking solution. You can also use bullnose edging made out of stainless.

 

Jack you have a great garage. love the vintage accents

 

Thank you!

 

Ok Jackolsen...I am sold!!!

I have always thought the ceramic tile would crack under load of cars/under the harsh usage of HD jacks rolling around, etc. But seeing your garage is believing (I didn't even watch the sledgehammer video yet!)

Don't like epoxy because heard of too much problems and I already have a little fluorescence/moisture seapage in my garage concrete.

Don't like the plastic tiles because too damn $$$ in my opinion.

What makes the ceramic tiles that you have non-slippery? Thanks for the insight.

Kevin

 

Tiles are rated for hardness (PEI 1-5), moisture content and coefficient of friction. These ratings determine which building codes the tiles will meet. My low-buck ceramic tiles are PEI 4 (which is okay for outdoor malls, PEI 5 is even better), and their moisture content means they are not suitable for frequent freeze/thaw cycles (which makes sense, since they were sold in Southern California). The Coefficient of friction rating also meant they were all right with outdoor applications where they would get wet and people would be walking on them.

If I had to do it again, I'd probably spring for Lowe's porcelain tiles, which usually sell for a buck a square foot. They're PEI 5, frost-resistant, and (like mine) are not slippery.

The real trick to making them durable is the way they're installed, which is to 'butter' both the tiles and the floor surface with thinset, so there are no voids. In bathroom applications, thinset is simply dabbed on the wall or floor, leaving big gaps that can cause the tiles to break. Also, use a dark grout so you don't have to worry about stains. If you want a light-colored grout, you'll have to seal the grout or use the epoxy grouts, which are pricey and a pain in the neck.

And John156e, here's a bench I put in earlier this month that has some new vintage stuff -- a drill press and a vise both manufactured in 1973. I'm pretty sure the chair and the cabinet I cut in half to make the drawers are also from the seventies.

 

wouldn't it be a pain to keep it clean? maybe use a carpet for the area where the car parks?

instead of porcelain tile, wouldn't vinyl tile be just as durable and easier to install?

 

It's much easier to keep clean than concrete. Oil, trans fluid, brake fluid all wipe up with a paper towel.

Concrete holds dust because it's not a smooth or non-porous surface (unless you've polished it).

Tile is smooth and easy to sweep. Although I'm too lazy for that, so I blow the place out with a leaf blower.

VCT (vinyl composite tile) is a good flooring option, but you need a completely smooth base and you need to put a clear coat on top of it. Once you're there, it's still soft, relative to tile -- you can't take a scotch-brite pad to it in the way you can with tile (to clean off paint overspray, for example). And it's held down with adhesive, which can lose its grip if there's any moisture coming up through the slab. But I've seen some beautiful floors done with VCT.

I did the tile because my concrete was in very bad shape, and it was the least expensive option I could find. My slab was poured when Calvin Coolidge was President. And I live near the La Brea Tar Pits, in earthquake country, so the local ground is not particularly solid. On top of that, the garage had been extended out in the 1950s by someone who apparently mixed the concrete in a wheelbarrow and didn't do anything when the new section sank about an inch relative to the old. I filled in the bigger gaps and elevation changes with patching concrete and set the tile myself. I Googled how to do it, but was very much learning as I went.





All that said, I've since come to realize it's one of the best things I ever did for my garage. It makes the place much easier to clean -- no oil stains -- and gives the garage a more 'finished' look that I really like.

 

Thanks for the great writeup and pics Jack! This will be a project for my tile guy or dare I say diy this summer!

Awesome garage!!!!

 

One more question for you Jack, sorry.

But, did you fill the expansion joints with grout and then laid tiles over that? And what will that do to the slab during extreme summer/winter temps?

 

I have porcelain tile in my place and love it. I went the showy route, with a high gloss finish, for high traffic I would go for one with the friction rating Jack mentioned below. It would also be much easier to clean than my place.
I do work on my cars in my place and the area around my lift is Race deck. I am getting to that age where I tend to drop things more, wanted to avoid chips. I doubt you would have any problems with a jack or stands, I also doubt droping tools from a foot or two high would even bother it. From 6' a starter would mess up anything from epoxy to porcelian. Race deck is perfect for under a lift, if it gets messed up (darned things are about bullet proof) it is easy to replace.
Also tiled my Mothers garage with ceramic tile 12 years ago, not a single issue to date.