Has anyone used Liquid Granite http://www.garagecoatings.com/index.html

I'm in the same position - garage addition done, down to the floor coating selection. Here is another product that I am considering
http://www.premiergarage.com/httpdoc.../flooring.html

 

I've lived with interlocking tiles, a floor coating and porcelain tiles in my two garages. I replaced the interlocking tiles with porcelain because I found them impossible to keep clean. Grease, oil and dirt became easily trapped on my interlocking tiles and the only way to keep them clean looking was to remove and lay them out on the driveway, spray them with a degreaser and hose them down. But I still couldn’t remove the dirt and grime that was compacted in between all of the crevices of the tile surface without having to pressure wash each one individually. This quickly became an annoyance for me, but may not be an issue for some.

Porcelain tile still remains the most durable, easy to clean and stylish flooring options for the home. They will not stain, fade, or suffer water damage so they are superior to natural stone which is not impervious to staining. If you live in a colder climate you also not have to worry about freeze or thawing.

As for the concern that homeowners "drop too much stuff ... (and would be) constantly cracking and chipping tiles" that is a valid concern to raise to a retailer or installer if you have never lived with tile before. But you should know that the physical ability of porcelain tile to withstand breakage is significant once they are installed. If you lay a tile on a concrete floor and drop a hammer on it, it might break. But once tile is mortared to a concrete substrate they are not likely to break, making them rated among the toughest flooring materials.

There are the reasons why you find porcelain tiles suitable for areas where heavy traffic, abrasive dirt and moisture is a concern, such as building entrances, swimming pools, or retail centers (malls). It’s the same reason why manufacturers such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, and BMW, to name a few, have installed porcelain tiles on the floors to their manufacturing and repair facilities. I’ve inserted some pictures of these tiles in use.

A nice feature about porcelain tiles is that if you accidentally happen to catastrophically damage a tile (maybe you drop an engine block, for example), you can simply cut it out the damaged piece and replace it with a new one. Furthermore, if you happen to chip a tile that does not need replacing, porcelain tiles have the same color underneath.

Note that not all tiles are alike. Natural stone or ceramic tiles are different from porcelain and are not appropriate for the garage.

Porcelain tiles may be the most expensive of the flooring options discussed here, but properly installed and maintained, porcelain tile can last a lifetime.

 

Check out the floor in the new Porsche Motorsports Centre

 

-Any pics?

The problem is we also need to do a lot of cutting and that´s the point which scares me abit.

We have 350 sq/ft. which are not square,looks like this:


Shot at 2007-07-02

 

That is a nice looking floor in the Porsche facility. One of the advantages of a coated floor is that it reflects light. It's also easier to find a dropped fastener on these kinds of floors.

 

Any info on where to get these tiles for a good deal? Does Sam's have them still?

 

you have to go to sam's website. they don't stock them locally. they are drop shipped from the manufacturer.

i'll see if i can take a pic or two tomorrow.

 

do you have a really leaky car or something? maybe you should get your car looked at instead of changing the flooring

why do you have to remove the tiles to clean them. i just slop some hot water over them and mop. they clean up just fine.

 

Any pics of your garage?

 

No, but if i get home early enough tomorrow I will snap a few off.

 

I considered Racedeck tiles but when I saw them in person, they were (a) dirty and (b) just cheap feeling, walking on plastic. I'm sure they hold up well, but I just didn't like the idea of plastic tiles.

I ended up choosing epoxy with the paint chips and clear coat and haven't looked back since. The floor has a shine to it that makes it look like a showroom floor.

Here are pics I took tonite - this garage floor was installed a year ago and actually hasn't been cleaned since March (there are some minor water spots on it you can't even notice) and it still looks like great. When I do clean it, I empty it (back the car out) and hose it down. Simple, easy, effective, low maintenance.

 

Do you think that the fact they were dirty was a result of the product or the owner's garage maintenance? The tiles clean like any other garage floor. Hose it down, mop it up. It's really quite simple.

Yes, they do hold up well. Long after your epoxy starts peeling up, the racedeck will still be there

One of the several reasons I prefer the plastic tiles over the epoxy is the design patterns. You can't do that with epoxy. It just looks really vanilla with the floor all one color. It is my understanding that you can do epoxy in a checkerboard pattern, but that it's probitively expensive.

 

Thanks for the well wishes.

My epoxy has been down for over a year and has been subjected to snow, ice, salt, gas spills, hot tires, etc and not even a hint of a problem. I should have made mention that the floor was installed by a professional concrete floor coating company and is guaranteed not to peel. (They give a 5 year guarantee on all flooring). My floor has a terrazo (sp?) style to it. Far from boring, IMHO.

I should have been more clear - The fact that the floor trapped dirt so easily and looked terrible when dirty was what turned me off. On my floor, you don't even notice the dirt. And I think someone in this thread mentioned having to take the tiles out to really get them clean as opposed to just the standard hosing. That is just a hassle.

To each his own, I guess.

 

You for sure don't need to take the tiles out to clean them. You mop them like any other flooring surface. You can even pressure wash them if you're so inclined.

I like epoxy flooring, however it was way more money than the racedeck flooring when done professionally. I had it previously and just disliked the way it looked when the tires started pulling up the epoxy. Maybe I had a bad epoxy job.

I mainly chose the plastic tiles because of the way they looked and the ease of repairs. The checkerboard patterns just look really cool in the garage.

 

My experience with Racedeck and similar plastic tiles was similar to njcycleguy's. There is just no simple way to keep plastic "clean", particularly if it comes into contact with petroleum-based products (oil, brake fluids, grease, etc. etc.).

Porcelain tiles can still look great a hundred years later after they are installed (if you've been to Greece or Italy you'll see antique tiles everywhere); yet the same claim certainly cannot be said of coatings or plastic tiles which show their age the older they get.

To deputydog95, if your epoxy floor coating delaminated from the concrete it likely was the result of the installation. There is a real dis-service within this industry at the moment by installers who offer low-cost installation of their flooring systems by skipping several important steps in the process. Floor preparation is the most important step to the installation process, yet it is the only step that is not seen in the finished result. You could have the best floor coating in the world, but if the concrete has not been adequately prepped to accept the coating, it can fail.

Here is an analogy: Lets say you want to paint your kitchen. You could purchase the best paint in the world for your home and hire the best painter, but if your walls have not been prepped to accept the paint, it can delaminate. Just as grease splatter on a kitchen wall will limit the effectiveness of whatever paint is applied to it, the same can be said about a garage floor.

In short, don't skimp on the floor prep work. Take a pass on chemically etching the concrete and have it mechanically shotblasted instead. The cost will add $0.75 to as much as $1.25 per square foot to the overall cost, but it is worth the investment.