When we moved into our new house I was originally planning to paint the garage floor. However, during construction, some of the sub-contractors damaged the floor - lotsof gouges and chunks that appeared to be chipped away. The builder refused to replace the floor, but offered to grind the floor and paint it. I saw another floor in the neighbohood that the builder ground down and was not at all happy with the result. I eventually settled with the builder for a few hundered dollars and shopped around for porcelain ceramic tile. I found some 12" X 12" floor tile that I believe was left over from a new car dealership showroom.They aregrey in color and have a slight texture to them, making them less slippery when wet. I paid $1.00 per tile and had them professionlly installed. The tile installer patched the gouges and chips in the floor before installing the tile. He used a high quality adhesive and the job came out great.

My tile floor was done2-1/2 years ago had has held up perfectly. Porcelain tile has the color through and through. It is very hard and is chip and crack resistant. If isshould ever get chipped, you willhardly be able tonotice the chip. As a precaution against possibly chipping the tile, I do put a piece of plywood or carpeting under jack stands when working on mycar, but it is not necessary to do that when using my motorcycle jack which has steel wheels.

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I accidentally attached the image twice and tried to delete one copy. That is why you see the error below.

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Several years ago I epoxy coated mine. I used the Industrial two part gray from Rusto-eum (step up from the basic kit at thehome stores). The garage floor was 25 years old, stained greasy and a mess. I cleared it out and prepared it as recommended. I think I used mariatic acid and a power washer. It was a few hundred bucks for the material and a bit of work. I turned out great.
It looks very good. It stands up to the hot tires. I do some pretty heavy car repairs, floor jack and stands all the time. I've spilled everything you can imagine on it and it just wipes up. I highly recommend it. I have one or two spots about the size of a quarter that are worn though or otherwise bare again. After this many years, so what.
If I was to do it again.
[ul][*]I have an area of pitting that I should have filled first. I think the self leveling concrete patch would have worked. The issue here is that I used more epoxy paint in this area trying to "fill" the pits. Also the pits collect dirt. So this issue is mostly cosmetic.[*]Second I would have used the paint flakes to break up the solid gray. After I clean it up, I sound like my wife when I yell because someone just walked over my clean floor with dirty shoes. I think the paint flakes would hide some of the dirt rather than the solid gray.Again cosmetic.[*]I've seen a clear coat the really makes it shine. I think that over the flakes would look grert. A little more money and time, but if your already into the project.. I know cosmetic.[*]Lastly I would have added more silica sand for non skid. Yep it can get slick. The only time I dropped my bike was in the garage. I rolled the bike back just enough to unlock the jiffy stand. When Ileaned back onto the stand which was folding up,I realized the stand wasn't there. The bike was already way over and my foot was slowly sliding away. Yep slow mo drop to the floor.[/ul]
But, it was the best thing I ever did to my garage. Highly recommend it. It has held up beyond expectation.

Rick

 

I epoxy coated mine with Rusto-eum from Home Depot or Lowes with the Flakes and it has stood Up to Brake Fluid, Gas and other chemical spills and Hot Tires with no Issues. I wash it down every couple of months, and while wet the floor is still not slippery so i am very Pleased

 

I went with the rubber tiles....They work great, spills clean up easy, and no cold floor! They come in all sorts of colors and styles!! I was going the way of an epoxy floor, but it took too much time for prep and cure time!! I didn't have the luxury of waiting!! Just another option!

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Man I guess there is a few options. Mr clean how do you keep from cracking porcelain tiles can you drive a car on them. The rubber tiles seem good but the cost is high. I will look for a good epoxy coating and do a good prep. I have till spring to start cant wait for some warm temps.

 

Tiles won't crack or break if they're properly bedded on a flat surface. Tiling is the easy part, prep work is the key.
Quarry tile is also pretty common to use, especially in Europe. They're smaller tiles - 6x6 or 8x8 - and less likely to crack because they more easily accommodate some sub-surface imperfections. Crack suppression coatings/membranes are another item that add a lot to the cost of a tiled floor. Add epoxy grout instead of cementious grout and it's even more $$$.

 

I put the rustoleum epoxy down on virgin concrete when I redid my garage 3 years ago. It still looks great. No lifting, staining from anything, or other issues. I've even done a burnout or two without damagingthe epoxy. It's heated and I use my shopvac without the filter to vacuum up the snow that melts off the cars. I used the gray with dark blue & black chips/flakes. If I was gonna do it again, I'd use a different color though, maybe the brown.I'm forever dropping bolts, lock washers etc when wrenching out there. The hardware tends to blend into the gray of the floor. I've crawled around alot looking for those things.



[sm=biker2.gif]

 

rabidd:
I chose 12" X 12" tiles rather than larger tiles. Smaller tiles tend to crack less than larger tiles because they span a smaller area. In fact, several tile companies recommended thatI use 6" X 6" or 8" X 8" tiles as they would have less chance for cracking. I did not find any smaller tiles that I liked at a price I was willing to pay. The tiles I bought were closeout tiles at $1.00 each instead of the original price of $2.00 each. My garage needed 650 tiles, soI saved quite a bit on the cost of the tile.

Based on the recommendationsfrom two people I know who have had their garages tiled, I chose porcelain tile rather than ceramic tile. Porcelain tile is much denser than conventional ceramic tile and therefore is much stonger and more chip resistant. Mostceramic tiles havethe finish color only on the top of the tiles which can easily chip. However, porcelain tiles have the color through and through the tile.

As I stated in my original post, the tiles were professionally installed. The concrete floor was level with no high spots. The problem was chips and gouges which would have showed if the floor was painted or epoxyed. The installer patched a few of the worst gouges before applying the adhesive. He used a high quality adhesive and was very careful to make sureto apply theadhesive so that the entire tile would be supported. Full supportmeans less chance for cracked tiles.

We driveour cars in and out of the garage several times every day as we never leave the cars parked in the driveway. No cracked tiles so far in 2-1/2 years. I have dropped wrenches on the floor - no chips so far. I do use plywood or a piece of carpeting under jackstands when working on the cars to prevent the possiblity of the sharp edges on the bottom of the jackstands from chipping the tiles. However I do not use carpeting under my floor jack or my motorcycle jack as they have steel wheels.If I had to do it over again, I would do it exactly the same way.

 

check this link for some cool tile. Many colors and a few different tile designs.

http://www.racedeck.com/

 

That race deck tile is nice wonder what the cost is per tile.