OK, where do I buy blk/white tiles for my garage floor???

[mact3333]

JamesA's garage has inspired me...I saw blk/white linoleum flooring(meant for kitchens I believe) at Home Depot with sticky adhesive material on the back for 35.00 per case of 45. Is this the type I should use???.Those tiles are going to be costly cause my garage floor appears to be around 600SF. Is there a specific type that is good for garages? Where is the best place to buy them with respect to price?

[Hans Stuck]

I suggest RaceDeck tiles. I did my garage floor with them.










Check out www.racedeck.com

You can even use the interactive tool to configure your pattern. A simple black & white check would be very easy.

Best of all ... when I move into a place with a 3 car garage ... I can take the tiles with me. They simply clip together (no gaps ... nothing leaks through).

The RaceDeck tiles and a little paint from Home Depot transformed my 1 car garage.

[jtanner]

Griot's Garage (http://www.griotsgarage.com) advertises some very high-end tiles.

Jim

[Patricko]

Hans I am going to apologize in advance but isn't that your DADS garage

[mact3333]

HS, I also have a freezer and a fridge in the garage to deal with...will these heavy items break the tile???...if they are clipped together, there must be some height to them right???

[Hans Stuck]

Originally posted by Patricko
Hans I am going to apologize in advance but isn't that your DADS garage

Apology accepted. His garage is a little bit bigger:








Are we clear?

[I try to be helpful ... and there is an accusation that I am misleading people. WTF?]

** For clarity. The E36 M3 and 308 GTS are HIS. The 325xiT is the fiancee's daily driver. The S2000 and Ducati are mine. I sold the E30 M3 and S4 because I have a one car garage! I'll be moving by next summer and will then start over **

....but I WON'T be buying an Elise. I lost interest because it's too hard to replicate the Lotus badge on the floor of my garage with 12" x 12" tiles!

[Patricko]

My mistake

[Hans Stuck]

You can put a refrigerator on the racedeck tiles. They're very strong. They also will resist damage from most chemicals and cleaners.

The tiles are hard plastic .. and have a topography to prevent slipping (unlike ceramic tiles). It is possible to scratch them if you were to slide the refrigerator all over the place ... but I doubt it's a mobile fridge.

Tool kit with wheels would be no problem either.

Hope that helps.

BTW -- Racedeck will send you a sample tile free of charge if you ask them.

[rtking]

I have the racedeck tiles too. I like them, but the only caveat is that they're not quite grippy enough for drive-on ramps. So be forewarned that you'll have to brace the ramps if you plan to use them on top of the racedeck tiles.

Also (if you drive a high-torque car), it's possible to separate the tiles as you pull into your garage. I've done it a few times with my Mustang. Luckily it's easy to just snap them back together again.

As Hans Stuck said, they're very strong. I've placed jack stands on them directly and they held-up. (I don't recommend it though... because it will scar the tile a little.)

Bob

[Hans Stuck]

I've never had a problem with the tiles seperating. How much wheelspin are you getting as you pull into and out of your garage? I'm not usually in THAT big a hurry.

The tiles are about 1-2 cm thick. Check out the 1st photo ... you can sort of see them laying loose on the concrete floor.

When the Ducati spends time in the garage (when it's not inside the house!), and it's resting on its kick-stand, I use a 2x4 board to absorb the narrowly focused weight of the bike. I could see a kickstand causing a dent in the plastic tile over time. Of course, I put down a hard piece of plastic for the stand even when I park the bike on asphalt. I've seen kickstands sink into asphalt on a hot day. Just like quick-sand .. just much slower. Like "slow-sand", I guess.

The only real complaint I've ever heard about Racedeck tiles is that the tiles are plastic and there is a bit of a clop-clop noise when you walk on them. I'm totally used to it and it's not a problem. I'll take the lack of absolute silence over the coldness and ugliness of a concrete slab any day.

[ConeFusion]

That looks very interesting, Hans. Thanks for the pointer.

A couple of small questions that came to my mind while looking at the information, maybe you know the answers: Will it work if the floor is not perfectly level? What do you do if the size of your garage doesn't happen to be a multiple of the tile size? Simply leave some blank space at the edges? Or cut the tiles?

[Feffman]

If you are a Lotus Ltd. you can take advantage of our discount program for Kiwi Tile. You can find the information about the discount for Kiwi Tiel in the "Member Area" of Lotus Ltd's web site.

Happy Lotusing!

Mark Pfeffer - VP Lotus Ltd.

[James A]

I had a flooring company do my garage in an epoxy and they did the checker board in the process. If you have this done have an abrasive added so the floor isn't slick if it gets wet.
The Griot's Garage quartz tile is $15 a square foot, it is the best but you pay big time.
Jim

[smura]

I'm thinking of going with motormat.com

Racedeck is $3.25 a square foot, motormat is $2.40 a square foot, the difference (as far as I can tell) is that motormat is perforated, whereas racedeck is a solid surface.

[Genjuro]

The stick on flooring really interests me as well. The one's originally referenced at the start of this post.

Does anyone have any comments on that material?

All these other alternatives become too expensive.

[mikester]

I love my epoxy floor, but it's a granite look not checkerboard - next time ! How did the checkerboard epoxy come out, James A ? The company that did my floor told me they could do it, but they kind of discouraged it, saying the extra down-time involved and expense, etc. etc. BTW I agree the Griot's quartz tile looks awesome, but the pricing is very high, and also it's very shiny stuff so must be very slippery when wet.

To answer the initial question, I would look around for commercial grade tile, like they use in supermarkets, for a garage application. These usually come in larger sizes as well (18 by 18, 24 by 24), which generally look better on a decent-sized garage floor. A friend of mine did this and loved it. Whatever you get be sure the color (black, white, whatever) is solid throughout the tile, because your tires will bring in rocks etc, that will scratch the tile.

[Randy Chase]

Originally posted by mikester
I love my epoxy floor, but it's a granite look not checkerboard - next time ! How did the checkerboard epoxy come out, James A ?

<img src="http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=86842">

<img src="http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=86859">

[_JD_]

Get the hell outta here! That looks niiiice! (room and 7)
Is that James'?

[mikester]

Swwwweeet !

[Robert Puertas]

Where's the lift?
Cheapskate...

That's just not right.

Things a garage is not allowed to have:

baseboards
low-voltage lighting
window blinds
coordinated stainless steel accessories