What are your thoughts for a brand new garage floor ? Epoxy vs. garage floor tiles, also which floor tile is best ?

 

If I could do it again, I would DEFINITELY go epoxy. I installed the black & white tiles from Costco. Very simple install, looks nice, has a slight click clack when you walk on it.., but cleaning them in my opinion is a pain in the ***. I would go epoxy.. bit more expensive but I think it is just a classier and easier product to care for than the tiles.

I'm even thinking of pulling mine up and going epoxy now.

 

Are you concerned about cracks,scratches and flaking ?

 

Anyone hear of highly polishing a concrete floor, similar to a mall or office complex floor ? Supposedly the concrete pores are so small, nothing can penetrate it. Your thoughts please.

 

There is a place here in KC that does that, and the floors are amazing. You can also add dye to tint the floor. Not sure what it costs though. My fear would be how slick it might be if the floor were wet.

If you epoxy, get the professional grade stuff. Devoe Devran Epoxy held up on the high volume shop floor just fine (impervious to anything with the exception of letting a puddle of brake clean sit on it overnight), and is about $100 a gallon (1 gallon epoxy, 1 gallon converter). 2 gallons of each should do most basic 2 car garages. We abused the heck out of that floor in an automotive environment. After 3 years of high volume use, I re-epoxied it so it would bring back the clean look, lol.

I used the home depot rustoleum stuff on my garage floor at home (I had a few sample cases sitting there, so figured I would save some money), looks good, but my wife's jeep has already peeled the epoxy up where the tires sit. It was properly prepped etc. I will be redoing it this summer with the stuff we used at the shop instead.

 

If you bring your car into the garage with wet tires I would definately use Epoxy. Even if just from washing the car, the floor tiles get nasty.

 

I installed the floor tiles. They are a pain to keep clean. I got fed up and removed them.

 

Epoxy has been great on my garage floor. Don't bother with the crap you get at home depot or lowes...it peels up under hot tires in no time, even with the right prep.

I used the paint sold by Griots Garage and it has held up great.

 

not matter how good the floor tiles are, there will always be those thin lines between them where dirt and moisture can penetrate. Ditto for the Griots Garage product.

 

We've had both epoxy and tiles done. Our choice would be epoxy over tiles as it is much easier to clean, does not lift or crack (on hot days, the tiles would expand / contract and end up popping up when a car drives over them), and does not leave mildew underneath as tiles do (we've had this happen).

 

So I'm guessing Epoxy is the way to go with my new garage.....how long do I have to wait (if at all) for my concrete to "cure" before I can Epoxy? ....sorry dont mean to thread jack. But I have been trying to decide if I should go with tile or epoxy myself.

 

Some expoxies take 24 hours before you can walk on them and 7 days before you can park on them. We had a company do our four car garage and this was the case.

 

I also weighed the idea of epoxy versus tile and agree with all of the comments above. However when I priced the high quality industrial epoxy floors on the market the cost was high, and the potential for scratching is still there. I looked around and found that I could do ceramic tile, grouted and sealed for less than the epoxy with I believe better results. The garage is 3,000 sq ft and a picture is below. Also, if you ever break or ruin one just replace it! The floor has been down five years and this is a recent picture.

http://photobucket.com/userinfo/rese...f2846dd4a1c7cf

 

^^cant see pic

 

i used epoxy on mine, works well, not slick resists stains for the most part, but i will need to re coat it this summer