Garage Floor Tiles

Attached are before and after pictures of a recent installation using porcelain tiles by Vault (www.showroomgarage.com). These are also the porcelain tiles used by Acura, Audi, Honda, Land Rover, Mercedes, Porsche, Nissan, Toyota, SAAB, and Volkswagen in their showrooms throughout the world.

The tiles were offset from the traditional checkerboard pattern and the results look great.
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Chadhaas,
Your tiles look great and I like the staggered (offset) layout.

What are the black rectangles the vehicle is sitting on, and why?

 

I used race deck in a garage and it looks great when it first goes down and for a display floor it's nice. However we work in the garage and the tiles scratch easy and the fluids do settle through the cracks so if you want to wash the floor it better have a good pitck towards the door or you'll trap moisture under the deck. I had some tiles get stained and they will come apart but you need to start from an edge or use a putty knife (wide surface to prevent damaging the tile) to seperate the tile. One overlaps the other at the seam so yoou'll have to figure out which way the floor is layed.
They look great and are easy to lay but keep in mind that they are best used as a display format and not a working garage.

 

You bumped a 4 month old thread to promote your company?

 

The black rectangles that you asked about are called "Tire Shoes" and are used to support tires to prevent the sidewalls from deforming or developing flat spots.

 

Nice to see someone as cheap as I am. I also wear a Timex and own no designer jeans or shoes. Never been to a Starbucks either. These things mean nothing to me. Ferraris do. I also have a concrete floor but no designs because of the following. My local appliance store provides me with refrigerator boxes which I trim with a box cutter. I slide these under my car (575M) and my wife's car (E320). They serve two purposes. First, they keep the floor clean. Second, they detect oil or trans fluid leaks before they befome a problem. Never had a leak on any of my Ferraris but, I detected a leak in the E320 and had it serviced right away. To the other fellows, those floors are beautiful and I applaud your taste. Cheers to all.

 

Those shoes dont appear to provide anything other than a flat surface - I dont get it? (though I can see if the reason is to not mark the tiles from hot or dirty tires sitting in one spot.

Are Vault tiles any different in cost or quality than tiles that one can buy at a Lowes or Home Depot? In other words, is there something special about these tiles for use in auto / tire applicaitons as opposed to regular floor tile? When tiling the garage over a concrete floor, do you use a thinset mortar (I have done lots of tile work in kitchens and bathrooms) or just an liquid adhesive?

 

Chad, I see there are joints in the concrete and the edges of the tile don't follow the joints (because adjacent rows are offset). Is there a danger the joint under the concrete will eventually telegraph through and crack the tile? Is some sort of membrane installed between the concrete and the tile? By membrane I don't mean a sheet of something but that liquid membrane that is often installed under tile to keep it from cracking from earthquake, etc. Or is there just a thinset mortar underneath?

I ask this becasue my gargae floor has cracks that developed from a bad pour and I'm concerned these would eventually telegraph through the tile.

 

I have porcelain tiles in my garage, all you need to make sure is the thin set or bonding agent be heavy duty. I park my car and also my wifes Explorer with no problems whatsoever.

 

movement can cause cracks in the substrate above. a self leveling epxoy membrane will bridge any current cracks and fill in the gaps and allow for movement up to a point. however this is for epoxy flooring, adding tiles is a fixed bond so movement will transfer. hence why a majority of places use epoxy floors. When I was doing CA for a restaurant firm the one biggest problem that got health mark violations was cracked tile and displaced tile in the kitchen areas. if the budget was there the floor was stripped and epoxy was put down.

if you have a lot of settling and movement in your floors than tile would not be a good idea unless you floated it on another substrate, however now your adding in more cost. or go with bonded terrazzo.

 

traditionally it's about a 1/4" thinset layer, for heavier application and movement concern a 1~1 1/2" layer with wire mesh is used.

 

Clinker tiles are the popular choice among BMW and Mercedes...you'll see them in all the corporate training centers and in the service centers of many new high end dealerships. They are available in thicknesses to 20mm and are about the strongest I've seen.
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Your question was just brought to my attention this evening.

Regarding the tire shoes, I don't know much about this product but it has nothing to do with protecting the floor from hot or dirty tires. My client purchased them to prevent the tires on his Ferrari from sagging. Here is a an overview from the company that sells this product, which I found on their website and copied it here for your information:

"TireShoes have been specially designed to prevent tyres from going square. Emphasis is made to the long winter storage season when cars tend to stand for months at a time. Tyres develop "flat spots" and sidewalls deform, resulting in a bumpy ride and uneven tread ware."

Here is a link to their website:

http://www.permabag.com/body/en_tireshoes.php

Regarding your second question, "Porcelain Tiles" are completely different from tile products that you "can buy at a Lowes or Home Depot", which market ceramic and natural stone tile. Natural stone tiles are porous and are therefore not appropriate for use in a garage where automotive fluids will stain them.

If you want to tile your garage floor, you will want to seek out "porcelain" tiles, versus ceramic tile or natural stone, for durability reasons. Simply stated, ceramic tile and natural stone will stain, whereas porcelain tile has a very low absorption rate of less than .5% which classifies it as "impervious".

Some of the key benefits of "porcelain tile" that are not exhbited in either ceramic tile or natural stone, include:

Chip Resistance
Porcelain tiles have high mechanical strength and are extremely chip resistant. This is the reason why you will see porcelain tiles in use on the factory floor for Ferrari's assembly plant in Modena; Lamborghini's factory in Bolognese, Italy; and BMW's factory in Leipzig, Germany, just to name a few. You can only imagine the amount of items that must get spilled and dropped on these tiles over the years.

Another advantage is that the body color of porcelain tile is solid throughout the entire tile, so in the event that the tile does chip, it will carry the same color throughout, so it may not need to be replaced. Ceramic tiles will show every small chip.

Stain Resistance
Porcelain tiles are very resistant to stains. Some specialty porcelain tiles are finished with a glaze that makes them even more resistant to moisture and stains.

Moisture Resistance
Porcelain tiles are very dense and are ideally suited for use in high moisture settings. Whether you're concerned about tile able to withstand freeze-thaw cycles or for use in high-moisture environments, porcelain tile is a great choice. Porcelain tiles are typically used in swimming pools where their life expectancy is outstanding.

Wear Resistant
Porcelain tile is simply the hardest, most durable tiled surface.

However, NOT all porcelain tiles are created equal. There are different kinds of porcelain tile depending upon how they are manufactured. The "key" is in the GLAZING that goes on the tile. Glazing can make tile more suitable for harsh environments, such as industrial applications.

You won't find these kinds of special glazed tiles at a local home center or any off-the-shelf tile.

In closing, porcelain tiles have earned a well-earned reputation as having the highest overall durability compared to ceramic tiles or natural stones, as evidenced again by their use in factory floors, malls, grocery stores and other similar applications where the wear and tear is far greater than any typical residential application.

Can you use ceramic tile or natural stone in a garage? Absolutely. But why would you want to when you know they will stain if grease, oil or some other automotive fluid will spill on them?

 

Your message was just brought to my attention. The visual that you are refering to in the photograph is just a design layout that the client was seeking. By staggering the tiles it gave a different look to the floor, versus the standard checkerboard pattern. It had nothing to do with the subsurface.

As for what kind of grout and membrane we recommend for use with our porcelain tile, please email me at: chad.haas at showroomgarage.com and I will provide you detailed information. We use a special mortar and membrane for the applications you describe. It is very common for garage floors to have cracks and moisture issues; using the correct grout is critical to prevent the issues you described as well as reducing the likelihood that the grout will stain.