Garage floor tiles - PVC or rubber?

Garage floor tiles - PVC or rubber?

Author
Discussion

LordBretSinclair

4,285 posts

176 months

Monday 7th January 2013
quotequote all
Thanks for your PMs Nigel.

now looking at your photos your tiles look very "thin" compared to those I bought from Mototile - maybe they have an new external supplier. As I said in my PM I have had no trouble with mine although as another poster said your joints don't look flush - I used a rubber hammer with a fair bit of force to get the lugs to seat properly.

A very belated Happy New Year everyone, I've been sailing round the Caribbean with strict instructions from Lady S re: no contact with the "outside world" smile

Warning - the photo comes with parental guidance hehe




George29

14,706 posts

163 months

Monday 7th January 2013
quotequote all
Why are you drinking water?! That is the perfect spot/weather for a beer drink

Lunablack

3,494 posts

161 months

Monday 7th January 2013
quotequote all
George29 said:
Why are you drinking water?! That is the perfect spot/weather for a beer drink
rolleyes Can't you see....... He's drivinghehe

MaverickV12

1,084 posts

137 months

Monday 7th January 2013
quotequote all
Hello Boys, laid a few floors in my time. I have laid all sorts of tiles on all sorts of floor and surfaces. Have laid a few garages and advised people that it will fail, but still they want it and still it fails.

Sticky tiles will always fail, unless you use commercial tiles. Commercial tiles are expensive and commercial glue is great, but again expensive, but unfortunately they can still fail ........ frown . I can't give you a name of any because I havn't used them for quite a while. Ceramic floor (external) tiles are relatively successful, but they need to be laid with a complete glue backing, otherwise they crack as you drive on them .... useless. Also, you can't use a jack on them, they WILL crack, then they'll look terrible. Domestic sticky tiles will move with the steering, and the joints will rise and lower, and you're right it does not look brilliant.

Fixed tiles such as Lunablack, will work and they will work well. BUT, if you start to jack on them, they will just break under the point load of the jack wheels. It looks like Luna overcame this by having a full car lift jack. Nice jacking system .... wink

The most successful floor covering I have ever seen is, naked concrete, followed by polished concrete, followed by painted concrete. The paint does scratch etc, but is very durable and can be overpainted.

If you don't mind what it looks like, go for a trowelled naked concrete finish, this can have a relatively nice finish and is exceptionally durable, Jockman has mentioned polished concrete, this is also very durable, you can get someone in to do it. Alternatively if you go to your local Hire Shop, you can hire the polishing tool for a very reasonable cost. But you need to do this when the garage is being built, as if you put a 1 inch concrete covering on and then polish it, it'll break, especially with the weight of a car.

If you look at commercial dealers etc, where a naked concrete floor is not good enough, they used a polish concrete with commercial paint on it. This will give the best finish possible with something extremely durable, but they don't tend to use jacks (with the point loads of wheels etc) on them. smile

George29

14,706 posts

163 months

Monday 7th January 2013
quotequote all
Lunablack said:
rolleyes Can't you see....... He's drivinghehe
My mistake! hehe

Mako V12V

3,135 posts

213 months

Monday 7th January 2013
quotequote all
Maverick - great post, thanks for posting!

Lunablack

3,494 posts

161 months

Monday 7th January 2013
quotequote all
Just to clarify.... My lift has gone, and I've used a jack many times on the floor tiles, including jacking my Grand Cherokee..

The tiles stand up well..... Probably due to the webbed X design on the back...


The only thing I've managed to damage a tile with was a heavy pointy bar that I droppedyikes pointy end pierced a tile...but it's hardly noticable.....

The main problem with mine is, despite the claims of non staining, the ingrained dirt..

LordBretSinclair

4,285 posts

176 months

Tuesday 8th January 2013
quotequote all
Lunablack said:
George29 said:
Why are you drinking water?! That is the perfect spot/weather for a beer drink
rolleyes Can't you see....... He's drivinghehe
G&T actually hehe

Ordy

21 posts

154 months

Wednesday 9th January 2013
quotequote all
I’ve just put the phone down after talking to Paul at Mototile.
As you suggested David, the customer service is second to none, certainly in my experience.
A pleasant surprise.

And as you suggested Tim & others, my tiles did not appear to be of the same quality as you received.
It turns out that Mototile have identified a rogue batch of tiles, where the curing time was shorter than ideal during the moulding cycle. This had an adverse effect on the tile characteristics and interlocking mechanism.
To their credit, Mototile maintain batch traceability and retain samples from each batch.
It appears that only myself and two other orders have been supplied from this batch. The rest has been put into quarantine and will be scrapped.
Evidently addition safeguards have been put into place at the moulders to ensure no repeat issues.

Paul couldn’t have been more helpful and offered a full refund or replacement and I chose the former.

I have gone into the detail above as I’m really pleased that things have been resolved, I couldn’t understand how others have had excellent results but my tiles never looked quite right.

Feeling a bit foolish because I wish I had spoken to the supplier earlier now.

Ordy


Lunablack

3,494 posts

161 months

Wednesday 9th January 2013
quotequote all
Nice to hear of a company that still value their customers...smile

SLacKer

2,622 posts

206 months

Wednesday 9th January 2013
quotequote all
I notice from pictures of the tiles laid that no one staggers the joints. Is this not possible with these plastic tiles? People do seem to go for patterns which with staggered tiles would not work but surely the point of them is to cover the concrete not have a nice pattern.

Also with jacking wouldn't it be an idea to have a few sacrificial tiles that could be used under the jacking wheels and axle stands.

DangerMonkey

587 posts

215 months

Wednesday 9th January 2013
quotequote all
LordBretSinclair said:
Thanks for your PMs Nigel.

now looking at your photos your tiles look very "thin" compared to those I bought from Mototile - maybe they have an new external supplier. As I said in my PM I have had no trouble with mine although as another poster said your joints don't look flush - I used a rubber hammer with a fair bit of force to get the lugs to seat properly.

A very belated Happy New Year everyone, I've been sailing round the Caribbean with strict instructions from Lady S re: no contact with the "outside world" smile

Warning - the photo comes with parental guidance hehe



looks like captain ron to me!

P14SMM

228 posts

154 months

Wednesday 9th January 2013
quotequote all
I own a flooring company and it all depends on what you want and what prep you do! I have carpet tiles down but have had resin, interlocking rubber, anti slip vinyl, and paint and have never had a failure! It's down to prep and personal preference!
But I'm a bit sad and have the walls carpet tiled as well so if the inevitable happens my doors do not get damaged!

CarbonV12V

Original Poster:

1,154 posts

182 months

Wednesday 9th January 2013
quotequote all
P14SMM said:
But I'm a bit sad and have the walls carpet tiled as well so if the inevitable happens my doors do not get damaged!
Not at all - great idea. Any chance of some photos as I hadn't thought about that for the walls.

robgt

2,585 posts

161 months

Thursday 10th January 2013
quotequote all
My floor tiles have now been down for just over 2 years. They look as good as the day that they were laid plus I have had no problems whatsoever. The garage floor was new concrete which had been given time to properly dry out . It was given a slight gradient to allow for any water ingress. I then gave it 2 coats of good quality floor paint . The tiles were sourced from "The Versatile Flooring Company" . Tel No. 0870 7772795. They were very helpful and even sent me sample tiles. When fitted it is important to leave a small gap around the perimeter to allow for expansion. (Don't forget our engines make a lot of heat.} Skirting board will cover the gap. Should you choose the wrong or inferior tile it could well react with your tyres leaving a permanent stain.

Please refer to my profile picture to see my garage.

MollyGTi

2,353 posts

153 months

Thursday 10th January 2013
quotequote all
robgt said:
My floor tiles have now been down for just over 2 years. They look as good as the day that they were laid plus I have had no problems whatsoever. The garage floor was new concrete which had been given time to properly dry out . It was given a slight gradient to allow for any water ingress. I then gave it 2 coats of good quality floor paint . The tiles were sourced from "The Versatile Flooring Company" . Tel No. 0870 7772795. They were very helpful and even sent me sample tiles. When fitted it is important to leave a small gap around the perimeter to allow for expansion. (Don't forget our engines make a lot of heat.} Skirting board will cover the gap. Should you choose the wrong or inferior tile it could well react with your tyres leaving a permanent stain.

Please refer to my profile picture to see my garage.
More details here:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

LordBretSinclair

4,285 posts

176 months

Friday 11th January 2013
quotequote all
DangerMonkey said:
LordBretSinclair said:
Thanks for your PMs Nigel.

now looking at your photos your tiles look very "thin" compared to those I bought from Mototile - maybe they have an new external supplier. As I said in my PM I have had no trouble with mine although as another poster said your joints don't look flush - I used a rubber hammer with a fair bit of force to get the lugs to seat properly.

A very belated Happy New Year everyone, I've been sailing round the Caribbean with strict instructions from Lady S re: no contact with the "outside world" smile

Warning - the photo comes with parental guidance hehe


looks like captain ron to me!
No that's definitely Captain John - Captain Ron and Sean were away with the other boat - good spot though smile

Nigel - so glad you got things sorted, Paul at Motototile is top bloke.

Edited by LordBretSinclair on Friday 11th January 16:00

Sponge870

4 posts

134 months

Wednesday 16th January 2013
quotequote all
Hello folks, I've read a lot of what has been written about interlocking floor tiles or garages. I work for the UK's leading manufacturer of PVC floor tiles , based in Luton we manufacter our tiles from the finest raw PVC stock. We also produce a range of tiles from our recycled tiles and off cuts.

Probably the question we get asked most often. In 20 years of trading we have never had a problem. The precision engineered joint is extremely tight but we do not claim that it is 100% waterproof. If large amounts of water are left to sit on the floor it is possible that some will seep through the joint. The most common concern people have is that the water will become stagnant and start to smell but this will not happen. Firstly the chemicals in PVC act as a natural biocide that prevents the growth of the bacteria that would make the water smell and secondly any moisture under the tiles will evaporate back up through the joint because the temperature above the tiles is almost certain to be higher than that under the tiles

Jon39

12,782 posts

142 months

Wednesday 16th January 2013
quotequote all
"and I liked the product so much, I fell in love with it and bought the company.
That was after I got ticked off for advertising."

BogBoy

4 posts

136 months

Wednesday 6th February 2013
quotequote all
Try Plasfloor tiles on ebay I used them for my garage. really good