A man cave dilemma, advice needed please

[Finding Neutral]

Blib said:

I have the same black/red checker board layout as you.

Excellent taste sir

[Buster73]

Ed50 said:

I quickly read that the Dottie tiles are suitable for garage floors but just wondered if anyone had suffered any cracking or breakages when in use.

I ask as our erst while tiler reckons I need special tiles and underneath membrane to avoid this...........is he sprouting bull do or is that a proper
consideration.

Wife now moaning that I'm on here typing whilst the luncheon burns........, but the man cave is winning over my priorities it seems.

Another tongue lashing no doubt coming my way......

You may need a membrane underneath if you have any signs of cracking on the concrete base but apart from that I wouldn’t have thought so.

[JonnyCJ]

AdamV12V said:

JonnyCJ said:

No more than 3-4 days’ work so 800ish.

I'd love to know where you found a tiler who will work for 200 a day The tiler I used to tile my whole place from top to bottom, was brilliant and Id use him again in a heart beat, but it didn't cost 200 a day. He turned up in a very nice 911 Turbo to collect the payment at the end.

My chap, who can turn his hand to pretty much anything, is £120/day. Exemplary work, meticulous, knowledgeable and a good egg to boot.

I was over egging the pudding at £200/day for southern softy rates :-)

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

JonnyCJ said:

AdamV12V said:

JonnyCJ said:

No more than 3-4 days’ work so 800ish.

I'd love to know where you found a tiler who will work for 200 a day The tiler I used to tile my whole place from top to bottom, was brilliant and Id use him again in a heart beat, but it didn't cost 200 a day. He turned up in a very nice 911 Turbo to collect the payment at the end.

My chap, who can turn his hand to pretty much anything, is 120/day. Exemplary work, meticulous, knowledgeable and a good egg to boot.

I was over egging the pudding at 200/day for southern softy rates :-)

£120 a day! That guy needs to take business advice. That should nearly be per hour

[Phil74891]

Ed50 said:

I quickly read that the Dottie tiles are suitable for garage floors but just wondered if anyone had suffered any cracking or breakages when in use.

I ask as our erst while tiler reckons I need special tiles and underneath membrane to avoid this...........is he sprouting bull do or is that a proper
consideration.

Wife now moaning that I'm on here typing whilst the luncheon burns........, but the man cave is winning over my priorities it seems.

Another tongue lashing no doubt coming my way......

Hi Ed,

Dotti tiles for me. No issues after three years. Laid on an existing concrete base.

[AndrewCrown]

I have similar job on my project list.
After research i opted for two options:

• Polishing (as Adam suggested)
• Porcelain

Plan is to use tile colour to define different zones if tiled.

Don’t forget whilst you are at this stage and if you tile, to have some areas with underfloor heating or the whole lot…
Also I have seen some quite cool LED tiles for mood lighting

[B4rnst4ble]

Morning Ed
I did mine with porcelenosa 450x450 tiles
Again the work to level the garage and then a full bed for the tiles was the timely part,
They’ve been down 4 years and not moved
I don’t do any “work” in the garage though

[Ed50]

Hi Phil,

Garage looking very smart there may I say.

I'm very interested in the Dotti tiles and have found online this morning a local supplier so I guess I need to revisit the labour side of things as
our original guy seems to have gone mad......

One thing that does slightly worry me is the fact that our new build garaging does have a slight angle at the run off point to over come but I guess
thats the norm and tilers are used to over coming such things.

Her indoors prefers the Dotti's after having concerns about the Swisstrax for some obscure female reasoning that I'll never get to the bottom of.

Thanks to everyone for the advice and input as its helped tremendously, well have to see how things pan out going forward whilst trying to keep
on the right side of the petty coat brigade who claims to be able to spend money on more important things.......

They just don't get it do they.

[Phil74891]

Ed50 said:

Hi Phil,

Garage looking very smart there may I say.

I'm very interested in the Dotti tiles and have found online this morning a local supplier so I guess I need to revisit the labour side of things as
our original guy seems to have gone mad......

One thing that does slightly worry me is the fact that our new build garaging does have a slight angle at the run off point to over come but I guess
thats the norm and tilers are used to over coming such things.

Her indoors prefers the Dotti's after having concerns about the Swisstrax for some obscure female reasoning that I'll never get to the bottom of.

Thanks to everyone for the advice and input as its helped tremendously, well have to see how things pan out going forward whilst trying to keep
on the right side of the petty coat brigade who claims to be able to spend money on more important things.......

They just don't get it do they.

Thanks Ed. Our garage floor does have a slight slope going up against one wall, and indeed out to the opening. It used to be a cattle barn. To correct it would have meant ripping up the whole concrete floor and relaying it at huge expense. Tiler was able to lay the tiles on the slight slopes with no issues. You wouldn’t notice the slopes unless you were really looking for them. Character of an old property I call it ??

Edited by Phil74891 on Sunday 29th May 11:40

[liner33]

I so want tiles but my garage flooded with ground water back in 2013 plus i have a manhole cover in there

I put those cheap interlocking tiles down about 15 years back but had to stick some of them down with gripfill when i started buying heavy rwd autos as they started lifting. Think they cost me about £300 all in





They look like this now

[LTP]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

120 a day! That guy needs to take business advice. That should nearly be per hour

Agreed. Let's assume 6 days/week and 48 weeks per year working (which is a pretty gruelling schedule), which makes a total income (before taxes and expenses) of 34,560. Then you need to allow for (tax deductible) expenses such as buying a van (along with its insurance, road tax and fuel), professional indemnity insurance, tools and equipment (my last tiler had a very fancy laser levelling set up to align and position the bottom course correctly), costs of visits to quote new jobs, etc, etc. Can't see how you'll run a 911 Turbo on that, especially if you're a family man not living with your parents. We've not even considered pension payments and income protection insurance....

[AdamV12V]

LTP said:

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

120 a day! That guy needs to take business advice. That should nearly be per hour

Agreed. Let's assume 6 days/week and 48 weeks per year working (which is a pretty gruelling schedule), which makes a total income (before taxes and expenses) of 34,560. Then you need to allow for (tax deductible) expenses such as buying a van (along with its insurance, road tax and fuel), professional indemnity insurance, tools and equipment (my last tiler had a very fancy laser levelling set up to align and position the bottom course correctly), costs of visits to quote new jobs, etc, etc. Can't see how you'll run a 911 Turbo on that, especially if you're a family man not living with your parents. We've not even considered pension payments and income protection insurance....

To be clear (and I know a couple of posts have been mixed up here), when I said he didn't charge £200 a day, I was implying he charged a whole lot more. I have never known any tradesman work for £120 a day, or even £200 a day. I think he paid his "lad" more than that for lifting the tiles etc...

Round here a callout for a 15min first look is £120! And I dont live in London, so no idea where these rates come from, unless its a "mate" down the pub.

[LTP]

AdamV12V said:

To be clear (and I know a couple of posts have been mixed up here), when I said he didn't charge 200 a day, I was implying he charged a whole lot more. I have never known any tradesman work for 120 a day, or even 200 a day. I think he paid his "lad" more than that for lifting the tiles etc...

Round here a callout for a 15min first look is 120! And I dont live in London, so no idea where these rates come from, unless its a "mate" down the pub.

Not from you Adam, but:

JonnyCJ said:

My chap, who can turn his hand to pretty much anything, is 120/day. Exemplary work, meticulous, knowledgeable and a good egg to boot.

I'd agree with your assessment of a decent tradesmen's costs of being north of 200/day.

Edited by LTP on Sunday 29th May 16:54

[Davil]

Epoxy floors are a great option too. This link is for one in Sydney, but I’m sure you have similar in the UK.

https://www.sydneygarageflooring.com.au/?keyword=e...

Sorry about the beetle but that garage looks nice.

[GTRene]

wow, that garage looks more like a exclusive showroom :-)
The want is high.

[Ed50]

Morning,

I'm still mulling over the best solution or way to go on the garage floor after reading all the help and advice offered by your related posts.......thank you.

So one final question if I may please .

I've been reading up on painting the floor as her in doors is baulking at the tiling costs which when added to other aspects I want to add to the man cave is becoming some what eye watering to say the least........

With the tiling costs seemingly running a mock as it appears the local tilers around these parts are currently saving up for their annual Monaco mooring costs for their super yachts I'm being instructed to look at alternative finishes.

Having done a bit of reading up I'm beginning to feel that it might be a major false economy to paint it due to a limited life span, potential flaking and general tattiness from potential wear which are all things I don't really want so I'm boarding toward the DOTTI tiles and just running the wrath of hell from her indoors.

That said has anyone any experiences of painted floors and if so how did it go and hows it lasting etc and is there any preferable brands to trust in and go for bearing in mind I was hoping as its a new clean floor just to give it a couple of coats of sealer primer followed by 2 coats of the coloured finishing coat.

Well that was the plan until I spoke to the very friendly and ever so helpful Watco Paints technical department recently where upon after listening to their advice I came away with a bit of a head ache regarding whether to bother painting it on not.

After listening to everything I'd need to do by way of prep and then followed by the list of the costly products I'd need to purchase from them to get the job done I began to waver.

In honesty I was hoping to apply a ready mixed paint on top of a sealing coat as mentioned earlier but they advised a 2 part high build epoxy mix which when added up in monitory terms along with the rest of the products and kit required your half way to the tiled finish anyway and thats even before you bust ya hump applying it all.

Any final thoughts would be appreciated before the wife makes my final decision........

Edited by Ed50 on Monday 6th June 11:32

[AdamV12V]

Ed50 said:

Morning,

I'm still mulling over the best solution or way to go on the garage floor after reading all the help and advice offered by your related posts.......thank you.

So one final question if I may please .

I've been reading up on painting the floor as her in doors is baulking at the tiling costs which when added to other aspects I want to add to the man cave is becoming some what eye watering to say the least........

With the tiling costs seemingly running a mock as it appears the local tilers around these parts are currently saving up for their annual Monaco mooring costs for their super yachts I'm being instructed to look at alternative finishes.

Having done a bit of reading up I'm beginning to feel that it might be a major false economy to paint it due to a limited life span, potential flaking and general tattiness from potential wear which are all things I don't really want so I'm boarding toward the DOTTI tiles and just running the wrath of hell from her indoors.

That said has anyone any experiences of painted floors and if so how did it go and hows it lasting etc and is there any preferable brands to trust in and go for bearing in mind I was hoping as its a new clean floor just to give it a couple of coats of sealer primer followed by 2 coats of the coloured finishing coat.

Well that was the plan until I spoke to the very friendly and ever so helpful Watco Paints technical department recently where upon after listening to their advice I came away with a bit of a head ache regarding whether to bother painting it on not.

After listening to everything I'd need to do by way of prep and then followed by the list of the costly products I'd need to purchase from them to get the job done I began to waver.

In honesty I was hoping to apply a ready mixed paint on top of a sealing coat as mentioned earlier but they advised a 2 part high build epoxy mix which when added up in monitory terms along with the rest of the products and kit required your half way to the tiled finish anyway and thats even before you bust ya hump applying it all.

Any final thoughts would be appreciated before the wife makes my final decision........

Edited by Ed50 on Monday 6th June 11:32

I think unless you spend a fair bit getting a perfect smooth finish on the concrete then painting the floor will just look rough and ready and rather utilitarian, perhaps not the swish man cave you are looking for. I appreciate its a garage, but there's no reason you shouldnt make it look as nice as an indoor room, albeit the finish has to be hardwearing that's all.

And if you going to start to smooth off the concrete to end up with a decent paint finish you may as well polish it and do the job properly, as that would look considerably more swish than paint ever will IMHO. Polishing is probably not far off the cost of paining anyway, and should be a lot less than tiling too.

[Vasco]

Clear advice on all similar related issues is to get rid of the wife.

[Ed50]

Thanks Adam.

I presume you can get a man in for polishing concrete, well I hope so as I've not got the kit to do the job.

Did you polish your garage ?.

Thanks again.

[M1AGM]

Polishing concrete floors is a big job. We have been looking at polished concrete floors as an option in our house renovation project and its more expensive to do than tiling, plus it will depend on what concrete you have as to whether it will work well or not, or require a screed to be poured to then be polished. Then it needs sealing.

How big is the garage? I have a load of 7mm plastic interlocking garage pride grey and antracite floor tiles I could part with for the right money (had them in my previous garage and no home for them presently).