I am pretty good with tile. I have considered it a few times during this process. Here are my only concerns....COLD....HARD
Obviously, this garage will see mostly foot traffic and "in home" type of activities. I am concerned with the tile being very cold on the feet, for things like watching movies and such. I am also concerned with the overall hardness. My kid will be playing out there as well, and while I know the difference between tile and vinyl over concrete is not dramatically different, it is slightly different. Falls are something I worry about. Perhaps, I am overthinking it.
Another option I am leaning towards is possibly doing an area in front of the movie screen, and the cabinets, in commerical grade carpeting. Then, finish the remainder of the room in another material, tile, vinyl, what have you. Wouldn't mind hearing your thoughts on that.
Well SHMO, I'll throw out some more ideas since I went back and looked at your 'garage' pics from previous posts, but perhaps the best judge of choice should be your own little darlin' Taylor, who after all is going to be making the most use of the floor area in front of the screen. Take her out to a flooring showroom for a Dad/Daughter shopping expedition and let her 'test drive' various options; you know what they say - "From the mouths of children...". lol
When I redid the bathroom in my previous home, I even replaced the sub-floor and doubled up the basement joist beneath the tub! Before I laid tile, I coated the plywood with the latex sealer/bonding agent prior to troweling on the thinset and gave serious thought to laying in a grid of the electric floor heating mesh, controlled by a thermostat; I wish I would have spent the money and time to do so...
If the viewing area of the floor is the only space you are concerned with being cold, I would suggest that you consider its use there, even though the slab below would be a 'heat sink', since heat always rises, the floor tile would warm up quickly to a comfortable temperature in short order. A thickish area rug in that area would make it a comfy-cozy surface to while away the day at play by Taylor and her friends. The addition of the mesh layer does not appreciably thicken the layer of thinset and there should be no problem laying the tile at the transition between heated and unheated tile. Tile would provide an attractive , durable surface that is easily maintained/cleaned.
That being said, I like your idea of the commercial grade carpet in certain areas, but the carpet
will be as cold as the concrete beneath it; it might
feel more comfortable than bare concrete but will still be cold. If you went with the carpet in certain areas, the remaining bare concrete might be covered with one of those commercially available rolls of 'raised coin' rubber mat to provide a
somewhat softer 'child-fall-friendly' surface and still allow a vehicle to roll in for service and be easy to clean up from rain/snow that gets tracked into the 'garage'.
One final thought for you to consider as a flooring finish. Have you priced or considered
synthetic cork flooring? If I recall correctly, they make the stuff in an 'industrial grade' as well as residential quality. I had the residential stuff in one room of the old house (built in 1954), and it held up to normal abuse quite well, AND it always
seemed warmer and cushier to bare feet.
Anyway, I hope my rambling thoughts/opinions help you decide on a 'best of all worlds' choice; look at it this way, if you let Taylor make the choice, you can always blame her for any of the floor's shortcomings!
) and milling up all the siding/purlins/girts for the pole barn and all the bracing material for the shop.
