totally confused

[JimVonBaden]

Originally Posted by Adam McLaughlin

Then you would have GLOSSY black grout in some areas

Adam

I doub't you would notice it. Seriously, no flooring surface is 100% perfect for all circumstances. If you are worried about your grout going glossy, then you will be SOL for pretty much any flooring type for your application.

Jim

[Olyar15]

I was in the exact same position as you. I have a newly-constructed house with an attached 26'x24' 2-car garage. I've been thinking about what kind of floor I wanted, and have been going back and forth between epoxy/polyaspartic coating, porcelain tile, VCT, or plastic tiles. I ended up choosing porcelain tiles for the following reasons:

1. Appearance. My garage is really a garage, not a shop. I have always wanted a "nice" garage. However, I am not a handyman. While I enjoy working with my hands and enjoy tinkering with cars and tools, I just don't have the skills or the particular aptitude that some people have. So I do basic maintenance on my car, and plan on doing some woodworking, but I don't see myself doing any welding (would probably burn down my house if I did). I do plan on getting a MaxJax 2-post lift, so I may be able to do more involved jobs on my cars in the future. Therefore, appearance was important to me. I like the look of tiles, especially since there is such a variety of colours and patterns that are available. While I don't mind the appearance of epoxy floors, they do look rather boring and pretty much all the same. Basically shades of gray or tan, with or without flake. I have seen some pretty amazing epoxy floors but they are definitely done by professionals with probably a pretty hefty price tag attached to it. I do not like the appearance of plastic tiles. They just look too...plasticky. So that eliminated plastic tiles.

2. Durability. Again, from what I've read, porcelain seems to be quite durable. Epoxy and polyaspartic also seems pretty durable, but seems like they will eventually become scratched and dull, and there is the ever-present concern of hot tire lift. Of course, the grout is always the weak point with tiles. I also had concerns about the durability of VCT in the long run. So that eliminated VCT in my eyes.

3. Cost. Being in Canada, all the options seemed to be expensive, so I was probably going to have to spend a bundle no matter which product I chose. I looked at the cost of hiring a professional vs. DIY, and it was a tossup between epoxy and tiles. I did want to do it myself, not only for the savings but also just the satisfaction of doing it myself.

4. Ease of installation/repair. This was really the deciding factor for me. I am under no illusion that I could lay down either tile or epoxy as well as a professional. So, I thought about the potential difficulties of either product, the cost of fixing the inevitable screwup, and the cost of repair down the road from wear and tear. The biggest advantage that I saw with tile was that it could be done a bit at a time. This was important to me because I already had a bunch of stuff in my garage. While I could move some of it out of the garage, with tiles I could do half the garage, then move the stuff over and do the other half. With epoxy it sounded like it really needed to be done all at once, and I really did not relish the idea of completely emptying the garage.

Also, epoxy just did not sound very forgiving in terms of preparation and application. The floor needed to be prepped very well, and you had a set amount of time once the epoxy was mixed to apply it. That really worried me, since I am a bit of a slowpoke. With tile, you can mix a bit of mortar at a time and apply the tiles at your own pace.

Finally, if and when I screwed up, it seemed that tiles can be fairly easily removed and replaced, whereas epoxy floors were more difficult to spot repair and make it look good.

So in the end, the appearance and durability of tile, plus the seemingly less daunting task of applying them, won it for me.

Now having completed the floor, I will say that, whatever the professional tilers charge you, they earn every damn penny of it. It is quite a back- (and knee-) breaking job, and quite painstaking. And if I never have to grout again, it will be too soon. Still, it can be done as a DIY, but it will probably take much longer than you anticipate, especially for such a large area. Good luck in your decision.

If I had to do it over again, I would still choose tile, but I might consider hiring someone to do it.

[mothgrey]

Originally Posted by Olyar15

I was in the exact same position as you. I have a newly-constructed house with an attached 26'x24' 2-car garage. I've been thinking about what kind of floor I wanted, and have been going back and forth between epoxy/polyaspartic coating, porcelain tile, VCT, or plastic tiles. I ended up choosing porcelain tiles for the following reasons:

1. Appearance. My garage is really a garage, not a shop. I have always wanted a "nice" garage. However, I am not a handyman. While I enjoy working with my hands and enjoy tinkering with cars and tools, I just don't have the skills or the particular aptitude that some people have. So I do basic maintenance on my car, and plan on doing some woodworking, but I don't see myself doing any welding (would probably burn down my house if I did). I do plan on getting a MaxJax 2-post lift, so I may be able to do more involved jobs on my cars in the future. Therefore, appearance was important to me. I like the look of tiles, especially since there is such a variety of colours and patterns that are available. While I don't mind the appearance of epoxy floors, they do look rather boring and pretty much all the same. Basically shades of gray or tan, with or without flake. I have seen some pretty amazing epoxy floors but they are definitely done by professionals with probably a pretty hefty price tag attached to it. I do not like the appearance of plastic tiles. They just look too...plasticky. So that eliminated plastic tiles.

2. Durability. Again, from what I've read, porcelain seems to be quite durable. Epoxy and polyaspartic also seems pretty durable, but seems like they will eventually become scratched and dull, and there is the ever-present concern of hot tire lift. Of course, the grout is always the weak point with tiles. I also had concerns about the durability of VCT in the long run. So that eliminated VCT in my eyes.

3. Cost. Being in Canada, all the options seemed to be expensive, so I was probably going to have to spend a bundle no matter which product I chose. I looked at the cost of hiring a professional vs. DIY, and it was a tossup between epoxy and tiles. I did want to do it myself, not only for the savings but also just the satisfaction of doing it myself.

4. Ease of installation/repair. This was really the deciding factor for me. I am under no illusion that I could lay down either tile or epoxy as well as a professional. So, I thought about the potential difficulties of either product, the cost of fixing the inevitable screwup, and the cost of repair down the road from wear and tear. The biggest advantage that I saw with tile was that it could be done a bit at a time. This was important to me because I already had a bunch of stuff in my garage. While I could move some of it out of the garage, with tiles I could do half the garage, then move the stuff over and do the other half. With epoxy it sounded like it really needed to be done all at once, and I really did not relish the idea of completely emptying the garage.

Also, epoxy just did not sound very forgiving in terms of preparation and application. The floor needed to be prepped very well, and you had a set amount of time once the epoxy was mixed to apply it. That really worried me, since I am a bit of a slowpoke. With tile, you can mix a bit of mortar at a time and apply the tiles at your own pace.

Finally, if and when I screwed up, it seemed that tiles can be fairly easily removed and replaced, whereas epoxy floors were more difficult to spot repair and make it look good.

So in the end, the appearance and durability of tile, plus the seemingly less daunting task of applying them, won it for me.

Now having completed the floor, I will say that, whatever the professional tilers charge you, they earn every damn penny of it. It is quite a back- (and knee-) breaking job, and quite painstaking. And if I never have to grout again, it will be too soon. Still, it can be done as a DIY, but it will probably take much longer than you anticipate, especially for such a large area. Good luck in your decision.

If I had to do it over again, I would still choose tile, but I might consider hiring someone to do it.

How about some photos of your floor...

[mbatarga]

A local tile supplier has some discontinued porcelain at 0.59/sq ft.
It's an industrial gray color - that I might consider using on my new garage floor.