Shop/Garage Floor

[Adam Payne]

Hi all, this is my first post in this august forum. Hopefully I won't break any taboos.

I'm tempted by the flooring tiles currently on sale at Costco as a floor covering for our garage/shop. http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?prodid=11042442&hierPath=3960*21277*21278*&whse=&topnav=&Browse=

Originally, I'd been planning to put down a nice two-part epoxy finish, but realize that will be a lot of time and cleaning, when I'd rather be damaging wood and playing with the new baby. The idea of carting all of that cast iron down to the basement, up into the house, or *gasp* out in the yard while scrubbing, washing, priming, painting, curing doesn't appeal to me either.

Any thoughts about "MotoFloor" polypropelene locking tiles as a substrate for a dual use garage/wood shop environment? I'm in New England, so a non-porous surface would be much easier to clean than the concrete when salty slush (squeege) or wood dust find their way to the floor.

I have 4 days to pull the trigger while the sale lasts, so I particularly welcome any timely encouragement or cautionary advice,

Thanks
Adam

[Chris Padilla]

Welcome to the USS SMC, Adam! I went ahead and did the pain of the garage floor finish (www.ucoatit.com (http://www.ucoatit.com)) but I hear you about it. It wasn't fun but it turned out very nicely.

[Ben Grunow]

What do you want the floor to do for you? Softer walking and less stress on the body? Maybe some smaller mats would cut it. I bought some 2'x 2' x 1/2" foam puzzle piece floor mats from Cosco and they were cheap and cover my entire shop floor (love em). Not too good for mobile bases but doable. I have seen those tiles and IMHO they look uneven over a large area and the high traffic areas were sagged a little but better than walking on concrete and certainly less work than paint. Good luck

[Doug Shepard]

I looked at those sort of tiles a month or so ago but it would have cost me around $1200 to do my gashop with the tiles. I also had doubts as to how well mobile bases would roll on those. So I ended up with the 2-part epoxy paint which ran me around $475. I didn't have any other option other than to do one half of the floor at a time. The surface prep was probably the most time consuming part. What with waiting for cure times before being able to move machinery back onto it - both for doing the 2nd half, and finally putting things back in order, and doing most of the work on weekends it took 3 weeks. Overall it was worth the time and effort but I definitely would have rather been making sawdust.

[Adam Payne]

In response to your question, Ben, I want something that is easier to clean than the porous concrete that just seems to grip onto dirt and dust, while preferably avoiding the ordeal of prep work associated with a lasting epoxy job.

I found some more detailed info at
Moderator removed link to another public forum -- TOS violation
Folks seem very dismayed with the Sam's Club knockoffs, but the Costco ones seem to be hardly distinguishable from the brand name stuff.
It also has detailed photos of the tiles' undersides, and a shot with a digital caliper that suggests they're about 1/2" thick. That's quite a bit taller than I'd imagined (I'd gotten some sheet material samples that were more like 1/8" in the past). that may be quite a bump (even with the tapered snap on edges) for getting the Horrible Freight folding trailer on it's 1.5-2 inch casters in from the driveway.
It also may be a bit tall for the narrow ribbing to support point loads from mobile bases. Although I guess I could just put down some .5" plywood or such under the heaviest tools (e.g. jointer).

I suppose I'll just go for it ... Costco does have exceedingly liberal return policies if all doesn't go well. Hmm.

[John Cavanaugh]

Adam,

I put this exact costco floor in my garage over Christmas/NewYears in 2005. Ive been very happy with it. My only complaint is that it makes a little noise while walking on it. Definitely feels much softer/easier on my legs than concrete.

While some will balk at the prices of the tiles, these are the best deal I could find on tiles. For me I figured the cost of a really good coating (to be equivalent to tiling), cleaning the floor (acid etching), extracting all the oil spills etc (another special product), filling in the gouges in the floor with epoxy, etc, was a little bit cheaper than the tile, BUT the labor for the tile is MUCH less and no dealing with any noxious chemicals etc.

--
John Cavanaugh

[Rob Wilson]

I just installed a similar floor from Dynotile.

http://www.dynotile.com/

You can buy them in whatever quantity you need. Costco would have left me with quite a few extra. Also, dynotile is available in a wide range of colors.

As you can see it sure made an improvement on the floor!

[Adam Payne]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. I notice that Costco has extended the sale price to the end of the month, giving me more time to hem and haw over my decision :rolleyes:

John, do you have any problems with heavy tools denting the floor over time?

Rob, the floor looks great in the photos. One thing I found on one of the car enthusiast forums was a suggestion to use the black rubber cove molding (like the stuff you see as office building baseboards) from Home Depot to dress up the gap one must leave so the tiles have room for thermal expansion. I imagine that would reduce the number of sawdust-collection crannies in the shop in addition to providing a more finished look.

[John Cavanaugh]

Adam,

Ive not had any problems with denting, but I dont have any obscenely heavy tools. One of the nice benefits of the tile floor is that it is actually easier to move stuff around, things tend to slide a lot easier on the tile than on concrete.

I have had a couple tiles get scratched/scuffed. If you have something that vibrates make sure you have some type of rubber feet on it, if it is metal with any sharp edges and vibrates it will make some nasty scratches.

Hey, that was a good idea on the "dressing" up thing. Im thinking about doing it now myself to hide the gap at the wall. You probably know this already but there is a very small gap between each tile. I havent had problems with saw dust collecting, but then again I havent been doing a lot in the shop.

If you want to see a picture, there are a few over at http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=39787 that show the floor a little.

--
John C