How To Garage Tile
Hello to all the handy people out there! Today’s topic is How to Garage Tile.
If your garage floors look like they can use some upgrading like 5 years ago…
and if you want your garage to look like the one on the picture above…
and you don’t want to patch all the cracks, gaps, holes, etc…
and you most certainly don’t want to mess with acids and epoxy to paint them…
well, then click-together garage tile is what you want and I’m gonna show you how You Do It in between breakfast and lunch!
Since our concrete slab is like 90 years old, and has cracks big and small all over it, I’d have to spend a day just filling and prepping it, and what’s more important- is that it would continue to crack in those very same places and within one year my new beautiful epoxy floors with crack as well; and I definitely don’t want that!
So we found this interlocking garage floor tile on Amazon for $2.25 per square foot. It has 4 out of 5 stars and mostly positive reviews as far as quality goes. So epoxy paint is cheaper about 3 times in supplies needed; Labor-wise it is quite the opposite- I’d have to prep my slab, then etch it with acid, then wash it twice with a hose, squeegee-mop it, then let my slab dry thoroughly, and only then paint it… With tile, I filled only the worst spots with some Thinset in like 15 minutes and in 4-1/2 hours I was done completely, which included the filming of the entire project with my GoPro cam, which obviously slowed me down a bit.
In this post here, I show you how You Do It with Epoxy Paint… You can watch another garage being epoxy painted and so do compare both options, and weigh out the costs of materials vs the time required to complete the project.
And do consider the end result: Which look do you prefer? What would last longer? The tile comes with a 10-year warranty and epoxy paint comes with none. Slab will definitely continue cracking… only under the free-floating tile you don’t have to keep taking care of it indefinitely.
Also, do get a bit more for future repairs: any 1 square foot section can be replaced in seconds, and so you do want to have some extra before they change something like color or size or locking system or even discontinue making it, or make it better and not the same…
And this piece of advice is actually true for most materials, be it garage tile or natural stone or porcelain tile or laminate flooring or hardwood… You have no idea how many people came to me looking for a box of discontinued flooring, during the 5 years that I was building and running my flooring store Quality Floors 4 Less… Always get more, if you plan to live in the house that you’re upgrading and do keep a few boxes or cutouts with the product information- you might need it later; and if you end up selling your place- the buyers will thank you many times over.
Waste… My magic number is 7% over the actual footage… but I’m a Pro, so I don’t make mistakes that cause unnecessary waste. Do also consider that wide-open areas and larger projects require less waste, but smaller jobs and areas with lots of turns, hallways, doorways, closets, etc do require more material being trashed.
This tile is sold and shipped Free by Amazon, so we received it in 2 business days.
As you will see in my video below, it was Super Easy to install and I found no damage or manufacturer’s defects at all!
I am giving this product a 5 out of 5 stars rating.
Now, let’s quit with all this chatter so I can show you how You Do It!
Tools you need: Table Saw. Rubber Mallet. Saws-All. Fast Setting Adhesive. Utility knife.
Supplies you need: Garage Tile. Thinset to fill big holes. 1/2″ Aluminum Corner. Caulking. Caulking Gun.
P.S. You can substitute a table saw with a jig saw. You can use Heck-Saw instead of Saws-All to cut metal with. You can go completely old-school and use a hand-saw to cut your tiles, too! You Do It!
Have fun!
Dan
This is my favorite table saw and it is a cool $100 less than at homedepo!
These are my favorite Cordless Drivers you see in every Episode of You Do It!
This was SO easy, I was done with a 400 sf garage in 4.5 hours.
If you’ve found my site useful and beneficial… you can thank me by shopping for your new toys on Amazon.com via any of these links. It does not matter what you end up getting there… other brands, thongs or high heels… just kidding… Amazon pays me referral fees that will keep this site up and running, and improving. We all shop on Amazon… I’m just starting with this… ya’know, I could use some help over-here. Thanks, guys!!!
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