Facts About Garage Floor Tiles
There seems to be as much misinformation about garage tiles as there are different types of tiles. We’ll go over a couple of facts here and let you decide on what your money is best spent on. You already have to think about the maintenance of other garage elements like a Garage Door Opener Repair so getting hassle-free flooring should be a priority.
Retiling your garage shouldn’t cause too much hassle, but you will need to make sure you have the right kind of tiles to do so. You’ll find then when you decide to retile your detached garage, you’ll be overwhelmed with the options available. The main thing we need to discuss is that there are two main types of tiles, hollow core tiles, and solid core tiles. Hollow-core are exactly what they sound like. They have a thin wear surface and are completely hollow underneath versus a solid tile that has no hollow spaces. This image clearly shows the difference.
As you can see the top tile is hollow while the bottom tile is completely solid. It’s easy to figure out which is the stronger tile and which one will last longer.
Next is the different types of material the tiles are made from. The first thing we would strongly suggest is you find out where the tiles you are considering to buy are made. Lots of tiles on the market are coming from China. They look similar to our tiles but are very different. First, you have no idea what they are made of and what type of filler products are in them. Think of Chinese drywall. Our Garage Tiles are made right here in the USA . Plus we only use materials originating in the USA. So beware of tiles that are made here but use Chinese materials.
So leaving out the Chinese factor, the two main materials used are Polypropylene and PVC. Polypropylene tiles are basically recycled soda and water bottles. Very cheap material otherwise known as ABS plastic. When home builders want to cut corners they have their plumbers install ABS plastic instead of PVC. PVC is a far superior material and correspondingly more expensive. So if you are comparing PVC tiles to Polypropylene tiles it’s the proverbial apples to oranges comparison. You can double that comparison when comparing hollow polypropylene tiles to solid PVC tiles to an apples and crackers comparison.
Another myth is that if you drive smaller vehicles and only go straight in and out of your garage you don’t need a quality tile. We say that’s nonsense. In anything in life you buy, you get what you pay for. Those polypropylene tiles you think you saved money on will end up costing you more than you think and not just in dollars but in dissatisfaction down the road. They damage easily, they’re brittle and crack easily, they expand and contract more to the point they pull apart or buckle, they make loud click-clack noises when you walk on them. All the above have nothing to do with the vehicle you drive or whether you drive straight or zig-zag. Oh and by the way who drives perfectly straight in and out of anything. As soon as you turn your wheel the slightest bit you are stressing and stretching those Peg & Loop connections.
We used to sell hollow polypropylene tiles but they were so problematic we stopped. If you are doing a commercial or industrial application don’t even think about polypropylene tiles! Even though those types of tiles are heavily marketed they are inferior in quality and prone to failures.
In sum it makes no difference in the car you drive or in what direction you drive, you want to buy a solid quality tile that will be worry-free and indestructible. No matter where you are in the world, you’ll need to research the best tiles for your garage. Having a look at the best garage floor tiles australia will help you find what you are looking for if you are living there, this is just an example as you can search anywhere where you are and you’ll be able to find the right one for you.
More facts and fiction on garage tiles in a future post.
