Garage Interlocking Garage Tiles Facts & Fiction
In the image above it's easy to see the difference between a typical hollow core polypropylene tile and our solid PVC tile. Why is that an issue? First they have just a few Peg & Loop connectors around the perimeter of the tile which are flimsy and don't firmly lock the tiles together. ArmorGarage tiles have continuous T-Joints all around the tile so that when you knock them together with yor rubber mallet they stay together. They won't split apart or heave, they won't develop wear indents and most importantly they won't click clack when you walk or drive over them!
When shopping around for tiles for your garage or business floor, we’d first like to say that you should be suspicious of any website that is dispensing expert advice about installing Porcelain Tiles or carpeting on a floor with vehicle or heavy rolling traffic.
The challenge is determining which tiles are better, which have the better value, what the pros and cons are etc. To make this short and sweet ArmorGarage Interlocking Garage Floor Tiles were rated best by the US Army! See report in image to the right. We could be wrong but we think that says it all. Out of all the tiles the Army tested they decided to purchase our tiles based on the overall performance during their torture testing and not based on which tile was cheapest. If buying the cheapest price tile or popular brand name is your main criteria we think you're making a big mistake. Even though the hollow tile is made with only a quarter of the material our tile is made of and that the material is a quarter the price per pound to purchase versus the cost of our PVC material, they sell for not much less than our tiles. Pretty easy to see which is the better value and which is the better tile.
If you need more convincing the following are all the facts you need to know based on our experience form making and selling every type of garage floor tile there is. As a seller of garage tiles we have no preference as to what type or style of tile we sell only that it is problem free. One thing we hate the most is a problem product. So the tiles we make and sell are the tiles that have performed over the years with no problems to our customers. Problematic tiles such as the hollow cored peg & loop tiles we used to sell have been removed from our product offerings many years ago.
So what are some of the problems we saw with hollow core polypropylene tiles? Well to start they're stiff and brittle. So when you walk on them they make a very cheap sounding click clack noise. Some articles advise you to place some sort of fabric mat under the tiles. This just becomes a sponge for all sorts of nasty things to accumulate in it. Can you imagine what that fabric looks and smells like after a few years under your leaky garage floor tiles.
They also say that the hollow core tiles let air and water flow through underneath whereas the solid tiles do not. One of the important reasons you install tiles in your garage is to protect your concrete slab and so the idea is to minimize as much of the dirt and fluids from getting under the tiles in the first place. Our close tolerance interlocking T joints that run continuously around the entire tile keeping debris from getting under your tiles way better than any Peg & Loop joint ever will. One little fact they also overlook is that once you put in a fabric mat under your tiles, the tiles embed into the fabric cutting off any so called circulation.
Being so stiff and brittle, polypropylene garage tiles cannot bend and mold themselves to the contour of the floor such as solid PVC tiles do. This creates stress points where your slab has a high spot or low spot. If you could put a camera under there and watch what happens to brittle plastic tiles as your car drives over them. You would see the tiles flex up and down at these high and low spots. We all know what happens to any material when it’s bent up and down continuously in the same spot. It’s not a matter of if, it’s just a matter of when it breaks. No concrete floor is perfectly flat, there are always high and low spots that are not perceptible normally but if you place a flat stiff brittle material over it you would see it teeter totter over a high spot which eventually becomes a break point. The unbending rigid plastic tiles also cause their flimsy Peg & Loop connectors to pop in and out of each other. So as you drive any type of vehicle or heavy rolling equipment over them they emitt a noise called tile rattle noise. Suddenly your floor sounds like a Pop Corn machine as the Pegs pop in and out of their corresponding loops. Aside from the popping sounds the constant popping in and out of the connectors causes them to eventually fail. As they start to fail you will see a shift in your tile floor, you will also start to see widening gaps between the tiles. Suddenly you have grout lines in your plastic tiled floor. Not a good development!
As far as perforated tiles, lets just say it’s not a good idea unless you’re a commercial car wash. Again the idea is to prevent as much fluids and debris from getting under your tile floor as possible not to encourage it.
Finally let’s talk a little about strength and durability. Hollow polypropylene tiles are hollow underneath. All they are is a sheet of brittle plastic 1/16” thick glued onto a set of vertical ribs. The notion that you can store cars on jack stands is ridiculous. Or use hydraulic jacks or store heavy objects that have small hard plastic wheels. That 1/6” tile surface will form indents under heavy small foot print loads or heavy static loads. It’s not the roll over capacity that counts it’s the static load capacity that counts. There’s no comparing the static load capacity of a solid PVC tile to a hollow core tile. You're not supporting the Hook & Ladder apparatus to the left on it's outriggers with Peg & Loop tiles!
We’ve seen one article that states you can install a car lift over the hollow plastic tiles and bolt the lift through the tiles into the concrete. No one in their right mind would or should ever think of doing that.
Take a hammer and beat on our PVC tile and any Hollow Peg & Loop Plastic tile and see what happens. You’ll have a hard time causing damage to one of our tiles. Not so with the hollow plastic tile.
TO SEE ALL OUR GARAGE FLOOR TILES GO TO MAIN GARAGE FLOOR TILES PAGE
For Additional Help And Service. Call us at Toll Free 866-532-3979 Or Email Us: info@armorgarage.com.