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 your 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 the report in the 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 from 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, were 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, are 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 emit a noise called tile rattle. Suddenly, your floor sounds like a popcorn 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, and 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, let's just say it’s not a good idea unless you’re a commercial car wash. Again, the idea is to prevent as much fluid 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 its 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.
PVC is the highest grade of material(plastic) used for interlocking floor tiles. Garage Floor Tiles are extruded to exact specifications, from 100% pure PVC. Very few manufacturers use PVC, and most of those who do use a combination of recycled and cheap filler materials. The few manufacturers who use prime PVC are much more expensive than we are. The majority of tiles are made from recycled and much cheaper plastics, such as Polypropylene, that you mentioned above. Polypropylene and Copolymers are used to make water bottles and food containers, no comparison to PVC. Although they may look similar to our tiles, they are not nearly as strong, as flexible, or as durable. Compare the weight of each tile and the guarantees! Each Armor Tile is up to 5/16" thick solid virgin PVC, weighs up to 5.5 lbs each and are the only ones guaranteed for life! Ask yourself if those other tiles are so great why do they carry only a limited warranty? If you're going to spend the money, don't you want a floor that will never wear out?
Look at the wear surface not the total thickness of the tile. Hollowed core tiles give you only a 1/16" of wear surface! Our 100% SOLID PVC construction keeps our tiles looking new while other cheaper materials are easily damaged and worn out leaving you with an unsightly floor for a long time. Armor Tiles are priced per the sq ft. Each tile varies in square footage. Please add 5% to the square footage of your floor for cutting waste and enter that amount into the Qty box.
It is true for hollow cored peg & loop type tiles. They make a cheap hollow click clacking noise as you walk over them and when you drive your car over them they make a continuous click clack noise that sounds like a rattle, which you may have seen referred to as Tile Rattle. This is from the pegs and loops popping in and out of each other. You can purchase hollow cored peg & loop tiles with rubber plugs and grommets to deaden the sound but then you end up with inferior tiles that cost much more than our higher quality tiles.
No preparation is really needed, just sweep the floor clean and remove any lumps of concrete or other materials. The tiles are flexible enough to follow the contour of your floor. We suggest you start from the center front row and work your way back. You will have cut tiles at the back wall and the side walls. If the cut tiles on the side walls are very thin, you can start with a full tile on one side and have one cut tile on the other side. We also recommend you cut the locking tabs off the front edge of tiles where you will install the ramp edging. Use any good floor tile adhesive to lock in the ramp edging. Use a rubber mallet to knock the tiles together.
Tile removal is as easy as installing the tiles. Just pop the tile out. You can also drill a small hole in the tile to aid in prying the tile up without damaging the adjacent tiles. If you move you can easily take your floor with you. ArmorGarage Tiles are often used as temporary flooring over fine finished flooring such as hard woods, granite and marble.
This is not an issue with ArmorGarage Tiles. Although snow melt will eventually leak through the tiles down to the slab but simply rinsing the tiles with a good amount of water will flush out any accumulated salts underneath. Our tiles are 100% mold & mildew proof, impervious to road salts, any type of vehicle fluids and just about any other chemical. They really are just about indestructible.
No, ArmorGarage Tiles are flexible enough to conform to the contours of your floor without having voids underneath that are future failure points like copolymer and polypropylene tiles that are brittle and stiff.
Hollow core tiles are prone to cracking at high and low points in your floor. This is a common problem with these types of tiles because as you know no garage floor slab is 100% flat and level.
A two car garage should be able to be installed in a few hours. No adhesive is needed nor is any special prepping. Adhesive is used only when fork lift traffic will be on the floor making sharp turns and sudden starts and stops. We suggest you simply sweep the floor clean. The beauty of ArmorGarage Tiles is that they cover all your floor's blemishes and will last a lifetime.
Yes. Email us a sketch with the dimensions of your floor and colors you would like. We'll email you back a list of the products and a description of what you'll need. You can fine tune it as you desire, if necessary.
Yes. With a load capacity of 100,000 lbs per tile you can park any vehicle you want on it and put most contractor equipment on it. Car lifts can sit on the tile or have the tile cut around the base. We don't recommend placing industrial machinery such as a 50 ton hydraulic press or 100 ton stamping machines on them, tiles should be installed around this type of machinery.
Mild soap and water is all that's needed. Armor Tile are stain resistant so they clean very easily. A sponge squeegee works great on them also. We also recommend coating the tiles with Hillway Direct Floor Maintainer & Sealer to protect them from tire rubber leaching stains.
ArmorGarage Tiles are up to 5/16" thick solid PVC with interlocking tabs. ArmorGarage Mats are roll out Polyvinyl sheets that are a about an 1/8" thick. ArmorGarage Mats are available in 7.5', 8.5' and 10' widths in any length up to 60' long. ArmorGarage Mats & Tiles are lifetime guaranteed.
Not necessary but not a bad idea. A little liquid nails under the ramp edging and part of the first row of tiles is what we recommend to lock the floor in place.
All materials expand and contract. ArmorGarage Tile's PVC construction expands and contracts less than tiles made of copolymers and other such materials. If you install the tiles in the summer, you can install them tight to the wall, and they will contract about a 1/4" in the wintertime. If you install in the wintertime, leave the 1/4" gap for expansion come summertime. If you install them in a year-round conditioned area, then no expansion or contraction will occur. You can seal the joint along the walls with any type of flexible caulking or cover with standard base molding.
Any type of power saw will work fine. Circular saw, table saw, jig saw or sawzall. ArmorGarage Tiles cut quickly and smoothly with regular sharp wood cutting blades.
Yes but we strongly suggest you order the Flat style tiles. They offer a smooth surface for steel wheeled carts, bins, dollies and other production vehicle traffic. Check with us to see if your application will require gluing the tiles down.
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.