Which Types of Flooring Products Are Considered Suitable As Garage Flooring & Are They Only Good To Use In Garages?
Interlockinggarage tiles and roll-out mat flooring, commonly called garage mats, are the two main types of garage flooring.. When most people see or hear Garage Mats they immediately think of the little mats you wipe your feet on. In this case, they are rolls of PVC floors that cover your entire floor, and we call them garage floor mats.
Also, don't make the mistake in thinking that garage flooring can only be used in garages or that other standard flooring, such as porcelain tile, ceramic tile, or outdoor type carpeting are good choices in your garage. They certainly are not.
Porcelain or ceramic tiles are extremely slippery when wet, and they are set in mortar and grout that is extremely susceptible to damage from road salts and hot twisting tires. VCT Tiles are often considered for use in the garage, which is another poor choice. VCT Tiles are also very slippery when wet, and must be glued down with nasty, hard-to-remove black mastic adhesive. They're also very easily chipped and cracked, and difficult to replace when damaged.
We strongly advise against VCT, Porcelain, or Ceramic in your garage. Outdoor carpeting may sound like a good idea, but it is a nightmare to keep clean and will stain easily. Plus, your tires will easily wear through even the best grade carpet. These are just a few of the drawbacks of these types of products that were neither designed nor intended to be used in as garage flooring or in a garage environment.
Here's a picture of what your floor will eventually look like if you don't use a garage flooring product to protect it. Whether it's plain old regular paint, epoxy paint, tiles or mats you need something on your floor! Otherwise road salts, salt air, tire abrasion and or vehicle fluids will be attacking your floor on a continuous basis.
Although an epoxy coating is technically not a flooring product; a high-quality epoxy coating system is another garage flooring option that can be used with good, long-lasting results. We have a great discussion on which garage flooring product is best on our Garage Epoxy vs Garage Tiles vs Garage Mats page. Reading this page will help you make the best choice for you in terms of budget, appearance, and to meet the durability needs of the type of traffic you will have on the floor.
Garage flooring has very specific performance demands that it has to be able to handle without issue. Such as in the case of rubber flooring, you want a product that is heavy enough and robust enough to handle twisting and turning tires. It should be able to do this without bunching or curling up, even with your car not moving, which puts all of the dead weight of your vehicle onto your flooring. If your flooring is not made specifically for this, it will crumble and bunch up, and your tires will very quickly wear through your floor. Even a lot of so-called garage mat floors are not really up to the challenge, so you need to do your research and make sure you purchase the best-made garage mats available. Vinyl mats are notorious for bunching up and being very slippery. These are not to be confused with our Polyvinyl mats, which will not do that. One hint at knowing a good quality product when you see one is by the length of the warranty offered. Generally, the longer the warranty, the higher the quality of the product is, unless that warranty has a lot of small print in it. In that case, run, don't walk away from those products.
The same goes when you're considering laying down a tile floor for your garage. Garage floor tiles offer the best solution for not only your garage floor but for just about any floor surface. A solid PVC floor tile is so tough and durable you can take a hammer to it and not damage it. Try that with porcelain tiles or recycled hollow core tiles and see what happens!
Rubber roll out mats can be used for a wide variety of floor applications also. We've sold them in Turbine Rooms in power plants, dog kennels, airplane hangars and even the Kangaroo Conservatory. Take it from us Kangaroos are not easy on a floor! They're constantly hopping all over the place with their little sharp claws!
So if you want to put a floor down in your garage that's not an epoxy coating and still looks great your best two choices are rollout mats or interlocking tiles. These two types of flooring are super easy to install with minimum floor preparation and will save you a lot of heartache and money from having to install a new floor after you tried something else that failed. Ceramic Tiles, Carpet or VCT Tiles are not garage flooring. Besides not being designed to handle the stress of vehicle traffic they require a lot more surface prep and installation labor.
If you think a little outside the box you will find that garage tiles and garage mats are better suited for your application than any other type of flooring. Not only in durability and appearance but in ease and quickness of installation. The majority of garage flooring products can be installed in as little as a few hours, minimizing time and labor, and in the case of a business, minimizing down time.
If you have a garage floor project or commercial project, and you're unsure of what type of flooring to use, give us a call and we'll help you make the best choice for your particular needs. Garage Flooring is a large investment that should not be made without knowing all the facts.