On Mon, 29 May 2000, Kai M. Radicke wrote:
> Has anyone done this?
no, but I want to as well...just as soon as I get the stuff put away from
the move...
> Would an industrial tile be suitable or strong enough? I'd probably go with
> a glossy white finish, for maximum light reflection - and I think it will
> look very nice. With the baked finishes, they should be VERY difficult to
> stain. And depending on the quality and grade (and the price) I'd imagine
> that you can some pretty tough tiles that will last a long time without
> chipping or cracking.
I dunno about actual ceramic tile... I originally wanted to go this route
as well, but after looking a lot at home depot and lowes, I couldn't find
a tile that I thought would hold up to me dropping a 1/2" ratchet or 1
1/2" open end wrench onto it from the side of a car. I even looked at two
tile speciality shops and got the same "what are you talking about? we do
_houses_ here..." (more or less) response. I guess a monster mexican
satillo tile or the like might work, but a) I can't afford ~$5/sq. ft.
tiles, and b) at the thickness I'd feel comfortable with, I'd end up
raising the garage floor a goodly bit. plus, I'd always worry about the
glazing chipping, and if it didn't have glazing to chip, I'd worry about
staining. and with glazing you also have to sweat slips and falls when
wet. grout was another thing, but that metal grout trick sounds pretty
neat. know a site I can check out?
anyhow, I decided to go with vinyl square tiles (like you see on that
t.n.n. show with the monster shop where everything is immaculate... the
host is a fat...er, heavyset gentleman from somewhere south of the
mason-dixon line. ;-) ) anyhow, I'm going for the pizza parlor
look--black and white checkerboard. no grout to worry about and the tiles
are $.47/sq. ft. the only drawbacks are: I thought with the ceramic tile
I might try an in floor electric heating grid for winters (new house, no
gas for the old heater setup...). can't really do that with vinyl tiles.
(the garage is already hooked up for ch&a, but I was thinking it might be
a little steep to heat it like that, and the ducts were cut by the
previous owners and blocked off, so I'll have to reattach them.) and the
vinyl tiles have to be special ordered in plain black and plain white.
otherwise it's that speckled wal-mart look tile.
so check out the vinyl--you can't really chip them and they're cheap. I'm
told they're easily replaceable, too, if you do mess one up, but I haven't
done it yet, so ymmv. I'll report back after I do it.
or, ultimategarage.com has a link about different floor coverings, look
there. I think one was a crest in the floor covering/sealant.
scott
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