Porcelain Tiles or swisstrax for a double garage?

[Dominic-Toretto]

Hi everyone,

I am currently having my double garage renovated. It already has a smooth levelled concrete floor, I just want a nice finish over the top now. The two options I am interested in are:

1. Swisstrax / Mototile
2. Porcelain tiles such as the Dotti R9

Both options will cost me about the same £1000 ish.

I want the flooring to last a long time (decades). I know the porcelain tiles will (with minor fixes along the way such as regrouting etc). The question is will the swisstrax?

I definitely prefer the swisstrax but am concerned about longevity.

Any thoughts guys?

 

[Lashout_UK]

We had a Mototile floor in one of our garages. Five or so years later, it still looked great. It had some marks (oil stains, tyre imprints, etc.) but it was used heavily. Big cars up on axle stands for long periods, cars parked in the same place for months on end, and lots of messy work carried out, that kind of thing, so it really got put through the wringer. The property's been sold since but I would hazard a guess that, three years more down the line, the tiles are still there, and that they look much the same.

I've got less expensive Garage Floor Tile Company rubber tiles in mine at the moment, which were put in almost three years ago as well. Again, they get abused. Outside of some dents, stains, and marks, the floor still looks good. It's a working garage at the end of the day, not just for storage and parking, so I'm not hugely fussed about it looking impeccable. As long as it's relatively smart and tidy.

A relative of mine tiled their garage with porcelain recently and I don't like it, personally. It's noisy, if you're moving stuff around, it's hard on the tools and ears if you drop things, it's not as nice to work on (slippery, hard, etc.), and I'm always paranoid about things breaking. Although, to be fair, I think they've only lost one tile during jacking so far.

It was also an absolute chore to lay and any repairs will be much more involved. We got the tiles down in mine in about thirty minutes.

Really, it depends on what you'll be doing in there. If you intend to be working in their regularly, I'd go for a rubber tile, every single time. And if something gets damaged, or there's an area that looks tired, it's easy to replace.

One thing: I went for a darker tile, when I did mine, because it's less likely to show up damage such as scratches, stains, tyre marks, and dents. Might be worth bearing in mind.