thanks.

 

thanks for the input, MotorOn! i think im going to keep using my
cardboard on top of another cardboard creeper for now...
yah, it's ghetto but it worked for me the last several years of
ownership of my MCS and also works for my G35C which is also
very low under there. and yah, i sometimes do get the
'hummm.... wonder if i have enough life insurance for my son if
my jack stands fail...' thanks to Griots, they haven't failed
on me yet.

i need to go back and re-think the tiles. i have nothing against those
that have them and use them...just not sure if it's for me.

 

Hey if you ever want ot give it a test run drop me a PM, but yes a good cleaning of the floor, having a shop shirt for the days you do the under car work, and taking a shower afterward seem to make life easier under the car.

 

kenchan, I spent quite a bit of time researching various flooring options right after we moved into our house. Our garage is right at 1,000 sq ft, which made Racedeck tiles pretty expensive, plus I was also worried about stuff stuck between them and keeping them clean (yep, hard to believe but I'm pretty **** about my garage). I did like the ability to make various designs that the Racedeck offered. After all my research I ended up going with an epoxy flooring that was professionally installed. Cost was just under $3 a square foot, came with a three year warranty, and I could get the color and design I liked. The pros are cost (as compared to tiles), looks awesome, gets rid of concrete dust, is nice to lay on when working on cars (so you save money you would otherwise spend on a creeper ) and is really easy to clean. I keep a mop in the garage and when it rains or I bring a car in after washing it I just use the mop and the water to clean the floor. I end up going out about every third/fourth month and doing a thorough vacuum/mop job. The floor is coming up on two years old and still looks great. The only negative is that it is very slippery when wet, and water doesn't evaporate very quickly. The lighter color also makes it easy to find stuff you drop, it's easy to spot a leak when your car decides to start drooling one or more of its fluids (the wife's 330i does this periodically and it's nice to be able to use the color of the fluid to figure out what's leaking), and I can wipe up any spill very quickly with a paper shop rag (I keep a box of these available all the time). Here's some before and after pics:

 

thanks for the input and picts. i remember seeing your garage in your
earlier posts.

that's very true that lighter colors are much easier to spot tools and
fasteners, and also leaks. i think im going to change my color of choice
from red/gray tiles and do lighter colors. this way it will make it
less obvious as far as getting foot prints on them and also make it easier
to spot things. i can still do the checker board pattern if i use a
gray and light gray.

 

2MINIacs - I know you always fill your available space, but I would love to try to fill that huge garage! How high is the ceiling in there?
Did you consider putting some non-slip stuff on your epoxy? I put down epoxy in my garage this summer and then put the silica sand in the clear top-coat. I did this thinking of winter and slick floors. It really has worked well and I'm happy to report no falls yet this winter. Only down side is that it is a bit rough working under the MINI but not terrible.
Nice garage and good looking floor.

 

MiniMaybee, the ceiling is 9 and a half feet tall, which works perfectly for stacking two Corvettes. If I had to do it over again I would have tried for a little taller ceiling so I wouldn't have to stoop over to work under a car on the lift....and I could have had more options for stacking cars.

I thought about putting silica in when they did the floor but elected not to. It hasn't been a big problem as we don't have that much rain. When we do, it only takes a minute to mop up the water, and it helps clean the floor.

You are also correct about filling up the space....which is why I've got another MINI on order.....to fill up the last slot in the garage.

 

^^ yah, "we just stack 2 corvettes and a few of our Ferrari's."

must be nice to have lots and lots of disposable income!

 

Like a lot of folks, I wish I had a lot more disposable income....that way I wouldn't have to settle for the poor man's Ferrari

 

That guys is really cool. He is a local Motoror very nice guy. I want to see some updated pictures of his garage.

Ken. I use that one on my jeep and its is very comfortable, however I have not used it with the MINI yet. I honestly have not found the need for it on the MINI. I usually just use my creeper seat.

 

dang it, how high do you raise your car to do a quick oil change?

 

Haha, I dont pull out the creaper to pull a plug. I just lay on the ground. I got the creeper because I was tearing the T-case apart in the jeep and didnt want to take it out.

 

ic. im kinda amazed how people can undo that plug and drain
without putting our MINI's on ramps. i put mine on ramps cause
i can't get my drain pan under there and more importantly, my
pumpkin head.

 

I didn't say i didn't use ramps I just said i don't use the creeper. Due to space in the garage, I keep the ramps and creeper in the basement.

 

oh ok. i feel better about my pumpkin head now..

 

I figured I'd post the results of my floor tile "study" and which tile I decided to use where. Hopefully it will help others here narrow down the choices.

I now have samples of at least 6 different floor tiles (Daytona, Racedeck, Big Foot plastic, Big Foot Rubber, Mataflex and Dynotile). Anyway, my favorite for the overall look and feel was the Big Foot Rubber tiles. Very quiet, sturdy and nice to walk on. The only reason I didn't use them in my garage is that they only have 1 shade of grey and I really needed 2 to execute my fabulous plan! I chose Daytona since they have the most flexible of the hard tiles, plus I like that their pattern is a little different (a tread pattern) and is fairly understated. I had to kneel on one of the Racedeck tiles when I was messing with all the samples, and yowza, that diamond pattern is a bit much!
When all is said and done, I will have 4 different brands of tiles in my house, here goes.
1. Locktile $3.60 per sf-my basement is about 1500 sqft. About 1000 of it is finished and the remaining 500sf is my husbands woodworking shop. We put Locktile brand tile in about 600 sf of it 3+ years ago. We absolutely love it. The only thing I don't like about the Locktile is that it has a "puzzle" edge. Not an issue if you are doing all one color, but looks funny to me if you have multiple colors.


2. BigFoot rubber tile from Greg Smith Equipment $2.28per sf-I am planning on using this in the exercise room in the basement. It has a straight edge, so I can do a checkerboard or whatever pattern I want. I have compared this to the Locktile and if the Locktile is slightly thicker I can't see it. I have about 300sf to do in the exercise room and the BigFoot will be a bit cheaper than the Locktile.


3. Garage- I went with Daytona tile $2.25 per sf. Like I said I like the subtle tread pattern, it is not slick or shiny looking and is a bit more "giving" and quieter than Racedeck, BigFoot Plastic or the Mataflex.


4. Dynotile $2.79 per sf-I'm putting this over the decking on my covered porch. It has an overlapping seam which my husband feels will be a bit more resistant to water seep through. He stores some of his overflow woodworking equipment in the area under the deck and any opportunity to block water is a bonus. We also like the pattern on it, kind of a stylized honeycomb pattern, so it doesn't look as "garagy". I just ordered it this week so am hoping to install it over the Christmas break.Here's a pic with the edging attached.

Sorry for the long post, just wanted to explain the differences in some of the tiles.
Annette

 

BoCRon- thanks for the info. the Bigfoot rubber has some sort of
locking mechanism, right? how does it lock itself to other tiles?

 

Yep, here's a pic of it to show how it locks together.


And a pic of just one of the tiles to show the edges a bit better.


This one has an overlapping edge as well, but my husband didn't want to use it on our covered deck since we will have close to 1000 sf of the circle pattern in the basement. We felt like it might be a good idea to have an understated pattern on the deck.

Annette

 

^^ ahh! thank you! so that's how they lock to each other.

that's a smart design.

 

Changing gears again... tools... actually Sears.com (online purchase).
went very smoothly. i likes. this was an online special.

got a craftsman 3/8 drive wobble adapter set (3) with a
thumbwheel ratchet. this is my xmas present from
the wife. hehehe. got it today.. well, need to hand it off to
the wife ofcourse until christmas.

 

BoCRon- when you layout the tiles in your garage floor, do you
lineup the first squares starting at the garage door, or do you start at
the deepest part of the garage away from the door?

i have a feeling people will be looking at the garage door opening
side more than the other end of the garage so the full square should
be at the garage door side... (?)

if i was to use the 12x12" they would fit perfectly, but if i was
to do something like the bigfoot 13.1", then im going to have a
non-perfect square somewhere.

 

It says you want a whole tile at the garage door opening so you can snap on the ramp edge if you need it. No matter what tile I did I was going to have a cut edge so I'm splitting the difference and will have a 5inch piece on either side in order to center my design, but I'm not **** or anything .
Annette

 

thanks, BoCRon. i guess i will have to measure bothends and
get the best balance (lengths).

 

^^

Oh no couldn't be, we MINI owners are known to be mellow Just ask the poor guy you put the new windshield in my son's car the other day.

 

2Miniacs, that looks awesome. What kind of epoxy did you go with? I am going to do my 500 SF garage this spring and I really want to do teh painted epoxy. My last place I did the Rustoleum stuff and while it looked great, it eventually peeled at the tire spots in spite of me wearing myself out cleaning the floor with their cleaner, so I want to just pay a pro to do it right.

Did they shot blast the floor prior to doing it or just use a stronger acid?