jwardell, if you go on ebay, you can get it for 1.69 per sf from gregsmithequipment.com.
Now having said that, I have been through dozens of threads at The Garage Journal, the general consensus from the folks who have tried both is that the bigfoot plastic tile is much more brittle and has a tendency to shatter. It is made in China and seems to be thinner and lighter than the others. Bigfoot also makes a rubber tile which is generally well thought of by most who have tried it. Now of course alot of those guys have very heavy equipment that that are rolling or in some cases being dropped on the floor.
I'm not sure that for me it would matter since my garage is really for parking, detailing and general maintenace. Another tile you might look at is Daytona tile,alot of the guys over there ordered samples of Daytona,Kiwi,Racedeck, Motofloor, Bigfoot,Fastflor, Swissfloor, Dynotile and Craftsman. Most were in agreement that Racedeck was the best all around, but that Daytona and Kiwi were also a great product. The rest seem to be less popular because of high price (Swissfloor for example) or lower quality.
From what I can tell the Craftsman is supposed to be good, and I thought I read that the folks who make Racedeck make it for Sears. It does say Craftsman on the tiles, though and only has 4 or 5 colors.
Annette

 

I am positive that that RaceDeck makes the sears tile...they are EXACTLY like the RaceDeck I bought...but more expensive and less colors :-)

 

Thanks, BoCRon.
The Daytona says 2.99 psf, and from the looks is not perferated.
Even the GarageDeck on Overstock is 2.79psf.

I'm not looking for the best of the best here. The BigFoot is the only one in my price range, and the most I'll be doing on it is changing a tire. Maybe put a piece of plywood under jack and stands if I use them (I would probably have to do that anyway).

In heavy rain my garage floor turns into a river as water drains in from the driveway and out through the back of the garage. These seem like a good solution to keep that (and melted snow etc) underneath and out of sight.

It will still be a while before I can afford even the cheap one.

 

How much less did you pay for the RaceDeck tiles than the Sears tiles and how much was shipping? I took advantage of 10% off sales for many of the boxes of tiles I ordered from Sears, and we often picked up the order at the stores for no shipping charges, and Sears usually has offers fro free shipping too. Most of the tiles I bought (over 1000 sq ft) were $2.20-2.50 each. It was the least expensive quality option I could find 3-4 years ago when I started, but there are some slightly cheaper options available now.

-Keith

 

If you check ebay, Daytona runs about 2.20per sf, the seller also offers a perf tile, as well. You can put both in the floor, the perf under where the tires/car will go and solid wherever else you'd like.

Annette

 

The sears tiles changed VERY recently to be a racedeck re-badge. They want ~$4 per tile. The also had a gorilla tile or something like that in the past...

Dave

 

I do not believe that is correct. I've been buying the Sears floor tiles for 3-4 years now, and the ones I've been buying all along are still shown on their website as currently available and in stock at $55 for a box of 20 tiles, which comes to $2.75 per tile without any discount. IIRC they were $50 per box of 20 when I started buying them a few years ago. I couldn't afford to buy over $2500 worth of tiles all at once so I bought several boxes at a time over the last couple of years and I'm finally about 95% finished. They've been shipping the same exact tiles every time, and the price hasn't gone up appreciably (definitely not to $4 per tile). Check the Sears.com website, they are there in black, gray, red, and tan.

I did see that Sears also has listed on their website floor tiles under the brand name "Gladiator" that are around $4 each, but they are only available ingray and black, and none of them are in stock. Not sure why they are carrying two different kinds, but I don't know why anyone would buy the $4 tiles vs the less expensive ones. Are you saying the tiles that Sears sells under the "Craftsman" or the "Gladiator" brand name are made by Racedeck?

-Keith

 

The Sears tiles with the Craftsman name are made by Racedeck, the Gladiator tiles are a seperate product. I'm basing this on the statement of a Racedeck distributor that posts on the Garage Journal forums, his post about this fact is over a year old.
Annette

 

I was talking the free-flow equivalant (which has been a big part of this thread)...they are wanting $4 per tile for free-flow.

Good price on the standard tile though.....

 

That's good to know. I wonder if the Sears Craftsman tiles are compatible with the Racedeck tiles. If so, it would give me a few more options for my floor. Any idea where I could get an individual Racedeck tile or four for test fitting?

-Keith

 

Keith, if you contact Racedeck they will send you a sample.
I'm at the point of making a decision. I'm leaning heavily toward Daytona. The price is a bit better than Racedeck, plus I like the pattern on their floor better (a BIG deal to me).
I think you can also buy a sample pack from Racedeck so you can get an idea of the colors.
Annette

 

I just got my Daytona tile samples in the mail. I really like them, the pattern is a bit less obvious than the Racedeck. As far as I can tell, they are just as sturdy, at least for my needs.
Now, I just need to finalize my pattern choice and figure out how many of each color tile to order.
Annette

 

Order up and post some pics!

 

I went to my local speedshop and got the checkered 2" width tape.
i think im going to use either 2 rows of that stuff per line, or 1.5 rows
but should do the trick for me.

(I also picked up a nice tire pressure gauge and Sparco gloves while i
was over there. )

 

Man, I don't have the funds or the attention span that you guys have, but I AM finishing up the last steps of a major overhaul in my garage this weekend... Needless to say, it's exciting (to me). More storage space... a REAL work surface... less clutter... I'm pumped.

Pics will follow, I promise.

 

^^ nice. i too like to have space to work on cars WITHOUT moving
my cars or things around. just park, pop the hood or watnot, work.

 

not the best pict and not sure why the camera picts up the checkers
appearing crooked although it's not... (camera angle or lens?)
you really have to see it in person... garage looks completely different
in this pict... but you get the idea wat i did with the checkered tape.

 

Looks great! I'm jealous

It's whatever software you are using to scale down the picture. It's not doing a nice smooth scale so angled lines jump to the nearest pixel. See if it has a different option for scaling method or try something else maybe.

 

thanks. yah, im using a generic photo editor... that's probably why.

 

kenchan, that looks great! I noticed that my pics with the checkerboard stuff does the same thing, good to know it really is straight!
I've now picked out my paint color that will work with the Daytona tiles I've decided on. Hopefully I will get started on the tiles in the next couple of weeks. I don't feel like paying for fast shipping, so they may take awhile to get here.
Annette

 

I thought about tiles for a couple years but finally decided on an epoxy floor. For me, the thought of water, snow/salt, and whatever else running under the tiles and staying on the concrete didn't appeal to me. Plus I was concerned about mold or mildew growing under the tile.

Anyone had tile in their garage long enough to know if water under it causes any problems?

Here is a picture of my garage floor after the epoxy coating was put on and before I moved everything back inside.

 

There are quite a few guys over on the GarageJournal forums that are on year 4+ with their tiles. The mold/mildew thing was actually the subject of a post not too long ago, so a couple of guys that have had the tiles for awhile pulled up a few sections of their floors and said they saw no evidence of any mold or mildew. One of the guys mentioned that alot of these modular tiles were originally intended for use around spas and hot tubs.
I love the look of the epoxy, but I just know I will have issues getting my floor clean enough and feel like I have a better chance of having a long lived floor with the tiles.
We did use an epoxy down in our kennel and love it, but it was a situation where the floor was clean and new and I wasn't worried about getting it clean. It looks great and is very durable.
Annette

 

Another potential downside to the epoxy is how slippery it can get when wet. I had intended to do this in my last two houses but never got around to it, but I can see the tiles being a better solution when there's a chance of the floor getting wet. I don't know how effective it is to mix in sand (or another grippy agent) with the epoxy, but it's something to consider....

 

Thanks BocRon! hope you get your tiles sooon.

nice job, Morris!



btw, i know it's no longer hot in our garages, but is there an alternative
anyone can recommend to substitute my standing fan? I need decent
air flow in the summer time as it can get extremely hot; i would prefer
an oscillating fan... perhaps something i can mount onto the walls?..
(plus i think fans are an eye sore...)

if i can get rid of that fan I can put a nice tool case there. ive quickly
ran out of space in my little tool boxes i have and want to invest
in a ball bearing tool case.

 

I put a small (16" or so) oscillating fan on top of my set of shelves right under the heater. It seems to do a pretty good job of moving air around the garage.

If I could figure out a way to do it, I'd put in a ceiling fan. There's just too much stuff on the ceiling with the opener, lights, etc. for clearance.

Here's a picture of my fan set up.