Originally Posted by Chad@VaultGarage

Thank you DJ. Please know I appreciate your introduction.

I am often asked “what is the best return on investment for flooring”. After years of educating ourselves with what garage floor treatments are available, experimenting with them and in some cases living with them for several years, in my opinion, I believe that the two best options that give the best long term use (value):

1. Porcelain (not ceramic) Floor Tiles; and
2. Polished and/or Stained Concrete

Most flooring treatments for garages provide only a short term solution and typically have a life expectancy of 5-15 years. Both porcelain tile and polished/stained concrete are a permanent solution and can last for decades. In essence, they will outlive you.

They are also among the strongest flooring materials you can install due to their toughness and strength.

Lastly, both options are also easy to maintain.

For these reasons, they offer the greatest return on investment (ROI) compared to any other flooring treatments.

The limitations associated with polished/stained concrete are:

1. They can become very slippery when wet and as such, should be considered for ‘showroom’ garages, not ‘working’ or ‘day-in/day-out’ garages.
2. The initial cost.
3. Repairs can be unsightly.

In my opinion, porcelain tiles are superior to every flooring option because their only real limitations are:

1. The initial cost to install porcelain tile can exceed the cost of other surface treatments.
2. Porcelain tile offers less colors and size options than other floor surface options.

However, the advantages of porcelain tile (compared to other surface treatments) far outweigh other floor treatments. Porcelain is one of the strongest flooring materials you can install due to its toughness, strength, and translucent characteristics because of the glass and mineral mix fused at very high temperature create a very dense and impervious product.

As a result, porcelain tiles are tough as nails, stain resistant, wear resistant and a practically impervious product. Tile does not discolor, fade and is a very hard (superior in strength to granite) and wear resistant flooring material, making it an excellent choice for high-traffic uses. Porcelain is unaffected by chemicals and will not show no visible signs of chemical attack, all of which make it idea for use in a garage.

Whereas many flooring options show their age from wear and tear, porcelain looks beautiful when installed and the tiles actually seem to accentuate in their beauty as they age, taking on a beautiful patina. If you have ever visited Europe, you will note tile being liberally used in many buildings as exterior cladding and outside in cafes and it looks just as beautiful, if not more so, from the day it was installed.

Porcelain has a very long life expectancy and are manufactured to last a lifetime of use. The durability of porcelain makes it one of the best value installations you can do for your garage flooring and we highly recommend its use.

One last thing worth noting. Not all porcelain is made the same way and there are two criteria that I encourage anyone thinking about putting this product in their garage to find in the product they ultimately select:

1. A solid throughout product. Recently, porcelain has experienced a surge in popularity due to marketing that is being done telling consumers that porcelain tiles will not need replacement if chipped, based on a misperception that all porcelain tiles are the same color all the way through.

If you choose a tile product, make sure that it has the same composition throughout the tile and is not manufactured with a surface glazing. Glazings are used to add color to bare tile, so if the top surface of a glaze tile is damaged or chipped in such a surface would reveal the tile’s different body color and thus warrant replacement.

2. Find a tile that is warranted against staining. The garage is a harsh environment and you will want to source a tile that is able to handle the highest levels of stress, traffic wear and the most persistent stains.

Here are some of the material advantages of porcelain tiles over traditional ceramic tile and quarried materials:

• Stain Resistance –Unlike ceramic tile and natural stone, which can stain, solid-through tiles are stain-proof.

• Strength - A breaking strength 2X or 3X times greater than granite and 7X to 8X greater than marble provides the hardest, most durable tiled surface you can find.

• Abrasion Resistance - A 3X higher resistance to deep abrasions.

• Moisture Resistance – Exceptionally low absorption rate of less than 0.01%-0.04% classifies these tiles as "impervious". Their dense, impervious nature makes them ideally suited for high-moisture environments.

• Frost Resistance – Tiles are frost proof and able to withstand freeze/thaw conditions.

• Chemical Resistance – Tiles are unaffected by chemicals and will show no visible signs of chemical attack.

• Color Resistance to Light – Unaffected by UV; no change in brightness or color.

• Environmental Impact - The production process has a very low environmental impact and, unlike quarried materials, which have a high wastage rate (approximately 66% of quarry volume is waste by-product) and major environmental repercussions.

That’s really it in a nutshell.

If you would like to learn more about our porcelain tiles, you may visit our website at:

http://www.vaultmgarage.com/\

I hope this information can be useful to anyone thinking about a permanent solution for their garage floor.

Originally Posted by brnsrgn

a friend of mine has polished concrete. He says it was a mistake for him. Fluids that are not cleaned up quickly stain the concrete...

Originally Posted by brnsrgn

The tile sounds nice, but it seems to me the weakness will be the grout, not the tiles. Won't the grout lines stain and weaken from salt, gas, etc??

Originally Posted by Chad@VaultGarage

...One last thing worth noting. Not all porcelain is made the same way and there are two criteria that I encourage anyone thinking about putting this product in their garage to find in the product they ultimately select:

1. A solid throughout product. Recently, porcelain has experienced a surge in popularity due to marketing that is being done telling consumers that porcelain tiles will not need replacement if chipped, based on a misperception that all porcelain tiles are the same color all the way through.

If you choose a tile product, make sure that it has the same composition throughout the tile and is not manufactured with a surface glazing. Glazings are used to add color to bare tile, so if the top surface of a glaze tile is damaged or chipped in such a surface would reveal the tile’s different body color and thus warrant replacement.
...