I recently moved into a house with a nice sized three-car garage. The old owner was kind enough to repaint the garage floor for me before I moved in, but unfortunately, the paint didn't adhere well to the older garage floor paint that had already been down for several years. So the top layer of paint was starting to peel up and flake. I also realized that the garage floor was flat and didn't have any slope to it. So any water/snow that was brought in by a vehicle just puddled on the floor until it either evaporated or I mopped or squeegeed it out. Both of these issues were less than ideal so I needed to come up with a garage floor solution that would solve all my problems in one easy step. I considered doing an epoxy floor, but then that wouldn't have solved my water puddling issue and I've also heard that epoxy floors can be very slick when wet. I also considered tiling my garage to solve the paint peeling issue, but it would have been time-consuming, messy, and probably wouldn't have solved my water puddling issue either. So, Swisstrax garage flooring to the rescue!
www.swisstrax.com
I really liked the fact that I could install the Swisstrax flooring myself, I didn't need any special tools or equipment to install it, it wasn't messy, it solved my water puddling issue, and it also was very customizable. And to top it all off, I can easily remove it, take it with me or change it around! The Swisstrax Ribtrax Pro tiles allow water, snow, grit, and grime to flow through the tiles so the top surface of your garage floor always stays clean and dry.
After playing around with the Swisstrax Floor Designer tool and seeing a few sample pieces, I decided to go with Vinyltrax Pro tiles in Reclaimed Pine and Ribtrax Pro tiles in Slate Grey and Pearl Grey. For my situation I really liked the wood floor look all in the live/work areas of the garage as well as a border around the designated parking places. I used the Ribtrax Pro Slate Grey tiles as a parking border and then the Pearl Grey tiles in the middle of those parking pads.
Once I got the garage good and cleaned out the Swisstrax floor went down quickly! It's like legos for adults. I started in the front left corner of my garage and worked my way across the front of the garage doors to the other side, leaving the end tiles off that needed to be trimmed to fit into place. I did that row after row working my way to the back wall of the garage. After about five hours or so I had all the tiles that didn't need to be trimmed into place. I also took care to try and match the grain of the wood tiles so that each tile would flow into the next as if it was one continuous piece. If you only use the Ribtrax Pro tiles then there is nothing to match other than colors so you can really fly when installing those tiles! I should mention that my garage is about 1,000 sq ft in size and each end of the garage had complex angles or rounded corners. So I had a lot more intricate finish work and trimming than most garages will require. This finish-out process of trimming and fitting all the edge tiles took me of few more evenings of work. I would spend a couple of hours a night making cardboard templates, tracing them onto the tiles, and then cutting them out with a fine-tooth blade in a jigsaw. The level of finish-out is completely up to you and your garage space. I had a difficult-shaped garage and took care to trim and fit the tiles as precisely as I could so it truly looked like an expensive custom floor job. So in less than a week, without having to hire anyone, no messy grinding, no special machines or tools to rent or buy, I have a garage floor that not only solves all my issues but also looks amazing!
Here are the before and after pictures of my garage! I couldn't be happier with how it turned out!
Swisstrax | Premium Interlocking Garage Floor Tiles
For over 25 years, our Swiss engineered, American made tile has become the globally preferred by everyone from homeowners to the world's most respected brands.
I really liked the fact that I could install the Swisstrax flooring myself, I didn't need any special tools or equipment to install it, it wasn't messy, it solved my water puddling issue, and it also was very customizable. And to top it all off, I can easily remove it, take it with me or change it around! The Swisstrax Ribtrax Pro tiles allow water, snow, grit, and grime to flow through the tiles so the top surface of your garage floor always stays clean and dry.
After playing around with the Swisstrax Floor Designer tool and seeing a few sample pieces, I decided to go with Vinyltrax Pro tiles in Reclaimed Pine and Ribtrax Pro tiles in Slate Grey and Pearl Grey. For my situation I really liked the wood floor look all in the live/work areas of the garage as well as a border around the designated parking places. I used the Ribtrax Pro Slate Grey tiles as a parking border and then the Pearl Grey tiles in the middle of those parking pads.
Once I got the garage good and cleaned out the Swisstrax floor went down quickly! It's like legos for adults. I started in the front left corner of my garage and worked my way across the front of the garage doors to the other side, leaving the end tiles off that needed to be trimmed to fit into place. I did that row after row working my way to the back wall of the garage. After about five hours or so I had all the tiles that didn't need to be trimmed into place. I also took care to try and match the grain of the wood tiles so that each tile would flow into the next as if it was one continuous piece. If you only use the Ribtrax Pro tiles then there is nothing to match other than colors so you can really fly when installing those tiles! I should mention that my garage is about 1,000 sq ft in size and each end of the garage had complex angles or rounded corners. So I had a lot more intricate finish work and trimming than most garages will require. This finish-out process of trimming and fitting all the edge tiles took me of few more evenings of work. I would spend a couple of hours a night making cardboard templates, tracing them onto the tiles, and then cutting them out with a fine-tooth blade in a jigsaw. The level of finish-out is completely up to you and your garage space. I had a difficult-shaped garage and took care to trim and fit the tiles as precisely as I could so it truly looked like an expensive custom floor job. So in less than a week, without having to hire anyone, no messy grinding, no special machines or tools to rent or buy, I have a garage floor that not only solves all my issues but also looks amazing!
Here are the before and after pictures of my garage! I couldn't be happier with how it turned out!
