There are many things to consider when choosing the right flooring material in your garage. You want something that is low-maintenance and strong enough to hold the weight of a car (or multiple cars) and all the other tools in the garage.
We’ve put two popular garage flooring materials against each other in a battle of pros and cons: epoxy flooring and tile. To see their pros and cons and the verdict for who comes out on top, keep on reading!
Epoxy Floors
Epoxy flooring is made up of a two-part mixture of polymer resins and hardeners, which results in a chemical bond between the two that creates an incredibly strong material – epoxy. It’s a popular flooring material for garages that we’re sure you’ve heard about.
Pros
- Highly customizable. As techniques advance, more and more design options are becoming available for epoxy flooring. You can get all kinds of colors, metallic finishes, and shines on the finished flooring.
- Durable. When it comes to durability and strength, epoxy wins every time. Perhaps more than any other flooring material for the garage, an epoxy floor can take as much as weight as you need to put on it without cracking, breaking, or wearing off. There’s a reason it’s the preferred flooring material of warehouses.
- Stain-resistant. There are many spills that could potentially happen in a garage, including grease stains. Epoxy floors are resistant to any kind of penetration so they make for very easy floors to clean that you can do with a dry or wet mop.
Cons
Difficult to install. An epoxy floor has to be installed by a professional. There are too many things that could go wrong during the installation, as well as a complicated prep process. Epoxy needs a surface that is perfectly primed in order to bind properly and work, and once it’s put down it’s hard to take off so mistakes are costly.
Tile
Tiles can come in all kinds: stone, ceramic, or even plastic. Plastic is a popular choice for many garage owners so that will be the focus of this comparison. Plastic tiles come in interlocking pieces and can be of different sizes and colors.
Pros
Customizable. Like epoxy floors, tile floors can be customized if you want a certain color, design, or texture. This makes it an easy and popular choice for those who are looking for something specific in their garage.
Easy to install. Because plastic tiles come in an interlocking set, they can be easily installed over the existing garage floor to create new flooring.
Cons
- Breakable. While plastic tiles will impress you with their strength at the beginning, the weight of your car will start showing in the wear and tear of plastic tiles. Color can fade off and the tile itself can start to show signs of dents. They will then need to be replaced with new tiles.
- Hard to clean. Because they are a system of interlocking pieces, spills on the floor can get between the tiles. This means you will have to take out individual pieces of the tile to clean them properly.
Verdict
Both flooring materials have their pros and cons, but epoxy flooring is the clear winner. They’re durable, easy to clean and maintain, and they last for a very long time. But if you’re looking for an easy and temporary solution to your garage floors, tile can work in a pinch for a short while.
