Cost: Around £20 – £35 sq meter. Shop Around!!
Company Sales Pitch from “Ecotile”:
https://www.ecotileflooring.com/
ecotile E500/7 – the original loose lay interlocking tile
ecotile 500/7 is the original loose lay interlocking floor tile. It is 7mm thick with an open joint dovetail design. Ideal for the vast majority of applications, ecotile 500/7 is a heavy-duty floor covering that can withstand high point loading, impact and vibration. Ideal for heavy foot and vehicle traffic including fork lift trucks (as a guide up to 3.5 ton unladen weight).
If in doubt please contact your sales representative and / or check out the ecotile extra heavy-duty 500/10 tile. Hard Wearing: ecotile 500/7 is the world’s number one interlocking floor tile manufactured from hard-wearing 100% recyclable PVC. The tiles are guaranteed for 10 years and in the unlikely event that a tile is damaged it can be lifted and replaced in a matter of minutes.
Easy to Install:
ecotile 500/7 can be installed without the requirement for a damp proof membrane, screed or adhesive significantly reducing VOC emissions, installation time and cost.
Durable:
ecotile 500/7 is injection moulded using compound that has excellent wear characteristics, chemical resistance, long-term stability and stable electrical properties.
- 10 year Product Warranty
Applications:
Designed to cope with heavy vehicle and fork lift truck traffic, ecotile offers good thermal and acoustic insulation and excellent resistance to impact and vibration. To find out how Ecotile compares to other leading applications such as epoxy resin, please visit our industrial flooring page.
- Factories & Warehouses • Railway Stations & Airports
- Shops & Offices • Schools & Colleges
- Garages & Workshops • Exhibitions & Point of Sale
- Sports & Leisure Facilities • Prisons, Police & Fire Stations
ecotile 500/7, the leading choice of industrial and commercial premises across Europe for
What Do You Get?:
Ecotile will sell you a single tile or a pallet load depending on what you want. When I called to ask for the square meters of my garage they worked out the amount I need for me. I would suggest that you allow the standard ten percent for cutting within your final square meter amount. You can also consider ramps if you need them to finish of the tiles nicely. My batch of tiles turned up on a well wrapped pallet with a full cardboard covering and separation pieces of card between the stacks of tiles. These tiles are made of virgin pvc materials.
The tiles measure 508mm from the very edge to edge.
The back of the tiles is solid and not honeycombed as some tiles, and the thickness is indeed 7mm.
Fitting the tiles:
There is an important part to remember once the tiles are delivered. Let the tiles acclimatize to the temperature of the room. The tiles will bend and mould to the floor, here this full tile was stood on end and distorted with a twist. It was warmed in the garage laying it on the floor and it straightened out perfectly flat again.
Just how much can these tiles bend I tried with an off cut, then I let it go and within fifteen seconds or so the cut straightened pretty much back out again.
The tiles can be laid if they are cold but be careful as they could be brittle when hammering home the interconnecting lugs. To fit these tiles Ecotile recommend a Stanley knife, straight edge, rubber mallet and a ruler/tape. I tried the Stanley knife and couldn’t get on with it, so I used a favourite tool, my Fein Multimaster tool. This is a rapid oscillation blade tool, but more on that later.
They being Ecotile, recommend starting with a chalk line down the middle of the room for the first row of tiles and then work out to the edges from there. When you measure to the edges you need to leave a 5mm gap which will allow the tiles to expand when they get real warm. Each edge of the tiles has a little square lug which is the required distance which can be seen on the top right corner of this pic.
Now me being me I didn’t start with a centre line for the first row. I laid a batch of tiles across the flood to see where the wheels would roll onto the tiles. The reason being I wanted the tiles to avoid the joins, why? I’m not sure to be honest, but I thought it would be better. So once I had the tiles pretty much where I wanted them to be with the tyre track I then marked up and measure the line properly from the main wall on the right. Then I laid a vertical row down the middle of the garage. There is no need to glue the tiles down as a loose lay will be enough. But there are some certain circumstances where you could; such as a heavy forklift with tight turning circle, extreme heat or direct light on South facing floor maybe.
Laying the tiles across the floor I also worked out where the garage door shuts so the ramp sections will not hang out underneath. But you could if you wanted too of course. I worked to the longest wall first leaving the space for the cut tiles to be placed. I would come back to these edges later.
Putting the tiles together was simple, each of the edges are universal so any edge will lay to any edge. The lugs are a tight fit and require the joins to be knocked into place. Earlier I mentioned letting the tiles acclimatize properly. I tried in my eagerness to try fitting them in the freezing cold, the result was I broke a lug off. It wasn’t a problem as I used the now broken edge for a cut edge. The best way I found was to lay the tiles together press them in place by hand, then hammer home for the final fit.
With most of the floor laid it was time for the edges. Now they say you can cut these tiles with a Stanley knife, I tried, then tried again cutting the same place on the tile to get it trim. No luck for me, yet on a YouTube video they make it look so easy. I admitted defeat with the knife just after I missed the tip of a finger by the thickness of the blade itself. Time to use my faithful Fain tool with a fine toothed saw attachment in place.
Measure the cut you need and I marked out the trim using a soft pencil to mark the length with a straight edge. With the line in place I very lightly started to almost score the surface where I wanted it to be. The smooth action with no vibration of the tool made it an absolute breeze to cut. The next pass I cut through the tile which was now raised to allow the deep cut through.
The whole cut process took about one minute. The down side is the oscillator tool process will create heat and created a waste ridge of plastic on the cut which was warm and soft until it cools. Rather than let it cool I got the Stanley knife and at a forty-five degree angle just trimmed the edge up with virtually no effort, it was a great smooth straight cut as a result.
A simple case of repeat as required, there are a few videos on-line to show how it’s also done. One massive advantage of the Fein over the knife is where you have to cut shapes it’s so much easier than trying to break bits out or away before the next cut.
The final part was the ramps, exactly the same principle fitting.
The complete floor.
Results:
The floor looks great, there was an instantly noticeable difference to the sound of the room. The room holds the heat better, it much more comfortable to walk on too. The tiles are non slip and very easy to clean. I tried to capture the tiles with water on them.
I completed the whole garage of about eighteen square meters in day easy, including some awkward cuts and moving everything back in.
Rating: 9 out 10
The tiles are all exactly the same through tight quality control. They fitted together excellently. They made an instant difference to the sound, temperature, better to walk on, no more floor dust, easy to clean and I got them at a bargain price. So why not a full ten? Well the cutting with the knife bit I couldn’t make work. It must be me.
The tiles will not disintegrate after a few drive overs and not sag like the cheaper foam tiles. I also have the very heavy Snap On tool box with nylon wheels sting on the tiles and they will not dent, like the cheaper honeycomb style that would sag and collapse under that weight.
Would I recommend this product? Definitely
Would I buy it again? Definitely
Conclusion:
Easy to lay and just as easy to take up if you want to. If you badly damage a tile you can replace one tile. These tiles are water proof over the surface, the joins a very tight fit when in place, but I suspect the joins will eventually allow water to seep through if left there for a long time. A wipe up will stop that happening regardless. There are different thicknesses of the tiles up to 10mm for heavy industrial or a 5mm for a more domestic use and then the recycled versions. At full price these tiles are not cheap, but I would strongly suggest you get what you pay for with garage floor tiles. I have seen other garages with the foam tiles which cost getting on towards what I paid for the tiles and they have torn, pitted and marked up terribly.
So a superb buy and we’ll worth the money for a quality product, even more so with a the bargain price I managed to get them for.