Problem solved...
I found the answer by emailing the Corvette garage owner, Rich Lagasse, and he was exceptionally friendly and helpful in his replies.
Nice to share an interest with such a enthusiast.
The tiles in the photos from the link in my earlier post are vinyl, and Rich allowed me to reprint his following replies to me giving some detailed information about them:
"We built the garage over ten years ago and the tiles were installed then. They are Armstrong Commercial grade vinyl tiles and have held up remarkably well even through some abuse. :-)) The hot tires have not been a problem.
Someone once told me what the PSI pressure was of a hot tire as it is cooling and it was amazing. I did have one type of tire (Goodyear Run Flat), that must use a weird rubber compound, and it did leave a tread mark where the car stood. No other tire has left a mark so it must be unique to that tire.
A few thoughts about installation and maintenance:
- When installing them the floor should cleaned well, any uneven spots leveled and a sealer applied for moisture. Then, we used the recommended tile adhesive when laying them.
- After the adhesive had set I applied three coats of floor sealer followed by three of a heavy duty floor wax. These were made by Zip but I'm sure there are other brands that will work as well.
- Keeping it clean under normal circumstances just takes the old mop or one of those "Swiffer" cleaner cloths. Of course, I have had to use something stronger to remove some paint overspray or to remove oil or grease. Fantastik or household cleaner will work on most spots.
- The colors of the main body of tiles is a mixture with an off-white background. That works well for the main areas but I did find that that color was more time consuming to keep clean in the path where the tires run. I decided to do the contrasting blue in that area and it helps to outline the main parking area as well.
- I don't know where you live but here in Connecticut we have a lot of snow and I do protect the floor from the snow and sand/salt we get in the winter. I use "Car Pads" and those have worked well for that purpose.
- One good thing about tiles is that you can replace an individual tile if one is damaged. I bought four extra boxes for that purpose to keep the same job lot.
There are many different types of flooring now and vinyl tile is one of the better ones as long as it is laid properly and the usual maintenance is performed. I had tried epoxy paint many years ago but found that it would wear where the cars were driven. Some of the choices in floor coverings can be rather expensive (such as Race Deck or the Griots tiles) but I've found the vinyl to work well and be reasonable from a cost standpoint. Some folks have used a checker-board black & white floor and that looks nice but can be a little busy."
I'm sure Rich won't mind if I also pass along his website address - it has a lot of interesting stuff:
http://www.corvetteforum.net/c5/richs7/
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