Garage tiles for barn aisle flooring?

[mmeqcenter]

Any thoughts on using something like these for barn aisle flooring? They have a huge weight capacity, click together, and are lightweight. I plan to use regular horse mats in the stalls, but for ease of installation I’m looking at other options for the shedrow aisle. They’re supposed to be non-slip but I’m unsure about that. Of course, regular horse stall mats aren’t exactly fully non-slip either.

I’m over here in my head like - non-horse people use stall mats in their garages, why can’t the reverse be done?

Example:

VEVOR Garage Tiles Interlocking, 12’’ x 12’’, 50 pcs, Graphite Grey Garage Floor Covering Tiles, Non-Slip Diamond Plate Garage Flooring Tiles, Support up to 55,000 lbs for Basements, Gyms | VEVOR US

[Walk_N_Gal88]

They honestly look like they’d work pretty well, though I do not have any personal experience with them. I personally would get a pack and lay them out in just one section and try that (maybe in a grooming area) before I invested in doing the whole aisle in that.

[2DogsFarm]

Agree with @Walk_N_Gal88
The pack of 50 is on clearance & IMHO, worth it to see how they’d stand up in a sample-size area.
If you go for it, pls report back.
I’d love to use them in my 12’ aisle, assuming they can be laid over a surface that’s not 100% level

[LCDR]

I’ve no experience with this particular brand. But I can tell you from experience that in a garage the interlocking floor tiles look really good. And they work great as long as you drive straight in and back straight out.

But if you have to turn your wheels while they are on the tiles, they will tend to twist along with the wheel and pop loose, sometimes even radiating out from the single tile that the tire is twisting, and popping up tiles all the way to the walls.

So my concern would be with a hoof twisting on a tile as a horse pivots on it, and having the same effect as a tire turning on top of one in a garage. Remember, these tiles are designed to be laid out on a solid concrete floor. If you lay them over dirt, packed stone dust, or something elsewith a bit of give to it, all bets are off. You need a level, firm, hard base for them.

[mmeqcenter]

They can! That’s part of why I found them so interesting! At least, they can according to the Q&A for that supplier.

[mmeqcenter]

There’s a couple suppliers that say they have a more flexible product that works great for imperfect floors, this link above is one of them I think. Hopefully they’re right!

[LCDR]

Well, you asked for thoughts. That’s what I gave you. Why even ask if you’ve already decided to proceed?

[mmeqcenter]

I haven’t decided. Hopefully they’re right, in case I decide to try them. Is that better?

[Simkie]

What’s your price on mats? I agree mats aren’t fun to install and something easier on that front is certainly attractive, but these suckers are quite a bit more expensive than mats, at least compared to my price.

For 106 bucks you get 2 4x6 mats plus 2 extra square feet. And they may work, or they may slide and pop and move around.

Last time I bought mats they were 30 bucks a piece. And while install is a whole thing, there’s no question they’ll do the job for just about forever.

[mmeqcenter]

$55/mat here.
4’x6’ = 24 sq ft
$2.29/ sq ft

The garage tiles linked above are $2.10/sq ft.

[Simkie]

Damn, that price on mats is wild. Even buying by the pallet?

I still have the same reservation, though–so these are about the same $$ as mats for you, but no guarantees that they’ll actually work for this use.

Are you planning on trying one set, to see how it goes, before buying a bunch?

[mmeqcenter]

I know right? I’d have to inquire about bulk pricing.

Yeah, if I try something like these garage tiles I’d definitely try out a small area first. I’m still in the looking-at-properties step of the process, I’m just a bit of an obsessive planner

[Simkie]

Oh yeah, I’ve got to think you can definitely get that down at least a little–even tractor supply does 5% off on pallets.

But def shop that around! My TSC price on stall mats is $55, but the local feed store does so much better.

If you try the garage tiles, I’m curious to see how it goes!!!

[Jarpur]

We’ve had thin rubber matting over part of our concrete aisle for many years (20 or so) – the type that comes rolled – our mats are 4 ft x 8 ft, and have a pebbly surface on one side and thin raised lines on the other.

Finally had one crack in several inches along one side, from being rolled back so many times for when cleaning underneath, but we just cut that part off (think my husband used tin snips), and the rest is still in place, while we’re saving the remnant for another use.

Originally saw these in someone else’s barn, and ordered some. In our case, we don’t have the entire aisle done, just in front of the stalls where we groom the horses, as in the other barn. Easy to move when necessary (for instance, when we pressure wash the barn), but haven’t moved around on their own. We’ve been happy with them, but I don’t know that they’d be the price you’d want.

[clanter]

@Simkie

But def shop that around! My TSC price on stall mats is $55, but the local feed store does so much better.

and shop several of the TSC stores as they will have different pricing for the same product even in the same general area

here their 4by6 heavy stall mats are $44.95 one at a time (SKU: 221900399) but going just seven miles a way to another TSC the same mat is $53.99

[mmeqcenter]

I actually used thinner mats at my last barn, was happy with them, cost was reasonable. But the location(s) I’m looking at now, I’m likely going to be building any horse facilities I want, and concrete floors won’t be in the budget at least the first year or two, probably.

[mmeqcenter]

That’s wild why would they vary so much at nearby locations?

[clanter]

@mmeqcenter

That’s wild why would they vary so much at nearby locations?

I was told that they are now pricing products by specific locations as to an area Richness or Poorness…the manager actually said pricing was dictated on how affluent the store’s area population was …they specifically call this " localized pricing" which is easy to check by going to the TSC web site, select the store you normally, enter a product search, once it brings up the desired product on the left side of the screen is an option to search other nearby TSC stores for the same product… results can be scary … this is really easy to research before making the purchase.

We really never expected such pricing within a region until we ordered two pallets of shavings, the price difference was over 22% more at the Rich person’s store verses the one we normally used, which evidently is for us poorer people

When confronted the store manager did price match the poor store’s pricing

[SharonA1]

@Simkie

Damn, that price on mats is wild.

Now, see, I read that as, "wildly low. " Price at my local place is $64.99.

[sascha]

@mmeqcenter

Any thoughts on using something like these for barn aisle flooring?

Would not recommend. If you’re laying over concrete, maybe. If you’re laying over tamped stone, no way, no how. The stone dust will shift under them over time and cause you far more headaches than the few extra bucks proper rubber mats would cause. Add liquid (from power washing the barn, horses peeing in the aisle, water bucket spills or auto waterer malfunction, etc.) and that shifting is going to cause you massive headaches.

I did a lot of research before purchasing and installing for a client’s event inside a large tent over well tamped, levelled stonedust. While the stupid things held up well to several thousand people walking through and they were cleaned up and taken home by the client for use in a garage, they were a GIANT PITA to install and there was some shifting over the 3 days which included popped seams which could not be put back together without ripping out a huge section. The next year we did indoor/outdoor carpet and while nobody was fond of sweeping it every 5 minutes, it was much less trouble than the tiles.

I also worked in the parlour of a dairy farm with similar (thicker and tougher) plastic tiles for several years. They were beautifully laid over concrete. They had to be taken up once or twice a year for cleaning because stuff gets through the cracks and festers under there. They also got terribly slippery if anything even slightly greasy got on them. Add water and you WERE going on your ass, no question. Not an issue when you’re cleaning the joint with a scalding hot pressure washer 3x a day, not practical in a horse barn imo.

All that to say, you’re probably going to be ripping them out and reinstalling them more than you’d like no matter what base they’re going over.