So, the rubber tiled garage floor has been relaid. It took three burghers of the parish, strong and true (ahem) a full day to do it, from emptying, laying, cutting, glueing and re-laying.

The original floor was loosely laid with these tiles and to be honest, they were great. amazingly better than walking on and kneeling on than the normal concrete floor.

However, as they warmed up, and as I heaved heavy things around the garage (like engine cranes and scissor lifts), they rucked up. Even without anything in the garage, they expanded in the heat and rucked up.

So, we emptied the garage (two blokes can carry a fury chassis), and lifted the tiles. From then on, this was the order of work:

• all tiles out, and don’t really make detailed notes of what went where
• brush the floor down
• debate how much PVA sealant is needed, bearing in mind there is a trade-off between concentration and setting time (the more dilute, the longer)
• go for 2:1 with 2.5L of sealant
• congratulate yourself for not throwing it out the previous week thinking “I’m never going to tile a bathroom again, so why would I leave this lying around”
• brush the mixture in with a yard-brush. none of those namby-pamby rollers, thankyouverymuch.
• find that you have covered 99% of the floor before running out and decide that it is good
• marvell at how the drive now looks like steptoe’s yard with all the stuff you have on it
• be impressed at how much rain there is
• watch the tall stanley tools cabinet fall crashing over in a mild gust of wind (POS)
• wait for Julian to turn up, and hold him responsible for where the tiles are going to go back to
• have lunch
• trial-lay the tiles back down again
• clean the backs of the tiles with acetone
• start sticking them down with pink-grip
• be amazed at how one tube does 4 tiles if you’re sparing
• cup of tea
• be amazed at how the tiles don’t end up in the same place when glued down as they did in the trial fit.
• lay two rows and find them to be good
• cup of tea
• lay all the tiles but the edges
• cup of tea
• cut the edges back from the originals and stick them in
• cup of tea
• haul all the garage parts back in
• beer

This has made a big difference. Firstly, the undulations were becoming a trip-hazard and a garage is a place full of spikes and hard edges.

secondly heavy wheeled tools like the engine stand, engine crane and scissor lifts now move around in a much easier manner because they’re not pushing a ruck of loose tiles in front of themselves.

Very happy with that as a result. I have a dull ache between my shoulder blades – the indicator of a good days physical work completed. Much better than a dull ache in my left arm which indicates i would be past doing this work.