Porcelein tiles transition under the garage door of a heated garage

Question

I am installing 600x600x10 mm porcelain tiles on existing concrete floor in a garage. I am not sure what would be the best way to transition between inside and outside with the tiles. I'm using materials that are outdoors and indoors -rated, but the transition is what I am not sure about.

The concrete floor extends past the gate to the outside approximately 25 cm. There is no seam nor any threshold in the concrete floor between inside and outside. The tile pattern would extend about 5 cm past the gate to the outside if I would leave the last row of tiles uncut. The gate might be changed or renovated and the current seam location might shift inside or outside by a few cm. The gate is 2.5 m wide.

The garage is heated, keeping it at least at +9 C when outside temperatures can go down to -20 C.

The concrete is now level with the driveway, so I will need to terminate the tiles with a metal or concrete slope to avoid a sharp edge. What would be an appropriate reliable transition from indoors to outdoors?

Answer 1

A picture from inside the garage, through the "gate" (is this a door sealing inside from outside?) and onto the outside apron would be helpful.

However, I'm not really sure that's really necessary. Porcelain tiles should be quite suitable for outside use, especially since you noted that yours are indoor/outdoor rated.

Based on my initial assumption that the "gate" is a people-sized opening

I can't see any issue with running the tile from the garage floor, through the door way and out onto this exterior apron. Put a border tile with a rounded edge and glazing around the smooth edge (often called a "bull nose" tile in the US) on the outside of the apron, just like if you were tiling a wall around the shower and wanted the tile to end beyond the edge of the shower/tub area.

Based on another thought that the "gate" is the car-sized opening

Either:

1. Cut the tile at the edge of the "gate" so that when the gate is closed, the tile edge aligns with the outside edge of the gate. (Or with the inside edge, if you prefer that aesthetic.
2. Run the last tile past the "gate" so that some of it is visible from outside.

In the US, the standard garage floor design has a 1/4 - 1/2" (6-12mm) lip (maybe even taller) between the inside floor surface and the outside apron or driveway surface. This lip helps to keep water from the driveway from running under the garage door (seals only work but so well) and into the garage. The lip is usually a reasonably vertical edge, slightly rounded over on the top (and, if it wasn't worked to that rounded shape on the original pour, it will slowly chip to that shape). If your garage doesn't have this lip, the edge of the tile will act as the lip, helping to keep your garage floor more dry.

You would have the vertical, unglazed edge showing to the road, but it's highly unlikely that anyone but you would notice or care. I doubt that this edge would be significantly damaged by weather, either. You might want to use a bull nose tile here, as well, though, just for appearance sake, and because the more rounded edge might hold up better to the abuse of tires rolling up and down the edge.