Stee6043
Well-known member
Last August I installed 850 +/- square feet of Racedeck Freeflow up here in Michigan. My summer and fall overview of the Freeflow was quite good in terms of debris. The typical yard junk that would have blown into my garage and ended up clear under my work bench and tool boxes was, for the most part, trapped in the floor within a few feet of the garage door. This made for easy clean up with a shop vac.
As anyone in a snowy climate knows the road salt/dirt takes on a very different level of debris compared to summer.
We had a pretty average winter here. 100" of snow or so. So when I went to clean the garage for the spring yesterday I figured this should be a pretty typical clean up for years to come.
Well first off, I know that the Freeflow is supposed to drain "anything that falls through" but I have to say this would be pretty much impossible in most garages and I didn't expect it in mine. Water flows very well through the floor but you can't expect heavy debris to go very far. What I found yesterday was significant debris in the (4) tracks made by the (2) daily drivers in my garage. Heavy debris within a few feet of the front and rear of each parking spot. I'd say I had 30-40 square feet of tiles that had a pretty good accumulation of junk. These areas needed heavy vacuuming and a strong vac to get the dirt/salt mix out. My Vacumaid did an excellent job with this. I ultimately vac'd the entire floor since there was debris spread from general life as well as driving.
After the vac job (30 minutes) I pressure washed to get the dried up junk off the floor tiles themselves. This was a bit of a mess since it pushes the remaining junk all over the place once the water starts to loosen it up. After pressure washing I had to rinse with a hose to push remaining debris back down into the floor. After this I let the floor dry for a few hours. I came back to find there was now a dirty film on the floor from the last rinse and remaining junk. An aggressive round with a shop broom seemed to take care of this nicely.
So ultimately I was able to return the tile surface to clean but it certainly was not without a fair amount of effort. I'd say I put two+ hours of total work in on it. Next year I may skip the pressure wash and go straight for a chemical cleaner with light rinse after the vacuuming. There is going to be no way to get around vacuuming Freeflow in a winter climate unless you plan to pull tiles up. I'd say it would only take one really harsh winter or two average winters and you'll have debris piling up above the top of the tiles themselves in the heavy areas.
Still 100% pleased with my choice in Rackdeck as long as I can continue to return it to factory finish with a bit of elbow grease in the spring.
As anyone in a snowy climate knows the road salt/dirt takes on a very different level of debris compared to summer.
We had a pretty average winter here. 100" of snow or so. So when I went to clean the garage for the spring yesterday I figured this should be a pretty typical clean up for years to come.
Well first off, I know that the Freeflow is supposed to drain "anything that falls through" but I have to say this would be pretty much impossible in most garages and I didn't expect it in mine. Water flows very well through the floor but you can't expect heavy debris to go very far. What I found yesterday was significant debris in the (4) tracks made by the (2) daily drivers in my garage. Heavy debris within a few feet of the front and rear of each parking spot. I'd say I had 30-40 square feet of tiles that had a pretty good accumulation of junk. These areas needed heavy vacuuming and a strong vac to get the dirt/salt mix out. My Vacumaid did an excellent job with this. I ultimately vac'd the entire floor since there was debris spread from general life as well as driving.
After the vac job (30 minutes) I pressure washed to get the dried up junk off the floor tiles themselves. This was a bit of a mess since it pushes the remaining junk all over the place once the water starts to loosen it up. After pressure washing I had to rinse with a hose to push remaining debris back down into the floor. After this I let the floor dry for a few hours. I came back to find there was now a dirty film on the floor from the last rinse and remaining junk. An aggressive round with a shop broom seemed to take care of this nicely.
So ultimately I was able to return the tile surface to clean but it certainly was not without a fair amount of effort. I'd say I put two+ hours of total work in on it. Next year I may skip the pressure wash and go straight for a chemical cleaner with light rinse after the vacuuming. There is going to be no way to get around vacuuming Freeflow in a winter climate unless you plan to pull tiles up. I'd say it would only take one really harsh winter or two average winters and you'll have debris piling up above the top of the tiles themselves in the heavy areas.
Still 100% pleased with my choice in Rackdeck as long as I can continue to return it to factory finish with a bit of elbow grease in the spring.
You have one of the coolest garages around.