Another Racedeck thread, have questions

[45 ACP]

When I bought my house 6 years ago I had a company apply a polyaspartic floor sealer in the garage. It is very smooth and shiny and looks really good. It is also extremely slippery when wet. I have 2 kids and friends over all the time and I'm ready to stop worrying about someone getting hurt, get rid of all the shop rugs I have scattered in there and put down some Racedeck.

I like the free-flow tiles because water will not puddle up and it seems like it would breath better. What I dont like about free-flow is walking on it with bare feet, kneeling on it working on motorcycles and possibly losing very small parts in the cracks. Also, I have 23 pine trees in my yard and pine needles get everywhere. It's not terrible inside the garage, but they do get in there. Seems like the pine needles getting stuck in the free-flow tiles would be a constant battle.

Because of the reasons above, I am leaning towards the diamond tiles but have a few concern on those as well. I live in the Houston area and it gets real hot. My garage faces NE and does get direct sunlight in there for a few hours in the evenings when the door is left open. Ive read on here that the solid tiles are more prone to buckling in direct sunlight? Any truth to this? Also, my whole reason for doing this is to eliminate the slippery floors when wet. Are the diamond tiles slippery when wet?

Another concern, Ive searched here and read a few threads about the tiles shifting. The current coating on my floor has zero traction. It is very smooth and slick, even more so than paint or epoxy. Will the tiles slide and shift on the floor when my wife pulls her SUV in and out? If so, would putting down landscape fabric underneath solve this issue?

Any feedback or suggestions would be appreciated. I only want to do this once and be done, not sit there thinking "dang it, sure wish I would have thought of that".

 

[CombatNinja]

How does a garage in Texas that faces Northeast get direct sun in the evening?

 

[45 ACP]

Well, I live in this house and can assure you that the front half of my garage floor gets hammered by the sun in the afternoon/evening during summer time. The sun doesn't set directly in front of the garage door, but at an angle a bit to the left.

 

[RaceDeck1]

Hello 45 ACP -

First, thank you for considering RaceDeck I will try to address some of your concerns based on our experience over the last few decades.

Most all expansion issues rooted to an installation issue and the floor not being able utilize our powerlocks to allow for thermal expansion and contraction in the garage climate. I too live with a garage that gets sun through to mid day and have no issue at all. The key is to "Capture Maxinum Expansion".
Here is how I have explained this is the past
I will give you an example to show you what capturing max expansion on our patented free floating modular floor system is.

Lets say we take a large RaceDeck floor ( 30x30 ) and lay it out on a parking lot in Arizona. We install the floor early in the morning when it is cool ( in the 50's) and put nothing on top of it. We come back mid day at the hottest time ( say 100 - that's a 50 degree swing + direct sunlight on the floor which can sometimes increase the surface temp 2-3 times depending on color) and the floor is perfectly flat, we then come back at midnight and still flat and then again early the next morning and still flat.

Now I come in and park a truck on the left side and a car on the right side ( in the am), I come back in the middle of the day and we may have a rise in the floors across the middle section? What happen- Well the floor can not push the cars out during expansion so it goes the path of least resistance, which is up. We leave the cars there and come back at midnight and the floor is now flat again, the reason being it is cooled and the floor contracted.

Now here comes the 'expanision capture' part ( finally, I know ) - We take the same floor in the same parking lot and we wait until the middle of the day to park our vehicles on the RaceDeck floor. This is the hottest part of the day when the floor expansion is at max and flat. Now we come back at midnight and in the am and the floor is flat, then again at mid-day and guess what the floor is flat. Why? When we parked the car on the hot RaceDeck floor during the hot part of the day, it was fully expanded. When it cooled that night, the floor can not pull the cars in, so it stays at max expansion.

In a real world garage, we do the same thing in extreme climates with huge temp swings. If you install your floor and wait to place all your heavy objects ( tool boxes, lawn mowers, chest, cabinets, bikes, etc) on the flooring until it is the hottest part of the day, you will capture the expansion. It typically stays flat as 99.9% of garages do not remove everything on the floor at one time.

I hope this make sense. There are very unusual cases dues to sub-floor issues, use, etc that we work with numerous other techniques to correctly install
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[45 ACP]

Thanks for addressing the buckling in sunlight issue. What about my concerns with the tiles sliding and/or shifting on my slick floor?

Also, are the diamond tiles slippery when wet?

I'd like to also hear from some customers on their personal experiences.

 

[RaceDeck1]

Thanks for addressing the buckling in sunlight issue. What about my concerns with the tiles sliding and/or shifting on my slick floor?

Also, are the diamond tiles slippery when wet?

I'd like to also hear from some customers on their personal experiences.

We have solutions for ultra-slick epoxy or polished concrete, if you contact us we can go over and would love to see photos to give our input

 

[45 ACP]

Thanks.

Any other real world experiences from the consumer?

 

[emdoller]

Thanks.

Any other real world experiences from the consumer?

Have you looked at PVC? I’ve been looking at options for way to long and believe PVC is the way to go. It’s expensive but will our last any of us.

Ed

 

[45 ACP]

I have not looked into PVC, but I'm open to options. Got any details?

 

[Mr. Pink]

I just installed my RD flooring here in Maryland and it was cold out the day I installed. I did experience some buckling a couple weeks ago when it was unseasonable warm and my garage door was open and getting direct sunlight. The buckling was on a couple of the first row tiles are you enter the garage.

My garage is fully insulated and I did let the tiles sit inside the garage for a few days before installing.

As for slipperiness, I have not had any issues...although it's been pretty dry lately compared to most of the year.

I installed 18"x18" diamond plate tiles.

Overall, I'm very happy with my RD purchase. Installation was a breeze and the tiles were easy to trim with my table saw and a handheld jigsaw.