Interlocking tiles and fluid leaks

[68formula]

So I do my own mechanical work whenever possible, and owning classic cars and bikes, eventually fluids end of up the floor. See these great looking interlocking tiles, but what do you do when there's leaks? Do you just not put them where you do work? But there can still be leaks from various systems on a car regardless, so it's still a potential problem.

 

[Sturgeon]

Good question op, been wondering same as you? Not to mention sawdust or dirt build up and thinking the pressure washer treatment would cause more issues than the dirt?

 

[RaceDeck1]

RaceDeck has a patented fully-channeled understructure that allows moisture and liquids to flow freely to drains and/or out the door on pitched floors ( I was my cars in the garage all year long ). Also the RaceDeck interlocking system makes it easy to remove one module or a section see video
How to pop out a RaceDeck Tile

 

[Blackbyrd]

So I do my own mechanical work whenever possible, and owning classic cars and bikes, eventually fluids end of up the floor. See these great looking interlocking tiles, but what do you do when there's leaks? Do you just not put them where you do work? But there can still be leaks from various systems on a car regardless, so it's still a potential problem.

So ive dealt with this a few times, I have garage deck tiles from BigFloors.

I have 3 cars in the garage now listed in my signature below and do regular maintenance on them all year. The 71 Camaro is a full restoration project so I dont have the tiles under it with all the welding and grinding that goes on. The rest of the garage has been exposed to coolant, oil, gas, powersteering fluid and all the other things that go along with servicing a car.

In most cases its not been large enough contact for me not to worry about pulling up tiles to clean under it and I do my best to put a container under something when doing a full fluid change. That said drips and leaks still occur, so for the most part a degreaser and a mop have solved all my issues. There is one spot that I didnt know was leaking and the car sat for sometime and it had a leaky AN fitting on the gas line, so it did yellow the grayish silver tile I have down. Ive had the floor installed for going on 8 years now, and while it gets grimmy thorugh-out the year a good mopping cleans it up nicely. I wont say its 100% as good as it was when I bought it, but its still 10x better than whats underneath it.

Have a look at my garage thread and you can see the floor if you like.

In my next garage, I may go with the swisstrax open grid design, ive been told that since everything settles into the bottom that its much easier to care for and keep clean. I still dont think id do a floor coating or expoxy over the tile option.

 

[mikeyr]

I have never picked my tiles up, I clean the tiles and if any got under the tiles, I don't care, its hidden under the tiles.

 

[RaceDeck1]

If drainage and super heavy-duty is the criteria, check out the beefiest modular garage floor style FREEFLOW XLC https://racedeck.com/racedeck-garage-floors-and-tiles/free-flow-xlc/

 

[Armorpoxy]

Hi, our www.supratile.com interlocking tiles have extremely tight fitting joints. If you put a piece of paper towel under the joint and pour fluid directly on the joint, the towel will stay dry. We never get complaints about fluids getting under the tiles.

 

[Swisstrax_Official]

Someone asked a similar question in the comments of this video from Obsessed Garage, where they demonstrated how to clean underneath Swisstrax tiles:

Question: "Spills: in most garages the spill is going to travel all over the place due to a slight slope, this seems like it would be an absolute nightmare to pull up 20 tiles to clean."

He commented: I've found that most liquids that matter to wipe (oil) won't go very far. But you could pull up a whole row of tiles in seconds and then easily snap them back in place.

 

[JoshS]

I recently installed Racedeck tiles and I went with the solid diamond plate tiles in the work area which is the back half of my 30x40 shop which is under the 2-post lift. I did the freeflow in the front where I more or less just park my "drivers". I do a lot of work on my cars, just pulled an engine/transmission on a racecar we are working on, so I do spill fluids. I try to be careful and so far haven't had any big spills, but the small spills clean up real easy. I have a roll of Amazon "pig" mat that I use to clean up spills, works great. I also got a cheep spray mop with microfiber heads and I put some purple power in there and spray and mop to keep things clean as needed.

Yes I do need to be a bit careful when cutting/welding, but I just through down a welding blanket.

How it holds up long term is yet to be determined, but I'm not regretting my choice at all so far.