Moisture or mold under Racedeck or Swisstrax?

[SteveL]

Anyone have issues with capturing moisture, mold, dirt under a tiled floor like Racedeck or Swisstrax? I wash my cars inside during the winter and get occasional water from rain or melted snow. How do you deal with all the water that has to collect under the tiles? Can’t imagine that I would be able to drag the whole floor outside to clean up the mess.

 

[Dig Doug]

I would think you would do a winter prep and get as much dust / dirt out as possible ( below the decking/ flooring) blow it out or vacuum up.

once the dust gets wet ( mud ) it will stay wet a lot longer.

maybe look for a dehumidifier or run some fans to move the air around and it will dry it faster

I have quite a few fans

but these 2 are my favorites for drying out flooring.

the yellow is most used it has additional plugs on the fan so I can chain a few together

the orange guy throws a lot of air!

both are fairly quiet

 

[Shea]

The tiles are designed for air circulation underneath. The water will eventually evaporate and there won't be mold or mildew. Some people with the Free-Flow or RibTrax will sometimes separate a large section and just pull it out after winter to clean the debris left behind. Others just place a piece of lumber under the front lip and then hose it out from the back to the front.

 

[kngelv]

If you have a pitched floor then the water that gets through the seams should eventually work its way out.

James

 

[Garage Flooring]

I have seen it under PVC tiles but I have never seen it under any American made hard tile

 

[White Shadow]

My garage floor is pitched a few degrees towards the doors, so water drains out from under my RaceDeck tiles. That said, even with melted snow and slush all over the floor, I've never experienced any kind of mold issues. The tiles circulate tons of air since it's such an open design.

 

[CSRPenFab]

My garage floor is pitched a few degrees towards the doors, so water drains out from under my RaceDeck tiles. That said, even with melted snow and slush all over the floor, I've never experienced any kind of mold issues. The tiles circulate tons of air since it's such an open design.

Same here. My FreeFlow saw a metric S-ton of slush/muck last winter, and come spring you'd hardly know it was ever there. It all drained out and no mold issues. A quick spray with my pressure washer cleaned the muddy sections of tiles and it looked new again.

 

[CombatNinja]

Why not use RaceDeck Free Flow tiles if you wash cars inside? You can use it just in the areas where the cars sit if you don't want it everywhere.

 

[Mark in Baltimore]

Zero mold issues with my Swisstrax Ribtrax Smooth. Dirt, however, drops through the tiles and under the floors. Complete non-issue that the wet "dirt"/debris holds moisture and creates mold. I do have a minisplit in the garage, so it's climate-controlled.

 

[RaceDeck1]

Why not use RaceDeck Free Flow tiles if you wash cars inside? You can use it just in the areas where the cars sit if you don't want it everywhere.

Yes, you can mix and match all RaceDeck styles in your garage flooring. All RaceDeck garage floors have our multi-patented self-draining under structure to allow moisture and liquids to flow freely

 

[mikeyr]

Just let it dry...in near 20 years time, my garage has flooded twice, both times an inch or 2 of water above the few tiles that were not floating. Fun to walk on

I never did anything special, just let it dry out naturally and when I lifted up the floor to move to my new garage, the concrete was as clean as the day i put it down, no mold or mildew. I have solid Racedeck tiles, not the ones with the holes, I think those would have dried even quicker but those were not made when i got my tiles and I don't like them anyway, my shop sees a lot of woodwork and the sawdust would get below the tiles. Also last year, my shop has been a body shop, did a lot of body leading and lead shavings along with tons of bondo being sanded, again that would get under the tiles.

 

[Swisstrax_Official]

Here's a video showing RAD Garage doing a deep clean of their Swisstrax tiles:

More information on cleaning Swisstrax tiles: https://www.swisstrax.com/cleaning-swisstrax-flooring.html

 

[rancherbill]

Anyone have issues with capturing moisture, mold, dirt under a tiled floor like Racedeck or Swisstrax? I wash my cars inside during the winter and get occasional water from rain or melted snow. How do you deal with all the water that has to collect under the tiles? Can’t imagine that I would be able to drag the whole floor outside to clean up the mess.

I have no idea, I do not have Racedeck.

I do live where there is Ice and Snow and my vehicles also brought in SALT. My flow was being eaten by the salt. I got my floor epoxy coated. I suspect that floors would deteriorate from the slat and every time they got wet it would resume.

 

[RaceDeck1]

Our multi-patented understructure design in all of our modular floors allow for moisture and liquids to flow freely to drains and out the door. The material we manufacture our products out of do not promote mold and mildew as well. The FreeFlow XLC offers the greatest drainage and air circulation- With both the FreeFlow styles, the top open rib is smaller than the channeling of the understructure.