Race deck; garage flooded; remove to dry out ?

[DCW]

I have a race deck floor in my garage. Pipe burst in ceiling and flooded garage. I have a thick layer of drywall "paste" on floor. Servpro has removed ceiling and part of 2 walls to dry out garage. They have been using dryers, blowers, and dehumidifies to dry everything up. I pulled up several tiles and there is still water under tiles. Amount of water is best described as more than damp, wet but not puddling.
Do I need to have floor removed, dry out concrete, clean tiles and replace floor ?
Or...leave floor in place, clean it and it will dry naturally.

Thanks
Dennis

 

[SweetD]

I would pull it out. As much as it *****, you'll have peace of mind knowing you cleaned and dried it properly.

 

[DCW]

SweetD....Thanks for the response.

I was hopefully that the air channels on the bottom of the race deck tile would be enough drainage and airflow to dry out the floor.

Thanks
Dennis

 

[SteveCh]

The channels will almost certainly allow the floor to dry out. However, once my floor is clear of stuff on it, it takes me about fifteen minutes to separate my RD tiles into three or four sections and pull each one out into the sun. I've done it twice over the years to facilitate a full cleaning underneath. Very, very easy to do. Once cleaned, I can pull the sections back in, line up the joints, and have them all done in maybe ten minutes.

 

[Armorpoxy]

With that amount of water flooding the garage it's probably best to remove a good portion of the garage to avoid mildew growing.

Hint...if you sprinkle Borax under the tiles it eliminates the possibility of mildew and mold under tiles. Some of our professional dealers who sell tiles in very damp and humid areas use the Borax just as a precaution for their clients.

 

[Kevin54]

If it were me, I would remove the tiles just for the fact that I could then wash everything out underneath of them. Get ServPro to do the grunt work.

 

[DCW]

Thanks for all of the replies. Insurance estimator is coming out tomorrow to take a look. They are going to have to remove all the stuff from garage for the drywall repair and painting. Servpro is going to clean the floor tomorrow as well. Will push to get floor removed to clean underneath.

Update....I pulled up some of the tiles today and it was pretty dry, the channels underneath really seem to work. I will try the Borax, sounds like a good tip.



Thanks again

Dennis

 

[mikeyr]

My old garage flooded twice with RD tiles floating on a few inches of water. I never removed them until I moved out a few years later, no issues at all with mold/mildew ever. The only thing was water seeping out for a good week after the flood from under the tiles. When I finally did pull them up to move, the underneath of the tiles and floor looked like the day I put them down nearly 10 years earlier.

 

[ska]

My old garage flooded twice with RD tiles floating on a few inches of water. I never removed them until I moved out a few years later, no issues at all with mold/mildew ever. The only thing was water seeping out for a good week after the flood from under the tiles. When I finally did pull them up to move, the underneath of the tiles and floor looked like the day I put them down nearly 10 years earlier.

Wow thats awesome

 

[jermar]

I had a similar flooding problem. I used an electric leaf blower to dry it out. I lifted the tiles near the middle, shoved the blower tube as far as it could reach, and blew away. About 2/3 of the entire floor lifted as I blasted out the moisture. I did this a couple times a day over a weekend and it was much less work than removing tiles.