Racedeck and gasoline

[awatkins]

I have a 3-car garage with wall-to-wall white Racedeck XL on top of a concrete slab. One of my cars developed a very slow fuel leak (one drip a minute or so) and the gasoline ran through the inter-tile gaps and spread out under the flooring. This caused about 20 tiles to warp, raising the corners significantly. So, I have a few questions:

1. Can the warped tiles be saved? It appears that the effect of the gasoline is to expand the surface it is nearest to (i.e. in this case the underside) so I wonder if doing something like heating one side, or weighting the tiles in the opposite direction might permanently flatten them out.

2. Does the 15-year warranty cover this kind of damage?

3. Part of the reason it took me a while to fix the leak was because I couldn't find it, which was made more difficult by the fact that the gasoline immediately ran under the tiles at the nearest gap rather than pooling. Also if fluids couldn't leak below the tile one wouldn't have to lift them in order to completely clean up. This leads me to wonder about methods for sealing the inter-tile gaps. One obvious method would be to apply some silicone caulk to the gaps, but it's fairly laborious to get that down into the gap, especially when the gaps is as narrow as it's supposed to be. Any suggestions?

4. Unrelated to the gasoline leak, but... I find the "clop-clop" sound of walking on the tiles a little obnoxious, and it strikes me there might be an easy solution, namely, a periodic dot of caulk or similar material on the floor between the tile and the substrate. Or maybe an occasional quarter-size piece of thin rubber sheet. Anyone tried this?

 

[darkk]

We put landscaping cloth/material down before installing the Racedeck. Little to no noise walking on it. The gas thing....contact Racedeck and ask...their customer service is pretty good.

 

[MSG C5]

If you install the landscaping cloth or rubber, won't that defeat the purpose of the fluid run-off through the underside tile grooves? I know the landscaping cloth is supposed to allow water/moisture to flow through, however I would think a rubber shield would be a moisture trap.

 

[bdamico]

If you install the landscaping cloth or rubber, won't that defeat the purpose of the fluid run-off through the underside tile grooves? I know the landscaping cloth is supposed to allow water/moisture to flow through, however I would think a rubber shield would be a moisture trap.

this has been covered many times here

 

[jeffj78]

I have never seen warped tiles before. The gas must have sat for a long time on the surface. I just did a brake job yesterday morning and I vacuumed the area and used crab/brake cleaner to get out the brakes dust/grease marks - they look fine. My tiles fit very tight. I regularly wash the floor with soap, broom, and hose, nothing goes below. Even in winter with the cars sitting, nothing goes below.

As for the noise, mine goes right over the concrete with nothing underneath and I have no noise. I had noise after I first put it in but found an easy fix. Letting the sun hit the tile expands it greatly. When I close the doors it lays down and conforms to any deviations in the concrete.

I would call Racedeck and see what they say. I've had very few issues and they always took care of me.

 

[RaceDeck1]

Hello
I'm sorry you are having an issue with your floor ( and your car ) first let me say that we will replace all your damaged tiles. My guess is that there is some sort of additive in the gas and/ or the fuel puddled up under the floor for some time and the chemicals, vapors , and caused something to make the tiles react
Either way we will replace , and in the meantime get your fuel leak fixed on your car...that could be dangerous

 

[pepi]

I've always wondered about these tiles in the real world, have the answer now... Thanks for the post...

 

[RaceDeck1]

I've always wondered about these tiles in the real world, have the answer now... Thanks for the post...

With well over 100 million feet of modular flooring manufactured and installed in virtually every type installation ( and environment ), there are rare cases that can cause unusual issues, like this one.. This also applies to epoxy, carpet , VCt , , vinyl, concrete , etc...
Some are minor and some are well, quite odd. Example; We had one customer whose garage / house flooded and the had a 20x20 floor as a pad. The garage doors were open and when the water started to receded the floor floated away and down the road...

 

[awatkins]

....first let me say that we will replace all your damaged tiles. My guess is that there is some sort of additive in the gas and/ or the fuel puddled up under the floor for some time and the chemicals, vapors , and caused something to make the tiles react

Hi Jorgen -- glad to see the boss man here, and very happy to hear this is covered under warranty. However before I send my old tiles to the landfill....

I am still interested in answers to the other questions I asked. Is there really no way to restore the old tiles? The gas was straight-from-the-pump Chevron, and I doubt I'm the first person to discover this. And as said, it took a few days to find and fix the leak so the tiles did sit over some gas-soaked concrete for a while. Hardly an atypical scenario if you do a lot of work on prototype and race cars. IAE if there is anyone in your company with a good understanding of gasoline's effect on the plastic you use I would like to understand the "swelling" mechanism and how, or why not, it might be reversible. Or some ideas on flattening the tiles out (heat, pressure,....?). In the meantime I think you could set customer expectations a little more accurately since there are very few plastics that are truly impervious to all the chemicals you find around a busy shop, and polypropylene is, AFAIK not right at the top of the imperviousness list.

IAE given the product is susceptible to long term exposure my question about crack sealing was in earnest. Most solvents, unlike water, flow quite readily through even a tight crack between tiles so being able to head that off would go a long way toward mitigating the tiles' issues with long-term exposure. If nothing else take it as a product improvement suggestion, eg, a version with a thin soft gasket around the edges, or one with a sealant grove or bevel that would gracefully accept a bead of silicone would solve my problem. Had I known of this problem in the first place I would have at least beveled my tiles so i could seal the cracks.

But don't get me wrong: I love the product and recommend it to anyone who will listen. For my purposes it beats epoxy paint by a mile. I just want a better understanding of how to live with it efficiently.

Alan.