Racedeck buckling

[Bcarr]

I've had my Racedeck installed for over 2 years now. One thing that bothers me is when the doors are open and the sun hits the floor it will buckle and raise up a couple of inches at minimum. Sometimes more. It's rather annoying and honestly a trip hazard. Yesterday it did the same thing and it was only 40 degrees here.

I do have plenty of gap around the floor and you can see that none of the edges are touching walls when this happens.

So....Does anyone else have this problem? Are there any solutions that have worked for you? I love the floor overall but this issue makes me question my purchase.

 

[TRWTOW]

I don't have your answer is it solid tiles or the freeflow vented stuff im getting ready to order.sure don't want this problem. the race deck guy posts here im sure he will know what to do

 

[Shea]

This usually happens when the heavy objects on the tile floor where moved back into the garage onto the tile when it was cool. Then, when the tile heats up from exposure to the sun, the heavy objects don't allow the floor to expand much and the buckling occurs.

The best way to prevent this from happening is to move the heavy stuff out on a warm day to let the tile expand. Once it has, move the stuff back in while it's still warm. It will not be affected when it cools other than pull snug. This allows for more expansion of the tile when it warms again, thus alleviating most if not all the buckling issues that can happen.

 

[RaceDeck1]

Shea has got the right idea.. If you call us and we can see a picture of your garage set-up, we can help you get the installation right to elevate the problem you are having... We call it 'Capture the Max Expansion' and for 99.99% of garages that may have an issue, this solves it, including areas where you can have 40-60+ degree swings in temp over a 24 hour period

 

[Bcarr]

Thanks for the quick responses. They are the solid tiles. When I installed it, it was very warm (July) so I don't know how to make it any hotter. As soon as the sun hits it the buckling occurs. Some of it gets real bad too. I was just surprised to see it happen in 40 degree temps with the sun hitting it. Something isn't right but I know it's not from clearance around the edges. I'll see if i can get a couple of pics. It's going to be 52 here today and the door is open so I will see if it happens. Obviously in summer it is very bad.

Jorgen-Should I ask for you if I call?

 

[RaceDeck1]

[/QUOTE]
Jorgen-Should I ask for you if I call?[/QUOTE]

Yes you can , if I am in you can also talk with Lauren. I will also pm you her email to send pics , so we can discuss whats going on when you call .

 

[Wuaname]

Is this buckling typical? How did op resolve it?

 

[Bcarr]

I haven't resolved it yet and it hasn't been bad. Mainly because I haven't been parking cars in there since it warmed up a little. I am waiting for a "hot" day and then will submit pics and try to find a solution.

 

[c7fx]

Mine buckles at to edge also. I don't have anything on the tile and they are the free flow tiles. I have noticed that they are starting to stay buckled when out of the sun. Its not real bad but its making me think twice about doing the complete garage. I only did the third garage to protect the floor from damage damage related to kickstands lifts etc.

 

[TigerGA]

No matter what the temp is outside, if I leave my garage door open and the sun hits the tiles by the door, they buckle. It's not a big deal for me because I keep the door closed. However, I probably could have avoided this by placing the tiles in the sun on a hot day, let them expand, and then installing.

 

[WanderingSol]

I don't have Racedeck, another brand Multy, mine too is buckling slightly, lifted in the middle of the right bay of a two bay garage. Lifted by at most 1/8". I do have stuff sitting on the floor around the perimeter so that is probably stopping it from moving and settling. Also had the sun on that bay only with the car out. That evening it appears to have settled back down. With the car out and the bright sun I'm not too surprised.

 

[SteveCh]

Is this buckling typical? How did op resolve it?

I hear about buckling here on GJ, and I have RD [FreeFlow] and mine gets good sun much of the day in the summers, temp's up to around high nineties F.

I have never had any buckling. I also have an area covered with solid RD tiles, it gets sun but filtered through clear polycarbonate panels on the walls. I have no buckling there, either.

Don't know what the difference in my situation is with those experiencing the buckling. I do, of course, see a bit of expansion in the entire "mat" of the floor tiles, left a one-inch+ space around the perimeter as is advised by installation. But I get no buckling whether my car or tractor or truck is parked in there or nothing at all on the floor or a bunch of other stuff stacked on it.

 

[Garage Flooring]

I hear about buckling here on GJ, and I have RD [FreeFlow] and mine gets good sun much of the day in the summers, temp's up to around high nineties F.

I have never had any buckling. I also have an area covered with solid RD tiles, it gets sun but filtered through clear polycarbonate panels on the walls. I have no buckling there, either.

Don't know what the difference in my situation is with those experiencing the buckling. I do, of course, see a bit of expansion in the entire "mat" of the floor tiles, left a one-inch+ space around the perimeter as is advised by installation. But I get no buckling whether my car or tractor or truck is parked in there or nothing at all on the floor or a bunch of other stuff stacked on it.

ANY floating floor in the garage can experience issues similar to the ones posted by the OP. This is NOT a Racedeck issue and its not a material defect. Take a floor that's basically plastic, expose part of that floor to high heat while the other part of the floor does not get that exposure and you can get that problem.

Leaving the proper amounts of room for expansion, allowing the floor to sit in the sun prior to install and proper product selection and installation is essential.

The vast majority of installs don't have a problem. There are so many factors that people just don't think of. Do you leave your garage door open? What direction does the door face? Etc etc.

 

[Slowbra]

Leaving the proper amounts of room for expansion, allowing the floor to sit in the sun prior to install and proper product selection and installation is essential.

I'm getting ready to start installing my tiles and want to make sure I do it right the first time since it's a large project. Before I start I have some questions for you and Jorgen.

1. How much room should be left for expansion?

2. How long does the tile need to sit in the sun?

3. Does every piece of tile need to be removed from the box and put in the sun?

4. How long should I wait until I move the heavy stuff back into the garage (tool boxes, workbenches etc.)?

The vast majority of installs don't have a problem. There are so many factors that people just don't think of. Do you leave your garage door open? What direction does the door face? Etc etc.

Is there anything other than the above that I need to think of?

One of my garages faces south. The other faces east. I want the ability to leave the garages open when I want to. The southern facing garage will also have a 4-post lift installed in it next month.

Any advice other than the questions asked above would be great. I'm starting my project on Saturday!

Thanks.

 

[SteveCh]

In my case, I didn’t lay the tiles out in the sun. I just opend the boxes and began putting the floor together. Of course, it took a while and the tiles had been sitting in their boxes for a couple days due to my schedule.

I installed them on a warm day because that’s when I was doing the project, summertime, by chance. My garage faces south.

I left about an inch space around the perimeter between the edge of the tiles and the walls. Again, in my case, that has been more than adequate. I have noticed that space decreasing by about a quarter inch on hot days. I haven’t actually measured it, but my one-inch space is more than enough.

In my garage, all the heavy stuff is along one side of the garage, except for some jacks and a few boxed items on the opposite side. It is possible this allows my tiles to move about without buckling, compared with a garage with heavy stuff all around the perimeter. I don't know.....

Again, due to schedule, I didn’t get around to moving heavy stuff back onto the floor [table saw, 600 lb??] until the next day. To tell the truth, I wasn’t even thinking about buckling. And as I said in my former post, I have experienced no buckling. What I did experience was some “curling up” of some of the edging tiles at the front of the garage in sun. I called RD, and they recommended I replace them with the wider version of the edge tiles. They sent them to me, I put them in, and I have had no further problem. As to the buckling of the tile matt itself that others have had, I haven’t had any of that. The sun reaches about halfway into my garage, meaning about halfway from the garage opening to the farthest wall. No problems for me.

 

[Garage Flooring]

Leaving the proper amounts of room for expansion, allowing the floor to sit in the sun prior to install and proper product selection and installation is essential.

I'm getting ready to start installing my tiles and want to make sure I do it right the first time since it's a large project. Before I start I have some questions for you and Jorgen.

1. How much room should be left for expansion?

2. How long does the tile need to sit in the sun?

3. Does every piece of tile need to be removed from the box and put in the sun?

4. How long should I wait until I move the heavy stuff back into the garage (tool boxes, workbenches etc.)?






Is there anything other than the above that I need to think of?

One of my garages faces south. The other faces east. I want the ability to leave the garages open when I want to. The southern facing garage will also have a 4-post lift installed in it next month.

Any advice other than the questions asked above would be great. I'm starting my project on Saturday!

Thanks.

I do not want to hijack this thread. Here is an article we have on our site: http://www.garageflooringllc.com/expansion-and-contraction/ I am going to start a new thread...

 

[RaceDeck1]

IF you call us we are happy to walk you through any part of your installation, so you have a quick and easy installation.

In garages with huge temperature swings in 24 hr periods ( 30-70 degrees ) we have some tips for the installation. RaceDecks patented Powerlock system allows for expansion during temp swings found in all garages and will stay locked during this movement. In extreme cases, a few simple steps to 'Capture Max Expansion'
What we mean my max expansion, let me give you an example;
If you take say a 30x30 floor and put it in the middle of a parking lot at midnight when its cool and park a car on each end...When you come out in the morning, the floor will be flat. When you come back at 1 pm you will see a rise in the floor, why? Because the floor can not push the cars out so the floor is taking the path of least resistance. Now when you come back at midnight, the floor is flat again as it cools and contracts.
Now lets take that same floor and park the cars on the floor at 1 pm ( floor is perfectly flat) . Go back at midnight and its flat, go back at 6 am and its flat, go back and 1 pm and its flat...why? Because you parked the cars on the floor right at MAX expansion and when it cooled, the floor can not pull the cars in and the RaceDeck powerlocks keep the floor interlocked.
So in your garage, you would want to install your floor at the hottest part of the day and put all your heavy objects back on your floor ( tables, lifts, cabinets, teool boxes, etc ) Again, we are always here to walk you through any stage of your install.

 

[Slowbra]

I followed the guidelines mentioned above and have zero issues. Here is my response in Justin's separate thread: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3931149

 

[Slowbra]

The black tiles seemed to really take the sun/heat more than the graphite and blue. I measured a black FreeFlow tile before and after being in the sun (80 degrees, sunny, humid) for 2 hours. It was difficult to measure since I didn't have a micrometer to handle a 12" tile, but with a standard tape measure the expansion was less than 1/16". It definitely expanded, but not enough to register with what I had. Now I can imagine with 20+ tiles that expansion adds up. However, I chose to go with a graphite color FreeFlow tile for my boarder and it and the blue seemed to handle the heat/sun better.

By no means do I want y'all to take my measurements as fact. Capture the max expansion and leave room on the edges and you should be fine.

 

[copperhead37]

Capture the expansion. PURE NONE SENSE. So your suggestion is to move everything out wait for the sun to expand tiles and then horridly move it all back in again and capture the expansion. What happens when you want to drive your car.. oh wait I can answer that. It buckles again. I have a three car garage with buckled tile directly centered under all three cars. So based on your propaganda if I don’t want buckles tiles I have to capture the expansion with my car then never move it again. BRILLIANT.

 

[66HertzClone]

Capture the expansion. PURE NONE SENSE. So your suggestion is to move everything out wait for the sun to expand tiles and then horridly move it all back in again and capture the expansion. What happens when you want to drive your car.. oh wait I can answer that. It buckles again. I have a three car garage with buckled tile directly centered under all three cars. So based on your propaganda if I don’t want buckles tiles I have to capture the expansion with my car then never move it again. BRILLIANT.

Obviously a vehicle that moves in and out or on and off isn't going to fix this. It is heavy objects that you don't move often like the work bench or tool cabinets. Those items that stay in place and serve to anchor the floor at a wide expansion point.

 

[kram71]

Capture the expansion. PURE NONE SENSE. So your suggestion is to move everything out wait for the sun to expand tiles and then horridly move it all back in again and capture the expansion. What happens when you want to drive your car.. oh wait I can answer that. It buckles again. I have a three car garage with buckled tile directly centered under all three cars. So based on your propaganda if I don’t want buckles tiles I have to capture the expansion with my car then never move it again. BRILLIANT.

I'm interested in hearing from multiple people including you about this subject. Pictures and information are always welcome but I think we can still be polite as well.

 

[Garage Flooring]

FYI I have had 0 issues in my garage. Can't emphasize enough how important it is to leave expansion and contraction gaps around anything fixed. Wall, post, even garage door and especially the track.

Leave the tile out in the sun while doing the install and put any heavy objects that don't move back in ASAP. See the link previously posted.

 

[kram71]

FYI I have had 0 issues in my garage. Can't emphasize enough how important it is to leave expansion and contraction gaps around anything fixed. Wall, post, even garage door and especially the track.

Leave the tile out in the sun while doing the install and put any heavy objects that don't move back in ASAP. See the link previously posted.

Any other advice? My heaviest object outside of the cars will be my rolling tool box which will be near the back of room tiles.

 

[Garage Flooring]

Any other advice? My heaviest object outside of the cars will be my rolling tool box which will be near the back of room tiles.

I have a bunch of shelving, fridge and chest freezer. Just followed the instructions in our article on the site and it worked absolutely fine

 

[kram71]

I have a bunch of shelving, fridge and chest freezer. Just followed the instructions in our article on the site and it worked absolutely fine

Thank you! Is your garage solid or free flow?

 

[egdede]

Capture the expansion. PURE NONE SENSE...

Did you once try this and it didn't work? (Would that make me mad enough to post?)

I haven't resolved it yet and it hasn't been bad. Mainly because I haven't been parking cars in there since it warmed up a little. I am waiting for a "hot" day and then will submit pics and try to find a solution.

Noticed the thread was 3 years old. I wonder if the OP saw success?

Slowbra did, and had a good link in post 18...3 years ago...

 

[pbon]

I might try the glue down method for the first few rows just inside the garage doors that can get late afternoon sun and buckle. The expansion theory probably works on a wide open garage with nothing in it or on it. The capture theory probably works if you weigh down most of the tiles. Reality is often different from theory. The glue down affected rows makes the most sense. I have pvc and they weigh about 5 lbs each, unlike the cheap plastic tiles that weigh next to nothing and are might well expand without issue if they have the room to do so and nothing is weighing a few down that prevents the movement of the rest.

 

[Qck]

I might try the glue down method for the first few rows just inside the garage doors that can get late afternoon sun and buckle. The expansion theory probably works on a wide open garage with nothing in it or on it. The capture theory probably works if you weigh down most of the tiles. Reality is often different from theory. The glue down affected rows makes the most sense. I have pvc and they weigh about 5 lbs each, unlike the cheap plastic tiles that weigh next to nothing and are might well expand without issue if they have the room to do so and nothing is weighing a few down that prevents the movement of the rest.

What type of glue did you use and did it help? Do you recommend it?