Racedeck questions????????????

[Carnut12]

I have done a lot of searching and reading up on what I plan to do with my garage floor, my last one was Epoxy and honestly I loved it, this time I think I am going to try Racedeck.

I have been playing with the Racedeck Website on and off and think I know the design I wish to go with.

Here are the questions I have-

1. If my garage is 28'3" will I actually need 28 tiles wide and still have 3 inches left? In other words is there any gap at all? Do 28 tiles when put together equal exactly 28 feet I guess is the easiest way to explain my question.

2. The extra 3" I will have to cut tiles obviously, can I use one tile and cut both sides to limit waste? I am assuming I can, but did notice when I used the website to build a design it gave me all full size tiles.

3. Did you get a few extra of each color you used just to be sure or just go with what it recommends?

Thank you!!!!!!

Hopefully I will have a really nice floor in the near future.

 

[Charlieu]

You will want to leave a quarter to half in gap around your installation to allow for expansion. If like me you have something like a HVAC system, pipes or other fixtures that you would have to tile around, you would leave a gap. The tile is pretty dead on 12 inches. What does vary is the dimensions of your garage (how square it is).

For the rows that were going to be less than 12 inches, I included them as full rows in my design and then ordered the total number of tiles based on the drawing. I did not order extra, but made sure I measured 2, 3, 4 times before cutting and always checked that I had the right tile orientation before the blade hit the tile. It adds considerable time to the installation, but ensures that you are not paying for a bunch of extra tiles.

 

[jdcompman]

I have done a lot of searching and reading up on what I plan to do with my garage floor, my last one was Epoxy and honestly I loved it, this time I think I am going to try Racedeck.

I have been playing with the Racedeck Website on and off and think I know the design I wish to go with.

Here are the questions I have-

1. If my garage is 28'3" will I actually need 28 tiles wide and still have 3 inches left? In other words is there any gap at all? Do 28 tiles when put together equal exactly 28 feet I guess is the easiest way to explain my question.
There are is no gap at all between tiles. It's amazing how tight they fit together. So to further answer your question, yes 28 tiles is going to equal damn near 28' As the poster below me explained, you will want to leave a 1/2" gap around the edge to allow for expansion.

2. The extra 3" I will have to cut tiles obviously, can I use one tile and cut both sides to limit waste? I am assuming I can, but did notice when I used the website to build a design it gave me all full size tiles.
I don't recall if you can use half of a tile in one place and the other half in another place but I'm pretty sure you can. Obviously that depends on what pattern you choose for on top of the tiles.

3. Did you get a few extra of each color you used just to be sure or just go with what it recommends?
I know many people get a few extra just so you can replace any tiles that get damaged over time.

Thank you!!!!!!

Hopefully I will have a really nice floor in the near future.

See my responses above...

 

[Carnut12]

Excellent

Thank you for your responses

Racedeck is a little over my budget, but I am hoping the Garage Journal discount fixes that.

 

[YNOT2K]

Excellent

Thank you for your responses

Racedeck is a little over my budget, but I am hoping the Garage Journal discount fixes that.

i just installed Racedeck in my garage. yes, you can use one half of a tile on one side of your garage and the other half of the same tile on the other side - as long as each side required less than half of a tile.

as far as price, it was over my budget too. i ended up buying some "used" from a defunct motorcycle race team locally and bought the remainder i needed from bigfloors.com, also used. i suggest you call bigfloors directly and ask if they have enough used/demo product they would sell you. i got a goooooood price on the 300 sq ft i needed to finish my project - and fast/free shipping too.

good luck with you floor.

 

[RaceDeck1]

Thanks for choosing RaceDeck love to see your new garage

Happy new year

 

[TigerGA]

I have done a lot of searching and reading up on what I plan to do with my garage floor, my last one was Epoxy and honestly I loved it, this time I think I am going to try Racedeck.

I have been playing with the Racedeck Website on and off and think I know the design I wish to go with.

Here are the questions I have-

1. If my garage is 28'3" will I actually need 28 tiles wide and still have 3 inches left? In other words is there any gap at all? Do 28 tiles when put together equal exactly 28 feet I guess is the easiest way to explain my question.

2. The extra 3" I will have to cut tiles obviously, can I use one tile and cut both sides to limit waste? I am assuming I can, but did notice when I used the website to build a design it gave me all full size tiles.

3. Did you get a few extra of each color you used just to be sure or just go with what it recommends?

Thank you!!!!!!

Hopefully I will have a really nice floor in the near future.

x2 on the above response. You asked about cutting both sides of a tile to reduce waste (to fill the the 3"). Sorry, but that cannot be done. Two adjacent sides of the tile are female and two adjacent sides are male...so cutting opposing sides of the tile would give you one male and one female. If you are filling in the three remaining inches, you'd either need all males or all females.

If you don't want to buy a lot of tiles just to fill in the three inches, you could use the garage threshold "ramp" pieces...these are about 3".

Regarding any gap between tiles changing the total width of your tiles laid out on the floor - I didn't see any noticeable difference - ex.: four 18" tiles took up six feet on the floor. If you have a three inch gap, and leave 1/2" on each wall, you're looking at being 2" short - yes, I'd hate to buy a whole row of 12" tiles and then have to cut off 10" as waste.

Regarding RD sending extra tiles - I think they sent me two extra of each color.

Also, when measuring from the garage door to the back wall, consider the threshold strip will take up a couple of inches. I placed my floor so the threshold tip went under the garage door about 1/2". this allowed the first row of tiles to clear the garage door's support track by at least 1/2 in.

Cutting tips: I used the sample pieces they sent me earlier to do practice cuts. I wanted my cut ends to be uniform, so I bought a table saw (Porter-Cable, Lowes, $300). I practiced cutting with my miter saw, razor knife, etc. and the table saw with the standard blade worked best. If you don't have a table saw, spend $40 and rent one. Things will go a lot faster. Be sure the saw table, fence, etc. is big enough to accommodate the tile.

As stated above, make sure you measure several times before cutting and that you have the tile oriented correctly. I marked the end I was going to cut with a Sharpie just so I didn't screw up. On difficult cuts, I made a paper template to ensure I had it right. I was able to use some of the "scrap" pieces to fill in between the garage doors, etc...which kept me from having to cut a full tile; however, you really want know until you start installing.

Not sure where you are located, but if possible put the tiles in the sun and heat them up first before cutting/install. It was cool the day I started (low 60's, overcast) and I had the garage door open. The next day it was 80 and sunny. The tiles that I had laid when it was 60 were "tenting" slightly - but only the ones the in direct sunlight coming thru the door. I closed the door and they almost immediately contracted and the tenting went away.

Lastly, if my math is right, if you used the 18x18 tiles rather than the 12x12, you'd need 18.83 tiles to span your 28'3" garage, so your waste would be minimal.

Sorry for the long post, but thought you may benefit from my install.

 

[Carnut12]

Outstanding, thank you all for your responses, I keep playing with the Racedeck configurator, what a great way to get an idea of what it will look like.

Thank you again, I will keep you updated!!!!

 

[racerbob4]

Speaking of racedeck I have about 672 12" x 12" tiles that are similar to race deck. Maybe they are racedeck. They were used by a friend of mine when he was racing for the Lexus factory and had a tractor trailer. He used to park his 4 race cars on the deck outside the trailer. They had hard use for two years outdoors and when he lost his contract he gave them to me. We don't have room in our small trailer to take them to the track so they are sitting under one of our work benches and we will be moving into the new garage in April and don't want to take them with us. They are yellow, black and grey. I think I have the following: 544 yellow and 128 grey with a few edge pieces that are 12" x about 2" tapered. These are the type that snap together. They need a good powerwash to get the clay and dirt off. I would like to sell them for 75 cents each but only to someone living near Northern Virginia. I really can't ship them. Best way to reach me is [email protected]