RaceDeck Questions

[BamaVolvo]

I have been renovating my garage (slowly but surely) and recently installed RaceDeck flooring. I was dissatisfied with the result of using an epoxy floor kit. I used an underlayment that has a moisture barrier, after reading several articles about noise reduction. The floor is beautiful and the acoustics in the garage improved.

I maintained a 1/4" to 1/2" space around the perimeter during the installation. After a few weeks, there was a slight buckling and I needed to trim the tiles along one wall and the bump-out. I did notice that a 1/8" to a 1/4" inch of underlayment was showing at the garage doors. This is an area that I had trimmed after installation.

It appears as though the floor had moved at an angle. The floor only has a light weight cabinet on it. In addition, only one car has been pulling in and out of the garage over the past three weeks -- my car is parked at my second garage.....the airport!

Is it possible that after having a tool box, a second car, (substantial weight) on the floor, the movement will stop? Or is the problem the underlayment and the tile will continue to pull regardless, causing splits?

I apologize in advance if this has been discussed previously in another post.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Td_20]

Nice Floor!

 

[BamaVolvo]

Thanks TD

 

[RaceDeck1]

I have been renovating my garage (slowly but surely) and recently installed RaceDeck flooring. I was dissatisfied with the result of using an epoxy floor kit. I used an underlayment that has a moisture barrier, after reading several articles about noise reduction. The floor is beautiful and the acoustics in the garage improved.

I maintained a 1/4" to 1/2" space around the perimeter during the installation. After a few weeks, there was a slight buckling and I needed to trim the tiles along one wall and the bump-out. I did notice that a 1/8" to a 1/4" inch of underlayment was showing at the garage doors. This is an area that I had trimmed after installation.

It appears as though the floor had moved at an angle. The floor only has a light weight cabinet on it. In addition, only one car has been pulling in and out of the garage over the past three weeks -- my car is parked at my second garage.....the airport!

Is it possible that after having a tool box, a second car, (substantial weight) on the floor, the movement will stop? Or is the problem the underlayment and the tile will continue to pull regardless, causing splits?

I apologize in advance if this has been discussed previously in another post.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Hi

Your garage floor looks great, nice design

Its hard to tell what is going on with your subsurface through the photos, please give us a call and we will work with on your sub-floor and underlayment. Sometimes if the the subsurface is very smooth and you put certain types of underlayments , they can get very slippery. We have several solutions that work for this type of scenerio

 

[BamaVolvo]

Thanks Jorgen.

I've been out of town for the last three weeks and my wife says that the tile has separated again.

I'll call and see if your team can help me through my issue.

Regards,
Ed

 

[admranger]

Neat design!

 

[danieldolin]

BamaVolvo - did you ever call? what was thier solution? I keep meaning to call and get busy at work and forget. Last night I had to pull both cars out and slide the entire floor back about 3/4" towards the door so that it was not buckling at the front edge.

 

[BALLOONS]

Put mine down 1 week ago today. Buckling at the overhead door, side to side. Kept proper gap all around, and have two cars in there at all times. WTF ?!?!?!

 

[RaceDeck1]

Call us on Monday and we can tell you how to "capture" the maxinum expansion and you will be set.

 

[YNOT2K]

hey jorgen, care to post how to capture the maximum expansion in open forum? i think quite a few of us could use that information.

me? not yet, and maybe not ever, but all info is good info.

 

[aqr81]

hey jorgen, care to post how to capture the maximum expansion in open forum? i think quite a few of us could use that information.

me? not yet, and maybe not ever, but all info is good info.

I agree.

 

[RaceDeck1]

Ok I will try to write this so it makes sense - a bit lengthy

First I will give you an example to show you what capturing max expansion on any free floating floor system is.

Lets say we take a large RaceDeck floor ( 30x30 ) and lay it out on a parking lot in Arizona. We install the floor early in the morning when it is cool ( in the 50's) and put nothing on top of it. We come back mid day at the hottest time ( say 100 - that's a 50 degree swing + direct sunlight on the floor which can sometimes increase the surface temp 2-3 times depending on color) and the floor is perfectly flat, we then come back at midnight and still flat and then again early the next morning and still flat.

Now I come in and park a truck on the left side and a car on the right side ( in the am), I come back in the middle of the day and we have a rise in the floors across the middle section? What happen - Well the floor can not push the cars out during expansion so it goes the path of least resistance, which is up. We leave the cars there and come back at midnight and the floor is not flat again, the reason being it is cooled and the floor contracted.

Now here comes the 'expanision capture' part ( finally, I know ) - We take the same floor in the same parking lot and we wait until the middle of the day to park our vehicles on the RaceDeck floor. This is the hottest part of the day when the floor expansion is at max. Now we come back at midnight and in the am and the floor is flat, then again at mid-day and guess what the floor is flat. Why? When we parked the car on the hot RaceDeck floor during the hot part of the day, it was fully expanded. When it cooled that night, the floor can not pull the cars in, so it stays at max expansion.

In a real world garage, we do the same thing in extreme climates with huge temp swings. If you install your floor and wait to place all your heavy objects ( tool boxes, lawn mowers, chest, cabinets, bikes, etc) on the flooring until it is the hottest part of the day, you will capture the expansion.

I hope this make sense

 

[gregp]

"If you install your floor and wait to place all your heavy objects ( tool boxes, lawn mowers, chest, cabinets, bikes, etc) on the flooring until it is the hottest part of the day, you will capture the expansion. "


Does this mean it will always stay this way one you capture the expansion or will be an ongoing issue?

 

[RaceDeck1]

By 'capturing' the floor at max expansion, it will stay that way. On my own personal floor in Utah where my garage faces West and get the sun all day long in the summer with temp swings of 30-50 degrees within 24 hours I have no issue and it has been in for over 10 years now.
Please feel free to call us and we can walk you through your specific installation.

 

[YNOT2K]

thanks for the info Jorgen. makes sense.

basically, at high temps the materials expands as much as it's ever going to. then you capture that expansion with weight around the edges. the contraction that may happen later is not enough to "pop" the tiles apart, just puts some tension on the hinges where there is enough "play" to not pull apart.

at least that's how i read it.

 

[PeterN]

So do the joints open up between the heavy objects as the tiles contract (say between the tires of the car or between the car and the toolbox) when they cool down? Something has to give and the tabs connecting the tiles appear to be the weakest part of the tile.

Pete

 

[RaceDeck1]

So do the joints open up between the heavy objects as the tiles contract (say between the tires of the car or between the car and the toolbox) when they cool down? Something has to give and the tabs connecting the tiles appear to be the weakest part of the tile.

Pete

The patent locking system allows it to move within the lock on all four sides of the tile, so yes it will contract until the lock stops it.