Sun Exposure/Fading? Racedeck or Supratile or ...

[Rorin67]

The front 2 to 3 feet of my garage floor is exposed to the SoCal sun almost every day for about 1/2 the day. Are interlocking floor tiles susceptible to fading from pro-longed sun exposure? Would hate to do all of this work and incur the expense only to have to replace faded front sections every now and then. Considering Racedeck or Supratile or others. Thanks in advance!

 

[Armorpoxy]

Hi, our tiles have UV stabilizers built in and to date have not had any complaints about this potential issue except for some primary colors like red, yellow, and other bright colors. Black and gray which are the most popular for garages we have not experienced any issues.

Thank you.

 

[Garage Flooring]

Literally, all tiles fade. They also expand and contract. Some fade more than others. We sell both PVC and Polypropelene. Including RaceDeck, TrueLock etc.

If your garage door is open 8 hours a day with direct sunlight exposure my suggestion would be to do RaceDeck freeflow in one of 3 of the colors that they have rated for exterior use. I would also do the exterior edges. If you go with PVC I would glue down the first 5 feet.

There are a lot of things to consider here and it may help to talk through them. Feel free to give me a call

 

[Shea]

The RaceDeck tile in the image below is for a south facing garage. The first three feet are Free-Flow tiles since they are the ones that see most of the sun. The floor is almost 4 years old now and the garage door is sometimes opened for hours at a time.

So far there has been no fading and the only buckling that ever occurs is with two edge ramps. Two sections of it in the center at the joint where they connect tend to buckle and lift about 1/2" when exposed to the sun for a while. Coincidentally, the same spot is also a long rounded high spot at the front of the garage. A lighter color ramp might delay the buckling for a longer period, but it's not a very big deal. The entire floor is spaced 1/2" from all walls and immovable objects.

 

[Rorin67]

Thanks, all, for your replies. This is all very helpful information. Cheers!

 

[DavidM17]

A timely post for me. I've been looking at Supratile and had similar questions about sun exposure. I recently had my garage floor completely demo'ed and re-poured as it had settled as much as 5 inches in some areas. I like the idea of the PVC tiles, but am wondering about the reality. Along with sun exposure and buckling my other main concern is how they stand up to point loads such as jacks stands and car dollies. I use my garage for car work and and can sometimes leave the race car on jack stands or car dollies for extended periods of time. Anybody have experience with this type of use?

I got some samples of different PVC tiles from garageflooringinc.com and did a simple test with my engine lift. I put some concrete blocks on it to simulate weight and then put one of the casters on a sample. A dimple was left in every sample, some deeper than other. After removing the weight the dimple mostly disappeared, but I'm wondering whats going to happen with the weight of a car on dollies. Supratile has specs of 92 shore A hardness and 2700 PSI compression strength, but I don't know how that translates to resisting point loads. Some of the tiles say they will supports 16000 lbs without compression. For a 20" tile I think that works out to just 40 psi.

If somebody who has installed supratile can comment on how it is under use that would be cool.

 

[Shea]

It's not the best pic, but the image below is a 3700 lb. car on jack stands. It's been up on stands for up to 3 weeks at a time. The key is to use stands with flat bottoms and not the high point load L angle feet. It's best to use a small sheet of 3/8" plywood when using floor jacks.

Some PVC tiles are rated at up to 80,000 lb. rolling weight. However, smaller steel wheels under large amounts of weight will not do well since they provide a much higher point load. The same tiles will handle a lot of weight with a flat 1" square foot print, but if you put that same weight on small wheel it will cause the tile to slightly dimple or compress. Larger wheels and more of them for dollies is the key.

 

[pbon]

My pvc tiles buckle in the sun. I have a cabinet on one side wall and two lift posts (4 post lift), all near the front so the free float concept is not possible.

 

[RaceDeck1]

not sure about the expansion rate on the 'pvc tiles' you have, but generally the do expand quite a lot. I would try to capture the expansion = when the floor is in the sun, hottest part of day and you have nothing on floor ( or not touching any object along install or cuts - flat) then place your cabinet and 4 post back on floor ... it will at the least minimize the issue you are having with PVC

 

[pbon]

I have Advanta Tuffseal. Thanks for the suggestion. I will try moving the cabinet and lift and putting them back during the “full expansion” period. It’s late afternoon/early evening for my exposure.