I am looking to do a 1 car garage using garagedeck tiles which are similiar to Racedeck. Has anyone have experience with this brand? Also, does anyone know if tiles typically fade? I am hoping to also use these again in a few years should I move to a bigger house, etc.

Thanks!

 

IMO do NOT do it! I have RaceDeck at my last place. If I jacked the car on them the jack could sink into the tiles and if you dropped something it was as likely to bounce as anything else. I had black\white checkers and when the sun would hit the front edge it would expand and buckle. I had a car with an IRS - a Supra - and when it came down off the lift it would mess with the tiles as the suspension tried to settle. It was expensive and not much work to put down but I really wish I'd done epoxy instead. Oh, the wheels would spin on the tiles powering onto ramps or the lift and heaven help you if the white tiles got oil on them - dingy and gray and a real hassle to scrub clean. Very pretty when laid down but do actual WORK and they can get nasty. Look closely at the tiles you're considering, if they have that waffle look with the air gaps etc. in them then they are just like RaceDeck and will have issues with bounce, holes from jackstands and jacks, and will be slippery for tires and subject to burning if a tire slips and spins...

Oh, they were certainly warmer than concrete, i will give them that!

 

LOL, I'm sure your supra would have been spinning anything other than concrete!

 

does epoxy lift under the tires? is it a DIY?

 

Epoxy if put down poorly will lift just like paint. To do it right you need to mechanically etch the concrete or use some pretty nasty chemicals like muratic acid. Doing this always scared me off so I did the RaceDeck. Then one day wandering past the Home Depot rental area I find out they RENT the silly machine I'd have needed to etch my garage floor - argh! It could have been THAT easy instead of the hassle of hiring someone I imagined.

Now, epoxy does need to be done on a clean floor that's aged some. Brand new concrete won't work out too well and neither will crappy epoxy. I will admit I've not done epoxy, not yet, but I have done the bouncy tiles and I have worked in shops with epoxy - I think I prefer epoxy. The epoxy CAN get slick, water and grease can be awful on it, but if you put some grit in it then it ought to be better. another thought might be concrete stain. It won't protect the concrete the same but it will soak in and add color - might be a way to go. I'd hit up some of the dedicated garage mod boards on the 'net and find out what people have used and had work. Tiles are pretty but man they can suck too!

As for spinning, Supra was pretty docile puttering around but the silly tiles were just slick! Epoxy likely would have spun some too but I could have wiped up the marks if I didn't get too crazy. I had much worse luck with the plastic tiles

 

You should take a look at and try something like Lock-tile. A helluva lot more durable than Race Deck. You can see their stuff at www.locktileusa.com.