Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

John D · 2K+ Club

The 40 Watt gets a new floor

SShink · 3K+ Club

This is a great thread John! I'm sure you will really enjoy it when it's all done after so many frustrating years, and I'm going to follow the thread as I want to do something similar to mine in the future. Also watching Gearlube's Garage Journal thread as he's doing this in his too.

John D · 2K+ Club

One of the fun things is I got Sheryl involved. She has the "eye for design". Once I had the base pattern established (both RaceDeck and bigfloors have design tools/software) getting the solid and vented tiles spotted, I turned it over to her for the final touches. It'll be a combo of graphite and alloy color in the field, with a red border course.

Derek69SS · Founding Member

How big are the holes in the vented tiles? Will dropped screws and nuts be a problem?

John D · 2K+ Club

I don't have specs, but looking at the photos of the product you'd be safe with anything bigger than a 10-32. If something vital got in there, single tiles can be popped out easily. The field is a combination of vent and "coin top" tiles.... 50/50 shot at it falling in a vent - but you know how Mr. Murphy and his laws work!
(I may have to change the wheels on my old creeper. It has those angled knife-edge wheels... They might get hung up... I'll find out soon.)

Jon H · 1K+ Club

One downfall to the floor, creepers are not exactly smooth rolling.

Lost in the 60s · President

Here ya go...5" wheels

http://www.autotoolworld.com/Traxion-Engineering-Products-1-220-King-Crawler-Creeper-W5-Pvc-Casters_p_188406.html

RLP1-40504__95724.1429210607.1280.1280.jpg?c=2

Tony Hoffer · Moderator

youtu.be/J6Cq78zYKzs

Jon H · 1K+ Club

Probably a few bucks cheaper than Tony's although not as cool...

www.youtube.com/watch

John D · 2K+ Club

The stuff arrived today.
I had it shipped to my work/shop - a couple of reasons:
- Somebody's always there to accept a delivery
- It was shipped truck freight (on a pallet) in a semi - there'd be "special arrangements" for a lift-gate delivery ($$) to a residence
- Wouldn't have a heavy truck on my driveway

Last night I snapped a chalk line across the overhead door opening, taking into account the tapered "starter" edge tiles, and where I wanted the floor to start. This established the primary straight line that the field tiles build off of. At the SE corner of the overhead door opening I snapped a perpendicular line, one tile width from the wall, plus the necessary expansion gap of +/- 1/2".

(This is where you should have stayed awake in geometry... remember the 3,4,5 rule of a right triangle??? Measure 3 increments out on a line, 4 increments on the perpendicular line, and if it's 5 increments across those points, it is 90 degrees/square).

Anyhow... got the stuff home, had dinner, and Sheryl and I went to town!!

We un-boxed the flooring, and started to lay the tiles down. Working from the chalk lines and nudging the ever-building field square to them. After awhile enough were down it stayed put - then you can go crazy. Snapping down 40 sq.ft. in 10 minutes isn't even breaking a sweat - once you get the pattern down, and the "sex" of the tiles established it goes really fast.

All I have left to do is the special "cut-to-fit" pieces to go under the edges of the benches, and where it butts to the walls. I'm guessing this will take 3x longer than the entire field did!

Lost in the 60s · President

WOW, that went fast !!!

I was going to ask if you wanted help with this on Saturday but you had a much better looking, and very efficient, helper on-site...

dashboard · 2K+ Club

Looks great JD, and the floor also.

Jon H · 1K+ Club

Looks like Sheryl did an awesome job!

dashboard · 2K+ Club

Jon, I have heard if you start early they are trainable.

Jon H · 1K+ Club

Do you think after 42 years it is too late to start?

John D · 2K+ Club

Sheryl did do an awesome job! It was all I could do to check the layout sheet, grab 2 x 2 panels, and flop them down fast enough, she'd stomp 'em into place.
From opening the 1st box, to being at custom-cuts at the edges (including a beer/wine/yackety-yack session with the neighbors) was about 2-1/2 hours.

I was correct about the custom-cuts taking 3x the time of the field. I was out there tonight and finished 90% of the north & west wall - where I had to make notches out of full tiles to fit around the bench legs. Following the rule of "I cut it 3 times and it's still too short"... wait a minute - "Measure twice, cut once" - it took about 3-1/2 hours to lay down about 40 tiles.

Since the floor is now about 1/2" higher I'll have to trim off the bottom of the ped door. Can't finish that corner until the door is cut.

I'll get more pictures posted tomorrow night.

John D · 2K+ Club

The new floor is done!

This was not a tough project at all. Use the design tools, plan, double-check, and go to town. I don't know what to do... stuff just rolls easily!

The tiles cut very easily with a bandsaw, a jigsaw will work well too. I wound up on many of them just scoring a few times with a utility knife, bending it on the line, and cutting through the ribs.

Jon H · 1K+ Club

Looks amazing John, nice job. Really interested in the report after the first winter. The rep that sold me mine said she had the vented tiles in her garage and simply used a shop vac to clean out the sand in the tiles once the water evaporated. I am sure there will be a learning curve.

Lost in the 60s · President

I don't think you can call it the "40 watt" anymore...

Back in Black · Active Member

Nice!

66 RAT · Vice President

WOW -- your new floor (along with all the other changes you've made) sure looks nice. You and Cheryl did a good job of designing the colorful pattern in the tiles. Now you'll have to wash your car and truck (including tire treads) each time before driving into such a nice garage.

BLyke · 1K+ Club

nice work, the floor looks great

John D · 2K+ Club

I'm just happy that I've got a nice shop to work in now... only took about 35 years to get here.

It'll still be the "40 Watt Garage"... too many memories and busted knuckles to erase that - and there's a legacy/history behind it.

- When I first started tinkering with cars (Mustangs) in '81, our house in the Chicago 'burbs had a gravel driveway, 2-car garage, 6 feet of workbench, and two double tube flourecents - everything was done by the light of a 40watt droplight.
- When I moved to MN, my 1st digs were an apartment complex in Hopkins, and I didn't even have a place to work in. The one-car that came with the apartment was chock-full of my crap that wouldn't fit in the apartment!
- My 1st house had a one-car, brick garage (circa '45-ish), that didn't even have electricity run out to it. It was the "Zero Watt Garage". Ran power out there, and managed to build a '79 Malibu with a pretty snotty 383 stroker in there.
- Enter Sheryl, then kids, then our current house. The place was a wreck, but had potential - and a big detached garage, but back to a gravel driveway!! The house came 1st and lots of remodeling projects later it was done.
- Finally in the last two years the garage got some TLC. What's goofy is I still managed to build a few cars in the "back to my roots" mode, cussin' up a storm, and now that I've got a nice shop - the latest car is basically done!

A word to the young guns, or those struggling with family, kids, bills, mortgages... I have had some serious garage-envy over the years. Many of our members have some really NICE garages/shops to work in, and I break a commandment or two when I visit them. Just keep the "someday" in your head - it will happen, it'll take time, but your someday will come.

dashboard · 2K+ Club

Looks really nice John, I have fond memories of working in that garage. Blasting parts in the blast cabinet, pulling your LT1, discovering the damaged bearings, then installing another LT1 and hooking up the exhaust. Welding up the rear support arms for the Buick and a couple of get together at your place, it's nice to see that old wooden tool box still sitting on the bench.

John D · 2K+ Club

Brought "Blackie" home for the week... seems to like the new floor.

Did an experiment or two.
One of the things I found during research of the floor system is that others were complaining about when they'd roll up the garage door, and in full sun exposure the tiles getting baked would buckle/heave. My garage faces east, so I opened the door about 8am and let it go. Even at 11:00 after 3 hours of blasting sun I had no issues. (Remember this is a combination of their premium RaceDeck and lesser-grade GarageDeck products). It just layed flat and stayed there.

Another problem was that the entire floor system would shift/slide. I think Jon mentioned this, his car used to hit so hard into reverse the whole floor system would slide an inch. I haven't seen any evidence of this happening in my install. (I could see if you came into the garage "hot" and had to stomp the brakes it might happen). My thought is because my concrete floor is so rough, and slightly uneven that the drain channel system on the tiles has a little "tooth" to grab on, and doesn't move... a brand-new smooth floor may have some issues.

I followed the install recommendations and maintained at least a 1/2" gap around any obstruction or obstacle, such as the walls, bench legs, garage door tracks, etc. I also staggered the starter/ramp tiles at the overhead door edge by 1/2 tile, creating a "T" intersection instead of a straight joint to joint. I don't know if it will help at all, and it wasted 2 ramp pieces, but we'll see.

So far I'm very happy with the results.

John D · 2K+ Club

Ok, an "after winter" update...

The "40 Watt" is not a purpose-built shop. It does multiple duties, and primarily is storage for the daily drivers. All winter long there was the in & out of the drivers, with the corresponding crap being trailed in... sand, salt, slush, drippage...

I didn't do any "housekeeping" all winter. Fall leaves, and Nov through April "crud" just laid there. The snowblower had its spot on the floor as well, and left some nasty rust stains from the skids and blade on the floor.

Today I did a spring cleaning. Total time about 2 hours.
Step 1 was hitting the floor with the Shop-Vac, and sucking up the leaves/sand/crud off the floor. This still left a LOT of salt stains, and dried dirt puddles on the floor.
Step 2 was a bucket of water & floor soap, and a rag-mop. (Actually two buckets of water - after 50% done, the water was more mud than water)

The floor looks 98% as nice as it did out of the boxes when we put it down.
The only difference is the "sheen" of the plastic is gone (I'll attribute that to the chems and mold release off the plastic is now gone). NOTHING sticks to this stuff. All of the dirt, salt, and even the rust stains from the snowblower just wiped off.
There was really no effort in cleaning it. Just mop/get it wet, let the "stuff" soften up, and mop it away.

Chris S · Active Member

Looks like it held up well over the little winter that we had.

Glad to hear that the clean up went well.

Jon H · 1K+ Club

John...It would be interesting to pull up several misc tiles and see what you find underneath, moisture, etc. My concrete floor is still very cold and I do get some condensation under the tiles. So far it looks like all is well.

bowtie · Secretary

Are any of the tiles themselves permeable? The ones with a disc texture don't look to be, but are the ones with the diagonal lines? If so, I think that would help with the breathing, but also allow crap to fall down below.

John D · 2K+ Club

Yes, the diagonals are what they call "full flow" tiles, and are open to the surface below. Anything smaller than a 10-32 screw will fall through, but nothing that a magnet or needle-nose won't save.

My concrete is no where near what you'd call level, or even pitched properly. There are many areas where water would pool in the field, and even run to the walls (not towards a door!). I corrected/minimized most of them with leveling compound, but water will still puddle in areas. Knowing this going in, is why we chose and assortment of solid and vented tiles.

The backside of all the tiles have notches for water to flow under. Naturally the water will eventually get to a low spot and sit. It evaporates pretty quickly with the vented tiles. The "crud" left behind can be sucked out with a shop vac. I am anticipating that every few years I'll have to pull up a section of floor at a time, and really suck up the crud.

Jon H · 1K+ Club

I ünzip mine every couple of years and slide it out for cleaning and then slide it back in and zip it back up with no problem.

ron fuller · Active Member

jon and John,

What do you do if you need to jack up a car on these?

John D · 2K+ Club

Technically nothing... they're a rigid, but soft plastic (if that makes sense). Kinda the same material as those plastic tool/cleaning carts are made from.

Sharp edged things like cheaper jackstands will dig in and make a dent/cut, and my floor jack will make a dent where the wheels were (but it "grows" out).

I've cut myself several 12x12, and a 24x36 piece of aluminum sheet from some old roadsigns. I put these under the jackstands and jack, and no worries.

jim larson · 2K+ Club

Just discovered the thread. Boy does it look great. I have to quit looking at the pictures or I might be in for a lot of work.

Lost in the 60s · President

Jon H wrote:
I ünzip

How do you get the European u...

Jon H · 1K+ Club

Didn't see it. I would say it was a quotation mark and then the u.

bowtie · Secretary

John D wrote:
Yes, the diagonals are what they call "full flow" tiles, and are open to the surface below. Anything smaller than a 10-32 screw will fall through, but nothing that a magnet or needle-nose won't save.

My concrete is no where near what you'd call level, or even pitched properly. There are many areas where water would pool in the field, and even run to the walls (not towards a door!). I corrected/minimized most of them with leveling compound, but water will still puddle in areas. Knowing this going in, is why we chose and assortment of solid and vented tiles.

The backside of all the tiles have notches for water to flow under. Naturally the water will eventually get to a low spot and sit. It evaporates pretty quickly with the vented tiles. The "crud" left behind can be sucked out with a shop vac. I am anticipating that every few years I'll have to pull up a section of floor at a time, and really suck up the crud.

Answered the next couple follow up questions here too. Excellent, thanks.

John D · 2K+ Club

Here's a few links:

"GarageDeck" line of flooring

"RaceDeck" line of flooring

The difference is that GarageDeck has a lower load rating than RaceDeck, and the "Full Flow" tiles aren't offered in GarageDeck. The two products are completely interchangeable, and share the exact same locking mechanism.

Unless they've changed things, both RaceDeck and GarageDeck are available via Bigfloors.com

Tim H · Mega Poster

Awesome post. Do you now prefer one tile from the other brand?

John D · 2K+ Club

They're both from the same mfg... the reason for "mix & match" is they don't offer the vented tiles in the GarageDeck line/series. I can't tell or see any visible or mechanical difference/advantage between them in my application.