Finally Got My DeckTred Installed!

boondocker97 · Feb 3, 2021

Wanted to start a new thread on this so everyone could see it since FatDogX's thread has reached over the 100 post mark. Text from the other thread when I first ordered it:

boondocker97 said:
Anyone else pick up some new flooring over black friday/cyber monday? I saw SwissTrax and Race Deck both had 20-25% sales going on. If you missed out keep it in mind for next year!

The SwissTrax stuff looks really nice, but it is on the upper end of the price point. Our gooseneck trailer has a floor square that's exactly 8' x 32', and it was going to cause a lot of waste (and extra cost) with the tile dimensions they have. Race Deck, Deck Tred, and Mateflex are all 12" square and would work better in that aspect. I haven't heard much feedback on the Mateflex and their website was really geared toward tennis courts instead of shops and trailers so I was a little put off in that aspect. So I was really looking into Race Deck and Deck Tred. Called and talked to both and they were helpful with any questions I have. With the sale price Race Deck was going to be a couple hundred bucks cheaper. I think that ice dropping off of a sled would be a little less likely to stick to the SwissTrax or Race Deck type tiles with their rounded cleats. Race Deck is rated to -20 and has a 20 year workmanship warranty, but they wouldn't be able to warranty any tiles that had been cut or trimmed and no warranty for wear.

Parker at Deck Tred offered a bit of a discount (not as good as Race Deck) and picked up both times I called. Despite not offering a set warranty period he said if it wasn't wearing as expected within a year they'd buy it back. I liked the idea of maybe having a little more traction on the Deck Tred tiles. It also looks like to me that with the design of the Deck Tred it would be less likely to drop small bolts or screws and lose them through the tiles. We do use our trailer for a mobile workshop at times so that was appealing to me. These were supposedly tested to -40. It's not uncommon to get -35 where my dad lives near Canada, and while we don't ride when it's that cold it's nice to know if we are loading/unloading a sled we won't be cracking a tile when it's that cold. So I placed an order for enough lime green and black Deck Tred tiles to do the main floor in our trailer. Sticking with caliber grip glides on the rear drop door and there's no front door in this trailer. He claimed normally they keep enough product in stock to fill an order like that, but they just sent out a few big orders for aircraft hangers and black is 20-21 days out. He had enough to do other colors or all lime green, but I wanted some black to make the green pop a little more. So hoping for a pre-Christmas delivery and will have a nice install project over the holidays. I'll update with pics when it's done!

Delivery was delayed a little more with them trying to get re-stocked on the black tiles I was wanting to go along with the lime green. Problems getting it sourced out of California I was told. After checking in with Parker about once a week I finally got my order delivered on January 19th. Just in time to coincide with a back injury that kept me down and out for 2 weeks. So last weekend I was finally able to do the install with help from my dad.

Here is a before picture while we were doing some lighting upgrades and other maintenance work:

boondocker97 · Feb 3, 2021

Couple weeks ago we cleaned and repainted the floor with an oil based deck paint made by Valspar. Dad has had good luck with this paint in outdoor use for things where he works. The floor was originally painted with grey paint over 20 years ago so that's what we put down again. That old, dry wood soaked up nearly 3 gallons of it!

The inside surfaces of the fenders were starting to rust where they met the walls. The plywood behind the wall paneling was sitting down right on top of them and was holding moisture from condensation on the cold steel fenders. We cut the wall up 1/4" to create an air space so this wouldn't be an issue in the future. Prepped and re-painted the fenders as well. When all the paint was dry we sealed around the bottom of the walls/floor interface with silicone sealant. Also sealed around the bottom of the fenders/floor.

boondocker97 · Feb 3, 2021

The install starts at the rear of the trailer with a "starter strip." It's about 2-1/2" wide and tapered from the floor level up to the tile level. It goes down with construction adhesive and a few screws to hold it in place. After doing this I realized that between this strip being sealed to the floor and the wall edges being sealed, the water needed a place to go. So right in front of the strip I drilled some holes every 2' with a 1/2" hole saw. Then I sealed the holes with the deck paint. We screwed the first row of tiles down right along the rear edge where you drive into the door. This is to keep them from being pushed forward by the sleds. All the screws were placed so they didn't line up with the grip glides on the rear door so they should avoid most ski contact. After about half the tiles were down we pulled them to get some space to allow for expansion. Then did it again before measuring and cutting for the last row being put in the front of the trailer. Last place we installed tiles was around the fenders since those had to be trimmed. We were able to use the same tile for each side around them so ended up with about a dozen extra tiles over the couple extra we ordered "just in case."

We used a table saw to do most of the cutting with a regular carbide tooth blade with wide tooth spacing. Once the fence was set on the saw it was pretty quick just to run the tiles though it. There was minimal melted flashing left on the tiles as long as you kept them moving through the saw at a pretty good speed. We had to trim about 1/2" off the side of the tiles that went up against the walls. This was to remove the interlocking mechanisms off those edges and give a little wiggle room working with variation in the walls. I tried trimming a few with a utility knife, and while it can be done, the saw was easier.

Originally we thought the small aluminum trim that was around the bottom of the trailer walls would be able to be re-used. After looking at how it was originally screwed into the floor it wasn't going to work well anymore with the floating floor. Also, the original countersunk screws were pretty rusted and not long enough. So it was scrapped for new aluminum angle. We cut it and pre-drilled it outside the trailer and secured it with new screws to the walls. We didn't want to screw the new trim through the fenders and start new potential rust spots so we did anchor it through the tiles and into the floor around them. We also kept the trim just off of the steel fender surface so there was no place to trap water against it.