Wooden floors in a shop, to be or not to be?

If you could do it over again, would you change and to what ? How would you finish yo


  • Total voters
    44
  • Poll closed .
I'd go with a epoxy floor in the car area of my shop and wood on the woodshop side, but epoxy would be nice in both, make both easy to clean up. I have a textured/brushed concrete today and vacuuming is the only way to really get it cleaned up.
 
I love my wooden floor! The center aisle/area of my shop is wood floor covered with a wide rubber belt. The belting can get slippery when wet, more reason to never wash the floor. :thumb: My back and legs know the difference of standing at a lathe at school on concrete and at home on wood.
 
If your definition of a hand tool is a hammer or wrench, then concrete or epoxy is fine, but if you have hand planes and chisels you want them to be surrounded by a sea of wood.

Besides the obvious benefit to the tools and your personal comfort, there is something aesthetically pleasing about wood floors. I think you have to be a gear head to feel the same about concrete.
 
I had planned to epoxy the floor before moving in. The previous owners were slow to get out and I had to move in a rush. Almost 6 years later; no epoxy and probably never will be. Wood floors would be a luxury and preferred but, with my region and home foundation style the benefit wouldn't pay off the effort to achieve.
 
My shop has tiled floor, that shines without effort because the wood dust keeps it clean when I broom it.

If I had the chance I think that I would appreciate having a wooden floor for its insulation properties, but that can be achieved in many different ways so:dunno:
 
Wood is so much easier on the feet and the tools. I have epoxy floors, and have to say after 8 years they still look good but the smooth finish makes it impossible to keep clean. I can sweep my shop and the static from the broom instantly attracts a fine layer of dust. With all my cast iron table tops I am unwilling to use a damp mop, which is what it would take to keep it perfectly clean.
 
I have an ugly bumpy non-level concrete floor, I have mats on it to ease the hardness, but it still gets to me after a few hours. One of my planned projects this year is to fix this, and put in a wooden floor :thumb:
 
If I had a choice I would have both because I do like driving inside with car or a boat trailer or tractor or whatever to work on it. But I would love to have wooden floors for most of the shop. I have a daylight basement and I love it! Wood floors were just not an option or I would have had them. No real complaints on the concrete other than hard on the feet.
 
The garage has concrete floors and if I was planning to stay I would have put in wooden floors but I will be building a new shop soon enough and will have wooden floors in it with ducting and wiring under the floor.
 
I've never worked in a shop with a wooden floor, but I think I'd prefer wood instead of concrete. Wall to wall carpet was nice when I had it, but it was impossible to get all the dust out of it. :D

I have an epoxy coated concrete floor, but when I fix up the garage I want to put a linoleum floor down.

Bart beat me to it, but I'll second his warning about linoleum being slick when it gets sawdust on it. Epoxy paint can be slick too, if it doesn't have the little paint chip sprinkles on top.
 
When I built my shop I was in a hurry because we had just moved to a new house and the garage where my wife insists cars must be parked was filled with the tools from the freestanding shop at our last house. That was over 25 years ago.

So I built the shop on a slab, did not insulate the slab and have lived to regret it. I was younger then and concrete was not as hard then as it is now.;) Not only has the floor gotten harder over the years but it has gotten colder as well.:p Global warming does not seem to have an effect on concrete slabs......:rolleyes:

If I could do it over I would have built the shop on a raised foundation with a heavy duty wooden floor that was well insulated. By heavy duty I mean placing the joists on 12" centers and using 3/4" tongue and groove plywood glued and screwed for the subfloor. I would top that with 3/4" strip flooring of some sort. My ideal situation would be to have a well insulated wooden floor with hydronic heat in or beneath the sub floor.
 
When I was planning my new shop build, the cost of a slab was considerably cheaper that a wood floor, so I decided to go with concrete.

Once the project started, I found that the prep for the slab was above and beyond the cost difference for the wood floor.:doh:

If I could do it over again, I would go for the wood floors - but I would have to work out the area for the vehicle entrance. Not sure how much extra support would be needed to support a loaded pickup or tractor. I could install wood over concrete, but that is even more cost.

Using mats on the slab floor is OK, but not as nice as wood. I have epoxy on some areas of the floor, but still need to finish the painting...going to be more difficult since I have moved in equipment and storage items, but could not wait to get paint on the floor.
 
Ok Jeb this is for you. Last night i did a little calculation with the aid of Home Depot.com. (Boy you guys are spoilt in the US take a look at the Canadian version of that site).


So if one uses 2x6 pressure treated lumber and rigid pink insulation with 3/4 sturdi floor tongue and groove plywood then including poly vapor barrier you are looking at around $1.65 per square foot for a wood sub floor.

So Jeb in your case if i have it correct, you would need to add around $1000 to the budget but you still need to add your epoxy budget to have a wood insulated floor over your concrete slab. I made provision in that price for a few tapcons and some of that tuck tape to seal the poly vapor barrier before you put the ply down.

Sure if we put down hardwood flooring and add the cost of insulation etc it will be higher but in hindsite my fir plywood finish is even a waste. Since i been sharpening planes and had filings off the grinder everywhere, and walked in a little wet shoes the mix of the two turned my floor black in spots. Its a shop, not the fancy dining room.:rofl:

If i was a good enough scientist (which i aint) i would love to see someone do a calculation of heat loss on a floor with and without insulation spread over time and work out the economics of this over a number of years. I can only believe its a reasonable payback if one considers rising energy costs. Naturally you guys that survive on burning scraps the whole winter dont have that cost but i do.

I figure i plan on woodworking for another at least 20 years. Whats that worth over time.?:dunno:

Then go back and consider my point of the value of adding a shop to a property and this is a good subfloor for a more decent floor is the building is switched to an alternative use.
 
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