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 .
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.
I can attest to this because I have epoxy covered concrete with no traction additive. It can be VERY slippery when it is covered in sawdust. If I had the chance, I'd go for wood in a heartbeat!
 
After i bought my first house, I dedicated the whole garage to shop purposes. I knew I would never change floors once i got the tools in, so I decided to tackle flooring on day 1. I loved the idea of epoxy floors, and meticulously did all the surface prep and put the rustoleum epoxy down with the sprinkles. I loved the finished look, loved the traction, loved the fact that solvents I spilled just wiped up off this bulletproof finish. Plus, covering a 3 car garage, 600sf space,cost less than $300, including the pressure washer rental, 18" rollers, 3 kits of epoxy etc.

My happiness faded quickly as i started to do insulation and electrical work on that hard floor over next few weeks. Even though I was only working on that floor on weekends, my feet, knees and back were unbelievably sore afterwards. After a few weeks of stalling the tool move, I broke down and spent another $700 covering up the epoxy with pressure treated 4x4 sleepers and 3/4 tongue and groove plywood. I didn't insulate, because Houston just doesnt get that cold.

I missed the clean look of the gray epoxy, and the bare plywood was picking up dirt fast, so I put a couple coats of Glidden porch&floor paint in gloss gray. This was a mistake, or at least not adding a traction additive was a mistake. Sanding dust could turn tennis shoes into ice skates, especially as you side stepped over a vacuum hose or power cord.

On the upside, the floor was nice and compliant and my joints and back were very pleased. It was still quite strong, with 16" spacing on the sleepers, i was able to park a Tacoma and an Explorer on top of this floor(moved all the tools to one side when hurricanes came through in 05 and 08). You had to go in slow because I didn't build a ramp into the front edge. In fact, I never finished the front edge, so i could store stuff under the floor, including power and vacuum lines. The total height was 4.25 inches or so, and vehicles taller than an explorer might have hit the garage door on the way in. I put a good scrape on the floor when i pulled an lowered Acura RSX out. It was fine going in, but i got overconfident and was less careful backing it out. The undercarriage hit the floor as the springs compressed when the front wheels dropped 4.5 inches all at once.

Overall i was very happy with the wood floor. I just wished I hadn't blown $300 on epoxy first. I tried to solve some of the problems when I had to do it all over again last year....
 
My previous post talked about the first shop floor i did. Job relocation gave me the chance to do it all again last year( 2010). So what did I do different?

1) i used shorter sleepers, 2x4 vs 4x4(wet PT 4x4's are heavy!). My dreams of running large vac lines under the floor was never really was that practical, but electrical was handy. I left 8-12" gaps between the ends of the sleepers, so i could run cords across the sleepers, rather than just parallel to them. I also left 4"-6" along the walls so I could tuck cords under them. The 3/4 T+G is completely strong enough to span those gaps.

2) i didnt attach sleepers to the concrete. I just laid out a sheet of poly down as vapor barrier and let the weight of the floor and tools keep it in place. Every serious buyer for my last house thought the floor would be impossible or too expensive to change or remove. I basically intend to move the floor out before ever marketing this house. I can re-use the material again at the next house and get more value from buyers who prefer a concrete floor.

3) I built a flip down ramp to get cars/tools/materials in. I almost never give up shop space for cars, but a ramp makes it much less dicey. If I was parking in there regularly, i'd have build the ramp in permanently, but i didnt want tools sliding toward the flimsy garage door.

4) i used square drive screws and a cordless impact(the white makita). Its unbelievable how much easier this made the job. Wear earmuffs when using the impact....

4 1/2) dont drive the screws deeper than flush, or just under flush. The wheels on mobile bases can snag on the holes of overdriven screws, and under driven, or badly angled ones, stick up above the floor. If you drive them just a hair below flush, a heavy paint will basically level them out.

5) I dropped mason's line in the channels between the sleepers, before i put the plywood down....no fishing wires blind later(hopefully).

6) I also planned the staggering pattern of the plywood so the smaller cut sheets ended up under the breaker box, and expected outlet placements. On these cut sheets, I cut the bottom of the tongue off on these short edge sheets, so i don't have to cut holes in my pretty new floor to take out a section to run wires. In the last garage, I started the staggering at the breaker box, so the interlocking tongues prevented unscrewing the first sheet with out taking out all the ones in front of it. I only shaved the tongue on small edge sheets, so the the floor stays flat in the middle where tools roll often.

7) after being told not to put rustoleum epoxy on wood several times, I did it anyway. Still content with it. I bought a bunch of extra flakes to get more traction. But i made the mistake of applying the epoxy only a balmy Houston day where the low temp for the day was 82 degrees. We waited till midnight to apply it in lower temps, but it was still too hot. The epoxy cure time drops to like 15 minutes....plus i left the cans in the car, so it was even warmer than ambient. We waited too long to spread the flakes, which don't stick well to dried epoxy. I ended up with a couple inches of flakes in the shop vac the first time i swept, which is a waste of expensive flakes.

8) Made spike shoes for walking on wet epoxy floor with out leaving foot prints. Just traced me and wife's shoes on plywood, cut em out wit the jigsaw, then ran a few dozen brads through each piece and strapped them on my shoes with cable ties, or velcro cable wraps for wife's smaller feet. Unfortunately, not too useful, since epoxy was drying on the rollers.

9) i did 24" centers on the sleepers, except where the car tires normally go. 16" centers was over kill, and honestly, was almost too stiff. i wanted more flex in the floor not less. My jointer weighs about 850 lbs and rolls across the floor quite well.

I've only lived with this floor for a few months, and haven't spent enough time out there yet. About the only thing I'd try different at this point is to put the epoxy in the fridge a few hours before using it. The working time can almost be trippled vs hot weather. The plywood soaks up more epoxy than concrete, and shows a lot of grain. So i'd probably plan do a second coat next time. the moving schedule and weather didnt cooperate this time, so one coat is all it got.

Hope this helps!
Don
 
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Great story Don and welcome :thumb::thumb::thumb:

Thanks Bob! Just glad to have something useful info to share for once.(i usually just leach off of others on these forums)

I should probably attach a disclaimer that I have a few bad discs in my back, so i fret over my floor more than most would.
 
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my garage shop is 320 sq feet.
Lumber storage covers 60 sq feet, benches cover another 18 sq feet.
I have purchased for half price 200 sq feet of Gladiator floor, snap and lock, just havent got to try any yet.
 
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