Wood Shop Floors - What to use?

[Glen Blanchard]

I plan installing "2x" sleepers on top of the concrete in my next shop and then putting some type of wood floor over them. What materials are creekers using on top of the sleepers? I assume a tongue and groove arrangement would be called for - but T&G what? plywood? OSB? Something else? What are the advantages of one over the other?

Thanks in advance.

[Ken Deckelman]

I would use Advantech (http://huberwood.com/main.aspx?pagename=advanTechVIP) sub floor. This stuff is fantastic! It's what is being used in most new custom homes.

[Spencer Keysan]

Expoxy floor paint. Navy uses on the floors in their plane hangers. I have a 15 year old coat on my workshop floor. Not a nick yet. You can add some silica grains for grip. I did that on the two car garage cuz it gets wet but in shop left smooth for easy sweep and vacuum

[Ken Werner]

I put treated 2x4 sleepers in on their flats. 1 1/2" pink styrofoam in between em. Then face nailed wide pine planks. It feels great, looks good, to my eyes, and is very kind to the tools that make their way abruptly to the floor.

Cost was low, labor intensive. I bought rough sawn boards at a local sawyer for about $.45 per board foot. Planed them on my Dewalt lunch box, and then dried them using my heated shop and a couple of dehumidifiers. I fitted each board with hand planes. Finish was 5 coats of BLO - which I wouldn't do again, then 3 coats of floor quality poly, which I would use in a heartbeat. The floor has a nice tone, is good to sweep, and feels right for me. I love the result. A plywood floor would be flatter, but not have the same esthetics. The floor does get dented very easily, but then again, it's just a shop, and the character suits me just fine.

[Glen Blanchard]

I put treated 2x4 sleepers in on their flats. 1 1/2" pink styrofoam in between em. Then face nailed wide pine planks. It feels great, looks good, to my eyes, and is very kind to the tools that make their way abruptly to the floor.

Sounds great Ken. Do you have any pics?

[Glen Blanchard]

Expoxy floor paint. Navy uses on the floors in their plane hangers. I have a 15 year old coat on my workshop floor. Not a nick yet. You can add some silica grains for grip. I did that on the two car garage cuz it gets wet but in shop left smooth for easy sweep and vacuum

Well I have 2 objectives to having a sub floor that would not be met with an epoxy floor.


easy on the feet, knees, etc. I would think epoxy would help this a bit over just plain concrete, but wood should do much better
room for electrical. I plan on running some of electrical from the walls towards the stationary machines located away from the walls. A sub-floor will allow me to hide the wiring.Epoxy looks great though!!

[James Leonard]

Hello,

I will take some photos of my new shop layout soon. I was able to buy enough computer (access) floor tiles locally to build out a 20 x 20 two car garage. The primary goal was to raise my shop floor to the height of my access door going to my new patio slab. The secondary goal is to have all my power and dust collection in the floor so that my (all mobile) tools can be relocated and my shop completely reconfigured. My dust collector, wood racks and air compressor are in a shed outside that is next to the access door. I had a 4" pipe embedded in the wall to run the dust collection to the outside. I am not quite done with all this rework, I still need to build shelves around the top of shop for storage then setup my CNC tools / computers to use the new rack my employer gave me.

Lots to do, but I love my raised floor already.

-James Leonard

[Wayne Watling]

I plan installing "2x" sleepers on top of the concrete in my next shop and then putting some type of wood floor over them. What materials are creekers using on top of the sleepers? I assume a tongue and groove arrangement would be called for - but T&G what? plywood? OSB? Something else? What are the advantages of one over the other?
Thanks in advance.

Hi Glen,

I'm in the middle of doing exactly that. My 2 car space concrete floor is 20 years old and dry as a bone but I'll put down some 6 mil poly as a moisture barrier anyway followed by tar/felt paper then the sleepers. It's an arduous process because the concrete slopes down toward the door by 1.5" and also slopes across the floor so each sleeper has to be custom fit and ripped to the floor so the resulting floor is dead flat. There are still some gaps but I'm going shim and glue at those points when I'm done.
I picked up some 1.5" x 8" x 16' T/G pine boards which are a full 1.5" thick so dont need any sheeting as a base.
I'm thinking tung oil for finish as I want it to dry hard but not brittle due to the weight of some of the machines. Have you considered a finish?

Wayne

[Glen Blanchard]

Have you considered a finish?



Not really Wayne. Too busy trying to figure out what material to use. Will figure out the finish issue after that.

[John Bush]

Hi Glen,

As this is your deluxe retirement shop, I think you should consider some nice Terrazzo tiles. I've seen some nice limestone as well!!

I have a slab floor with radient floor heating, and I like the system, but I think the planked floor would be a great plan for the knees and the aesthetics would be wonderful. I used old barn timbers and unfinished slotwall to make my shop look like an old barn and a planked floor would have been perfect. Maybe next time. Good luck, John.

[Ken Werner]

Yes, I'll post them later.
Ken

[Ken Werner]

here's a picture of the floor in progress

Ken

[Glen Blanchard]

here's a picture of the floor in progress

Ken

That looks great Ken. Might be more effort than I am wanting to devote to it. Sure looks better than plywood though.

[Ken Werner]

Glen, the effort is temporary. The satisfaction lasts a long time.
Ken

[John DeVan]

2 X 4 treated sleepers on depressed concrete slab, plastic sheet vapor barrier, 3/4-inch treated plywood subfloor, then parquet squares. It's a very comfortable work floor, ... just ask my wife who recently used the shop to arrange some flowers for a neice's wedding. Sweeps up easily too.

[Jim Dunn]

2 X 4 treated sleepers on depressed concrete slab, plastic sheet vapor barrier, 3/4-inch treated plywood subfloor, then parquet squares. It's a very comfortable work floor, ... just ask my wife who recently used the shop to arrange some flowers for a neice's wedding. Sweeps up easily too.

That's not a shop, it's somebody's livingroom:D Real nice looking "shop" and the flowers are real pretty too.:p

Seriously nice floor.

[Art Mulder]

Hello,

I will take some photos of my new shop layout soon. I was able to buy enough computer (access) floor tiles locally to build out a 20 x 20 two car garage.

:eek::eek::eek:

Yes! Please! Do put up some photos. But make sure you start a new thread, so it gets noticed.

Did you get the suction cup thingy for pulling up the tiles? How high is your floor? I used to work at a place with an Ooooold raised floor computer room. The floor was about 12-18" up off the floor. All the cabling was down below. But my understanding was that this was VERY expensive to put in when new.

cool.
...art

[mark page]

Good Lord John,
Where's the bar, hide-a-bed, couch, and tv set. Did I get a peek at a surround sound speaker hanging in the background? Ahh Virginia Beach, lived there for six years and loved it. Haven't been there since 1986 for a weeks vacation.
Great looking shop!!!

[Joe Chritz]

What Ken said. Daddy always told me it only hurts for a little while.

I'm not sure if there is any notable difference between concrete and wood for wear on your joints. Unless the floor is "springy" it would be unlikely to make much difference. A thousand years ago I sold sporting goods and we sold different shoes for road runners vs cinder tracks. (they even make cinder tracks anymore?) Been a long time so there may be more info out there now since I don't follow that anymore.

The ability to run wiring under the floor is a big advantage and while epoxy looks good a nice plank floor wood be outstanding.

Joe

[Jon Bell]

As i write this my tablesaw, jointer/planer, and bandsaw are outside (covered)waiting for me to put a finish on the floor that i just installed over cement. Mine is a new shop but the cement floors never felt right so i decided to pull everything out and correct it. i thought it would be a day or two but 5 days latter here i sit. sore and happy.

i used 1/2 baltic birch ply (sheets were 5'x5' , $23 each.) on 2x4 runners run every 10 inches. this leaves only about 6 inches between runners. i laid the 6 mil poly directly on the cement with the runners on top of this. i used standard 2x's except at the doors which i used treated 2x10's. i did overkill on the runners because of the 1/2 inch needing more support. the floor looks and feels great. i did it all myself which is why i liked the idea of the 5x5 sheets in the 1/2 inch. i am too old to deal with 3/4 4x8's by myself. my shop is wired too the hilt but i ran wiring in the floor where needed.

i am really happy i did this project. i know that on a sub-conscious level my body is going to want to spend more time in this environment because of what i have done.

good luck Glen in your decision.