Shop floor

[Tom Godley]

I must say that the information I have found at this forum is really remarkable. I am in the process of creating a new shop for myself and after spending some time looking through the threads -- I have a long way to go!

Some of the workshops are just unreal!

Anyway my "studio" consists of two large rooms. One from the early 70's- stick frame with a very uneven/sloping concrete floor. The second building is is from the mid 90's built totally out of SIP's, with a smoother concrete floor.

The two floors join at the doorway of the older building. My first thought was to take up the older buildings floor and pour a new one and add radiant heat to it. The newer building has a LP heater in it now.

BUT - all this talk of wood floors has me spinning!


My question is - can you have wood floors and still park cars on them.

I have an old car that may spend time in part of the space. I know that people park cars in old barns with wood floors -- but does code let you do that now?

I am not talking about running rafters to support the floor -- more like "warmboard" over the new and old slabs.

Any thoughts - TAG

[Jim Becker]

Tom, you might be able to accommodate the car if you do a double layer of wood (or use 2-by material) and have your sleepers spaced "with frequency" (and maybe foam board in between...both for comfort and more support). A small modification of that would be to have wide sleepers directly under where any tires would tread so that there is, in effect, a solid wood floor right to the concrete.

BTW, welcome to SMC! Where, in general, are you in Bucks?

[Greg Funk]

You wouldn't necessarily need to replace the slab to put in radiant heat. It is fairly common to add radiant heat to 2nd floor wood framed houses by pouring a thin (1.5") layer of self-levelling gypcrete. My workshop has 3/4 hardwood on top of 3/8" and 5/8" (total 1") plywood. Driving on it would probably do less damage than the wheels on my mobile bases.

Greg

[Greg Crawford]

I've seen a barn with a basement in MN. They had huge beams for the floor, and parked tractors on the ground floor. I guess anything's possible if you do it right.

[Tom Godley]

The older section has a change in slope of almost 5 inches -- with the lowest point the meeting point of the new section.

If I did an overpour of concrete with insulation between the old and new it would be way to thick by the time I leveled it out. The whole place is over 1500 sq ft - that would be a lot of concrete!

I did look into the lightweight products -- I was told that you can not drive a car on them -- they must be covered.

[keith ouellette]

I used to go to a comercial mower shop that had hardwood floors. Some of the larger mowers (72") were very heavy and had small front caster wheels and the floor held up fine but it was a flat surface that the wood flooring was laid on. No gaps between concrete and wood. That being said removing a concrete floor is a lot of work; especially indoors. You also have to think about the footer if it is attached to the floor. I think the answer is to cut channles in the floor (also hard to do) for your radiant heating, cover with a leveling cement then a sub floor to protect that and then your wood flooring. The sub floor (ply wood) will distribute the weight and protect the leveling cement. In the end this would be cheaper and less work that ripping out and re pouring. CHECK WITH MULTIPAL CONTRACTORS AND OTHER EXPERTS before you start.

[Chris Parks]

My floor is high density chipboard sitting on a steel frame elevated above another room. Engineered correctly timber floors or flooring panels are fine. Cars really are fairly light as the weight is spread across four patches.

[Tom Hamilton]

Hi Tom and welcome:

My wood shop floor is 3/4 tongue and groove underlaymet over pressure treated 2x4s on 16 inch centers. Under the area where the car parks I added another 2x4 centered on the tire tread.

72477

As you can see from the pic I have not yet taken over my wife's half of the garage but I have a plan!

A coat of poly helps protect the floor from water damage.

Best regards, Tom

[Warren Clemans]

I used 1-1/8 plywood for my shop floor over 2x4 treated sleepers. I used the thicker ply so I could be sure that I could drive on it someday. Not that I have any intention of ever putting a car in my shop, but you never know what the next owners might do. Just two things to pay attention to if you use wood. First, some mobile bases concentrate a lot of weight on a small surface. My plywood occasionally makes crunching noises when I roll my 8-zillion pound planer over a void. Second, some floor paint doesn't go well with rubber. I park bikes in the shop occasionally and have black marks to show for it. If you think you'll put a car on the wood, be careful in choosing paint. I LOVE working on wood floors. Much easier on teh feet than my old concrete floor. Easy to clean, warmer, and a lighter color. Go for it.