shop floor - DRICore vs plywood vs ???

[craig lapiana]

looking at putting down a new floor in my shop. any advice on what you would recommend would be appreciated.

i am leaning towards plywood in that i could put a dust collection system under it with my machine electrical drops.

plywood installation do's and dont's??

thanks

[John Renzetti]

Hi Craig, One of the members on the Felder group just reported on his installation of drr-core for his shop. He said it worked very well and was easy to put down, shim and level. The plywood will work also, but I would recommend something like the 1 1/8" sturdi-floor tongue and groove sheets.
Beware of putting your ducting in the floor. Mainly because I can guarantee you that you'll make changes in your setup down the road. I've made 3 in 9 yrs. It's a lot easier with the ducting overhead.
take care,
John

[Matt Meiser]

Another recommendation against putting the ducts under the floor. I've had my new shop for just over a year and have already made a couple minor changes after finding better placement for one or two things and adding equipment.

[Peter Engelmann]

I installed some DriCore last summer in the "traffic" area of my shop - under the workbenches and along the perimeters. The installation was simple and my feet, back and dropped tools are thanking me daily. As winter rolled in the temperature difference was significant to the point that I added another section early this year - something that would be difficult to do with raised plywood construction. I also couldn't afford to lose 7-8" of height for below floor ductwork.

[Kelly C. Hanna]

I'd go overhead with the ducts too...I change things around way too much to have them buried (unless the floor is removable). I'd also stay very far away from any floor made from chips or chunks of wood and resin. Stick with 3/4" plywood. Best option would be a hardwood floor over the ply if you could swing it.

The multitudes of chipboard floor products have very little ridgidity over time. I can't tell you how many pieces of this stuff I have removed from houses during remodeling...some of it less than five years old. In fact, seeing so much of it got me out of that phase of my business entirely.

[lou sansone]

craig and others

this material is worth considering as a sub floor. It is called Advantech and is sold by many distributors such as HD. It wears like iron. I would put this down and then add another more durable layer of hard wood flooring. My personal preference is hickory or pecan. White oak or hard maple are also very good floors as well. As I have indicated in other posts, when looking for flooring, try to find a flooring mill that will have seconds available at an unbelievable cost savings. For the floor to be ridged you really need at least 1.25 or 1.5 " of thickness. Many of the old mills in my neck of the woods had 6-8" or thicker flooring ( normally an under layer of maple then 2 layers of 3" thick t/g SYP and then a final wear layer of maple)

http://www.huberwood.com/emplibrary/AFSIB.pdf

lou