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Thread: Shop flooring options

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    central tx
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    589

    Shop flooring options

    Looking for suggestions for my shop floor. When I finished it I was over budget (of course) and anxious to move in so I've just have bare concrete for 2 years. I'd like to get something nicer in here with more give. Its a little under 500 sq ft. All my machines are on wheels and stuff gets moved around a lot. Since COVID its now my home office, a ballet studio, 2nd TV room, and occasionally ping pong tournament space. So there's plenty of space to push everything to one side and do one side at a time.

    The easy answer here is just to pay someone to lay down hardwood flooring, but I'll have to rip off all the baseboards and its expensive. We don't really do solid hardwood down here because the temp and humidity fluctuations are wild. I don't know what kind of engineered hardwood would really stand up to the abuse long term.

    Any other suggestions? I'm open to something DIY but I want it to look good. Not really interested in epoxy.

  2. #2
    Were you born in a barn?

    We put down horse stall mats over the concrete slab. They're fast to lay down, cheap, and wonderfully durable. They also smell like rubber, and look industrial -- possibly a bad fit in a more sensitive space.

    My daughter teaches aikido classes (via Zoom) from the shop (which is not complete). There's a workout bench, barbells, and a weight bench in there. The stall mat "flooring" has been good for those purposes, and it also keeps me from getting crippled up after a couple of hours on naked concrete. That just hurts more than it used to, so I'm really appreciating our "anti-fatigue" solution.

    You can buy stall mats as "gym flooring" for much, much more money, or visit your nearest agricultural co-op. They're made from recycled tires, either way.
    --Jack S. Llewyllson

    Gratitude is a gift to yourself.

    Purity tests are the bane of human existence.

    Codeine takes the pain from every muscle but the heart.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    central tx
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    589
    Quote Originally Posted by Jack Llewyllson View Post
    Were you born in a barn?

    We put down horse stall mats over the concrete slab. They're fast to lay down, cheap, and wonderfully durable. They also smell like rubber, and look industrial -- possibly a bad fit in a more sensitive space.

    My daughter teaches aikido classes (via Zoom) from the shop (which is not complete). There's a workout bench, barbells, and a weight bench in there. The stall mat "flooring" has been good for those purposes, and it also keeps me from getting crippled up after a couple of hours on naked concrete. That just hurts more than it used to, so I'm really appreciating our "anti-fatigue" solution.

    You can buy stall mats as "gym flooring" for much, much more money, or visit your nearest agricultural co-op. They're made from recycled tires, either way.
    My J/P weighs 900lbs, would I be able to roll it around on that? Are there colors other than black? I think a black floor would kill the lighting.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    Eagle, ID
    Posts
    4
    I installed engineered hardwood over concrete slab two years ago and am very happy with it.

    20190304_182647.jpg

    20190304_182736.jpg

    20190429_095343.jpg

    DSCN0577.jpg

    I have several tools on casters, including a Hammer A3-31 J/P and Hammer B3 saw/shaper combo. I've had no issues with the floor handling the tools.

    My shop is climate controlled (Mitsubishi split).

    Floor is Kraus Ridgeview Hickory Grove, 7.5" wide, 9/16" thick, 3/32" hickory wear layer. Underlayment is Delta-FL, a Canadian product purchased through Lowes.

    An unexpected benefit is easy clean-up using a dust mop. Glides across the floor and doesn't raise the dust.

    Dave
    Eagle, ID

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    central tx
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dave Johnson 101 View Post
    I installed engineered hardwood over concrete slab two years ago and am very happy with it.

    I have several tools on casters, including a Hammer A3-31 J/P and Hammer B3 saw/shaper combo. I've had no issues with the floor handling the tools.

    My shop is climate controlled (Mitsubishi split).

    Floor is Kraus Ridgeview Hickory Grove, 7.5" wide, 9/16" thick, 3/32" hickory wear layer. Underlayment is Delta-FL, a Canadian product purchased through Lowes.

    An unexpected benefit is easy clean-up using a dust mop. Glides across the floor and doesn't raise the dust.

    Dave
    Eagle, ID
    Thanks for the pics. That's pretty much exactly what I want. Did you lay it yourself?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    central tx
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    589
    Here's my shop for reference, since its a shop thread:

    IMG_5998.jpg

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    Eagle, ID
    Posts
    4
    Quote Originally Posted by Thomas Crawford View Post
    Thanks for the pics. That's pretty much exactly what I want. Did you lay it yourself?
    Yes. I installed the underlayment and subfloor in 2013, shortly after we moved into the house, then the hickory floor in Feb 2019.

    I see now that I gave the wrong product name. It's Kraus Ridgeview Sunset Hills Hickory. Seems to still be available here. About $5400 for 700 sq ft.

    And I think it would make for a nice dance studio, maybe for the next owners.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
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    65,688
    Horse stall mats, such as those from Tractor Supply, are about 3/4" thick and can handle most equipment rolling. I probably wouldn't put it under my slider, but wouldn't hesitate for most other tools to keep things simple. If you want a thinner surface that looks good, Husky has a snap together flooring material that looks very nice and is easy to install with just a rubber mallet and your existing saw(s) for knocking down sizes at edges, etc. You'd still want a quality anti-fatigue mat in the places you stand a lot, but otherwise, it has a tiny bit of give, a textured surface and is easy to clean. No glueing or other fastening down, either.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  9. #9
    I installed solid white oak prefinished strip flooring. My heavy tools, like the Sawstop ICS and Powermatic 15 inch planer, leave track marks in the wood. I chose solid wood hoping it would be harder than engineered wood flooring that has softer woods for interior laminations. Sadly, it is not hard enough.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    New York, NY
    Posts
    2,203
    Engineered wood floors can be laid directly over concrete slabs with Bostik Greenforce adhesive. Not inexpensive but it eliminates the need for sleepers or secondary layers of wood and moisture barrier. The flooring material goes to within 1/4" of the baseboard, gap gets covered with shoe moulding.

    https://www.contractorsdirect.com/bo...force-adhesive

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Collegeville PA (30 min west of Philly)
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    In my house, we've gone entirely to "luxury vinyl tile" (LVT) floors. There's ranges of quality, and we went to the higher end using Karndean's line of products.

    In our case, our original reason for choosing this product is that our home is so old that the floors have all sorts of irregularities.. even though these tiles are thick, they can flex enough to handle our farmhouse's "character".

    The wood look is so realistic.. high resolution images, no repeat planks... everyone that visits our home compliments our "beautiful wood floors".

    The material doesn't scratch under dogs, kids, furniture.. No warping, shrinking, shifting, denting, scratching, fading.

    It's comfortable to walk on, and a dropped dish doesn't shatter. It's still a "hard" floor, but it does have some give compared to (say) ceramic tile.

    There's no glue. It's "loose lay". We've never had a plank shift at all, but if you somehow manage to damage a plank you can simply slip a razor blade in a seam, pull it out, flop a new one in. Definitely a DIY-suitable task (although we paid professionals in our case as this was part of a larger renovation).

    The floors have been bullet proof, water proof, family proof. Our local restaurants are using these floors now too. Worth a look for a workshop (the only question I'd ask them is about weight limits due to your heavy equipment).


    (Edit: in our case, we chose from their "commercial" line of products... probably overkill, but my family is hard on houses so we figured it was worth the investment)
    Last edited by Bob Riefer; 02-06-2021 at 9:38 AM.
    - Bob R.
    Collegeville PA (30 minutes west of Philly)

  12. #12
    I suffered bare concrete floors in my 350 sq ft shop for years. Then a friend gave me some excess per-engineered wood flooring. It was the type that snaps together and already has padding on the bottom. All I did way lay heavy mil plastic over the concrete then the flooring on top. All my tool are on mobile bases. That includes the table saw and a very heavy assembly outfeed table. No problems so far.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Fargo North Dakota
    Posts
    352
    I was researching the same question, however I do not want the expense of hardwood or laminate flooring. I was thinking about just laying the tile subfloor panels made by ?Dicore? that have plastic standoff built in. That would make a good subfloor but I plan to paint to cover the osb look.
    My woodworking theory: Measure with a micrometer, Mark with chalk, Cut with an ax.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Oct 2019
    Location
    Paros, Greece
    Posts
    31
    I upgraded my new workshop space a year ago with Sika's floor system, i think it was Sikafloor 264N system and 305W topcoat and the total cost was around 22euros/sqm

    In Greece hardwood floors are really exprensive starting from 35euros/sqm. You might want to take a look.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Thomas Crawford View Post
    My J/P weighs 900lbs, would I be able to roll it around on that? Are there colors other than black? I think a black floor would kill the lighting.
    People park log trucks on 'em (and, well... horses), so you're not gonna hurt the mats any.

    I haven't seen them in any color but an ashy black.

    It may be difficult to roll big iron over the mats if your casters are very small. I haven't gotten to the point of moving in most of my tools, yet, but I'm pretty sure the SawStop will roll just fine on its factory mobile base. My JET planer may be different -- it's never been extra maneuverable, but I've also never gotten around to throwing it onto its side to put on better casters.

    I've got a sentimental file cabinet in my shop now and it takes a lot of wrestling, but then again it's top-heavy and wears casters as hard and small as acorns. Even on smooth concrete, that thing is hard to roll around.

    Generally, I find a modest maneuverability trade-off acceptable, in exchange for softer footing and fewer chipped and broken items. I drop stuff a lot, these days, and I really hate chipping chisels or smashing half-built projects.

    Luck with your choice.

    Cheers,

    Jack
    Last edited by Jack Llewyllson; 02-08-2021 at 3:49 PM. Reason: typo ... plus forgot some info in original post
    --Jack S. Llewyllson

    Gratitude is a gift to yourself.

    Purity tests are the bane of human existence.

    Codeine takes the pain from every muscle but the heart.

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