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Thread: Wood Shop Floors - What to use?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
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    Wood Shop Floors - What to use?

    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.
    Regards,

    Glen

    Woodworking: It's a joinery.

  2. #2
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    Mar 2006
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    Westminster, MD
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    I would use Advantech sub floor. This stuff is fantastic! It's what is being used in most new custom homes.

  3. #3
    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

  4. #4
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    Apr 2006
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    Central NY State
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    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.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ken Werner View Post
    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?
    Regards,

    Glen

    Woodworking: It's a joinery.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Spencer Keysan View Post
    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!!
    Regards,

    Glen

    Woodworking: It's a joinery.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Southern California and China
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    122

    I got a computer floor on eBay

    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
    Liberty CNC / Sherline / Mach3 / SheetCAM / CorelDraw V12, X3 and X4 / EZ Smart System / DragonCNC / DXFTool

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Glen Blanchard View Post
    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

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wayne Watling View Post
    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.
    Regards,

    Glen

    Woodworking: It's a joinery.

  10. #10
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    Apr 2004
    Location
    Seattle
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    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.

  11. #11
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    Yes, I'll post them later.
    Ken

  12. #12
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    here's a picture of the floor in progress

    Ken
    Attached Images Attached Images

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ken Werner View Post
    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.
    Regards,

    Glen

    Woodworking: It's a joinery.

  14. #14
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    Glen, the effort is temporary. The satisfaction lasts a long time.
    Ken

  15. #15
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    Feb 2007
    Location
    Virginia Beach
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    9
    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.
    Attached Images Attached Images

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