# building wood shop, what floor is bst?



## farmall (Jan 8, 2012)

Hello Guys,
I am building a new wood shop. it will be 32 x 32 and I am planning to pour concrete for the floor. I am throwing around some options on what to use for the finished floor. I am a flooring contractor by trade so I sould be able to handle whatever needs to be done. If you had it to do all over, what would you choose? ceramic tile? oak flooring, just raw concrete? sealed concrete, painted concrete? cork? Thanks in advace for your replies.


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

Sealed concrete. Probably the easiest surface to clean up.

George


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## tvman44 (Dec 8, 2011)

Either raw concrete or sealed concrete. Mine is raw.


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## Jim Moe (Sep 18, 2011)

Epoxy coated floor in whatever color you prefer.


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## Dominick (May 2, 2011)

I'm also a flooring installer and I would install linoleum with flash coving and welded seams. 
Makes for easy clean up. Good luck and welcome to WWT


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## Longknife (Oct 25, 2010)

Depends on what you value most, easy cleanup, healthy back and feet or ability to drop a chisel without ruining it.

Not much beats a sealed concrete floor when it comes to easy cleanup but it's not good for your back and not kind to a dropped chisel. In old days many woodshops had end-grain wood floors. A major PITA to install but a great floor in a shop.

Today rigid foam insulation with 1" T&G particle board (or plywood) on top is a good alternative.


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## Wrangler02 (Apr 15, 2011)

My shop has 2" ridgid insulation, t&g plywood then cork planks. I love it for comfort and protecting dropped tools.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

I would just leave the raw concrete floor. I leased a building one time the floor was sealed and I found it was too slick. I ended up having to put a light dusting of contact cement on the floor in front of my table saw to keep from slipping when cutting 3/4" mdf.


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## Woodenhorse (May 24, 2011)

Nothing beats a wood floor. Far more comfortable than concrete on your feet and knees.


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## Santa's Workshop (May 16, 2011)

Mine is a home basement shop. I put some lumber liquidators closeout laminate down because there were some cracks that I wanted to cover up. Looks good--easy to clean up---BUT toooooo slippery once the dust starts flying!


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## dbhost (Jan 28, 2008)

Epoxied concrete with anti fatigue mats. Easy to clean up, easy on the back and legs...


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## joesbucketorust (Dec 13, 2011)

I built mine on a cement slab. It's easy to sweep up, but I use a lot of antique tools and I always feel that I'm just one slip away from disaster. If I could upgrade it to wood, I would.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*poured concrete?*



farmall said:


> Hello Guys,
> I am building a new wood shop. it will be 32 x 32 and I am planning to pour concrete for the floor. I am throwing around some options on what to use for the finished floor. I am a flooring contractor by trade so I sould be able to handle whatever needs to be done. If you had it to do all over, what would you choose? ceramic tile? oak flooring, just raw concrete? sealed concrete, painted concrete? cork? Thanks in advace for your replies.


I have 2 shops, one is a 3/4" painted Fir plywood T&G subfloor. It's warm, and over the first floor shop and I don't worry about dropping wood, or sharp tools. Glue pops right off and stains can get painted over. It is slippery when there's dust on it.
The other is a poured slab which was steeled smooth for a garage floor. Knowing what I do now I would not have steeled it, just leveled it and left some tooth for traction. You can clear seal it with this product: 
http://www.euclidchemical.com/product_detail.asp?id=56&pselect=222 It's very tough and epoxy can be applied later if desired. A 5 gal pail was about $130.00

Knowing what I know now I would have put in a framed wooden floor to allow for ductwork and wiring underneath, but this was intended for a garage. The cost of concrete is about double what it was a few years back, so I don't know about the cost of either, but I would do a calculation just to see. Your's is a shop not a garage, so weight won't be a huge factor...unless you are WarnerConstruction, who only uses tools over 1500 lbs each. :laughing: bill


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## Shop Dad (May 3, 2011)

Where I live heat in the winter is an issue. If I could build my own shop I would seriously look at including radiant heating in the floor.


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## Jim Moe (Sep 18, 2011)

Shop Dad said:


> Where I live heat in the winter is an issue. If I could build my own shop I would seriously look at including radient heating in the floor.


Great idea! The guy I buy my roughsawn lumber from has a Tree Service and a sawmill. His shop is on a small hill and his house is about 75 yards down on the bottom of the hill. He has a huge wood burning boiler next to the 90 X 60 foot shop with tubing in the concrete and zone controlled heating for different areas of the shop and also his house. His kiln for drying wood is a insulated room in the shop which he uses the floor heat to dry the wood. Needless to say, since he has a tree service he has no lack of a wood supply!


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## BWSmith (Aug 24, 2010)

I will have both wood and concrete on our next shop.Theres certain equip and other things that just need to be on concrete.....and they will be.But there'll be a very good portion on probably T&G sumthin.....this would be with concrete under.Sleeper joists,prolly 2x6's or 8's.

Its completely doable to have a single system wood floor.Uhhh,most pre 19th century houses this was the case.I'd use the wood dejour....basically whatever I felt like....anything over an inch thick should get it done.Then just run T&G's on it.Spacing joist however I see fit....10...12...14 inches on center.Who cares?It'll be engineered with flooring in mind.

The reason for wood floor should be obvious to anyone who's spent lots of time on concrete.....and my feet would attest to that.But the ability to run mechanicals under the flooris one of the not-so obvious reasons.The single floor system comes into its own because you can so quickly repair...replace....and pull up bds to gain access to mechanicals.

Under flr DC on a cpl pcs of equip is very nice.Wood Zen,and general overthetop cool factor certainly play a role as well.Good luck with your floor.BW


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## Roundup85 (Mar 18, 2012)

If you are starting from scratch, how about putting heating piping in the floor assuming you live in an area that needs shop heat. You have one chance to do it since you are starting new. In floor heat is very comfortable, efficient, and no need to worry about fumes to worry about with forced air heaters. Just a thought.


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## oldmacnut (Dec 27, 2010)

If I could, I'd have a slightly raised floor with panels much like in a data center. That way DC lines, electric, networking (my shop is a nerds shop) etc can all be run under the floor, instead of against the wall or on ceiling.

Sent from my Xoom using Woodworking Talk


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## Getting better (Dec 3, 2009)

If I had my druthers I would pour a concrete sub floor and install floor joists over it (to allow for under floor DC piping and wiring. Then cover the joists with whatever wood I could get a good deal on. I live in a hot climate and a concrete floor keeps the shop cool in the summer time and the wood floor protects my tools, feet and back.


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## farmall (Jan 8, 2012)

all great points guys. Thanks. There is a lot to consider. I like the radiant heating but I worry about the efficency of heating all of that water. It would be nice if I had an outdoor wood stove to heat the floor. Now that I think about it, I am sure that the floor won't heat the building in just a few hours. This is not going to be a full time segment of my company. I might be better off with a furnace of some sort, something i can tun on and get the heat when I need it.


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## Gregg30! (Nov 28, 2012)

I would look at some sort of epoxy flooring. They are very durable and are easy to clean and maintain. Definitely worth the investment, in my opinion!


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