Floor covering

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

Bob

When I built my 16 ft by 32 ft concrete floored workshop getting on for 10 years back I was advised to use the green waterproof chipboard underflooring commonly used in housebuilding as the floor covering. Said to be relatively inexpensive, durable and reasonably comfortable to walk on. Its worked out well so far. A few oil stains and a couple of weld splatter burns but functionally as good as when it was laid. Admittedly somewhat faded but I guess I could paint it if it ever bothered me. Its had various coolant and water spillages but no sign of any deterioration from that source. Not even when the Smart and Brown 1024 lathe coolant tank decided to spring a major leak and dumped several gallons of 30:1 water / Rocol Ultracut mix overnight. Machines stand directly on it with no problem.

Timber workshop is built on a brick wall extending 1 brick above highest adjacent ground level with proper foundations underneath and DPC. Floor is infilled to top of bricks being 1 ft re-enforced concrete on 2" insulation boards over type 1 fill with the proper membrane. The flooring sheets were nail-gunned down after engaging the tongue and groove joints liberally anointed with PVA. I probably wiped and scraped off about twice as much as stayed in the joints but I wanted the floor sealed. I took some care getting the underlying concrete level so its less than 10 thou per foot out in the worst spot. Its decent to walk on. Not cold. Cleaning is a Henry'n brush job. Can't be doing with carpets, mats, fancy anti-fatigue things and stuff that has to be picked up and shaken before dusting out underneath. Duckboards bring out my inner Donald Duck! Arranged some good but used carpet for the office / electronics section but never worked uo the enthusiasm to pu it down.

Offcuts made nice shelving and clean work benches as its slightly rough. Not abrasive but just enough to stop things sliding everywhere.

Gotta be the green stuff. The brown "just as good" which my local builders merchant tried to fob us off with when we went back for more is rubbish. Dusty to cut, soft on top and not fully water resistant.

[Russ BParticipant @russb]

Epoxy? or what about Polyurethane – 3 times the wear resistance of epoxy, easy to apply and oil, grease and petrol resistant and also easier to mix with anti slip aggregate.

Epoxy comes in 3 types (water, solvent and solids based) and Polyurethane comes in various different types too,

I'd recommend this as an interesting read, weighing up the pros and cons of Epoxy & Polyurethane – interesting reading if nothing else. This seems to be a website dedicated to all aspects of Workshop flooring construction, coating, painting and care/cleaning.

I didn't realise there was a difference between epoxy floor coating and epoxy floor paint – apparently there is….

**LINK**

Edited By Russ B on 30/09/2014 22:21:45

[Russ BParticipant @russb]

Ohh, and no – I don't know what the kick boxers at the top of the article have to do with the price of tea in China…..

[Douglas JohnstonParticipant @douglasjohnston98463]

I floored my workshop with the green flooring grade chipboard about 8 years ago and gave it two coats of anti-slip floor paint (the stuff with sand in the mix ) and it has been very good. Chips don't stick to it and it brushes clean very easily. Just this year I gave it another coat although only a few areas really needed it.

When I bought the chipboard it was pretty cheap, but I see the price of all wood products has increased considerably since then.

Doug

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

As for chip board (don't know about other countries) here in NZ, if you can get to a joinery factory or similar the chip board they get on a pellet has a sheet of chip board top and bottom, these cover boards are a couple of inches longer, and wider than standard, some places sell them quite cheaply, others like my local joinery factory give them away, think its 18 mm, and usually have a scratch or two.

Ian S C

[Tony RayParticipant @tonyray65007]

Bob,

FWIW this is my experience. My workshop is 5.5 X 4.5M so not dissimilar to yours in area. I had my builder lay expanded polystyrene under the slab and a DPM – you'll have to look up the exact details you'll need. I have no issues with a cold floor and I suffer with cold feet. Nor do I have any problems with cracking or floor loading. Were you joking about mixing the concrete ? I ask as the ready mixed stuff is so much more consistent and reliable and you'll need a lot of it.

Finally I finished it off with water based epoxy. With all floor paint it is important to get a good bond with the substrate so I etched mine with phosphoric acid as per Bradite instructions. Neutralisation and waiting for the slab to fully dry out before and after etching and after application are important. Having worked in the food industry and seen a lot of floor paint I can't subscribe to the view that polyurethane is more hard wearing. For me epoxy is the paint of choice – you can buy a solvent based version that's a bit cheaper . Good floor paint is not cheap but do it well and do it once

[John McNamaraParticipant @johnmcnamara74883]

My workshop floor is concrete coated with paving paint it has stood up extremely well and is easy to repair in areas such as where I stand in front of a machine. When the concrete was poured it was finished with stone dust and raw cement sprinkled on the top of the wet concrete and steel trowled to a polished finish.

You can also get epoxy finishes that will self level a rough concrete floor.

I wear thick soled runners (sneakers) to insulate the cold from the floor. they do pick up swarf so I take them off when I leave the workshop. In cold weather I have small mats to stand on, most of the time it is not needed.

The advantage of concrete is it is easy to clean.

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