Best flooring for a workshop?

[wkearney99]

We're building a new house and I've got a new workshop space in the basement. Plans call for putting down VCT. But I've no idea which kind. It's currently just bare poured concrete.

My question is what would be the ideal flooring to put down? I don't want just bare concrete.

This is a basement workshop and does not have a way to drive vehicles into it. So I won't be dealing with car/truck tires.

But I will have a number of metal wire shelves on casters (metro kind from costco). There's a lot of weight on those 4" casters. I'd want to avoid a flooring material that would deform from them being in one place all the time. I may, at some point, go with the tracks that allow sliding shelving around. But that's not going to happen until well after we've moved back into the house and I get a better feel for how I want to layout the space.

I'll also have several tall and heavy computer racks, also on casters. Which will usually stay in just one place for most of the time, moving only when something gets changed.

The room will mostly see just typical home hobbyist and DIY kinds of stuff. At some point I'd like to get the hang of doing some small welding stuff. So a flooring that's not going to get immediately wrecked by that would be worth having. But most of the time it'll just be typical hobby stuff, woodworking, soldering, a bit of painting, etc.

Suggestions? Especially on what NOT to get?

 

[bdamico]

suggestion: spend an afternoon reading threads in this forum back 5 or 10 pages and then you will have better questions to ask.

 

[retfr8flyr]

If you want to do welding on the floor you will either need welding mats, or do the floor in porcelain, or ceramic tile. I would just do the floor in a porcelain tile and be done with any worries.

 

[wkearney99]

Excellent point regarding using tile. I'm not sure I want to head in that direction. Mainly because I don't want to get into having grout edges for wheels. Where this an auto garage, sure, it'd make sense. But I'll raise the question with my flooring sub and see what his thoughts are on it.

So I'll likely be keeping an eye out for welding mats when the time comes.

 

[torqueman2002]

In our machine shops, we use wood-block floors.

These are blocks of wood set with end grain up.

Now it does absorb machining fluids and require scarifying on a periodic basis, but if you drop a piece that has many hours of machining into it, you don't have to scrap the piece.

 

[Iron Cat]

Another option,you.have a relatively clean unstained floor,coat it with epoxy.Youll have no grout to interfere with rolling cabinets or carts,just a smooth nice floor.Use that tile installation cash outlay on some diamondplate or steel sheet to make your welding area safe. it might only take one shot of weld splatter to start a nasty fire.

 

[Le Mancave]

Excellent point regarding using tile. I'm not sure I want to head in that direction. Mainly because I don't want to get into having grout edges for wheels. Where this an auto garage, sure, it'd make sense. But I'll raise the question with my flooring sub and see what his thoughts are on it.

So I'll likely be keeping an eye out for welding mats when the time comes.

Look into "rectified" tile. It's manufactured very precisely which allows for tiny grout lines.

 

[bdamico]

Excellent point regarding using tile. I'm not sure I want to head in that direction. Mainly because I don't want to get into having grout edges for wheels. Where this an auto garage, sure, it'd make sense. But I'll raise the question with my flooring sub and see what his thoughts are on it.

So I'll likely be keeping an eye out for welding mats when the time comes.

this is why i tell people to take some time reading threads. you can lead a horse to water...