Try epoxy on the parking half of the shop and concrete stain on the remainder. Give a good "break line" between the two areas. Try adding an accent stripe between the two or frame both areas with an accent stripe in epoxy. I have a friend that finished his this way and does not worry about the weld slag on his floor.
If is does get messed up, another coat of stain, a little sealer and he is good to go for a few years. His choice was a bright white epoxy for the parking area (no chips) as he worked there and wanted the "clean" look to help in lighting and to find small parts that get dropped (this is also his light work/assembly area). The "heavy work" side (welding. grinding, cutting, etc.) was stained a dark brown. He used a dark green accent stipe around the white to set things off.
It has been a few years since I was back in that area but he claims the floor still looks great.
Edit: One thing that I did not mention. He needed to add lights over the stained area as it looked like a cave compared to the other side with the dark floor.
I plan to have a nice Epoxy Floor inside the shop and plan to weld outside thru an 8' door. Anything that generates a bunch of slag, sawdust, wood chips, metalic dust I plan on going outside and down-wind.
It's hard to weld outside with any gas shielded process. Even a small wind can disturb the gas coming out of the torch/gun. You need to set up barriers to block all wind. A lot of folks stick with using flux core wire when they need to weld outside, but I have a hard time matching the results I can get with gas.
And if you think welding slag is tough on epoxy floors, wait till you see what it will do to an asphault driveway! And plasma cutter slag makes even more of a mess than welding.
I believe Wolverine Coatings also has mentioned they make a product that should hold up to wear and tear of welding/fab work. But as of yet I have not seen anyone use it on this board and show results.
We do make products that are used in welding areas of shops. In fact, if you have a Buttler building then maybe it was made on one of those floors. Fred has been chompin' at the bit to sell these products but I am concerned about the DIY installation.
We do make products that are used in welding areas of shops. In fact, if you have a Buttler building then maybe it was made on one of those floors. Fred has been chompin' at the bit to sell these products but I am concerned about the DIY installation.
Well, make it happen! Im about to buy my flooring from Fred and i do a lot of welding and plasma cutting. I dont want to spend a bug chunk of money on flooring and have it get ruined.
We do make products that are used in welding areas of shops. In fact, if you have a Buttler building then maybe it was made on one of those floors. Fred has been chompin' at the bit to sell these products but I am concerned about the DIY installation.
I weld pretty often and my epoxy has held up pretty well. A big chunk of slag will make a tiny burn mark but overall welding hasn't done much damage.
x2 I weld/plasma all the time above my epoxy floor, not sure if I even have one burn spot in it.