Flooring for a Working Shop

[MPH]

Though I have gone with some bells a whistles in my shop, a full 14X50upstaris with a pool table, wet bar, Microwave and a small refrigerator. The shop also has a full bath room and Radiant Floor heating for both the upstairs and shop floor. I want to be able to use the shop. We will be welding, grinding, spraying (at times) and all the other things you would do in a shop that is not just a show piece. Don't get me wrong, I want the shop to look nice, but we are going to use it.

So, even though, like the most of you, I want it to look nice and clean to show it off, I do not want to have to be patching my floor finish all the time. The flat work currently has a very very nice burn finish on it and I am wondering what would be a good finish for the floor that would still allow me to work in my shop and then sweep and mop it up from time to time, so it looks nice clean and not just a dirty old shop. Any suggestions?

Thanks, Mike

 

[Stinger]

Unless you want to throw down a welding blanket before welding, put something under floor jacks or jack stands to protect the floor coating, etc. I'd think just a nice polished concrete would be best.

 

[bazzateer]

Polished concrete or porcelain tile would be my choice. Should a tile get damaged (unlikely IMHO) you can just pop it out and put a new one in.

Due to lack of funds I'll probably end up painting mine initially then tiling a few years later.

 

[MPH]

Unless you want to throw down a welding blanket before welding, put something under floor jacks or jack stands to protect the floor coating, etc. I'd think just a nice polished concrete would be best.

Polished concrete or porcelain tile would be my choice. Should a tile get damaged (unlikely IMHO) you can just pop it out and put a new one in.

Due to lack of funds I'll probably end up painting mine initially then tiling a few years later.

Thanks for the replies. I have talked to someone about the polished concrete and the cost was an eye opener... so I started to look at the epoxy but did not like what I was hearing about the welding. I have also talked about staining the concrete and then just sealing it.

I have also talked about hanging welding curtains around the area that we would be grinding and welding in, but with 16' ceilings, I am not sure if that would work out to well. That would only make me have to cover the floor when welding on cars out in the shop area if I went with epoxy.

I don't know... I was just hoping that I could seal it with something that would give it a good shine, wouldn't need much repair, and would stay good looking with some sweeping and some mopping.

Thanks again, Mike

 

[Jack Olsen]

Nothing I know of holds up to welding slag.

I think you either let bare concrete get ugly or you remind yourself to put down welding blankets.

My ceramic tile has more slag burns on it than I can count. At standing distance, it still looks fine. And it was less than a buck a square foot, all in.

 

[Dragster Racer]

No coatings that I have seen on this board seem like a good choice for my shop. Polished is great if you can afford it, and then it is slippery. I worked in a large facility that had epoxy. It was a cabinet plant, and we used very few forklifts. Still, you get gouges and scratches and it turns your stomach when you see them. You can repair them, but it doesn't look right.
I often have to impromise when moving large things in my shop, and there is often some sliding of large or sharp stuff. Just the deal when you have to do most stuff alone. Epoxy and tile just wouldn't hold up to that and the tire chains on the tractor in the winter. I cure and sealed when new, but I think eventually I will try to find a tough clear sealer and call it good. Just something to help cleanup really.

 

[keggy]

why would epoxy not be reccomended for a workshop? im new to the epoxy flooring and interested in puting it down in my car workshop

 

[Dragster Racer]

I think it depends on how you use your shop. But see my post right before yours.

 

[Mickey_D]

Ceramic tile looks great and is pretty durable, but don't even think of running a decent sized hard tire forklift over it. I looked at some shop space that had some tile in it and the forklift had really done a job on a tiled entryway (it had been some type of showroom in the past). I would stick with bare concrete and maybe even spread dry sand on the floor if you are going to be cutting a lot. After seeing how poorly epoxy has held up in my current place (moving heavy machinery around, some welding, things being dropped), I will only go with and easy to touchup paint in the future.

 

[Boosted1]

Here is a thought. How about colored, polished concrete with a sealer?
I did epoxy and like others have said it does wear. I have not been totally satisfied with my epoxy. I wanted color in garage though. I did not know so much about polished concrete at the time I built my garage.
I did however used a colored concrete on the pad outside the garage since I didn't want my backyard just looking like a slab of concrete.
This has made me since think that if I used colored concrete inside, polished it, and put a clear sealer over it, it would always keep the color and you could just periodically reseal it.

 

[SpaceEnvy]

Be careful with sealers as most of them are low solids, one componenet sealers and you will have similar issues with the welding slag and they may not hold up to the other chemicals either. Epoxies and urethanes have better chemical resistance, but at the end of the day all coatings are essentially thermo-plastics and will start to see issues with heat above 140 degrees.

 

[MPH]

Nothing I know of holds up to welding slag.

I think you either let bare concrete get ugly or you remind yourself to put down welding blankets.

My ceramic tile has more slag burns on it than I can count. At standing distance, it still looks fine. And it was less than a buck a square foot, all in.

Very nice looking shop Jack. I am not sure that tile would hold up in my shop. It could have everything in it from a Jr. Dragster to a 40' Diesel Pusher in it.

Here is a thought. How about colored, polished concrete with a sealer?
I did epoxy and like others have said it does wear. I have not been totally satisfied with my epoxy. I wanted color in garage though. I did not know so much about polished concrete at the time I built my garage.
I did however used a colored concrete on the pad outside the garage since I didn't want my backyard just looking like a slab of concrete.
This has made me since think that if I used colored concrete inside, polished it, and put a clear sealer over it, it would always keep the color and you could just periodically reseal it.

I have looked at the staining with a sealer a lot, but when it comes to polishing, from the quotes that I recieved, I could epoxy it way cheaper than polishing it.

Also some one asked about the epoxy holding up..... welding slag burns holes in your epoxy floor. seams like a lot of work to let that happen. Maybe in my attached garage which is used for parking and storage.

Thaks again, Mike

 

[RAYJAY]

why would epoxy not be reccomended for a workshop? im new to the epoxy flooring and interested in puting it down in my car workshop

chips /welding burns to name a few

thats why i use a solid color stain on mine it can get beat up and i just recoat it every few years.

link to my thread on my floor here


http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4708

jeff

 

[gelinadesouza]

Thanks for the information.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Nothing I know of holds up to welding slag.

I think you either let bare concrete get ugly or you remind yourself to put down welding blankets.

My ceramic tile has more slag burns on it than I can count. At standing distance, it still looks fine. And it was less than a buck a square foot, all in.

Jack, you have one clean looking shop. I have 3x times the space and I can't keep it clean and neat for 3 seconds. My hat's off to ya sir.