Help with a tough cleaning situation

[DocsMachine]

I have a tricky situation for you floor experts.

My machine shop is a small room off the side of my main car-bay shop. I would like to coat the floor, both to make cleanup easier (chips and such) and to resist oil drippage off the machines.

The problem is, I do not have the space to get all or even most of the machines and other junk out of the room- AND... I need to keep a couple of them at least accessible, so I can continue to work while I'm doing the floor.

I'm not worried about making a perfect, glossy floor- this is a working shop, and as I said, I'm mainly just trying to make it easier to sweep up chips.

I'm kind of figuring I'd do it in two halves- move the easily-to-carry stuff out as best I can, and slide the heavy machines all to one end with a pallet jack. Then treat half the floor, let it cure, move the machines back in place, shift the other half of the machines, do the other half.

Part of the problem, however, is that there are some oil stains thanks to the occasionally drippy machines. I've tried to keep things neat over the years with work mats and floor dry, but there's stains nonetheless.

Due to the fact that the room cannot be completely emptied, flooding the floor with cleaners or solvents isn't going to work. Even if I built a dam of some kind to block half the room, there's still workbenches built into and solidly attached to the wall, that wouldn't take kindly to soaking the legs/supports in water and cleansers.

Do I have any options here, or is this one of those "tough sh*t" situations.

The concrete is 40+ year old, and the oil stains are reasonably localized- as in in distinct areas, not sprayed all over the floor. I'm not sure it ever got sealed- it may have had something like a "Polar Seal", but if so, that was forty years ago.

The total area is small- it's not a big room, so I'd be doing maybe 200-300 square feet at a time.

Doc.

 

[Shea]

For the oil stains you can use a product like Pour-N-Restore. Pour it on then sweep it up. No water needed. Another option is to pour a solvent on the stains and use a natural poultice like Oil-Dri. There are bioremediation products that are water-less as well such as Eximo.

Once the stains are cleaned up you can grind the floor using a dust shield and proper vacuum equipment to profile the concrete. It keeps the dust way down and no water needed.

 

[DocsMachine]

Forgive my ignorance, but why would the floor need to be ground?

Doc.

 

[Shea]

My machine shop is a small room off the side of my main car-bay shop. I would like to coat the floor, both to make cleanup easier (chips and such) and to resist oil drippage off the machines.

Based on the above statement I'm assuming that you want epoxy or some other resinous coating. In order to apply something like that to concrete you need to profile the floor to open up the pores of the concrete at the surface. It would require acid etching at the minimum, which requires water, or grinding. Since you can't flood the space with water then grinding would do it.

There are some single part coatings now that don't require such prep work. Rust Bullet is one and may be a good candidate. You can contact Justin from Garage Flooring LLC about that one. Scotty from Legacy Industrial has a single part polyurea coating, Nohr-S, that may qualify as well.

You may have some other sealer you wanted to apply that may not require it. Again, it was just an assumption based on what you said you wanted to do.

 

[Garage Flooring]

I have a tricky situation for you floor experts.

My machine shop is a small room off the side of my main car-bay shop. I would like to coat the floor, both to make cleanup easier (chips and such) and to resist oil drippage off the machines.

The problem is, I do not have the space to get all or even most of the machines and other junk out of the room- AND... I need to keep a couple of them at least accessible, so I can continue to work while I'm doing the floor.

I'm not worried about making a perfect, glossy floor- this is a working shop, and as I said, I'm mainly just trying to make it easier to sweep up chips.

I'm kind of figuring I'd do it in two halves- move the easily-to-carry stuff out as best I can, and slide the heavy machines all to one end with a pallet jack. Then treat half the floor, let it cure, move the machines back in place, shift the other half of the machines, do the other half.

Part of the problem, however, is that there are some oil stains thanks to the occasionally drippy machines. I've tried to keep things neat over the years with work mats and floor dry, but there's stains nonetheless.

Due to the fact that the room cannot be completely emptied, flooding the floor with cleaners or solvents isn't going to work. Even if I built a dam of some kind to block half the room, there's still workbenches built into and solidly attached to the wall, that wouldn't take kindly to soaking the legs/supports in water and cleansers.

Do I have any options here, or is this one of those "tough sh*t" situations.

The concrete is 40+ year old, and the oil stains are reasonably localized- as in in distinct areas, not sprayed all over the floor. I'm not sure it ever got sealed- it may have had something like a "Polar Seal", but if so, that was forty years ago.

The total area is small- it's not a big room, so I'd be doing maybe 200-300 square feet at a time.

Doc.

Lots of ways to get the oil stains up. Tide, Simple Green, Pour N Restore or Metal Blast.

Double Check make sure water soaks in.

Apply a couple coats of Rust Bullet -- No Grinding required.

Wait three days and then enjoy!

 

[benwah]

Forgive my ignorance, but why would the floor need to be ground?

Doc.

To create a profile for the coating to adhere to

 

[DocsMachine]

Based on the above statement I'm assuming that you want epoxy or some other resinous coating.

-Correct.

In order to apply something like that to concrete you need to profile the floor to open up the pores of the concrete at the surface.

-The concrete is well-aged and well used, and wasn't finished all that smooth in the first place. That's actually part of the reason I want to coat it- as it is, it's like trying to sweep clean a sheet of 80 grit sandpaper.

Doc.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Doc:

Off topic...
I checked out some of your work (plasma cannon, steering wheel conv) and its very nice!