Old School flooring

[ckucia]

My wife and I are closing on 30+ acres in very rural West Virginia.

Hoping to eventually move down there, but worse case, we'll retire down there.

Anyhow, access is limited. Have to drive along two ridges and then about a thousand feet through woods that I don't plan on clearing for more than my pickup, then probably another couple thousand feet to the eventual homesite.

All that's off a one-lane, gravel, twisty county road.

In other words, there's no way a cement truck is ever going to make it to our property.

Eventually, I'd like to build a shop down there for myself. Place I can work on cars.

So what did they use back in the day before poured concrete floors were commonplace? I'm looking for some sort of material I can put down, preferably myself, and that can be carried in pickup-truck-sized loads. Something that will support a car or tractor and is reasonably level, although not necessarily mirror-flat.

I seem to recall that old factories had floors made up of squares of wood - and I think one of my grandfathers had a driveway like that. Could that be an option for me? Is there a name for that?

Maybe bricks or concrete pavers are an option?

Anything I build will likely have a pier foundation.

I'm not opposed to pouring concrete, but it would have to be in small sections at a time - whatever I can mix and pour myself.

Any ideas?

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Woodblock floor. Common in automotive factories. Easy on the knees and feet yet pretty tough. The only caveat is they were commonly laid on concrete beds. I guess you could compact crushed stone to get a good bed.

 

[Inventive1]

If the site is reasonably dry, some folks would just use a dirt floor with a conveyor belt over it. There is a thread about this:

http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42937&highlight=conveyor+belt

There is (or was) another thread on this subject, but I can't find it now. It sounded like a decent solution for some situations. I had planned to try this suggestion, but that hasn't happened yet.

A few folks are installing dirt (or earthen) floors in nice, sometimes expensive, homes. The finished floor is reported to look similar to leather. The basic plan is to use clay mixed with straw and put linseed oil on it to seal the clay. These floors are often insulated, heated, are not dusty, and can be wet mopped. Sheet plastic is put under the top layer of soil to prevent ground moisture from coming up into the home. If you do an internet search for "Earthen Floors" you can find more details as well as a book on the subject. I'm uncertain how well (or if) any of these ideas would translate to a garage floor. It may not work to well under a heavy vehicle, but might be ok around a work bench or in a storage area. If used under a vehicle, some heavy timbers laid down spread the vehicle's weight over a larger area would probably prove helpful.

Mixing the concrete yourself and pouring small sections at a time might work. The joints between each poured section would likely crack. Mixing enough concrete to pour an entire floor for even a small garage will be a HUGE amount of work!

One other idea is to build the garage with a wood floor. Just use large beams, joists, and some heavy decking. I've seen old barns built this way that support MANY tons of weight. Nimrod has a really nice example of a wood floor:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3740

 

[macdabs]

If you can drive a pickup on the road you can get concrete to the site. We build tower sites on top of mountains all the time and have got some large equipment and material to places you would never imagine. Some concrete companies have small barrel trucks that can mix on site. We have used t -plate F-450s to hall concrete and material. If you can get something to dig the footers on site you can get concrete there.

Jm

 

[jbbies]

My dad and grandpa in the early 60s poured 3 buildings roughly 30x50 with two 3 point attached cement mixers on tractors. The floors are still going strong and look good. It might not be a bad option.
B

 

[magnusk750]

Wooden floor is a beauty, and nice to work on if you dont do too much of welding. Have a look at http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3740

I'd say for cars and if using pine the boards should be some 40-45 mm and placed on beams at about 80 - 90 cm between them, but maybe you guys on the other side of the pond use other woods that gives other dimensions.

 

[ckucia]

Wooden floor is a beauty, and nice to work on if you dont do too much of welding. Have a look at http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3740

I'd say for cars and if using pine the boards should be some 40-45 mm and placed on beams at about 80 - 90 cm between them, but maybe you guys on the other side of the pond use other woods that gives other dimensions.

I had forgotten about Nimrod's shop.

There's an old house and barn on the property, both of which I will eventually tear down and salvage the timber.

I would really like a wood plank deck if I could pull it off. Is there an easy way to calculate what sizes of joists and planking would be required to support a vehicle?

Ideally, I'd like to build the center of the floor strong enough to support my 4x4 pickup and maybe a small farm tractor like a Ford N, then maybe make the floor outside that area less capable.

Here's a twist. Could I make the center of the floor removable and then excavate an access pit? Then I could pull a vehicle in, slide the center of the floor out, and work on the chassis without having to build a shop high enough and sturdy enough for a lift.

I guess the best way to do that would be piers at the corners of the building, then piers lining the area along side the "pit" area about where most wheelbases lie so the vehicles are supported by beams from pier to pier. Then the span under the vehicle doesn't have to be as strong.

 

[Alchymist]

Puncheon floor:
http://www.ehow.com/how_6640612_build-floor-log-cabin-style.html

There is another style - sharpened lengths of wood 2X2 or 3X3 inch square driven into the dirt side by side until flush.

 

[magnusk750]

An ordinary pine floor in a living house is mostly 32 mm, or 1 1/4, and about 1 m cc between joists. Barn floors are thicker, where you can even drive a tractor, I'd say about 1 1/2 to 2" but these are still quite rough figures, I know. I'll look if I can find something on the topic in my bookshelves, have some old school books on construction but now it's nightynighty in my part of the world.

 

[magnusk750]

Found some figures in construction literature from the 50s. For plank floors one book said 2" for grain storage buildings and industrial buildings and the other said 1½" for hay barns. My guess is that 1½ should be enough, especially if made with tongue and groove planks. Dimensioning for grain storage and industrial loads seems like overkill. For joists they had only a table for living houses, but both books talks about 60 cm or 2 ft between the joists. If you use joists 8 x 8" with span max 4 m or about 13 ft I think it can't can go wrong. Another issue is if you want an insulated floor or if just one layer of planks is enough.

 

[magnusk750]

Must say I've started to like this idea myself. I want to build an ca 18 x 30 shop and started to share info on a floor construction like this myself. Let's see if it works out. I like that it's quite a DIY friendly solution. Instead of hiring a couple of men to pour a slab you can quietly build the floor yourself with basically a hammer and a saw.