Wood Block Floor

[RickG5106]

OK, Just spitwadding here.
I have a space that will one day become a garage. I think it will be a 2 car with an equal space next to it as a shop. So we can say it would be 40 X 24 with the overhead doors at one end of the long wall. For the shop portion I would like to put down 2.5" thick wood blocks, end grain up. Easy on the feet, warmer than concrete, etc.
I know this will mean I have to, basically, pour 2 floors. one for the shop and another 2.5" higher to park the cars on.
My question is, what kind of overlap btwn the two am I looking at? 12"? 24"?
Pouring it all at once would be cool but I don't know how to stop the mud from flowing into the low spot so I assume you do it twice.
Z the rebar to tie the two floors together, 1 X 2 galv. wire fence in both floors that is 4 or 5 inches thick.
The ceiling won't be high enough for a lift and I am more a motorcycle and car guy that a HD truck guy so I can't see me redoing a Needle nose Peterbuilt. But a lathe and a mill and maybe a small press brake would be handy and more my style.
Like I said, it's in the thinking stage, just trying to understand the details.
Thanks for your time.

 

[CheckeredFlag]

not sure

have you thought about the fire risk with a wooden floor ?

Anything that drips off a vehicle of any kind will just soak in the wood

One little spark, and ....

 

[daveroy]

Bit of history..
The mArtin bomber building at Offutt AFB NE, originally had sodden floors as you describe. Building planes to win the war! Parts dropped on wood did usually have to be destroyed/remade.

 

[mattv97]

I worked at a major diesel engine manufacturing plant dated back to 1938 and they had some of the wood block floor there still in there tooling area and it worked great.

 

[premierplayer]

Timing, and water in the mix play into the equation. Your concrete contractor should sail right through a 2.5" step. Z bent rebar to tie the two is correct. Being the step will be
24' long you'll need some spikes to hold the step form when placing the concrete, these and the step form board should be stripped and finished with the troweling.

 

[Will S.]

That will make for an interesting, "old time" floor, and it is certainly doable. If you are going to treat the endgrain with a sealer, it should hold up reasonably well. If a (metal?) lathe and milling machine will be in there, they require the use of a fair amount of cutting oil, and that will proabably be a problem, unless you matt the area in front of and around those machines.

The concrete pour should not be any problem, and the stepped floor is easy enough to do in one pour, with forms. If you're not sure about having a wood floor in a mechanic's shop (and I personally am not), have you considered concrete, epoxy, and then place padded shop mats in front of the bench and machines? Easy on the feet; easy to keep clean.

How about posting pics here when you get under way?

 

[KCarGuy]

The Caterpiller Plant in Joliet still uses a floor like that today.
Not sure how thick it is, could be 4-8" thick.
But it looks to be 4x4" lumber that is upright.
If it was a Fire Hazard...the insurance would be Way High.

 

[pacmktg]

The USS Posco Steel rolling plant in Nor Cal, still has end grain wood floors as it is the only thing that hold up to the weight of the large steel coils.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Popular in all the older automotive plants. Usually found in the tooling area.
Excellent for the knees and feet compared to concrete.

 

[dittle fart around]

The Fisher Body plant in Pontiac had these floors. I worked at Mare Island in Vallejo, Ca and they used to pave roads with wood blocks.

View media item 20516

 

[astroracer]

I worked at the now non-existant V8 Engine plant in Flint. Walked on wood floors all day long. The only real issue I saw with them was, when they get wet, say "soaked" with water, they tend to swell up and buckle big time. Any of the machines that developed a coolant leak would usually have the floors around them buckled up and replaced...
Mark

 

[LutzTD]

I remember part of one of the buildings at GE in Louisville has these floors, what I remember in this particular area the heights were all slightly different from oil and swelling over the years making the floor an ankle biter. Would be cool to see it in its original form, I always thought it really had that old school feel

 

[neophyte]

The Fisher Body plant in Pontiac had these floors. I worked at Mare Island in Vallejo, Ca and they used to pave roads with wood blocks.

View media item 20516

There's a street in Philadelphia that's paved with wood blocks. The wood block street paving was once commonly used in Philadelphia to reduce the noise from horses hooves. At some point only one small block of street was left that was paved with the wood blocks so the historical commission certified it. If I recall correctly when it needed to be repaved the city took forever getting it done. There must have been some problem in the way they did the repaving because after a heavy rain , some of the blocks floated out of place. I think they've since managed to sort that problem out. Here's a couple photos someone took of it. http://www.curatorofshit.com/the-wood-streets-of-philadelphia-pennsylvania/ and another photo from someone else. http://www.flickr.com/photos/j-dot/3951489997/

 

[rburke65]

Yes, the GM assembly plant at Lordstown, Ohio was all wooden blocks.....maybe 3"x6" blocks treated with creosote. The the EPA came in and they all had to be removed.