Wood Floor for Shop

[karoc]

Guys here its cold in Tx we're just not use to these kind of temps so spending time indoors which is boring. So I am thinking about having a raised wood floor in my new Pole Barn shop which I think has life unlike concrete. Which I did get a price for slab for my 40x70 shop which came in 5900 for concrete and 5700 for labor. This price is from a real concrete company so I am guessing its going rate.
Anyway my 3 car garage now is concrete and has never had a car inside it, its my woodshop, welding shop, machine shop. When I get the shell of Pole Barn built, it has cross my mind why not have a raise wood floor? I hope I am not the only one who has loss their mind, to even think about wood shop floor. Has anyone else here have a raise wood shop floor, is it any better on knees? I'm sure that special framing is needed to handle the weight, so that is where I get loss. Any thoughts,yea or na?

 

[niget2002]

I plan on doing that to the back 1/2 or third of my shop. The idea will be to run the dust collector and electricity under the raised floor.

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[loganb]

The old school machine shop and factory floor used to be done as wood timbers standing upright on a sand bed or onto asphalt or concrete base. Vertical grain lumber and packed tightly together in a grid kept the timber seeing basically only "compression" loads and when maintained it wears fantastic...many of these floors from WWII era factories are still in use.

If it was my "forever" shop and blessed to have a dedicated, long term woodshop I'd consider a raised floor with joists on 12 or 16" centers so I could easily conceal sawdust and power out of the way but still have some serviceability down the road. Couple houses ago I was considering doing this in my pole barn(dirt floor at the time) and turning the back half into a woodshop with a wood floor. Basically build it like a super low "deck" with ledgers placed on poured footings etc. I ran the numbers on the floor loads and believe that doubled up 5/8" subfloor over 16" joist centers had plenty of capacity for all of today's even serious woodworking equipment and a lot of the OWWM many of us are fond of. It wasn't a forever place so didn't end up doing it but I had fun over a couple weeks working out what I could do....

If was something I wasn't able to go to that extent, I've spent some time standing in a couple spaces that they'd just laid down 5/8" plywood over the slab and then put some cheap wood flooring or click type laminate over the top of and even that felt substantially better than bare concrete and gave a nicer, more finished/warm feel to it and depending on how you attached it could be taken with you down the road if you wanted.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Part of my garage has a wood floor over a crawl space. I fixed the floor years ago and replaced the nasty oil soaked (previous owner) pine boards with PT plywood.


I considered pulling it all up, stoning the crawlspace and pouring concrete but I found this used plywood cheap. The only way I would build a new shop and have a raised wood floor would be to have an actual full basement under it.

 

[Skiff Builder]

I have 2 shop/garages I did with wood floors. I do all in them but weld. Really like them.
One is plywood fastened to a 48 oc framing grid which is filled with compacted dense graded aggregate. All benefits of wood and will hold the weight of the world. Saved $$ also.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=357734

Other is 3/4 ply over 2x10 frame on grade. It takes our Denali XL and Navigator L, boat and trailer no problem.

 

[cjarvis]

That's $4.14/sf, and that's the going rate for flat work. If I could afford it, I'd do sealed concrete, no question.

 

[matt_i]

Is "raised wood floor" set on sleepers or joists?

Typical concerns would be span issues, moisture, and termites.

 

[Wheelingit]

Code does not permit a wood floor in my area due to fire hazard.

 

[karoc]

I have 2 shop/garages I did with wood floors. I do all in them but weld. Really like them.
One is plywood fastened to a 48 oc framing grid which is filled with compacted dense graded aggregate. All benefits of wood and will hold the weight of the world. Saved $$ also.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=357734

Other is 3/4 ply over 2x10 frame on grade. It takes our Denali XL and Navigator L, boat and trailer no problem.

That is neat, I was afraid about rolling my pallet jack across floor moving my lathe or mill. Dang awesome.
Another reason for wood floor is I can build or add to flooring as money permits. But still ideal is up in air

 

[66Caprice]

You could also use these if you are not needing a space under the flooring. I used these in my basement and will put carpet over it. They have a small R value then you could put down a plywood or other flooring of your choosing over top.

https://dricore.com/products/dricore-subfloor-r/

 

[spudley]

You could also use these if you are not needing a space under the flooring. I used these in my basement and will put carpet over it. They have a small R value then you could put down a plywood or other flooring of your choosing over top.

https://dricore.com/products/dricore-subfloor-r/

In my woodshop I was going to make my own "dricore" type panels until OSB started nearing the price of an ounce of gold...

 

[mepstein]

If I could do that size shop in concrete for 12K, I would do it all day long.

 

[My Old Tools]

I would look at tongue and groove utility grade oak. And yes, I would love to have a wood floor instead of concrete. A cast iron wood plane dropped on a concrete floor will generally break, a chisel will chip. Concrete is cold in the winter and hard on the knees and back.

 

[colt zantop]

My floors are 3/4 tongue and groove treated and I epoxied over them.

 

[dougf]

Sorry for bumping an old thread, but I wanted to know how these floors held up over the years and what all of you might do different next time?

I'm looking at a 14x30 shop extension off the side for antique equipment (lathe, milling machine, power hacksaw, lineshaft to run some of these with a hit and miss engine) and a wood floor would look fantastic but i'm worried about moisture and mold delaminating the plywood.

 

[Jackfre]

Living in the NE for many years all the old mills were wooden floors and seem to have held up quite well. After I built my shop in ‘15 one of my first misses was that I should have done a raise wood floor. A 3’crawl space with a stone base, lighting so you can see what is under there and the structure to support your needs and you can have duct collection, electrical changes ,etc. I never seem to think of everything on the way in and need a flexible design to allow me to make corrections

 

[Spud McGee]

Sorry for bumping an old thread, but I wanted to know how these floors held up over the years and what all of you might do different next time?

I'm looking at a 14x30 shop extension off the side for antique equipment (lathe, milling machine, power hacksaw, lineshaft to run some of these with a hit and miss engine) and a wood floor would look fantastic but i'm worried about moisture and mold delaminating the plywood.

Maybe its just me. I would not want my lathe or mill on a wood floor. They rely so much on the machine being level and not shaking. I wanna say when I leveled my lathe, the machinist level has each tic mark as 0.0001 out of level over 10". I can't imagine a wood floor being stable enough.

I'm sure its been done plenty of places. There are other places where it would not be acceptable.