Shop Floor Options

[Halligan142]

So I just bought a new house and will be moving in at the end of the month. I'm currently renting the one I live in now and my basement shop has a vinyl tile floor that was put in 26 years ago. It's held up perfectly fine except for the normal paint and abuse stains. It is just glued directly to the concrete floor. Nothing fancy. So now in the new house I have a half finished basement. One side is vinyl floor and is a family/tv room and the other half is utility with concrete floor and that's where the shop will be. So now I have options. Put down a vinyl floor like I have now which is cheap OR go with the fancy expensive epoxy coatings. The only thing I'm worried about the epoxy coatings is the prep. There apparently needs to be a lot of washing of the floor and etching with acid. Seems fine for an open area like a garage, but I have a sump and drain around the perimeter of the walls and don't want that stuff going in it. Also there are finished walls on portions of the cellar. Plus I assume if you don't get this step right your looking at a crappy finish or worse a peeling floor.(that's what always happened in our shop in highschool) I only have one picture so you can see the floor condition. I'd like to get some opinions from people who have the floors. Were they hard to put down? Do they last? Do you still have your arms legs and kidneys or did you have to sell them to get the floor?

 

[wawoodman]

I used Dricore subflooring for the floor in my shop. It's been down about 8 years, and I love it. Much better than standing on concrete.

http://t.homedepot.com/p/DRIcore-7-...pen-Subfloor-Panel-CDGNUS750024024/202268752/

 

[Propfool]

The epoxy floor system requires that one clean and then acid etch the concrete to ensure proper adhesion of the epoxy. (The acid etch is a white powder included in the box that is mixed with water and flooded over the concrete floor and then washed off with a garden hose. )

I wound up with 3 different shades in my floor (appearance-wise) but it is durable and easily cleaned. Use 2 foot square interlocking rubber mats from Harbor Freight for standing areas in front of your machines. I got my water based epoxy floor covering from Lowes.

 

[Rong]

I was faced with spring flooding the first year in my house so my choices were dictated by the possibility of flooding. I first sealed the floor with a mixture of weldbond glue and water and then I painted with the cheapest concrete paint I could find. Its lasted 27 years and still looks great except where there was some scraping from dragging out an old furnace. Downside: awfully cold on the feet in the winter. Upside was that it was cheap, quick and looked as good as the paint you choose (you can get artistic if you want). The floor paint options are a lot more numerous now than then but not necessarily better.

 

[pestilence]

I put epoxy on my garage floor when we moved in a few years ago and it's been so great we put it on my shop floor when that was built this spring too. We just used rustoleum epoxyshield from home depot. It's about 20 cents per square foot. The acid wash business isn't anywhere near as bad as it sounds. It's just citric acid. Very weak and certainly nothing to worry about.

Great videos, BTW.

 

[pineyfolks]

Use a solid color , a friend of mine put the speckled colors on his and it looks great but if you drop something small you'll go blind trying to find it.

 

[wlburton]

You really can't go wrong with traditional 12" X 12" commercial vinyl tile. It's inexpensive, easy to install, tough, cleanable, and it comes in just about any color you might want. It's way more forgiving than concrete on dropped tools or parts. If you should ever sell the house it might make the basement space more appealing to a prospective buyer (since it is a fairly common floor covering for basement living areas) than the more shop/garage identified epoxy.

Bill Burton

 

[Canuck]

You really can't go wrong with traditional 12" X 12" commercial vinyl tile. It's inexpensive, easy to install, tough, cleanable, and it comes in just about any color you might want. It's way more forgiving than concrete on dropped tools or parts. If you should ever sell the house it might make the basement space more appealing to a prospective buyer (since it is a fairly common floor covering for basement living areas) than the more shop/garage identified epoxy.

Bill Burton

^^^ This is an excellent option. We put Armstrong VCT down in our laundry/mud room about ten years ago and have had no problems with it whatsoever.

http://www.armstrong.com/commflooringna/products/vct

 

[pipehack]

+1 on VCT. Good stuff. It's used in schools so it's good enough for what you'll do. I like the video's you have. Very nice and thank you.

 

[Halligan142]

Thanks for the replies and insight everybody! I think I'm going to stick with the vinyl tile. I've worked with it before and it hasn't let me down yet. One week until I close on the house and I have some painting and floor refinishing to do before I can get to the shop. I'll let you know how it turns out :thumbsup: