What's under you? (Floor question)

[ChazzC]

I have concrete with a 2' x 5' cushioned mat (on sale from Woodcraft - https://www.woodcraft.com/products/anti-fatigue-floor-mat-2-x-5-pebble-beveled-edge) in front of my Mini-Mill & Mini-Lathe. The mat is easy to fold out of the way when I vacuum the floor or need to roll something over where it normally lives. I also have a small rubberized fabric mat in front of the door that leads to the "normal" living space in my basement so catch any swarf that sticks to my shoes.

I had red rubber mats with 1" holes a number of years ago; easy to vacuum to collect most debris, but since I have a small workspace they were a pain the lift up so I could do a really good cleaning.

Many years ago I worked at the Main Hershey Chocolate plant, where they had full shops - machine, fabrication, carpentry, plumbing & electrical for repairs and construction services. Most of the shops had sealed concrete floors, but apart from locations were there was heavy equipment, the machine & plumbing shops had wood block floors (6" long, 3" x4" oak blocks with the grain running up & down) so that when you dropped something it didn't get damaged. There were a lot of rock maple floors in the dry processing areas that were routinely dry mopped and occasionally damp mopped. These floor were beautifully laid and looked great. However, if there was a roof or pipe leak and the water pooled too long, the maple flooring would buckle like crazy, raising planks up to 6" above the surrounding floor: these areas needed to be removed, everything dried out and then new T&G planks installed. I still have a few end scraps of the bare planks, 1-1/16 thick and as straight as the day they came out of the mill 30+ years ago.

Woodcraft has their 2' x 5' floor mats on sale for $20 through the end of August.

 

[sdelivery]

Shop wooden floors from the ww2 Era use blocks aprox 5 inches long and aprox 4 inches square.
I would avoid railroad ties, there is a reason they Re surplus everywhere...about ten years ago the US government passed a law forcing the railroads to eliminate the poison leaching out of the ties and potentially into the ground water.
The poison the government is trying to eliminate is ARCENIC and it was the first step in treating ties before the kreosote outer coating.