shop floor question

[DonHo]

My new shop ( all 12'X14' of it) is up and now it's time for me to finish it. The floor is 3/4" plywood and it's in fairly good shape but I want to coat it with something to make it easier to sweep and also to help with the lighting. I was just going to paint it with a light color porch and floor paint. But then I got to thinking there might be something better, can you put the epoxy on wood? or is there something else that might be better? I'm not wanting to put down something like tile, I just want to paint/coat the floor.
Thanks in advance,
DonHo

[Tim Clark]

Hi Don,

I could be wrong but, as far as I know you can put epoxy paint on wood. A quick call to your local paint suppler could comfirm it. I just retired from the Air Guard (full-timer) and almost all of our maintainence shops have epoxied (concrete) floors. Very durable as long as you put the effort into the prep first. If it's tough enough to tow a KC-135 Tanker on it should more than hold up in your shop.

Let us know what you find out.

[Thalermade]

A couple things to keep in mind when selecting your floor coatings:

1. Sawdust can make slick surfaces become very slick surfaces (my experience with concrete). You may want to throw some sand or "traction material" into the mix.

2. Be careful about the level of gloss you use. Sometimes too much gloss/reflectivity ends up creating glare.

Boy would my knees love a wooden shop floor.
Have fun,

Russ

[cwsmith]

Russ,

Here's some material that recently used in my basement work area. Solved a moisture problem and is great on the legs and knees. Goes together easy and depending on the size of your shop, it is relatively inexpensive. These are T&G treated wood squares (23 x 23 inches) with a PVC backing that has little bumps that allow air to get between the concrete and the wood. I bought them last year at Home Depot for about $5 a block. Did a 10 x 20 ft area for around $250. http://www.dricore.com/en/eindex.htm

Hope this helps,

CWS

[Texas splinter]

My current shop is a 12X20 Morgan building with a plywood floor. I painted the floor with porch and deck enamel and, Boy, was that a mistake! It is like an ice rink in there when the sawdust is all over the place. Tried putting down some rugs and floor mats but they just slide around. The advice about putting some sort of antiskid in the paint is very, very good advice.

[scorrpio]

The latest Workbench (I think it was workbench) has a large article about staircase renovation, and there they mention this stuff you can mix into the finish to make the surface skid-resistant. Might wanna check it out.
My floor is vinyl tile over concrete (was that way originally, did not feel like changing it). It is mostly white, but not glare-inducing white, and not all that slick, even with some dust on it. But on my is it cold and hard! If I anticipate working on my knees, I have a pair of very nice knee pads to strap on.

[Thalermade]

quote:Originally posted by cwsmith

Russ,
Here's some material that recently used in my basement work area. Solved a moisture problem and is great on the legs and knees. Goes together easy and depending on the size of your shop, it is relatively inexpensive. These are T&G treated wood squares (23 x 23 inches) with a PVC backing that has little bumps that allow air to get between the concrete and the wood. I bought them last year at Home Depot for about $5 a block. Did a 10 x 20 ft area for around $250. http://www.dricore.com/en/eindex.htm
Hope this helps,
CWS

Not trying to steal the thread here. Thanks for the info on the flooring, I had seen it but not really looked into it. Only 7/8 inch thick, I won't lose much headroom. I will put this on my tool wish list.

Russ