A good and inexpensive floor treatment for a woodworking shop's concrete floor.


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I have a [ 20' 9"  x  22' 9" ] woodworking shop with a concrete floor that has paint spilled all over it and all sorts of crappy stains. I originally thought about just painting it. But I've seen painted concrete floors that end up peeling, , scuffing, or even kind of rubbing off into little crumb balls of paint kind of like when you have dried latex paint on your hands and you and you rub them together until the paint comes off in crumbs. I then thought about one of those rustolleum epoxy coatings with the flakes (or without, whichever). But... again... I've seen and heard really crappy stories about them failing and delaminating, being hard to put down, requiring a ton of prep, and being all in all pretty expensive. With my square footage, I'd have to buy the double kit which is around $350. That's not TOO expensive, but it is if it fails or I screw it up somehow. 

What do you guys have on your floors? I want a really nice looking shop. I know it's not about how pretty and slick your shop looks that matters, but I know myself very well, and in my experience, if the shop looks tip-top, I will treat it tip-top. I will also want to be out there more. I will invite more people over. It is just overall very important to me that my workspace not be shabby.

 

 

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I'm in the debate as well myself. I had a painted floor in my last shop (previous owner painted a LONG time before i moved in) Some of it was delaminating ect. My thought currently is paint and if stuff delaminates it's easier to throw more concrete pain on after some surface prep than doing another whole go of epoxy. Also if you have current stuff on your floor the existing coverage is going to mess with adhesion so the best way to ensure any coating sticking would be to grind and or etch the surface. I feel it's the debate between fixable and doesn't last as long and not fixable and last longer. Matinence doesn't scare me so i go with the one that is easier to fix.

Shane's example is great but you mentioned in your previous thread that ceiling height is an issue so i have a feeling while it's an awesome solution you might not like the loss of vertical space.

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Any coating that will last is going to involve a ton of prep; washing, rinsing, etching, rinsing maybe grinding. It's a lot of work even for the pros that do it every day. And even the coatings that last will need to be redone periodically. But if you just leave the concrete & let it get splattered & stained, then after a few years it reaches a sort of ugliness equilibrium where additional mess & staining just go unnoticed. 

I haven't noticed any real change in the look of my shop floor in 15 years. Sure, it's marked up & stained, but it is a shop & the floor really doesn't look bad. And I've never had to do anything but sweep or vacuum it.

If I didn't park cars in it, I'd for sure do what @shaneymack did & put in a level floor & paint it.

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Anybody else have rubber mats down? Mark did a video where he favored some high end ones, but I have these inexpensive ones:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0042BBZO8/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I've covered the floor area where I walk and don't put them under the machines, which still rest on the concrete. Obviously it is a super fast install and they seem more than durable enough for me. They do provide a nice cushion under feet and protect dropped tools or wood.

Another benefit I've found is they provide a great surface for doing certain operations, such as sanding a larger panel. They provide continuous, cushioned support for the panel, so if you get the spot a quick brush before laying the panel down, you are unlikely to get any scratches on it.  

 

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2 minutes ago, pkinneb said:

Says who?  I like a nice shop that looks pretty and slick :) 

 

Now back to the question at hand. I had epoxied cement floors for years then saw Marc's rubber floor tiles and added them to about 1/2 my shop a year or so ago they are a game changer and in your case with low ceilings probably the best option as they are less then a 1/2" thick.

I feel like they don't tick the inexpensive box though.

Does the dark floor make your shop feel darker or is it not really that noticeable?

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Just now, Chestnut said:

I feel like they don't tick the inexpensive box though.

Does the dark floor make your shop feel darker or is it not really that noticeable?

I missed that part LOL. Although i got them on sale and don't think they were terribly expensive like $2.00 a sq ft shipped I think.

Not at all but full disclosure, I have white walls light maple cabinets,  several rows of florescent lights, and a wall of windows on one side of of my shop.

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3 minutes ago, Chestnut said:

I swear they make a floor paint that will be more durable than latex paint but still is inexpensive. That is the route i might go in my shop for a stop gap.

I used Epoxy-shield from HD Its about 14 years old and no issues. I do not drive on the floor however its a dedicated shop. I am not convinced it would hold up to the salt here in the MN winters.

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2 hours ago, JosephThomas said:

How inexpensive? Does seem like  a nice setup but those engineered sleepers look pricey.

The engineered 2x4's I used were around 28$ each IIRC.  The total job for the floor was less thst 1500$. Pretty cheap and easy compared to chipping out all the concrete and re pouring a new floor. 

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Check with a Sherwin-Williams store.   They have all sorts of floor paint, in a bunch of different price ranges.   We put white Moisture Cure Urethane on a concrete floor in a small airplane hanger once.  It looked perfect, but that stuff is not cheap, or easy to apply for the inexperienced.

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37 minutes ago, Chestnut said:

I swear they make a floor paint that will be more durable than latex paint but still is inexpensive. That is the route i might go in my shop for a stop gap.

I used a polyurethane based floor paint in my basement that I have been pretty happy with. It's far better than the latex stuff, but it's not as good as epoxy. I put the epoxy shield paint on my garage (shop) and it's been great. I had bare concrete for that, and I was very careful with the prep.

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1 hour ago, Chestnut said:

Didn't you move and have to put a set of chairs on hold?

We moved the last week of July. I was up and running within a few weeks. I had the grandfather clock to finish by mid September. Since then I've built a bed, a Lego table, drill press cabinet, revamped my outfeed table and a bunch of cutting boards. Right now I'm building an 8' trestle table.  I haven't stopped woodworking I just stopped posting on here. I won't post anymore journals untill the site is back on tapatalk. Such a pain without it. I look forward to doing journals again so hopefully the tapatalk kinks will get ironed out. 

The bubinga lowbacks need to get sculpted outdoors so that will get finalized this summer . 

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36 minutes ago, shaneymack said:

We moved the last week of July. I was up and running within a few weeks. I had the grandfather clock to finish by mid September. Since then I've built a bed, a Lego table, drill press cabinet, revamped my outfeed table and a bunch of cutting boards. Right now I'm building an 8' trestle table.  I haven't stopped woodworking I just stopped posting on here. I won't post anymore journals untill the site is back on tapatalk. Such a pain without it. I look forward to doing journals again so hopefully the tapatalk kinks will get ironed out. 

The bubinga lowbacks need to get sculpted outdoors so that will get finalized this summer . 

Ahh i see. Well it stinks not seeing stuff from ya.

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