New shop floor

[Chet]

I just finish putting a new floor surface down in my shop.  Its still early, just a couple of days, but so far I am truly impressed.  I purchased this from https://www.rubberflooringinc.com  I got the 8mm thick strong rubber tiles, Black with gray flecks.  The tiles are 23 inches square and interlock.  They come in corner pieces, edge pieces and center pieces.  The pattern for my shop took 36 tiles, 9 corners, 4 centers and 23 edge.  The interlock edges are cut so well that when you get them together it is near impossible to see unless you are standing and looking directly down on them.

I had been looking at this flooring system off and on for 18 months but just never made the final decision.  Then I had this broken ankle thing and I needed to do some physical therapy after it healed. The facility that I was going to, in the area were they had all there exercise equipment they had this really nice rubber floor that had this supportive and comfortable feel under my feet, it wasn't soft but you could feel some give to it. I asked my therapist, also the owner, were he bought it and turns out it was from the same place I had been looking.  Well that kind of sealed the deal for me, to get to walk on it before I purchased made the decision easy.

It took me about 3 hours to put the floor down, this included making some cuts on some pieces to go around equipment.  It cuts fairly easily with a sharp utility knife and straight edge.  The first few tiles I was pressing the interlocks together with my fingers but switched to using my dead blow mallet and that worked a lot better.  I think if I had stuck with my original method my hands would have been pretty sore the next day.  The tiles weigh 6.7 pounds each and were delivered in 4 boxes.  The price including delivery worked out to $3.27 per square foot, and guild members get a discount.  

First impressing are great, I like walking on it and I threw some sawdust down to see how it swept up and there was no problems there, but this may be different if its dust on the floor and you walk over it during the day and then you sweep it up. I will let you know how this goes.  As far as rolling equipment around on the flooring, the only experience I have at this point is that I had to roll my band saw out of the way to ge that section down and then roll it back in place.  Coming up over the edge of the tile took a little extra pull but once it was moving it went well and roll fairly easily in the rubber floor itself.  I also had to move my jointer out of the way and then move it back and in this case half the wheels were on eh rubber tiles and half off and this was still easy to manipulate. 

Boxes the tiles came in.

Two stacks of edge pieces, one of the corners and the centers are to the right mostly out of the picture.  There is a right side up to the tiles and they make this easy on you by having some white numbers and notations on the bottom.

The section between my drum sander and miter station on the right and planer and outfeed/assembly table on the left and looking toward the bandsaw.

Around the bandsaw.

Between the jointer and table saw, ending at the router table.  I still need t take a minute and get the jointer moved closer to the edge of the floor.  I had a couple of happy accidents, one the bottom drawer in this picture, I ended up with a little under 3/32 inch of clearance over the floor and the chop on the leg vice in the next picture had about an 1/8 inch.

 

Between the router table and work bench.

This is the type of shop stool I have and there is no problem with the way this rolls on the floor while sitting on it.

 

 

 

[Chestnut]

I think others have covered this but how is the smell and off gassing? Some day I'll do this but i have a basement shop. Pretty sure this is the same stuff they use for indoor ice rinks and they always seem to have a stink to them, the rinks. Though i'd bet the biggest contributor to that stink is the hockey players....

[Chet]

I don't think it is over powering but there is a bit of a "tire shop" smell to it.  But when I was working with the power tools I was getting more of the smell of the lumber, but the next morning the tire shop smell is back.  My shop is in what used to be a two car garage  and being in sunny California, I usually have the door open as I did yesterday and the odor was negligible.

Their information says that if you wash it with a soapy solution it will remedy the off gassing.  For me its not that bothersome.  I know it goes away be cause the therapist floor has no odor but it probably gets moped regularly.

[pkinneb]

Looks great Chet! I have had the same tiles for over a year now and they are great. I find I can spend substantially more time in the shop without my back getting sore.

Drew I had some off gassing early on but nothing overpowering and it was gone within a week.

[Chet]

49 minutes ago, pkinneb said:

I find I can spend substantially more time in the shop without my back getting sore.

Getting to walk on them and coming of the ankle injury convinced me it was time.

[Ronn W]

Looks great, Chet.  Enjoy.

[Mark J]

How would they be to have under the machinery?  Would the casters sink in?

[Tom King]

That's good stuff.   The smell won't last long at all, or at least it's way stronger for the first few days, and then tapers off.

[Chet]

9 minutes ago, Mark J said:

How would they be to have under the machinery?  Would the casters sink in?

I can't answer to that Mark, non of my machinery sits on it.  If I had to guess I would say that it might sink in some but the minute you move it it would spring back.  They have a Q & A on their website, you might want t check that.

4 minutes ago, Tom King said:

That's good stuff.   The smell won't last long at all, or at least it's way stronger for the first few days, and then tapers off.

Your right Tom, I put this down Wednesday afternoon and already I can hardly smell it.  Even when it was new the smell wasn't obnoxious at all.

[pkinneb]

15 minutes ago, Mark J said:

How would they be to have under the machinery?  Would the casters sink in?

I don’t have mine under any machinery but do have my roubo on it without issue.

[Mick S]

We used that same stuff for a long time at trade shows. Then we all got older and pounding it together and taking it apart 3 days later got to be more than we wanted.

We usually put it down before bringing the machinery in, so large CNC routers sat on it with no problems. Probably helped dissipate vibration. 

I'm going to put it down in my shop once I solve my drainage issues. 

[Coop]

Chet, that’s a neat deal. My brother just removed his hardwood flooring in his house and is putting it in his shop and after walking on it, I’m envious. Would not work in mine due to cost of new boards and as my shop/garage has gotten water 3 times due to heavy flooding. Sounds like this might be my answer. What is the yellow border in the 3rd pic? 

[Chet]

That is a tread that goes over a super heavy duty extension cord.  Keeps me from tripping over the cord with my graceful feet.

[Belle City WW]

Can you roll machinery around on this flooring?

Looks great!

 

John

[Chet]

Yes, It's not quite as easy as on concrete itself but it does roll with out too much effort at all.

[Belle City WW]

That is great to know, I am currently using the Harbor Freight Shop Mats and it is not so easy to roll machinery around on it!

 

 

[Chet]

2 hours ago, Belle City WW said:

That is great to know, I am currently using the Harbor Freight Shop Mats and it is not so easy to roll machinery around on it!

 

 

These are so much better quality then HF's mats.  You can send for a free sample from this company if you want to see what they are like.

[Belle City WW]

1 hour ago, Chet said:

These are so much better quality then HF's mats.  You can send for a free sample from this company if you want to see what they are like.

Thank you Chet!