Shop floor options

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townlineterry
440 crawler
440 crawler
Posts: 236
Joined: Thu Dec 27, 2007 9:01 pm
Location: Pa.

Shop floor options

Post by townlineterry » Thu Nov 23, 2017 3:59 pm

after 10 years I am finally finishing my shop floor. Half the shop is a service bay where I work on equipment, that will be concreted. The other half is mostly storage with a couple of work benches, drill press, shop press, etc. Those things I plan to put on concrete pads the rest of the area will be gravel. Would like to put something over the gravel so I can roll things like jacks and tool boxes out of the way and sweep up the dirt. Something cheaper than more concrete. so, any recommendations, besides rubber or wood?

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CuttingEdge
2010 crawler
2010 crawler
Posts: 534
Joined: Wed Sep 03, 2014 5:13 pm
Location: Maine

Re: Shop floor options

Post by CuttingEdge » Sat Nov 25, 2017 6:23 pm

I have already been disqualified, but here in New England, back in the old days, the old shop floors were made of wood with the end grain facing up. The reason was; it would soak up oil and tallow from whale blubber that was used on the bearings of the day. There is no reason why it could not be used today, and in fact I used it one time for a woodworking floor. In my case I did not use square blocks cut to the thickness of the floor (6 inches), but rather I cut logs to the 6 inches thick. I just arranged them as close together as I could and then filled around them with concrete.

Both are what you said NOT to use, but because there was so little concrete, it was a VERY cheap floor, easy to walk on, soaked up oil, and looked kind of cool. My only issue was the rounds shrank a bit when they dried, but you could dry the wood first, or repoint the concrete around the wood like I did later.

Probably depends on where you live, even here in Maine, but I seldom tell the wife I am going to go get some diesel fuel, I will say, "I got to put some whale oil in the old girl"; a take from days gone by. In other words I don't call it diesel fuel, I use "whale oil" instead.
I have no intention of traveling to my grave in a well manicured body; instead I am going to slide into heaven with a big power turn, totally wore out with busted knuckles, jump off my dozer loudly yelling, Woo Hoo, another Shepard has just arrived!

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Tigerhaze
350 crawler
350 crawler
Posts: 2278
Joined: Thu Jul 06, 2006 12:13 pm
Location: West-Central MO

Re: Shop floor options

Post by Tigerhaze » Tue Nov 28, 2017 2:03 pm

I'll throw these other ideas out there even though they may not be cost-effective or desirable for you; some require fine gravel surfaces prior to application:

-asphalt (although presumably you considered that in conjunction with concrete)
-"self binding" aggregate
-salt application (such as mag or calcium choride)
-lime application
-resin application
-"fast" clay application (such as is used on clay tennis courts)
(1) JD Straight 450 crawler dozer with manual outside blade; (2) JD 2010 diesel crawler loaders; (1) JD 2010 diesel dozer with hydraulic 6-way blade; (2) Model 50 backhoe attachments, misc. other construction equipment

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