Need advice for a small shop. Floor type

I am trying to build a small area to work on my Ford A. I was wondering what is a good substitute for a concrete floor? The reason I ask is because lumber is cheap right now concrete in my area is not. I was wondering if I could make a peir and beam floor and cover the floor with something that would make it oil resitant. Or should this not even be considerd and should I just save my pennies for concrete? I have plenty of room and live outside the city limits so I don't have to worry about building codes, even though I try to do everything to code for saftey concerns. Any thoughts?

 

I don't think you'll be very happy with a wood floor, especially if you plan to do any welding...

 

hahaha! good point.

I say pour your own concrete if money is a problem. a shitty concrete floor is better than a wood one.

 

I was thinking the same thing. Thought maybe someone out there had run in to the same issue.

 

You could try patio pavers blocks, but...probably just as expensive as doing concrete, and not as nice. You could buy them over time to spread the cost out, which is something you can't do with concrete. They're not going to hold up to any significant weight though.

 

Pour concrete yourself if you can, but make sure you have someone experienced to help or you'll be cussing the results for years. If you have a large area and can't afford it all at once, just do one section at a time as you can afford it. Wood would be pretty expensive too because you would need it to be very thick in order to use a floor or bottle jack. It would make a really nasty fire hazard too.

 

cost of concrete (4" pour) is about the same per square foot as a 2" plank floor.

go with concrete and do it yourself, it's not difficult.

 

Old geezer in town has about a 30' X 40' garage set back in the woods with a wooden floor..seems pretty solid except I can't help noticing how much oil.etc has soaked into that floor over the years..Looks like it would take one match to burn it to the ground..no smoking in his garage for obvious reasons..I wouldn't do wood for any reason

 

dirt is the choice of the true hardcore traditionalist.

 

concrete is the only way to go..stay dirt until you can do the crete man.

 

Termites don't eat concrete.

 

After years of working on wood, i poured cement a few months ago and can't imagin going back. Just little things like moving around floor jacks or a loaded cherry picker, or not having to watch that little washer fall through the cracks.

 

I want a 16x30 slab. Could I make it in squares? I have a friend who has a small cement mixer. I was thinking of breaking it up in to 8 small jobs??

You know whats going to be cool is I got a qounset hut frame to use as the main structure. I got them from an old lady whos husband brought them back from the pacific right after world war II. He was in the Navy. I can imagine the trip they have had. Going to the pacific being set up on a island somewhere for service men or hanger space. Then returning on a ship to SD to be brought overland to Abilene Texas. I think they deserve to be preserved and reused as a hotrod hanger.

 

You ought to be allright doing it in 8' squares. You may want to cast some rebar sticking out to tie in the remaining sections when the time comes.

 

Definitely concrete if it's that big. You can mix it yourself, but that's lots-o-bags of concrete. I did a project last summer, turned out to be cheaper to have it delivered by truck than it was to mix it myself...not to mention easier + faster. Give the local place a call, give them the dimensions and they should be able to quote you a price.

It's not tough to do, I'm a rank amateur, and if I can do it, anyone can. Make a form out of 2x6's, level it, and brace it up with 2x2 stakes into the ground every couple of feet so it doesn't bow outwards with the weight of the concrete before it cures. Make sure there's no leaks between the bottom of the form and the ground. Throw a sheet of plastic down on the very bottom (I grabbed some from the garbage pile at a prefab house site), throw some metal mesh/rebar in and prop it up on rocks so it isn't laying on the ground. Put some motor oil on the forms to make it easier to take 'em off if you want.

Then you call for your concrete truck, they start dumping, you spread it with a rake until it's all full. Then take a straight board that will go all the way across, start at one end, you and a friend saw back and forth with the board while you're dragging it to the other end to level it off. Add/subtract a little as needed to get it really full, repeat until you're satisfied with it.

For extra style points, wait about an hour, then trowel the top so the 'cream' floats to the top for a smoother surface. Repeat as necessary...but don't get carried away either.

You can walk on it and the form can come off in a day, should be OK for real weight within a few days.

I'm not sure how you're planning on anchoring the quanset hut to the slab, but obviously you can sink bolts and stuff in to mount to and/or make deeper spots for holding that securely.

 

Thanks for the help. I called the concrete place and it's about 700 bucks for the pour. Now this is not a lot of money but this is alot of money if you know what I mean.

 

think about epoxy floors...

 

Look around on Garagejournal if you need inspiration. I wouldn't trade my 20 x 25 shop (concrete floor, heat and 220) for any wood floor, no matter how big. It's the reason we bought the house.

 

My job was 18'x27', and ended up costing me $1000 for the concrete and $100 for the bar. Luckily i have a buddy who does cement work so for $300 bucks and bunch of beer he gave me his expertice.

 

Wear good boots, gloves so you don't get concrete burns form the stuff getting on your skin. It isn't that hard to do, me and my dad have poured half a dozen floors. maybe read a section in a home improvement book, probably a section in there on formwork, finishing the concrete, etc.

 

???? Isnt that the stuff you coat the concrete with? Well I have 3 acres so there is plenty of room. I want it to be big enough for a car to be worked on, bench work, parts cleaner a small area to weld other shit vice bench grider cut off saw. I am going to run 220 with a panel to have lights and plenty of juice out there. We still have to finish the house too. My wife can't understand why I am more intereted in building a shop instead of finishing the house

 

Only bad thing about those is you have to put something under the tires or they pull up the coating when you move the car after a certain amount of time.

Little bit of trivia, old factories and garages used to use wood floors instead of concrete. A lot of the time they used little bricks of wood roughly 8"x8"x10". Made it easy to fix the floor when damaged and was much easier on the workers' feet.

 

That place is tits dude! I was kinda thinking along the same lines. A guy is tearing down an old barn not 50 feet from where my shop is going to be. I though I could use the wood that was just giong to be torched anyway. I though I that if I had to do anything besides tack weldind I could do it next to the building on a caliche pad next to the shop.

 

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If you call for a concrete truck be sure that you have everything at hand. That is:
rakes and shovels
form completely ready
at least one other person who's strong enough to help you move that "mud" around. I thought I was gonna die when I had no one but my wife (5'0", 100 lbs) and young son to help me. not fun
have a place ready to dump any extra concrete. Its smart to have a small form or two set up someplace you might need a concrete pad. You'll probably have a little "mud" left over, which beats not having enough.

 

I've been on wood for almost 15 years now, no problems. I did put tile around my stove though....

 

The formula for how much concrete you will need is:

one (cubic) yard of concrete = 81 square feet of 4" thick concrete

16' X 30' = 480 square feet divided by 81 square feet = 5.93 or 6 yards of concrete

 

First, if you have a source of old barn wood just fifty feet away - GET IT - you will never regret it. Second, looking at Nimrods thread, I'm going to have to go back to GG from time to time.

J.

 

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