shop floors, what's your's like, what works

[CMI]

threeputt,
The material that you're looking at is G-floor. I know around here, Midwest Sign and Screen carries it, so check with your suppliers. We have rolls of 4 different finishes here, and the one recommendation I'd make is that you go with the levant finish-it's got a slight "woodgrain" pattern. When we talked to the manufacturer at SGIA last year, he mentioned that the one problem they've had from customers was that if you use the flooring in an area where you're going to be kneeling a lot, the raised patterns can be really hard on the hands and knees.

 

[AnotherSignManiac]

we just have the bare concrete floors with some mats for sitting, crawling, kneeling ect.

 

[gabagoo]

I Painted the back shop with white epoxy... I need all the help I can get to see, and the white paint brightens the place up. The paint only comes off when a vehicle comes inside and stays for a day or 2...The paint seems to stick to the rubber. I don't mind re-rolling it every few months just where the vehicles park

 

[threeputt]

Well, took the plunge and ordered the mats.

500 sq. ft.

Some of you had assumed we have concrete floors (hence the advice to grind, polish, stain, etc.) which we don't and of course you couldn't know.

But the shop space is 9"x9" asbestos tiles. Remember those?

We deglossed them about 20 years ago and painted but the result has never been satisfactory. (I've posted pics in previous posts about shop space)

Always painting and up here in the PNW we don't always get nice dry summer days several in a row.

So, alas it's the rubber mats. We'll see how they work out. Worst case, I take them home and do the garage.

Almost all of the 4800 feet we have is carpeted but not the vehicle bay and one area around the saws, etc.

 

[Atomic DNA]

For our sales/display area and part of our production area we have stained concrete. For the back area of the shop we have RaceDeck flooring. Both are great with heavy foot traffic. Here are a couple of pics during the build out.

 

[netsol]

the BEST coating for concrete floors is DIAMONDHARD sold by euclid chemical. (a former, long time client) they are a huge company that owns many major brands. they do home depot floors, for instance. (20 years of fork lift traffic and they look like new!) must be installed by their crews. we got pricing in 2016 for a major client for a 160,000 sq ft warehouse floor, $475,000. deal went south because you had to drill out & fill all the dewalt anchors where pallette racking had been removed, as part of the preinstallation prep. there are lots of very good epoxy coatings, and many of them DON'T require etching the floor first. you do, however want to rent one of those walk behind or ride on grinders to remove the s**t from previous installs.

 

[John Miller]

When we poured the floor at our shop we had recently done signs for a pool paint company. They manufactured a two part paint that is really tough. We acid etched the concrete once it cured and applied two coats of pool paint. That was in 1984, the floor stood up till about 2000. Since we've touched it up in the high traffic spots.

 

[White Haus]

When we poured the floor at our shop we had recently done signs for a pool paint company. They manufactured a two part paint that is really tough. We acid etched the concrete once it cured and applied two coats of pool paint. That was in 1984, the floor stood up till about 2000. Since we've touched it up in the high traffic spots.

How brutal is the acid etching process? I've always wanted to do our shop floors properly but haven't found a solution that I can afford to pay for (money and downtime).

 

[Notarealsignguy]

How brutal is the acid etching process? I've always wanted to do our shop floors properly but haven't found a solution that I can afford to pay for (money and downtime).

Really easy. Mix muriatic acid and water then scrub your floor with it and squeegee it out. Our Sherwin Williams rep said most commercial guys are using some sort of polyurea hybrid now on floors. Might be something to look into. The most important thing really is making sure you test for moisture in the concrete before coating.

 

[netsol]

the environmentalists make it sound worse than it is (you know, the ones that want you to put on a helmet, goggles, knee and elbow pads to wheel the bicycle out of the garage...

seriously not bad at all. all good advice from NRSG

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Polyaspartic is the coating type I was thinking of. Epoxy is good too. Any sort of poly-urea dries super fast which would make it a little harder as a DIY project.
The other stuff mentioned Diamondhard is a polysiloxane. After using a polysiloxane on a work barge, I wasn't real crazy about it. AFAIK it's a paint with a silicone resin in place of an organic resin. Looks like they have other stuff in it though, maybe it's great. I'd probably still go with a good epoxy, my garage floor was done 16 years ago and there's not a chip or stain anywhere in it.

 

[netsol]

not a realsignguy
euclid will only sell their product with THEIR OWN PEOPLE doing the install.
they claim there are too many opportunities to screw it up

i have to say the home depot floors hold up very well to an absurd amount of fork lift and raymond traffic (as well as scissor lifts)

 

[Notarealsignguy]

not a realsignguy
euclid will only sell their product with THEIR OWN PEOPLE doing the install.
they claim there are too many opportunities to screw it up

i have to say the home depot floors hold up very well to an absurd amount of fork lift and raymond traffic (as well as scissor lifts)

Probably a very smart move. Having a big box floor start peeling after everything is in place and the store is open could about put someone out of business.
Sounds dumb but they really take the concrete finish seriously. I remember Lowes being super particular during construction. All the scissor lifts had to have diapers on them, it was almost treated like carpet while they built it. I also remember a Wegmans where they did real terrazzo, the cost was insane. Home depot and Walmart also have nice floors but they weren't as particular as Lowes.

 

[John Miller]

How brutal is the acid etching process? I've always wanted to do our shop floors properly but haven't found a solution that I can afford to pay for (money and downtime).

It was the first time any of us did it. Just followed the directions on the muriatic acid container and rinsed it off, then dry for 2 days and paint. Paint stuck, as the saying goes, like sh-t to a blanket.

 

[White Haus]

Really easy. Mix muriatic acid and water then scrub your floor with it and squeegee it out. Our Sherwin Williams rep said most commercial guys are using some sort of polyurea hybrid now on floors. Might be something to look into. The most important thing really is making sure you test for moisture in the concrete before coating.

Cool. Good to know, thanks.

 

[White Haus]

It was the first time any of us did it. Just followed the directions on the muriatic acid container and rinsed it off, then dry for 2 days and paint. Paint stuck, as the saying goes, like sh-t to a blanket.

Good to know, thanks. 2 days of drying + paint + cure time is my issue....hard to work that into a production schedule.

I might just try to our install bay and see how that goes, we could afford not to use that space for a week if we needed to.

 

[netsol]

a few days back, i did a walk through with a different client, who had also rejected DIAMONDHARD because they would not be allowed to self install. i thought the floor looked pretty good for a self installed epoxy paint job, but, as i walked around i could feel spots where the epoxy was "lifting" and settling as i stepped on it. i assume they did not etch (and perhaps didn't even properly clean)

Probably a very smart move. Having a big box floor start peeling after everything is in place and the store is open could about put someone out of business.
Sounds dumb but they really take the concrete finish seriously. I remember Lowes being super particular during construction. All the scissor lifts had to have diapers on them, it was almost treated like carpet while they built it. I also remember a Wegmans where they did real terrazzo, the cost was insane. Home depot and Walmart also have nice floors but they weren't as particular as Lowes.

 

[FireSprint.com]

I like polished concrete. Ultimately it seems to be the most durable. From there you can add a hardener, or just have it sealed by a commercial floor guy. Someone who does a lot of retail. It will be Pennies per sqft.

We have our guy come once a year to have everything looking new again. Our guy (Irish clean floors) does ours on a Saturday night so we don’t interrupt production.

 

[InkHead]

Under our printers we use G-Floor Levant as a floor covering. It's super flat with a slight texture. The printers and other things can roll over them. Works great if you have an ink spill or something. Real durable and waterproof. Comes on a roll.