Workshop floors..

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blurk99

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In the near future i'll be luxuriating in a watertight new shed / playroom for me and all the spiders, but does anyone have experience of flooring materials? I thought about a solid concrete slab but then realised it may get very cold in the winter, though currently the bearers and OSB flooring of my typical shed is damned cold too - i suppose a draught gets under it... any thoughts on the best type of structure?

Cheers

james

ps - 135 KG of Woodturning Lathe going to stand on it
 
Hi James,

I currently have a sheet of damp proof membrane under 2" by 4" pressure treated timber bearers at 12" centres covered with a skin of 18mm OSB as a flooring. Has kept me fairly warm and dry with no draughts. 12" centres might be a bit of overkill, but I am 110kg of wood butcher and didnt like the idea of the floor giving way under me while operating machinery :lol:

I debated but decided against infilling the gaps between the bearers with polystyrene block (jabalite?), although I have used rockwool loft insulation in the walls and ceiling to retain any heat I can.

I get more cold through the gap round the door than I ever will through the floor :roll:

Steve.
 
that's pretty much the same for me, the current shed is nominally 8 feet wide, but it bows out in the centre to just under 9 feet and there's an incredible draught, hence the need for a new playroom, but i'm told i can take the whole area of the 'car hard standing' down the end, by my measuring it's 18ft by 10ft... and those 2 50ft leylandii trees are gonna have to come out aswell... :p

i'm looking forward to having my own warm room, must get a lock on the inside of the door though... :wink:
 
I have a concrete slab which I covered in T&G chipboard which just "floats" (as Norm would say). I like it, as I have the strength of concrete but the warmth of wood. I don't have to worry too much if I drop a cutter either. Only problem is that my floor electrics and dust extraction chute had to be pre-planned and set into the concrete - not much chance of changing my mind about it afterwards.
 
Hi folks

I've got a guy with a spade who's promising to build a new, large workshop down at the bottom of our garden. Mind, he's been promising that for years :wink: .

Should he decide to make a start, what sort of floor would be best? A solid concrete base or footings with a timber floor or what? Neither of us are really builders.

Yours

Gill
 
Gill - go for a timber floor. They're simple and satisfying to make, far more comfortable, you can insulate between the joists, you can run cables and dust extraction, and if you drop your chisel on a timber floor, the chisel wins! I worked on concrete for many years, and now I have an insulated chipboard floor on joists, I'm much happier. I'm sure everyone will agree!
 
Hi Gill, s*d the floor, just make sure your roof stays on !
PS: I have a concrete floor but am seriously thinking of laying wooden floor over it - concrete is cold and tools don't bounce :D :D :D
 
Hi Gill,

If you are building from scratch then there are several options. The first is a concrete slab. This is solid, will never move and support anything you want to put on it. The down side is they are a pain to lay, cost alot and are cold to work on as well as the obvious problem of dropping tools onto!

A cheaper and slightly easier option is to lay slabs (900mm by 300mm by 50mm thick) just basic grey paving slabs on a hardcore and sand base. These still have the draw back of concrete in terms of coldness and damage to tools, and can wobble if not laid correctly.

I would not lay wood directly onto earth, even treated timber. You could lay timber onto concrete pilings, either slabs in each corner, or I have also seem concrete poured into drainage pipes as supports.

The way I did it, and I assume most others do, is to lay a concrete slab, then build a wooden workshop that sits on it, laying a wooden floor inside the walls of the workshop. I have a concrete slab, then a layer of damp proof membrane (big single sheet of blue plastic from builders merchants) then 2" by 4" pressure treated bearers laid with the 4" side down (ie so they are 2" tall) then skinned over the top with 18mm OSB. By laying the floor once the walls are up you can lift the floor in the future if you wish, rather than building the walls on the floor, which makes it impossible to get up!

Best of luck, seems a bit cold to go digging up the garden now though - wait till spring arrives and the permafrost has gone!

Steve.
 
I ran 3 parallel strip footings in concrete about 300mm wide - didn't dig out particularly deep but shuttered it so the tops are 100M clear of the ground, then put in 50x100mm& 4m pressure treated joists across them so each span is only 2m, resting on DPC membrane. The prefab shed base and OSB flooring sit on that with the joists lined up. Finally put 19MM heavy duty T&G flooring chipboard panels over the OSB internally and finished it with a couple of coats of flooring paint.

As already mentioned you can run power under the floor to a central floor box - I keep my kity bestcombi smack bang in the middle of the room so it is right over the central footing strip and doesn't have cables snaking across the floor, and then other machines - floor standing pillar drill, bandsaw, etc, are back against the side walls, again near the strip foundations.

I don't feel any play or bounce in the floor as I'm moving around (and I'm not a lightweight either), don't feel it vibrating unduly with the machines running and it doesn't feel cold - there's no insulation under there but it would be easy to do if necessary. The floor paint gives a pretty good grip and is non-slip and seems to put up with benches being dragged across it pretty well. I also never completely sweep up all the shavings so they soak up and wet dirty footprints as i walk in and out.
 
Yeah, I have a concrete floor. I now have a carpeted concrete floor, much warmer and softer to stand on all day (And protects the tools etc)


..........what.............I do live in Surrey you know! :roll:
 
Hi guys

Many thanks for all your very helpful replies - just what I was looking for :) .

I'll get His Lordship to read through them and I'm sure he'll use one one of the techniques. We have limited access to our back garden so I think MPs idea of using strip footings will be particularly practical.

Roof, Woodshavings? Optional extra, isn't it? (For those of you don't know, our previous attempt at workshop construction had several roofs with cabriolet propensities in high winds :cry: :oops: :shock: ).

Yours

Gill
 
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