Painting the Floor?

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HighWall

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I am in the process of building a new house in the Sierra Nevada foothills, about 3400' elevation. The workshop, which is attached but on a lower level, has a lovely concrete slab on grade floor. My builder is very proud of it. He likes to leave his level on it over the weekend so the casual observer can determine how level it is. It is quite level in carpentry terms, although I haven't brought out my machinist's level as I don't want to burst his bubble (so to speak). Anyway, I will eventually have a 12x36 lathe, some kind of mill (yet to be determined), bandsaw, etc. I enjoy hobby gunsmithing and knife making, but am a hobby collector and want to keep the space as versatile as possible.

Until recently, I just assumed I would leave the concrete floor bare, but now I am starting to worry about oil and stains making permanent messes, so I was considering painting the floor with some kind of coating. Probably a two part epoxy in a mid gray, I think. I was just wondering what you folks thought. In my photo studio in San Francisco, in a 1920s industrial building with concrete floors, I've had rather poor results with paint and eventually went with a fully polished floor, which is very nice but cost a bundle. The problem with paint on these old floors was that there were multiple layers built up over the years and not all well applied. It tended to flake off and even stick to casters that didn't move all that regularly. Now that we have a fully polished floor, it's much better, but oil spots tend to be permanent.

I know that surface prep is everything when painting and since I have nice virgin concrete at this point, maybe I should just go ahead and paint in the new shop and it will be the best solution. Also, to make matters somewhat more difficult, I am building in Kalifornia so getting the really good paints might require a trip to Nevada...
 
Personally, I didn't use epoxy on my shop floor due to the fact that it does some funny things when welding. Hot sparks and/or slag on epoxy can cause sections the size of half dollars to violently pop up and turn in to projectiles. I learned this by our floors in our shop at work. In the garage attached to my house where my wife and I park our daily drivers, yes I epoxied it in a machinery gray color with grit added to avoid slips when wet.

However, in my shop, I painted the floor with a polyurethane paint when I built the shop in 1995. It held up great for the first six or seven years but now after nearly 20 years it is needing to be recoated. Especially the high traffic areas between toolbox and work benches. I really need to recoat it but I am not looking forward to moving equipment around to do so. More than likely I won't do anything more than "think" about re-coating it at this point.
 
The old way was boiled linseed oil mixed with mineral spirits for penetration. Without a coating of some sort, the dust will be driving you nuts, stains are forever etc etc. You could look at commercial grade floor tiles. Our plant uses these through the whole building. Under machines, offices, etc.
Pierre
 
pdentrem said:
The old way was boiled linseed oil mixed with mineral spirits for penetration. Without a coating of some sort, the dust will be driving you nuts, stains are forever etc etc. You could look at commercial grade floor tiles. Our plant uses these through the whole building. Under machines, offices, etc.
Pierre
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When you say tile, are you talking commercial grade porcelain or some kind of vinyl?
 
Vinyl not ceramic. The same stuff you will see in most stores at the mall. It is much thicker than the home use stuff, usually over .125" thick. Naturally dragging a machine across it is not the best idea, but use a fork lift, skates (rollers), floor jack, pallet jack they tend to just shrug it off.

We have 4 EDM machines and a milling centre that leak water and coolant onto the floor and with prompt clean up, we have had not issues. In fact we had the floor cleaners come in to strip and apply a new coating of non slip wax just last week.
Pierre
 
All comments very interesting. I epoxied my wife's photography studio 3 years ago and it still looks great. Her largest "machines" though are her rolling box lights so it's not even apples to apples.
 
I was thinking about an epoxy coating on the floor of my basement shop, but I have been having second thoughts in that regard. I've been leaning more toward vinyl tile also. The only thing with most of those vinyl tiles is that the mid-colored ones, such as a light or medium gray are hard to find in a pure color. Most of them always have little flecks of various colors in them. Of course that can be good, because it helps to hide any small chips that may have been missed by the broom or shop vac, but can be bad as they are equally as good at hiding tiny setscrews and springs that get dropped.

I know I will have to get something on that floor, just not sure yet exactly what.
 
You nailed it when you said prep is everything. Against good advice to follow directions on the can I helped paint a brand new basement floor with $50/Gal. two part epoxy. We did not etch the floor as required by directions. We painted the garage floor after etching it. Guess which you can drive on and which had to be removed and reapplied for free. I am glad this was not my job, but I would have went to the trouble if it were my decision. Having the floors left unsealed and not used until painted would have been the ultimate bond, but following the directions to etch if sealed seems to be a close second. Good luck no matter the direction you go.
 
kd4gij said:
If I where building a new shop I would use race deck. I have never used it but have heard nothing but good from people that have.
http://www.racedeck.com/
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That is some cool stuff. I wonder how cost compares to epoxy? Either way, till I get the lottery won, Ill live with the floor and spend on tools.
 
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