On Tue, 23 Oct 2007 14:55:03 -0500, Steve Russell
wrote:

Some good ideas, Steve, but I'll settle for just the cement surface for now..

They wanted to make it really smooth.. they're fanatics about that here, but I
actually had them rough it up a bit..

It's outside and basically for the flatwork tools, which I don't use much..

The lathes, work bench, band saw and hand tools are all inside in the shop..

It just got to be too much of a hassle rolling tools around on the "packed red
dirt"... the surface loosened up and holes started forming...
It's really ads excitement to using the CMS when a wheel falls into a hole
during a cut...

Useless background info:

When we bought our lots in Baja, we paid a bit more to be in the "multi-use"
area... Translation is that you can keep an RV there, where most of the area has
a 30 day limit for them.. the CC&R's used to say that if you keep an RV, it has
to be under cover in a structure matching the house, so when we were designing
the house we included an RV carport..
They gave us 3 options for the carport floor, red dirt, gravel and cement...
Cement being the most expensive, at $5,000...
No way was I going to pay that much to park a little 28' trailer on, so we went
with red dirt..
Then, we found out that the CC&R's had changed to "and a 2nd RV, if covered",
which meant that our trailer didn't HAVE to be in the carport...
Parking it on the other side of the RV hookup gave us a 15 x 40' covered patio
with a 12' roof.. perfect place to put all the "messy" tools, since the shop is
in the house..


Hello Mac,

Sounds like you made the best choice... Congrats on your new shop floor! You
might want to consider adding epoxy floor paint to your new floor when it
has cured. I did this to my studio floor and it was the best money I ever
spent. Not only is it easier to clean than bare concrete, but spills just
wipe up, engine oil will not stain it either. :-)

It's not that hard to do it yourself if you're interested. I purchased the
epoxy paint for about $50.00 per gallon, with a few gallons of epoxy
thinner. After power washing the floor, I applied a dilute acid (wearing a
special respirator) to acid etch the floor surface for better adhesion of
the epoxy. After that fully dried (I waited two days, with fans blowing
across it), I applied a sealer coat of epoxy. This is the regular epoxy cut
50/50 with epoxy thinner and applied it with a disposable roller.

Once that cured (a day or so), I applied a base coat of epoxy (regular epoxy
paint cut 80/20 epoxy to thinner) and let that cure for two days. Two more
coats of the base epoxy paint, a few days apart, followed by a final coat
cut 10%. It was not much work, but it took about two weeks to fully
complete. Most of the time was just spent waiting for the epoxy to cure.

My studio is 30' x 30' and I used light grey epoxy. It was well worth the
effort. I have even burned rubber with a car (don't ask) on the cured floor
and the epoxy has never lifted. In fact, you can just wipe the rubber away.
:-) The best time to coat your floor is when it's new (must be cured first
though) as once you start putting everything inside, you will probably never
get around to it again.

There is also some silica available that you can add to the epoxy to make it
less slippery. I did not add this when I did my floor as I thought this
would make it harder to clean. The only time the floor is slippery is when
it's wet, but that's not too often. I give it a good moping with straight
bleach (wearing a respirator) about once every two years and it looks brand
new again. Amazing stuff... Take care and best wishes to you as you build
your new shop! Take care.


mac

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