Lodgepole wrote:But, I am considering laying a softer product on the floor, possibly wood. I am concerned about potential damage, if a lay down new shop flooring.
Same original thread, just a minor branch...
Concrete floors can be brutal... I still remember vividly my first off farm job back in 1962. It was a factory job in what had been an old furniture factory. I mostly worked alone at what some might have called a flunky job but in reflection may have been one of the most desirable jobs in the place. I was left alone as long as my job got done and the last several guys that worked that job were really pathetic so I was able to look really good...
I was constantly moving all over the plant instead of just spending the day in one little spot. My main working area was a concrete floored area on the first floor but I also had a big storage room about 30' X 60' (would have made a super woodshop
) on the third floor which had a beautiful maple floor. All production work was on the lower two floors. The whole third floor was storage and most of it dead storage. My big storage room up there was the only active part of the floor. One of the perks of my job was that while everybody else had to use the stairs between the first two floors unless they were moving material or machinery I had full use of the freight elevator.
I really wondered if I was going to survive the first two weeks at that job just because of that concrete floor. I was a farm boy, used to walking on all kinds of surfaces except concrete. Even most of the barns were either dirt or wood floor. Only the tiny shop we were still using then was concrete and we usually were only in there for an hour or two at a time.
By the end of the third day on that damnable concrete I was almost crippled... They were really impressed at how I had cleaned and fully organized that big third floor storage room and told me so. I didn't tell them that I was spending every spare minute I had up there working because my feet and legs felt so much better working on that wood floor.
I would hurry through the first floor part of the job then head upstairs. Mind you, I wasn't up there goofing off. I was working. By the end of about two weeks my feet and legs had adjusted pretty well to the concrete but I still hate working on the stuff.
In the past I have built wooden false floors over concrete floors for a far better working environment. Even though I have been self employed most of my life I find that I am far more productive on a wooden floor. If the floor is concrete my legs and back suffer and I tend to sit down more often. I really believe that any time I have built a wooden floor to stand on that the increased productivity has very quickly paid back the cost of the floor. I currently have some rubber matting down in the wood shop but mats nor thick soft shoes help as much as a wooden floor.
Over a decent concrete floor I would put down treated 2"x4" sleepers laid flat then put poly sheeting over it and .50" CDX plywood and topped that with .75" particle board which I painted heavily to seal it and make it easy to sweep. Worked great. In what was the woodshop part of the farm shop I was going over a gravel floor so I used the treated 2"x4"s on edge then the poly but then capped it with .75 plywood T&G flooring. That also worked well. I have been working back and forth from the concrete to the wood floor in that shop most days lately and as I go from the concrete to the wood I notice the difference almost every time.
If I get a little extra money soon I will gladly give up about 2.25" of ceiling clearance in order to work on a wooden floor in the basement woodshop.
Rubber shoe heels as we know them were invented by a printer in a big print shop by the name of O'Sullivan, who bought a thick rubber mat to stand on at his press. Everybody kept running off with his mat so he cut pieces out of it and fastened them on his shoes as heels. They have been bought out now but at one time they were the worlds largest producer of new shoe rubber heels.
Probably more than you wanted to know.
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