My workshop floor

[David_Nicolaou]

I have a double garage that I use as my workshop and the floor is nice and level and concrete.

The floor is constantly a mess despite my efforts to sweep up and I need to do something with it.

Would I be better to lay some flooring (wood or otherwise) or paint.

What paint would I use. Would this be easier to clean? Would it wear?

Help please

 

[tiler99]

The only way to stop the mess is to clean more often, no paint or other surface will help that. :?

 

[OLD]

I like a smooth floor so i used self leveling on the concrete and floor paint , the separate workshop has a chip board floor with floor varnish (water based). Both are easy to move m/c on casters and brush up.

 

[David_Nicolaou]

Nice one on the cleaning up.

I do clean after every session but the floor is abrasive and holds dust.
I need to seal the floor with something so when i sweep half of it isn't left behind.

What floor paint does anyone suggest.

Or would a wood floor over concrete be overkill ?

Cheers

 

[Gary]

Seal the floor with PVA and then use something like Wickes/Srewfix own brand or a named brand if your wallet will stand the extra cost.

 

[lemonjeff]

Dave,
I had the same problem and 3 months ago used 2 coats of Thompsons water seal and two coats Johnsons floor paint. Sweeping or vacuming the fine dust and spotting it is easy now, as for durability the paints pretty tough unless i drop a hammer on it.
I have a double garage as well and used 10 litres of Thompsons and 5 litres of Johnsons, both are best used with a roller.
Round my neck of the woods The Range was cheapest for both.

Jeff.

 

[Dave S]

My workshop was the same. I also found the floor to be very cold in the winter, to the extent that it actually caused some problems with my feet.

I laid 50mm polystyrene over the concrete, covered with a damp-proof membrane and then floated a chipboard floor on top. I painted it with a garage floor paint (Ronseal, I think) which I applied with a roller.

The floor is now dead smooth, easy to clean and very much more comfortable to stand on. The only downside was the floor was a little slippery at first, but as the shine has worn off slightly with use it is now fine.

I suspect that I won't want my bench (when I finally get around to making it :roll: ) on the floating floor so I will cut holes in the floor so the legs can sit on the concrete. Similarly I'm not sure how well it would work with heavy machinery ( I don't have any, nor do I expect to get any).

This may all be over the top for what you want, but might be worth considering - I would defintely do the same again were I to move.

Dave

 

[billybuntus]

On the subject of self levelling concrete, I used it for the first time last week.

I was expecting to be able to put it down as a 2 inch layer. But the packaging says no more than a 16mm layer! Surely this will crack over time due to the layer being so thin?

I'm also wanting to put a liquid DPC down before self levelling but the Liquid DPC advises a minimum of a 2 inch screed on top of it :roll:

How thick did you lay the self levelling cement>?

 

[Scott]

I've used International Garage Floor Paint in the past and found it wore pretty well

Cheers

 

[David_Nicolaou]

Cheers Jeff,

I have a range near me in doncaster - will give it a go.

Best regards

 

[OLD]

billybuntus Selfleveling latex based 0-15mm thick and it will stick ! i used wickes (cheapest) and it works well when properly mixed ,you may have to pva some surfaces but i don't see it working properly with paint on damp proofer but you may not need the damp proofer.

 

[Paul.J]

I had the same problem with my concrete floor.
Mine was tampered finish and was pretty rough in places.
I asked around builders merchants,Wickes,etc about the self levelling stuff and was told that it would crack with the car been put away each night,and with heavy machinery in that was been moved around.
So i tried doing a sloppy mix of 2 screeding sand,1 building sand,and 1 cement.
Cleared half of the one side of the garage out and waited for a nice warmish day and done it.Then done the other half.
That was 2 years ago.
The result is a lot smoother floor that is still as strong today.
Paul.J.

 

[darren242]

i used clarkes polyurethane floor paint from machine mart, worked a treat and plenty left over for another coat next year

 

[ivan]

I'm fond of Johnstons 2 pack Epoxy floor paint, from Leyland trade Decorator's Centres (they bought out Johnstons) You get trade when paying cash. Very, very, hard wearing. Good for extension tables etc too. Comes as water based (not tried this but I guess better for roller application) and solvent based.

 

[Roy Clarke]

Concrete floors are not nice to stand on for long and they are cold. You can get scaffold boards quite cheaply as flooring goes. £6 for 12' x9" x 1-1/2". Then lay them on som scaffold boards used as bearers. That's the way I did my shed and its warm and strong nice to walk on and stands loads of weight.

 

[billybuntus]

billybuntus Selfleveling latex based 0-15mm thick and it will stick ! i used wickes (cheapest) and it works well when properly mixed ,you may have to pva some surfaces but i don't see it working properly with paint on damp proofer but you may not need the damp proofer.

But is one coat on top of concrete hard wearing?

Thanks,
steven

 

[OLD]

Its been down for 3 months car on it each day table saw casters say 3 times a week a lot of wood dropped on it after my lucky delivery and its fine.
You can screen it and float it if you are quick when laying. My floor was very bad so i rough levelled with sand /cement pva'd then mixed half bag in flex. rubble bucket pored and leveled and it did the final smoothing its self.