I have three problems with my current shop floor that I would like to address.
Its concrete.
It has horrible humps and dips.
It slops from the house to the driveway about 3.5" total.
Research here and elsewhere has me leaning toward a simple plywood over 2x? sleeper design. I'd like to route some dust collection and electrical underneath as well.
I think this means I'm putting 2X? stock on edge. How should I attach these to the existing floor? How best is the floor levelled? And perhaps the problem that most hurts my head, How am I going to pull the car in if I have a 6-8" step leading into the shop. ( read: Garage )
I'm presently leaning toward building a "floating" grid of 2x onto which I place 3/4" ACX and maybe selling the car. :)
Any help or other suggestions is appreciated. Kevin
I don't have first-hand experince with floor making, but I took mechanical engineering and floor design can be rather complicated. I'd probably opt for some mats instead, in case you ever need to sell the house.
If there is an overall slope to the whole floor, not much you can do to fix. You may want to level out some of the dips with a floor leveling compound or float some new portland cement. ( you can mix this yourself) before laying down any furring strips. Then you would at least have a level surface, so to speak, to place your wood floor. One caveat to the cement is that you may need to break out sections to lay it in. Will not bond that well if just floated on the suface. Not my first choice.
Other than that, a new concrete pour to level the entire surface. This would probably require breaking out the old concrete first. I am far from an expert here but did spend a summer laying concrete one year. We did a few of these to repair cracked and sloping pads. One of them required lifting the garage to do so.. (Ughh what a mess that was.)
It would simplify things if you forego the idea of DC under the floor. While a great idea, it might not be the ticket in your situation. I don't think you need a "level" floor, but having a "flat" floor is a good thing. Garage floors have such a minor slope that it's really not a big deal to leave the slope as is. However, having a flat floor without bumps/valleys is desirable. Others with more construction experience can weigh in, but I would think 3/4" plywood on the floor (with a vapor barrier, etc, but no stringers) would be adequate. The plywood should be able to span any slight valleys you have. Another idea would be to put down leveling compound then the plywood (with a vapor barrier). That would minimize the valleys your plywood would have to span.
Selling the car is also a good idea. Solves many problems. No more garashop, just a shop. Extra money to buy tools. No job to go to = more time in the shop.
Make sure you lay down vapor barrier first (plastic), then put the sleepers on top, and shoot the same as base plates are done when you frame a wall. Then use 3/2" plywood on top, making sure the seams lay on top of the sleepers.
You can use t&g OSB (used in sub floors), but it is rough and would make a terrible dust-catching, wood chipping floor.
Phisherman wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
Here is what I would do if you want flat and level with dust collection and power for tools under the floor.
First get yourself a laser level. You will need it. Put down a vapor barrior over the concrete. The lay presure treated 2x6 flat on the floor along one edge. The High one. Then lay another accross the floor 8 ft from the first. Repeat till you have flat beams accros the floor.
Now shim them till they are level with the highest. You can use asphalt shingles as shims under the 2 bys. Once they are all flat nail them to the concrete floor. It is best to rent a nail gun for this.
Now using these as beams Get you some 2x10 on 16 inch centers and lay them on edge across the beams the length of the floor. With all that nailed in place put the flooring un top. 1" 4x8 sturdy floor tounge and grove. Glued and nailed. If you look at what you have is 2x10 supported by beams every 8 ft. For that matter 2x6 would probably be enough. The joist will run the lenght uninterupted. It should be easy enough to run DC and electric under the floor. The bigest problem is the height of the floor, 13 inches above the concrete. How much headroom do you have. You can lower that number by going as far as 2x6 on 12 inch centers. Now it is only 9 inches above the floor. If you double up the flat beams so they are every 4 ft instead of eight you could lay 2x4 floor joists every 8 inches and still do fine. It would be harder to run DC under the floor but electric would be fine.
This is for discussion only. Someone with more knowlege than me will need to size the joists. There are books you can look up the load rating for different combinations of joist size and beam spacings.
OK, first since you state that the garage floor slopes towards the driveway, I can assume you have a driveway. Thus, the car issue is solved - leave it in the driveway. Cars were designed to function quite well outside and do not need to be put into our shop space (SWMBO doesn't understand this as a concept, but since she gets the rest of the house - except for about 10% of the bedroom closet space she generously allows me to use - she allows me to use the garage - except for the parts used for grandkids toys, the freezer, her storage, gardening tools and supplies, the mower, snowblower, etc, etc.). Hey, I can't help much with the floor, but if it were me I would look at the cost (and effort) of taking out the old floor and re-pouring at least a flat floor (it probably would still need to slope, maybe less than 3.5"). This would probably be better for future resell value and probably wouldn't cost alot more. I realize that doesn't answer the the in floor dust collection and electric. While I would like the electric in the floor concept, I don't think I would like the dust collector in the floor - just the holes that would have to be cut in the stringers to run 4" lines means major oversizing of those stringers I would think.
The more I read the responses, thanks to all by the way, the more I'm leaning toward the plywood on stringers after some minor levelling approach. I'll run the electrical underneath but forego the dust collection. I got to thinking that cleaning clogs in the DC ducting would be a real pain as well.
As for the car, I suppose y'all are right, doesn't belong in a shop. Its a convertible though and it may take me a while to get my head around the idea of leaving it outside. Again thanks to all.
On Wed, 28 Jan 2004 00:54:49 GMT, "Larry C in Auburn, WA" brought forth from the murky depths:
A bucki' Feamer? Feh! I kept seeing those upside down in
1-car accidents on I-5 just north of Sandy Eggo. 2 in 2 years. How does one FLIP a Beemer slowing down for traffic on a 2-degree hill with a slow 10-degree right curve? (I-5 southbound just north of Del Mar Heights Road)
---------------------------------------------- CAUTION: Driver Legally B l o n d (e)
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Driving too fast in traffic. Someone moves into your lane, you're going too fast for the situation, swerve, over you go. Curves just compound the situation. Sorta like 4 wheelers thinking they can drive anywhere then end up along side the road in snow or icy conditions (I see it every winter). Drive a fast/well-handling car and you can do anything on the road, right? Wrong! They usually realize it when they're upside down.
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