The builder and I have been working with various vendors to get the floors painted. I'm not a "floor paint guy"... in that I have always preferred a "working shop"... which means dragging heavy items across the floor - using the floor as a large anvil... or generally just not caring about "the floor". Makes my life easier.


BUT after all this work in the new shop - the builder and I thought we should at least look into doing the entire shop - not just the entrance - bathroom and upstairs office area.

Well.... this is quite the problematic area! My criteria was - that the vendor would have to demonstrate the product has been installed in real actual working shops with hot tires parked on it etc. In other words - if the vendor hasn't done this coating in an airplane hanger -- firehouse (where they park the trucks) -- or warehouse where forklifts are used.... "beat it!" Remember where I am -- so this is not a major city with plenty of guys doing this kind of work.

The first couple guys -- could only show us pretty little two car garages - in brand new houses (meaning brand new concrete) - with your grandmothers Buick parked in it. Uh..... No thanks.... scram! Beat it!

Finally got a couple people out of Twin Falls and Boise... actual real commercial guys... Bids are over $20K to as much as $40K. But what's most interesting is the sales pitches - which are mostly about NOT to use the other guys stuff.

Guess what my solution is? It's not happening. No way I'm spending that kind of money on the floors - while all the time worrying about when the paint is going to peel off. It's far easier to do absolutely nothing and not have any worries.

So here's the funny part.... since it's just a small job and I'm not going to be driving on it -- I can now just use the little home garage guy and have them do the office and entrance and bathroom.

Pics of "the rig" parked inside sometime this next week depending on whether or not I get brake parts here for the Mustang. As soon as that job is complete I'm hoofing it to SV! Yippeeeeee

Smart move. 20 to 40 k is huge money for floors. At that price you should do your homework and do them yourself. Its not like you dont have the time.

A good commercial buffer, scotchbrite pads, weed sprayer with appropriate cleaner, hose and squeegee can be had for a lot less than $20K. But finding someone dependable to operate the equipment can be a challenge.

That's how I cleaned the service bay every Friday at 4:30 at the local Porsche dealer in the mid 70's. Looked great.

I'd do what Sieg suggested. Then I'd get a concrete water based sealer, and seal the floor. It will soak in and it looks like you didn't put anything on it. It will keep the concrete dust down to a minimum.

What about staining the concrete?

When I worked at the Mobil station on 102nd and Halsey Street -- we cleaned the floors with solvent - then a water rinse and a squeegee... we also washed our hands face and arms in LEADED gasoline. All of which has since been deemed highly inappropriate... LOL







All the suggestions are good -- but we don't know how the floors were used or treated in the past. The building was first used as a heavy metal fabrication business -- not sure if anything in between -- but last use was a commercial door refinisher... and the floors "APPEAR" to have plenty of overspray of various stains and clear finishes. So to go back now and try to put something on them would just be a complete guessing game.

The big commercial floor coaters quotes all included GRINDING the floor surfaces to clean cement.




Per above.... works nice on a nice new floor.... and Staining was / is an option. But I think I'm sticking to my original plan of just using 'em the way they are. I'm really not trying to build a collectors showroom. I like pounding - welding - grinding - beating - dragging... GORILLA STYLE. LOL

Even with that prep it's only addressing surface contamination. Chemicals wick themselves into concrete and once the top is sealed which keeps the concrete from being able to breathe, "contaminated" moisture or gases trying to escape have no where to go and compromise the bond or discolor the finish.

Personally I like my concrete a little on the trashy side...........

This is what I did, only the sealer was solvent based. It does make a huge diff in my shop but I get what you're saying GW. Floors are already contaminated with who knows what.

And since GW likes to share wonderful little stories, I'll add mine.
When they were building my shop, the guys used a hard rubber tired forklift to do the high work and move materials. They spent 9 days riding in circles and doing doughnuts on the fresh concrete. When they were done, 75% of the floor was black. No amount of scrubbing or chemical could make a dent in it. No amount of threats or phone calls could get the people responsible to even come out and look at it. The owner just kept saying "but it's a shop, what do you want the floors to look like?!?"....


Jeff-

The same can be said of my living room floors!

LOL

That would have pissed me off almost as much as the spray in foam insulation guys getting overspray all over my freshly poured, smoothed to a baby's bottom finish, not sealed outbuilding shop floor that I was planning on finishing somehow someway. :bigun2:

To this day I still remember the feeling when I walked into the shop the first time. Like I was kicked in the gut... That stuff doesn't come off of ANYTHING...EVER...

That sounds like the Gateway area, you must be from my part of town. I was class of 70 at David Douglas.

You can get it out of your hair with butter.................don't ask. :sieg:

I have no class... Oh wait! We're talking about high school!!


Class of '71 -- Parkrose

:trophy-1302: New Forum Record! There's someone older than you here!

Well -- actually... I lied... I never graduated.

GED!?

Another Local guy, man we might almost have enough people to fill a booth at a resturant someday for a Bench racing session.

Greg, Here is a Companies Product that I have used before - Acid Stain & their Sealer is a Zylene Based Sealer that I know is good for Commercial Applications. The Same Sealer was used at Universal Studios, Disney, 6 Flags, Car Dealerships, Parking Lots.

Not the most Eco-Friendly Product, but is pretty easy to do

http://www.increte.com/products-and-...s/stain-crete/

Thanks TC! I'm going to dig into my myriad of options once I'm over there this week. While I'd love to have the floor look badass -- and I really think they'd enhance what I've already done to the building... As I stated before -- I'm not going to spend huge money on something unless I'm certain it's the right stuff.

It's really only me that ever sees the inside... and I'm probably the guy that doesn't care - the most.

I think I'd be happier with a stain than I would be with a paint/coating. Just seems more shop like for the way I use it.

Charley did his floor with a stain and it really looks nice! It even withstands oil!

could you not acid clean the floor and have it polished?

I don't know what can be done Mike -- so I'll get into it when I get over there and I can talk directly to the people. Going thru my builder -- who is a builder but not a shop guy -- and not going direct - just creates problems. So it's a "I'll do it myself (as far as discussions go)".

When I did my floor I washed it with acid and it was a new floor.
I'd wash and power scrub the floor and acid wash it. Then apply a clear concrete sealer, just to keep the dust down, not to make it look better.

I didn't hear anything about a shooting in Yakima so I imagine you made it out alright. :bigun2:

Looking forward to some better then contractor pictures on how it turned out.

:thumbsup:
Dan

Funny thing about BAD people -- they don't really hang around guys with a pair of 1911's hanging on their hips. Not quite sure what's up with that... They don't come close enough for me to ask.




Tell CHARLEY he's just flat wrong --- with the shop doors closed I have PLENTY OF ROOM to walk around the rig!





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Yup. Plenty of room........looks like the shop is a keeper :lol:

Just in case you haven't noticed, you're missing the right front and middle axle center caps on the wheels.:underchair: But really nice shop... How hard to gfet the rig backed in there? looks pretty narrow on the street from the inside view.

Floors look good too!

:cheers:

I leave the middle one off intentionally because I'm tired of buying the "chromed plastic" POS.. and was down to 5 total -- so took the center off each side for symmetry.

Not only did I notice -- I'm the actual guy that took them off. On big trailers like this the HUB is an oil bath - not a packed bearing. The center of the hub is clear plastic "cap" / "window" - with a rubber plug in the center so a guy can add hub/bearing oil to it from time to time.

The big ass stupid chromed plastic "hub caps" have to be knocked off with a hammer in order to SEE the oil level.

On my 5500 mile journey to Texas and back -- I noticed some oil fanning out from the center of the wheel on the front passenger side - so after checking all of them and filling as necessary - I decided not to reinstall that one so I could do a quick visual check at each stop. Now that I know it's good to go - I will put the cheap ass chromed plastic (did I mention POS?) back on.

If I had Charley's money -- I'd gladly piss away another 20 grand having the shop floor painted (already painting the other areas)... but I look at these floors and think it's just a giant waste of money.

Besides -- after Gaetano rips me a new one at Sonoma -- I've got to save my money in order to buy that NASCAR motor off Dave. He'll never use it anyway.

Almost forgot -- HEY! It's a long day driving okay.. and I'm old...



After Gwen watched me back the rig in -- she said -- "I don't know why you don't just buy that piece of property in back and do a drive thru? Besides - you could fence in part of it and grow some grass and have a place for Stella..."


Consider it done. LOL

Greg FTW!! :thumbsup:

What'd I tell 'ya. :lol:

And I'll sell you a Nascar or two but you need to do something with that crappy shop floor.

Rude.

Marrying well FTW!

No, GWEN FTW!

Okay -- Yesterday was a 11 hour day in the rig -- but today I was up to the task of going to the shed and actually messing around. The painters are final touch up == the wiring is complete -- the boiler/floor heat/hot water is supposed to be fired off this evening.


Oh yeah -- and once the cars came out of the rig -- EVERY NEIGHBOR IN THE COMPLEX CAME BY! I met some new car buddies for sure!






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They were installing the "shop sink" -- so excuse the mess and the stainless plastic wrap still left on it.





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The boiler/hot water tank being installed.... NOTE -- 200,000 BTUS and no metal vent -- friggin' plastic vent. Apparently I bought the most energy efficient one they sell... HAHAHAHAHAHA OMG! Oh well....






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The man room windows and "eyebrow" shed roofs for "effect". Before I left today the stickers were gone and the dude was cleaning them.

The painters were upstairs so I stayed out of there but it look trick with the black painted out and the track lighting etc.





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AND THE THUNDER GREY TOILET






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FLOORS PAINTED NEXT WEEK OR SO.

Nothing more to say, but …….WOW!!

That looks real good Greg! Even the floor!:thumbsup:

Al Bundy would approve of that 'turlet' ya got.

:drowninga:

No fair baiting....

Top needs to be RED!

What floors, what paint? :sieg:

Thank you! I think it looks "fine" considering I did it all "on the cheap". It's more about "restoring" the electrical that was missing... and adding some... getting the lights to be bright enough for my old eyes... and just making it look more "man space" than a warehouse "commercial space".








I paid special attention to the floors today Steve... the decision was made on the color -- a grey base with black and white and grey color chips.... and I'm doing the entry - the upstairs - and the "machine room space" - but not the main floor. I know me - the first large thing that gets delivered - I'll be by myself. It will get drug - pushed - pulled - scraped and manhandled -- all across the floor. I like 'em so I don't have to be a sissy about 'em. It's a shop... it's not about showing off or being pretty... and I know me and how they'll be treated.

And, Thanks by the way!