Overview

The first step in transforming this space into a shop is to replace the existing carpet with flooring suitable for a shop.

The photos below show the main shop room (formerly known as the band room) before and after the flooring change.

Read below for more details.

Before:

After:

Why I chose a hardwood floor

I really wanted a hardwood floor in this shop for two reasons.

1) The first reason is for comfort. I’ve always worked out of garages with concrete floors. Concrete floors are nice - they’re cheap, hold a lot of weight, and you don’t have to worry about damaging them. However, concrete is hard on your feet and back. I’ve remedied this in the past by wearing good shoes and putting floor mats in commonly used places, like in front of a workbench. While the mats help, I don’t like the uneven floor they create. A hardwood floor, while still relatively hard, has enough give that it’s much easier on your body.

2) The second reason is aesthetics. I’ve always felt that my shop should feel more like an art studio than a garage. Additionaly, this space is already finished out as a residential building and I’m not planning to undo much of that finishing, so having a hardwood floor fits in with the existing look and feel of the space. A cheaper plywood or rubber mat floor wouldn’t create the appearance that I desire.

The subfloor

After I removed the carpeting, I realized that my two shop rooms have separate subfloors.

The band room has a plywood subfloor and actually has layers of soundproofing underneath it, just like the walls and ceiling.

The living room has a concrete subfloor from when it was originally a garage. The concrete subfloor had a lot of cracks, so I repaired the cracks and partially leveled the concrete with a grinder before installing the new flooring.

Since part of the shop is on a concrete subfloor, I’m not able to use solid wood flooring. There is some lack of agreement in the community on whether it’s ok to install any type of wooden flooring directly on concrete. There are plenty of people with engineered wood floors on concrete subfloors, so I decided to take the chance and try it. The trick is to use a special adhesive that seals the concrete floor and a provides a moisture barrier so that moisture in the concrete can’t transfer into the wood.

Choice of flooring material

I went with an engineered oak flooring. It’s 1⁄ 2 ” plywood with a 3mm layer of solid oak veneer on top.

I did substantial testing on the sample board before installing it to make sure it was suitable for a shop. I dropped several heavy objects such as small logs, hammers, and large boards. The flooring held up really well, only getting a few small dings. I also sprinkled saw dust on the flooring to see how slippery it would be - I found it much less slippery than a concrete floor. Overall, I think it will serve me quite well.

I do plan to beat up this floor pretty bad - scratches, spilled paint, etc. It’s going into a shop after all. If I ever convert this building into something other than a shop, I’ll still be happy if I have to replace the flooring, however I’m hoping to be able to sand the 3mm oak and get another lifecycle out of it.

Installation

I was originally planning to install the floor myself, but I decided to contract some professionals. Installing the floor would be fun, but at my current pace, it would have taken me several weeks of working the occasional nights and weekends. I’d rather be setting up my tools than installing flooring, so I hired a crew that was able to complete the job in a few days.

I really like the way the flooring looks - it’s brightened things up and given my shop the look that I was going for.

Next step

The next step for my shop is to install some better lighting. Then I can start moving in my tools and getting set up.

Previously