[TheForge] shop floors

[Cindy and James]

The concrete floor in my shop is OLD, I don't know how old, but the 
building was built circa 1920, probably with a dirt floor and concrete 
later poured inside.

Anyway, the surface has seen extensive wear and is somewhat porous in 
some area but in remarkable condition.  I used a hot water washer to 
clean it when I moved in, then followed with an acrylic sealer sprayed 
on out of a pump up sprayer.  My idea was to sort of fill in the 
porosity a bit to make it easier to clean.  I used the stuff from home 
depot, and it worked ok.  After a time it does flake up, esp. where it 
may get wet and stay wet for a while, or where it gets badly scraped.

Yes, it helps with cleaning.  My favorite shop sweeping method is a back 
pack yard/leaf blower, set a big fan on each end to pull prevailing wind 
thru and start the blower.  Usually takes several passes but beats the 
hell out of sweeping.

then I found this stuff, discussed below.  If I had access to it 
previously, I would not have used the floor sealer from HD.

There is a product that isn't an epoxy which holds up well.  The fellow 
down the street loaned me some to try, he uses it in his antique floored 
ladies dress shop.  Floor stays real shiny and easy to clean.  Put on w/ 
a paint roller, pretty thick stuff, no mixing, just 1 part.  Dries in a 
day or 2 and you can fill in holes, etc. but they take several days to 
cure. 

Maybe I can find the name of the stuff, I think it is about $75 a  
gallon but that may be off.  It is surprisingly NOT slippery and the 
areas I put it on have held up well.  That test was 2 years ago.

James