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Building a new 40x60 and looking at flooring options?

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JHForman

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Ok guys I have been reading for almost 3 days and im 99% sure I want to use porcelain tiles in my new shop(to be built but I like to plan ahead). The shop will be 40x60 pole barn and have radiant floor heat. I am located in southern Indiana(Louisville area). I was looking at using 12x24 tiles. The shop will be used for pretty much everything, I weld, I fabricate, I do automotive repairs, engine changes, transmission changes, you name it I WORK IN MY SHOP! One section of the shop will be used for car washing/detailing etc, There will be a drain all the way across the floor closer to the doors. I have come up with some questions that Im hoping people can assist in answering. I have never done any kind of tile work before so this will be a new adventure for me(or disaster?) I think the biggest question I cant find an answer to or clear cut answer is the slab control joints, I dont believe these are cut all the way through the slab from what ive read, but what from what I have read you have to honor the control joints. I cant find a answer on how to address that. I would like the tiles to run left to right across the shop but it doesnt appear I can do that with the control joints(im sure a 40x60 shop will have multiple control joints. Do I need to consider smaller tiles, and make a pattern around the control joints? are there any good videos(youtube doesnt have much for garages and tiles) that show the proper way to coat the floor and the tile?

Thanks,
John
 
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DaveAndStuff

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If the joints are saw-cut, I think you can get away with using an isolation membrane, but there are some experts here that I sure know more about it than I do.

I would not like tile in a fab-shop.
 
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kmacht

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I think tile would be a bad choice for a general use shop. They get extremely slippery when wet or covered in things like sawdust. They will also crack if you drop something heavy on them.
 
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JHForman

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DaveAndStuff said:
If the joints are saw-cut, I think you can get away with using an isolation membrane, but there are some experts here that I sure know more about it than I do.

I would not like tile in a fab-shop.
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Fabrication isn’t the main thing I do, mostly mechanical work.
 
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JHForman

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kmacht said:
I think tile would be a bad choice for a general use shop. They get extremely slippery when wet or covered in things like sawdust. They will also crack if you drop something heavy on them.
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The internet would seem to disagree with you, if the proper tiles are used they aren’t slippery and the tiles are extremely strong.
 
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JHForman

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Wombat Ranger said:
I apologize to derail, but may I ask why you want tile in the shop? Why not a nice finished concrete slab floor?
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Not derailing at all, I’m open to suggestions. I originally leaned towards a polished/sealed floor. After researching it it seemed road salt would easily damage the finish. I’ve had epoxy and know a couple local shops(auto repair shops that I’m friends with) that wish they had never put down epoxy. I really like the durability of tile but I’m open to others input.
 
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Shiftless

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With tiles that are 2 feet long, you’d better have damn near perfectly flat concrete underneath or tile edges won’t be even and you’ll end up with unacceptable lippage. It is possible to compensate a bit with the thin set but be careful !
 
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DaveAndStuff

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I understand people wanting the look, I think it's great.

I epoxied the floor in my last shop, and I loved it, until it got wet or got bit of oil on it, and it was slippery as fu*k.

I would not have been as bad had the slab been flatter and or graded. But water would puddle, I could not see the puddles, and they took forever to dry.

Every oil spill had to be cleaned up, and if you missed it, it would still be slippery a month later.

I moved a year ago and I am planning on building a 13' X 40' thee bay. I will likely go with epoxy again, but with very flat floor and a perimeter drain.
 
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Sumboodie

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DaveAndStuff said:
I understand people wanting the look, I think it's great.

I epoxied the floor in my last shop, and I loved it, until it got wet or got bit of oil on it, and it was slippery as fu*k.

I would not have been as bad had the slab been flatter and or graded. But water would puddle, I could not see the puddles, and they took forever to dry.

Every oil spill had to be cleaned up, and if you missed it, it would still be slippery a month later.

I moved a year ago and I am planning on building a 13' X 40' thee bay. I will likely go with epoxy again, but with very flat floor and a perimeter drain.
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I work in bulk lubes and we have an epoxy floor.

It's not bad because I know. I had a guy about wipe out last year with wet feet on some oil.
 
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JHForman

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jblnut

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No way I’d do tile in a building I plan to work in. Not a chance.

I debated about epoxy or sealing my concrete and ended up leaving it completely bare. I told my floor guy I wanted it broom sweepable but not slippery when wet. I don’t know how he did it but it sweeps fantastic and isn’t slippery. It’s a working farm shop and things spill and make stains and it doesn’t bother me anymore. I toss some dirt on the spill and it soaks most of it up and even the blotches aren’t slippery. The way I see it eventually it’ll all be oil coated and look the same lol.

If you want to do tile do tile, don’t let us tell you otherwise. I’ve worked over tile in the past and it absolutely will crack when things are dropped on it unless it’s megathick. With tile unless the subsurface is dang near perfectly flat and level you will have bumps and uneven spots making it hard to set tables and level anything out. I can’t count how many times I lay things out on the floor before tacking them together and having a “level” floor makes that possible. It’ll never be as level with tile as if it’s concrete.
 
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JHForman

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jblnut said:
No way I’d do tile in a building I plan to work in. Not a chance.

I debated about epoxy or sealing my concrete and ended up leaving it completely bare. I told my floor guy I wanted it broom sweepable but not slippery when wet. I don’t know how he did it but it sweeps fantastic and isn’t slippery. It’s a working farm shop and things spill and make stains and it doesn’t bother me anymore. I toss some dirt on the spill and it soaks most of it up and even the blotches aren’t slippery. The way I see it eventually it’ll all be oil coated and look the same lol.

If you want to do tile do tile, don’t let us tell you otherwise. I’ve worked over tile in the past and it absolutely will crack when things are dropped on it unless it’s megathick. With tile unless the subsurface is dang near perfectly flat and level you will have bumps and uneven spots making it hard to set tables and level anything out. I can’t count how many times I lay things out on the floor before tacking them together and having a “level” floor makes that possible. It’ll never be as level with tile as if it’s concrete.
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Epoxy is definitely off the list, racedeck and those type of tiles/flooring were never on the list. I cant stand oil stains lol im very OCD and work in my shop but I also want it clean and I constantly clean when im done working.
 
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jblnut

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JHForman said:
Epoxy is definitely off the list, racedeck and those type of tiles/flooring were never on the list. I cant stand oil stains lol im very OCD and work in my shop but I also want it clean and I constantly clean when im done working.
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If you’ve actually been diagnosed with OCD you’d never get anything done in a shop/production environment ….

This is after 6yrs of heavy farm use. Granted not all the floor is visible but it all looks about the same. Completely unsealed concrete. If you spend your time working and not worrying about all the little things you’ll get soooooooo much more done. I obsessed with keeping it spotless at first and got nothing done. Sweep at the end of the day/project and put your tools away clean and move on to the next thing. I have a neighbor whose shop is almost exactly the same age to the day and his floor is almost black with all the **** he’s left soak in so it can be avoided. I put cardboard down when changing oil or when I know I’m gonna make a mess and it soaks up most of the mess.

Stains are like battle scars or scratches on a trail rig. They tell a story.
IMG_6304.jpeg
 
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JHForman

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jblnut said:
If you’ve actually been diagnosed with OCD you’d never get anything done in a shop/production environment ….

This is after 6yrs of heavy farm use. Granted not all the floor is visible but it all looks about the same. Completely unsealed concrete. If you spend your time working and not worrying about all the little things you’ll get soooooooo much more done. I obsessed with keeping it spotless at first and got nothing done. Sweep at the end of the day/project and put your tools away clean and move on to the next thing. I have a neighbor whose shop is almost exactly the same age to the day and his floor is almost black with all the **** he’s left soak in so it can be avoided. I put cardboard down when changing oil or when I know I’m gonna make a mess and it soaks up most of the mess.
IMG_6304.jpeg
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Ok I no longer care about your floor lol tell me about that drone :p
 
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jblnut

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JHForman said:
Ok I no longer care about your floor lol tell me about that drone :p
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It was just the most current picture I had lol.

It is an EAVision J150 and I plan to cover around 11,000 acres with it this cropping season if all goes to plan. The new tech on the left and the “old” tech on the right can both do around 60 acres an hour. I looked into a new self propelled sprayer to boost productivity here on the farm and the $850,000 price tag spooked me a bit lol. The drone, spray tender and generator was $72k. So we’ll see I guess lol. I may be ordering a new self propelled sprayer this winter if it doesn’t work out lol.
 
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JHForman

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jblnut said:
It was just the most current picture I had lol.

It is an EAVision J150 and I plan to cover around 11,000 acres with it this cropping season if all goes to plan. The new tech on the left and the “old” tech on the right can both do around 60 acres an hour. I looked into a new self propelled sprayer to boost productivity here on the farm and the $850,000 price tag spooked me a bit lol. The drone, spray tender and generator was $72k. So we’ll see I guess lol. I may be ordering a new self propelled sprayer this winter if it doesn’t work out lol.
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Can you map the property and send it out in automation and it returns for filling? or do you have to manually fly it and bring it in for refill? If all goes well and you like the drone at the cost of the self propelled sprayer you could have 12 drones covering about 720ac/hour unless I did really terrible math.
 
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jblnut

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JHForman said:
Can you map the property and send it out in automation and it returns for filling?
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Yes. The field can be mapped ahead of time. I’ve imported all our fields from John Deere Operations Center into the EAVision platform so it has sub inch accuracy for field boundaries and obstacles already.

JHForman said:
or do you have to manually fly it and bring it in for refill?
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I will likely be landing it manually each time.
I plan to build a “dock” of sorts so it’ll land in it each time so I can fill it and swap the battery in under a minute. It’ll empty its payload (20 gallons) in under 10min and charge battery in about the same time.

JHForman said:
If all goes well and you like the drone at the cost of the self propelled sprayer you could have 12 drones covering about 720ac/hour unless I did really terrible math.
Click to expand...
If I can hit that 45-50a/hr I’ll be tickled pink. One can only fly one drone at a time legally unless you get a swarm exemption which from my knowledge has only been given out once to a spray drone company so it’s possible.

If it goes well if been talking to a few buddies telling them I could employ them for the crops season and they could make a years wages in 4 months or less. We shall see. His summer I plan to keep extremely detailed records on everything so I can see what kind of money can be made here in addition to using it on my own operation.
 
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JHForman

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jblnut said:
Yes. The field can be mapped ahead of time. I’ve imported all our fields from John Deere Operations Center into the EAVision platform so it has sub inch accuracy for field boundaries and obstacles already.


I will likely be landing it manually each time.
I plan to build a “dock” of sorts so it’ll land in it each time so I can fill it and swap the battery in under a minute. It’ll empty its payload (20 gallons) in under 10min and charge battery in about the same time.


If I can hit that 45-50a/hr I’ll be tickled pink. One can only fly one drone at a time legally unless you get a swarm exemption which from my knowledge has only been given out once to a spray drone company so it’s possible.

If it goes well if been talking to a few buddies telling them I could employ them for the crops season and they could make a years wages in 4 months or less. We shall see. His summer I plan to keep extremely detailed records on everything so I can see what kind of money can be made here in addition to using it on my own operation.
Click to expand...
Aight I started following you lol I hope you post about this thing more and what all you can accomplish with it!
 
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jblnut

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JHForman said:
Aight I started following you lol I hope you post about this thing more and what all you can accomplish with it!
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Thanks. Didn’t know that was a thing lol.

I post our farm adventures in my gallery thread as often as I can. I’m an open transparent book about everything on the farm so don’t hesitate to ask !! From financial things to agronomy things to family things …. Ask away.

I plan to post about the drone as I get to using it. I plan to do the first flights in a few weeks to put some frufru bugs on cover crop ground that we’re doing a trial on for a startup company. I have high hopes so we’ll see what happens.
 
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