I definitely like the wood look. Depending on the use of the room, that would improve the environment tremendously. It would be a lot easier to put down too.
We could use carpet squares. When a spot gets bad just peel that square up & replace it. Iāve seen it used & have peeled it up many times to do underfloor work.
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Laying tile is easy on a flat concrete surface. If there are severe valleys, a self - leveler is easily applied to flatten those spots. Then a simple layer of combed thinset does the rest. Porcelain is extremely hard and durable. Of course, Iām not sure exactly what is held in there. If activities that are more suited to a garage floor go on there, then tile would get pretty beat up.
Doing this cheaply with tile also assumes the labor is volunteered.
No hard tile that would break if tool or heavy object would hit it. That floor shows it gets abuse. But good sound deadening.
Personally I like the carpet tile idea. But ā¦ the problem if goop drips on it not so good.
The idea of redoing that floor has come up before.
I know nothing about floor finishing so will have to rely on all of you to decide on the best replacement. Maybe a poll to pick the final choice among suitable treatments?
My main considerations are:
- Minimizing the impact to the use of the room by classes and events. This part of the year, the best time may be holiday weekends, but I will not be here then and do not expect many to be wanting to do the work then.
- Some of the removal of the old finish and surface preparation can be done a little bit at a time in advance as to minimize disruption.
- The room is used for painting and other āmessyā events. For that reason, I do not believe that wood or carpeting are good candidates.
- The tables are often rearranged, so again, wood is probably not a good choice.
- Chemical fumes are to be avoided as possible since the best ventilation we can improvise is opening both doors and blowing air out to the workshop with the big fan.
- I do not know the budget of the Classroom committee yet and I do not know whether the board will be willing to fund paying someone else to do the work. Paying for it may be the quickest way to get it done plus they will likely do it during the day when most of us are not here.
- Vinyl flooring may not look the best, but it is certainly durable.
I think we should go with turf tiles. They are very stylish 
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I think the suggestion was a wood-look vinyl.
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Any kind of regular pattern vinyl will very quickly show scratches, scuffs, etcā¦ The nice thing, beyond price, about the pattern in Roberts earlier post is that it will mask such defects by making them appear to be part of the abstract pattern.
Given the kind of hard use we are going to put ANY floor covering material, we should select one that will hide those defects as much as possible. While vinyl flooring is relatively easy to install, it is a BEAR to take up for a new installationā¦
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Another option, could be engineered wood planks that are glued down. Decent planks can be purchased for about $2-$4 per sqft. Floor prep is very minimal and floor goes down fast. Easy to lay with little or no experience. Wood creates a dampening effect and very easy to repair. Also creates a warm and welcoming environment. The more dings and scrapes give it ācharacterā. The engineered wood comes prefinished making it very easy to clean up from paint, glue, etc. Long lasting with very minimal maintenance. For the long term $, itās the cheapest too.
Folks, it is a floorā¦ And even worse a floor at the Dallas āWe make things break and look crappyā Makerspace.
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FWIW, that room is approximately 956 square feet.
We used to have a painted floor in the tech room at the computer store I worked at for several years. About once a year we had to clear the whole room for about two days while we repainted the floor with a cheap floor paint. It would only look good for about a month before starting to get tore up. Before the store suddenly closed we were about to strip the whole tech room floor and use a garage epoxy coating to redo it.
I would recommend not using regular paint as it will just chip and flake like it has done now. Getting the floor back down to bare concrete and using a good quality epoxy coating with proper prep and allowing it proper time to cure will get the most durable and best looking result for easy cleanup and resistance to spills and stains.
Stripping the floor will likely create lots of dust that may trip the smoke detectors within the HVAC return ducts or in the room or nearby hallway. May have to have the fire alarm system put into test mode to prevent false alarm callouts the day the floor is ground or wire brushed.
For the best result I would look into what it would cost to have a company that does commercial and garage floor coatings do the work as they have the proper tools and experience working with the coatings and handling the prep work. They probably could strip and prep the floor in one day and roll out the coating. Another two or three days for it to fully cure before using the room againā¦
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So I talked with a Flooring Installer friend of mine and she said that the floor is not appropriate for āMastickā style adhesive (aka glue down vinyl flooring) without grinding through the layers of wax, paint, and other finishes that have been applied. Glue will end of not sticking solidly and we would run into issues. Iāve got her looking into a low cost alternative for us to keep from having to grind the floor.
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Floor prep for glue down is not that big of a deal on a painted surface. It can be done chemically or mechanically. Heck with enough workers, you get a bunch of folks with orbital sanders to scuff it up. I donāt recommend that method with 1000 sqft, but it could be done. I donāt recommend chemical or heat burn either in that space with so many folks using other parts of the building. The best and simplest method is to rent at HD a floor sander, basically a big orbital sander, to take down the sheen, any loose paint and scuff it up. There is a vacuum system that keeps the dust down too. Then the floor is ready for glue. Then you can put down vinyl, wood, tile, etc. in a very inexpensive and simple way.
I was at DMS last night taking Patrickās Laser Basic class and went and checked out the floor in the classroom. Itās basically a big square. After looking at the floor, the easiest and least expensive way to improve that floor is to rotary scuff/scrape the floor to remove loose paint and dirt, then lay down self adhesive wood grain vinyl. Itās cheap, it easy to put down and long lasting. I think a herringbone pattern would look great and greatly improve the space.
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