My architect friend reviewed my shop plans today. He had one suggestion. The
floor. He recently used the following concept for the remodel of a
commercial machine shop.

He took ordinary 2x4s. Cut the timber into 2-inch blocks. The blocks were
laid down right over the concrete slab, with only  a 6 mil plastic moisture
barrier. 

The blocks are laid down as a parquet, end down, so the top view is a 3.5x2
inch matrix of wood. The depth is also 2". There is no need for sleepers
along the side, only some shimming to keep the assembly tightly knit. No
pressure treated lumber, no glue, no waves, no buckling or sagging (that
would be waves), no cold feet, no collapsing under the weight of heavy
machinery.

Nothing short of a nuclear reactor vessel is going to crush a 2x4
cross-section of wood. Pressure treated wood might help the longevity.

I asked how one would true the surface of such a floor once installed. He
said the finish carpenter on his job used a jointer plane. Can you believe
it? A hand plane. The big machinery was simply rolled in smoothly on dollies
and a forklift. Riggers did that part of it.

It just occurred to me that this would be ideal for a shop with a sloped
subfloor. Just taper the cuts of 2x4 blocks.

Facing the awful alternative of the Buckminster Fuller appearance of OSB
with full varnish coating, damned if I'm not going to try this when I build
my new shop. This is my kind of high tech. Any thoughts out there in
shop-land?

Gary Curtis

______________________________________________________________

On 26 Apr., Peter B wrote:
> Gary Curtis wrote:
> 
> >The blocks are laid down as a parquet, end down, so the top view is a 3.5x2
> >inch matrix of wood. The depth is also 2". There is no need for sleepers
> >
> Gary,
> The power station I worked in for 30 yrs had similar "parquetry" areas  
> in front of the
> machine shop lathes, milling machines, drill presses etc. It was well 

I remember my dad describing a similar floor in the shop area of a
hydroelectric plant at which he worked, except (IIRC) 4x4 pieces
were used.  After the wood was placed, the floor was coated with
polyurethane, I imagine for resistance to moisture, oil, etc.

Norm
    - in Fort Collins, Colorado

______________________________________________________________

Gary,

Jim Thompson describes a similar floor in this thread:

http://denali.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu:8080/~cswingle/
archive/get.phtml?message_id=124204&submit_
thread=1#message

Scott in San Diego

______________________________________________________________

A number of old machine shops -- the Watervliet Arsenal in upstate New
York come to mind -- have end-grain flooring.  It looks like it's set
in sand or crushed limestone (which compacts more evenly).  It
probably lasts forever, given that the Arsenal has been in service for
more than a century, and (IIRC) I think they made the blocks from
timber too small in diameter to cut into boards (sawbolts?).  A vague
memory: A lot of the blocks were cracked radially, so they may have
laid them green.  The length won't shrink much, and the cracks are
probably filled with more crushed limestone.

The other nice features is that it's straightforward to dig hollows
for machines that need extra plumbing or stuff below the floor.   They
may even pull them up for wiring runs, although I have no idea of how
they'll connect them to the steam-driven shaft running over head....

More about sawing "unusable" logs: Timbergreen's site is a neat
place,and there's lots of good info about sawing narrow logs here
(with new-fangled equipment, though):

http://timbergreenforestry.com/page54.html

Ken Meltsner

______________________________________________________________

Hi Gary, et. al.

This was the shop floor in my Junior High School. I'm not sure of the 
underlayment, but the end grain was a common method circa 1964.

Mike Duchaj

Gary Curtis wrote:

>He took ordinary 2x4s. Cut the timber into 2-inch blocks. The blocks were
>laid down right over the concrete slab, with only  a 6 mil plastic moisture
>barrier. 
>
>The blocks are laid down as a parquet, end down, so the top view is a 3.5x2
>inch matrix of wood. The depth is also 2". There is no need for sleepers
>along the side, only some shimming to keep the assembly tightly knit. No
>pressure treated lumber, no glue, no waves, no buckling or sagging (that
>would be waves), no cold feet, no collapsing under the weight of heavy
>machinery.
>
>
>
>It just occurred to me that this would be ideal for a shop with a sloped
>subfloor. Just taper the cuts of 2x4 blocks.
>
>  
>

______________________________________________________________

Sounds sturdy and I'll bet it looks cool and develops a nice patina. 
But I have one question.  2x4 has rounded corners.  That means that
there will be gaps where the corners of the blocks meet.  These gaps are
going to fill with dust.  Maybe it won't matter.  Maybe the dust will
get packed down in the gaps and just increase the stability like sand
between paving stones.  But it seems that it might make dust control in
the shop a tougher job.  I am envisioning that every pass of a broom
draws up more dust out of the gaps, making it an endless job.  And you
had better not drop a ball bearing.  And if they don't fill with dust,
won't the unsupported wood split off into the gap under the pressure of
foot traffic or the planing of the floor?    

I suppose you could plane the faces of the 2x4 to get sharp corners
before you cut them and lay the blocks or maybe daub some putty in the
gaps before you plane the floor.

What do y'all think?

Blake       

>>> Gary Curtis  04/25/2005 6:02:37 PM >>>
My architect friend reviewed my shop plans today. He had one
suggestion. The
floor. He recently used the following concept for the remodel of a
commercial machine shop.

He took ordinary 2x4s. Cut the timber into 2-inch blocks. The blocks
were
laid down right over the concrete slab, with only  a 6 mil plastic
moisture
barrier. 

The blocks are laid down as a parquet, end down, so the top view is a
3.5x2
inch matrix of wood. The depth is also 2". There is no need for
sleepers
along the side, only some shimming to keep the assembly tightly knit.
No
pressure treated lumber, no glue, no waves, no buckling or sagging
(that
would be waves), no cold feet, no collapsing under the weight of heavy
machinery.

Nothing short of a nuclear reactor vessel is going to crush a 2x4
cross-section of wood. Pressure treated wood might help the longevity.

I asked how one would true the surface of such a floor once installed.
He
said the finish carpenter on his job used a jointer plane. Can you
believe
it? A hand plane. The big machinery was simply rolled in smoothly on
dollies
and a forklift. Riggers did that part of it.

It just occurred to me that this would be ideal for a shop with a
sloped
subfloor. Just taper the cuts of 2x4 blocks.

Facing the awful alternative of the Buckminster Fuller appearance of
OSB
with full varnish coating, damned if I'm not going to try this when I
build
my new shop. This is my kind of high tech. Any thoughts out there in
shop-land?

Gary Curtis

______________________________________________________________

i think i'd spread decomposed granite over the entire floor, roll it 
out with a heavy roller, scoop up everything that would scoop, sweep, 
and not worry about it.  if worse came to worse i'd flood the swept 
floor with polyurethane for a seal coat and not worry about it.  packed 
decomposed granite is very, very stable.  limestone sand is also quite 
stable, so you could use that, instead.

bill

On Apr 26, 2005, at 8:45 AM, Blake Ashley worried about gaps:

> I suppose you could plane the faces of the 2x4 to get sharp corners
> before you cut them and lay the blocks or maybe daub some putty in the
> gaps before you plane the floor.
>
> What do y'all think?

______________________________________________________________

Gary Curtis wrote:

>The blocks are laid down as a parquet, end down, so the top view is a 3.5x2
>inch matrix of wood. The depth is also 2". There is no need for sleepers
>along the side, only some shimming to keep the assembly tightly knit. No
>pressure treated lumber, no glue, no waves, no buckling or sagging (that
>would be waves), no cold feet, no collapsing under the weight of heavy
>machinery.
>  
>
Gary,
The power station I worked in for 30 yrs had similar "parquetry" areas  
in front of the
machine shop lathes, milling machines, drill presses etc. It was well 
recognised that less
'operator fatigue' occurred when the machinist was standing on a surface 
with a bit more
'give' that concrete. Resilience is probably a better word.
The more modern power station down the road had bare concrete with those 
industrial
rubber compound or synthetic mats in place of the wooden parquetry.
The result was probably the same but far less costly to install.

Peter B in sunny NSW,  Australia. (Probably close to 80F, not sure what 
has happened to
autumn)

______________________________________________________________

Evening Gary and All,

In the late 70's and early 80's I had the priveledge to work for
Caterpillar Tractor Company.  Their machine shops were vast, covering
20, 30 acres or more.  All of the production floors in the shops had
wood block endgrain floors.  In about 1980 they built about a 20 acre
addition to one of the shops, many dumptruck loads of blocks, about
4x6x4" thick were placed on top of the concrete floor.  Then a handful
of guys armed with only a hatchet started popping the blocks into
place.  A constant supply of blocks was always there provided by a
skidsteer, and a couple laborers with shovels.

By the machines that produced metal chips, used coolants or oils the
floors frequently got damaged.  They used a tool similar to a dent
puller, that screwed into a block, and backed one or more out,
allowing sections of floor to be removed and replaced.  Working on top
of wooden floors was certainly better than concrete.  Especially when
you are more or less confined to a very small work area.  If I
remember correctly, all the blocks were square edged, and creasote
treated.  No sand or fines was ever used to fill cracks.

IMHO, this will be no small task for you.  Endlessly cutting blocks
then on your hands and knees forever putting them into place.  Or look
at it this way,  a 10'x10' area has 14,400 sq inches.  A 2x4 block is
5.25 sq inches.  Dividing the lesser into the greater comes out to
2742 blocks + change.  I'll see ya when ya come up for air about this
time 2006.  :)

Humbly,

Roger
South of Chicago

Thinking sleepers and plywood would be a much less humbling endevour.

>
> He took ordinary 2x4s. Cut the timber into 2-inch blocks. The blocks
were
> laid down right over the concrete slab, with only  a 6 mil plastic
moisture
> barrier.
>
> The blocks are laid down as a parquet, end down, so the top view is
a 3.5x2
> inch matrix of wood. The depth is also 2". There is no need for
sleepers
> along the side, only some shimming to keep the assembly tightly
knit. No
> pressure treated lumber, no glue, no waves, no buckling or sagging
(that
> would be waves), no cold feet, no collapsing under the weight of
heavy
> machinery.
>

______________________________________________________________

In Perth, Western Australia, and I believe places as far=0D
away as London England, many streets were "paved"=0D
with wood blocks from our forrests. They were subsequently=0D
surfaced with bitumen and, eventually pulled up after decades=0D
of service.=0D
 =0D
Peter in Perth =0D
 =0D
-------Original Message-------=0D
 =0D
From: Norm Wood=0D
Date: Tuesday, 26 April 2005 11:04:27=0D
To: oldtools=0D
Subject: Re: [oldtools] Idea for Shop Floor Construction=0D
 =0D
On 26 Apr., Peter B wrote:=0D
> Gary Curtis wrote:=0D
> =0D
> >The blocks are laid down as a parquet, end down, so the top view is a  
3
5x2=0D
> >inch matrix of wood. The depth is also 2". There is no need for sleepe 
rs=0D
> >=0D
> Gary,=0D
> The power station I worked in for 30 yrs had similar "parquetry" areas  
=0D
> in front of the=0D
> machine shop lathes, milling machines, drill presses etc. It was well =0D
 =0D
I remember my dad describing a similar floor in the shop area of a=0D
hydroelectric plant at which he worked, except (IIRC) 4x4 pieces=0D
were used. After the wood was placed, the floor was coated with=0D
polyurethane, I imagine for resistance to moisture, oil, etc.=0D
 =0D
 =0D
Norm=0D
- in Fort Collins, Colorado=0D
 =0D
______________________________________________________________=0D

When we visited the Cape Verde islands a few years
ago, their roads are made the same way, but instead of
wood, they use small cross-sections of columnar
basalt. The islands are practically made of basalt. (a
volcanic rock that crystalizes into regular-shaped
columns, kind of like clay forced through an opening) 
It was a little bumpy to drive over, but not bad, and
probably a whole lot cheaper to make then it would
have been to import asphalt. It's also a whole lot
more durable and easier to repair. 

Pictures of columnar basalt
http://www.lcc.ctc.edu/departments/natural_sciences/pictures/colbasalt.xtm

You can sort of see the road here. 
http://www.nigelspencer.co.uk/pictures/other-country-pics/cape-verde/road.jpg

AAAndrew

--- Peter B  wrote:
> Peter,
> Yeah, I remember when they pulled up the tram tracks
> in Sydney (a sad day)
> some of the roads had wooden blocks under all the
> layers of asphalt.
> Can you imagine the cost of "paving" a road in
> 'parquetry' blocks in these
> modern and supposedly more enlightened times.
> 
> Peter B in sunny Australia
> 
> Peter Huisman wrote:
> 
> >In Perth, Western Australia, and I believe places
> as far
> >
> >away as London England, many streets were "paved"
> >
> >with wood blocks from our forrests. They were
> subsequently
> >
> >surfaced with bitumen and, eventually pulled up
> after decades
> >
> >of service.
> >  
> >
> 
> 
>
______________________________________________________________
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> http://www.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/~cswingle/archive/
> 
> To unsubscribe or change options, use the web
> interface:
>     http://www.brendlers.net/oldtools/oldtools.html
> 

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I know this doesn't have anything to do with your shop floor application.
However, the restraurant/grown-up arcade chain Dave and Buster's uses this
type of floor and drowns it in poly.  It's really eye catching.

______________________________________________________________

Gary Curtis writes:
> My architect friend ... took ordinary 2x4s. Cut the timber into
> 2-inch blocks.  ...

Sure, it's time consuming or meditative as others have pointed out.

So forget the dimensioned lumber, do the Happy Camper, and Look To Your
Woodpile.  Think oyster veneer on a truly grand scale, and grab a
chainsaw.  Or a misery whip if you're feeling strong and sorrowful, or
if Scott's willing to help.

cur - would that be cool, man, or am I lost in the 60's?

______________________________________________________________

basalt, for roads, is as old as the romans, if not older.  iirc, the 
appia antiqua in rome, as well as many of the roads leading to rome, 
are covered in rectangular basalt blocks...still wearing well under the 
assault of modern traffic, unadorned with asphalt.  a bit rough to 
drive, though.

bill
felton, ca
where the rain has turned many streets into slalom courses, the pylons 
being potholes...don't find many of them in basalt block streets...

On Apr 27, 2005, at 4:44 AM, Andrew Midkiff wrote:

> When we visited the Cape Verde islands a few years
> ago, their roads are made the same way, but instead of
> wood, they use small cross-sections of columnar
> basalt.

______________________________________________________________

Peter,
Yeah, I remember when they pulled up the tram tracks in Sydney (a sad day)
some of the roads had wooden blocks under all the layers of asphalt.
Can you imagine the cost of "paving" a road in 'parquetry' blocks in these
modern and supposedly more enlightened times.

Peter B in sunny Australia

Peter Huisman wrote:

>In Perth, Western Australia, and I believe places as far
>
>away as London England, many streets were "paved"
>
>with wood blocks from our forrests. They were subsequently
>
>surfaced with bitumen and, eventually pulled up after decades
>
>of service.
>  
>

______________________________________________________________

  Cur wrote:

> So forget the dimensioned lumber, do the Happy Camper, and Look To Your
> Woodpile.  Think oyster veneer on a truly grand scale

The foyer at the Maclachlan Woodworking Museum in Kingston ON
has just such a floor.  Looks like they sawed up a bunch of logs
laid them on the floor, and poured GALLONS of epoxy over it all
to fill the voids and make the pieces stick to the floor.  It
isn't very flat, but it sure looks cool.

Oh, and if you do visit the museum, try to wrangle a tour of
The Vault.  Most of the collection is stashed away out of the
public's sight, which is quite normal for a museum.  Just to
whet yer appetite, here's a shot of my son wandering through
The Vault back in July of '97.

http://wdynamic.com/galoots/4images/data/media/60/maclachlan.jpg

-- 
Darrell
Oakville ON
Wood Hoarder, Blade Sharpener, and Occasional Tool User

______________________________________________________________