New garage shop going together.

Thanks to much advice from wonderful folks here on SMC, I finnally have a plan put together to put a wood floor in my garage and get my equipment running in the near future. Thanks to all who have given me advice (Jamie, Fred, Lou, Jim and more) I am underway with construction as I have all week off work. I am including a few pictures of my start and will post more as I progress. If anybody has any questions regarding the floor I would love to answer as maybe it could help someone as I have been helped!

Regarding the floor...Make sure you make a nice spot for mommy and all the babies. Good luck with the project! Make sure we see finished pics.


Ron Robinson

Will do...are you talking finished project meaning the babies or the floor? :)

Oh yea...I forgot to post a few pictures of the floor and Mommy's previous work!

I think she was trying to tell me something...I better keep her away from the edge of my Benchdog table!

I hope your not going to tell us that it's your roll of blueprints for the shop renovation that is shreaded on the floor. One week is the plan, maybe Chris can give you some pointers:-)) woops!

Barry, I was wondering why you are doing the wood floor instead of just using the concrete in the garage? Are you doing the whole floor and will you run any wiring in the floor? It should be easier on you feet I guess. Alan

Steve...no not the blueprints...just a roll of paper towel...I have been getting all sorts of good ideas here from everybody. Pointers? Heck these Huskies are bad enough! :D

Alan...I chose to go with a wood floor because I want a more comfortable floor, warmer - I will insulate it and it will be more pleasing all around. I plan on spending considerable time in there so I want it easy on my feet and posture as well. My garage floor is very unlevel and it also has some pretty good cracks in it. I want some of my equipment mobile so I am creating a very level, solid floor. I plan on runing all of my electric in the floor as well. My subpanel will be located on the wall adjoining the house. I will run conduit out of it and in the floor. I have not decided on the electrical boxes yet so if anybody has sugestions there. Someone posted a nice picture of stage floor type recepticles but I didn't get the manufacturer. I am thinking about laying 3/4 inch OSB down and then crossing it with a 1/4 inch hardwood plywood but that is not a for sure thing yet. I figure that would give me an inch of floor and a pretty one as well....just not sure how well it will hold up?

Barry, That sounds like a great plan with the wiring etc. I'm not so sure about the 1/4" ply; I personally would go with just a single 3/4" ply and maybe attach it so you could remove it for more wiring in the future. Or if you could make some of the panels removable you could fish wires through and add different circuits as needed. I could see myself wanting more outlets if I changed the shop layout at some point. Good luck with the project and thanks for answering my questions. Alan

You'd do well to skip the OSB entirely and go with 3/4 plywood.Trust me on this one, I've torn out enough OSB to fill an olympic pool over the years. You'd actually get 7/8" out of that combination (11/16" actual size and 3/16" actual size respectively). The 1/4" ply isn't going to hold up on the floor long though. Best would be hardwoods over the regular plywood.

Hmmm...I knew I could get some good direction here! I was worried about the 1/4 inch hardwood/ply and durability...I also think that it is a good idea to be able to remove a panel and replace if needed to add more circuits. I do like the idea of it being tongue and groove. It has been suggested to look into a company called Advantech. When you are talking about hardwood, are you talking about a hardwood floor installed on top of the 3/4 inch plywood floor?

In that case I'd stick with the 3/4 ply and screw it down. You really don't need any other flooring on top unless you want a different surface. Hardwoods on top of 3/4" ply would be my choice if money were no object.


Not sure what Advantech is, but my guess is it's and pressed wood type product. Not my cup of tea, especialy on the floor. You can get plywood in T&G form for the subfloor, but then you lose the ability to remove a panel (unless you know exactly which one to cut the tongues off before installing).