Vinyl tiles + sawdust = very slippery...ideas?

[Chris Nolin]

When I put my woodshop together last year, I found a great deal on VCT's at a local reuse center--$0.11/sf. I was able to cover the entire slab floor for $40. But now that I'm actually building stuff in there, I've realized how dangerous they are when covered with a light film of sawdust. So slick, I now sweep the floor clean in front of my TS before making heavy cuts, for fear of slipping and falling on the blade!

I'd love to hear any ideas for a fix to this problem (other than ripping up the tiles and installing a plywood floor, which I'm still considering).

[Todd Crawford]

Grip tape in the areas around your tools?

[ray hampton]

if the floor are slippery now , wait until you walk in with wet shoe soles

[Gary Lange]

I would either get rubber mats to place around the shop or tear the tiles up and do something else for a floor. There are enough dangers in a shop without having to worry about falling because of the slippery floor. You're out $40.00 tearing it up but may save a bunch on Hospital bills.

[Bill Edwards(2)]

I have found products like "Oops" takes the sheen off of vinyl.

But you'd have to be careful not to mess up the glue seems.

[Gary Chester]

How about roughing it up with some 60 grit and a ROS... probably ugly, but...

[Bruce Wrenn]

Throw some sand on it and walk it in. When I taught school, a new principal MADE the janitors wax the floor in my shop one summer. Lets just say that she and I didn't see eye to eye after that, especially when she denied ORDERING them to wax the floor. They hadn't ever waxed it before.

[Mike De Luca]

Interesting... I had considered putting down VCT in my new shop. After hearing this and eliminating epoxy, I think I'll just live with the concrete... its a shop after all...

[Chris Nolin]

Thanks for the ideas, guys! The sanding idea is a new one. I'm going to try that on a small area and see what effect it has. The traction strips and rubber mats are good, but my shop's so cluttered I'd have to put them everywhere since I'm always pivoting and twisting to get around stuff, and that's when the slippage happens. If the 60-grit doesn't make a huge difference, I'm going to be putting down plywood (and maybe take that opportunity to put some sleepers and rigid insulation underneath, too). Cheers!

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Chris,

1) Put the guard back on your saw so you won't hurt yourself when you fall on it.

2) Use your dust collector so you don't have dust on the floor.

3) The non slip mats sound like a good idea.

Regards, Rod.

[Michael Horan]

There are some clear "anti-slip" or "non-slip" floor coatings. I just don't know which are any good. Someone who does building maintenance might chime in with a recommendation.

[Barry Nelson]

There are heaps of non slip coatings that cleaners use that are easy to apply (just mop on)go to your nearest cleaning supliies seller and question them,public liability is a big thing in floor maintenance,banks etc cannot afford to have people slip over on their floors

[Wes Grass]

I've tried rubber mats on the same type of floor. Dust gets underneath them and the whole mat goes out from under you. These were the type with holes in them. A solid one should be better, but will still start collecting dust under it if you drag it around.