Yeah, another flooring question

[Duncan Foster]

So we are building a new house in Florida. Stem wall construction with a poured concrete slab. Fortunately for me, we will have a four car garage separated by a wall. My shop will be 560 ft.² with a mini split. In the house will be glued down on slab engineered hardwood floors. This is getting more and more common in the south as the products and glue themselves have become better and better. So my question is this. This is my last hurrah. My garage/workshop will never…and I mean never…. have a car in it. I don’t really care about resale I imagine this is the house I die in. Ive researched floors until I’m blue in the face. It seems to me that I can get flooring decor, lumber liquidators, etc. unfinished solid wood red oak floors nail down variety for about $2.50 a square foot. Even if I add $4 per square foot for install I’m still not that much more…or less… than an epoxy coating (professionally done ). Which is killer on the back Yet in most of the forums when people talk about wood garage flooring, they put plywood over sleepers, vapor barrier, etc. Is this simply due to cost? I am not loaded by any stretch but aesthetics are important to me (the shop is my getaway. I go out there and smoke cigars watch TV when I’m not working on something) and would just like to hear peoples opinions. I allocated $5000 in the budget just for floors so I have room to do it once and be done with it. Would love to hear what others think

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I have been interested in 2x2 plastic backed OSB sub flooring. I have a decent slope towards the garage door in my garage shop. After long days in the shop, on the concrete, I think about flattening that out and covering the concrete with wood.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/DRICORE-...B&gclsrc=aw.ds

[Jim Becker]

Using sleepers with a vapor barrier and insulation allows you to use less expensive, surplus nail-down strip flooring. Further, you also have the opportunity, if you choose to, to level the floor if it's sloped as garages often are by code in many areas. (I do not know if that is the case in Florida) I had a sloped floor in my previous shop and the temporary gara-shop while I arranged for a formal shop space here at our new property...my new one, a separate outbuilding, has a flat floor. SO much better, especially because equipment like my sliding table saw and CNC machine prefer to be level.

[Denis Rezendes]

I used an isolation membrane with OSB and then engineered hardwood. It worked really well but if I could go back I would have spent more time flattening before putting the OSB down. It's pretty similar to the Dricore but costs a little less. Dricore is a great option too.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/ALINO-Da...LK50/312936504

If you're going the solid wood route it's definitely best to use a vapor barrier / isolation membrane and add a subfloor you can nail into. I would also consider keeping it unfinished. I find that the engineered hardwood is a little slippery once it gets sawdust on it.

[Andrew Seemann]

In my detached shop, I did 2x4 treated sleepers on the flat with XPS foam between, a vapor barrier, and then 3/4 tongue and groove plywood subfloor on that. I dumped some High Performance Topcoat on it as a finish. In my case I knew I had a moisture problem, due to how wet the slab got in the summer even under the anti-fatigue mats, and being in MN the floor was unbearably cold in the winter. I'd maybe like to put a layer of cheap hardwood flooring on top as some of the machine wheels dent the SYP plywood, but for now I'm content with fixing the climate control problem and not having my back ache constantly while out there.

Not sure if your new build garage floor in would have a vapor barrier under the concrete. It's pretty standard in living spaces now but unsure if required for a garage. In FL I would want to make sure there is one somewhere in the system though, especially if you are conditioning the air in the shop.

[Duncan Foster]

I used an isolation membrane with OSB and then engineered hardwood. It worked really well but if I could go back I would have spent more time flattening before putting the OSB down. It's pretty similar to the Dricore but costs a little less. Dricore is a great option too.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/ALINO-Da...LK50/312936504

If you're going the solid wood route it's definitely best to use a vapor barrier / isolation membrane and add a subfloor you can nail into. I would also consider keeping it unfinished. I find that the engineered hardwood is a little slippery once it gets sawdust on it.

i’m pretty sure when I talk to our builder and we talked about nail down solid wood floor inside. He was putting down at least a vapor barrier and then something else. It was just cost prohibitive after finishing it, etc. The garage is a whole different animal as it’s only 550 ft.². I agree keeping it unfinished I think the dings and the eventual scuffs, etc. simply add a little charm to the whole environment if I go that route.