Shop Opinion

[TLR]

The family and I are looking at some houses. Obviously a shop plays in to my wants. We just went and saw one today with a fairly new sheet metal pole barn/shop that has a dirt floor. Apart from the fact it isn't insulated it also has a dirt floor. Any body have a shop with a dirt floor? Are there any pros? What would be your major cons?

My biggest concern is the ability to clean out dust (particularly g10/micarta) and whether it will be more likely to rust my tools then a concrete floor. I live in Iowa so we can be -20 in the winter and 100+ in the summer. Just thought I'd throw it out to the collective.

Thanks for any thoughts you might have.

 

[tryppyr]

How close are the nearest trees? I'd be looking for evidence that the tree roots were involved in the area, creating an unlevel floor.

What is the likelihood of rain run off getting into the shop. About the last thing you want is to be using power tools while standing in a puddle.

How much power is currently running to the shop?

Personally, I have long fantasized about getting a shipping container and converting it into a shop. At least that way the floor is built into the unit. Other advantages include being able to insulate it (or getting one that is already insulated), and adding air conditioning and dust evacuation.

 

[TLR]

It looks to be weather tight and they currently have farm equipment and feed in it that wouldn't do well getting wet. It has 100 amp service just for the workshop which I currently am not even close to pulling.

It has two large overhead doors. One on an end and one on a side on the opposite end of the building. My thought for now would be to build out a wall and ceiling in the end with the side door so that I could enclose an area (basically a one car garage size) to insulate and heat. Pouring a floor may have to come later. It's big enough I could put a loft over the room I built out and there would still be a larger then two car garage size space outside the room. The building isn't much smaller then the house and there's another separate 1 1/2 car garage next to the house.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Many a blacksmith/bladesmith shop is in a building like that. You can put in several truckloads of crusher-run and make a gravel floor. After a while it becomes almost like concrete.

 

[SinePari]

I love forging on a dirt floor. 6 months ago I added a couple hundred pounds of crushed shell just to keep the barn cats from using my smithy as a litter box. Firmed it up a bit, but it's a happy medium... I'd choose dirt over concrete any day... You'd be amazed how much a hard floor can take away from you after a long day of work... Just sucks the life out of you in comparison.

 

[Salem Straub]

I've worked long hours on both- I like dirt or gravel fine for a hot shop, but concrete is really nice if you have much in the way of machines. A drill press, lathe, mill, even grinders can be nice to set up on a bench on a level surface or with their bases on the slab. A slab floor is also nice for fabricating things that you want to frame up relatively flat/square... also I like to be able to sweep my floor around machines, when I had a dirt floor shop it seemed like everything was just a bit grubbier in there as if the dirt/dust would migrate up form the floor.
I'm thinking about moving my hot shop stuff out to a gravel floor bay on the side of my shop, and keeping the slab area as clean shop/machines.
A gravel floor will work just fine though, if that's what you've got for now.