Many moons ago in my younger and (much) wilder days, I worked in an old warehouse which had a floor that I thought was unique. It was made of 2×4 blocks, perhaps 4″ long, stood on end. That’s it. Thousands of these old fir 2x4s all packed together over a concrete slab. I had no idea behind the rationale behind this setup. It turns out that my Grandmother had the answer. She had actually worked in the very warehouse that I was working in, during the Second World War. At the time, it was a machine shop and this type of floor was very common at the time. It absorbed any splilled oil, pretty much never wore out, cleaned up fairly well in that any thing that a broom would miss, became embedded in the end grain, no slipping on the small stuff. But the single most important reason was that if one were to drop a tool or machined part on it, damage was minimised to both the tool and the floor. Anything sharp, would stick in the floor like a dart board, instead of chipping or shattering the peice. It thought that was a pretty smart way to go, it was Hell on the feet and back, but it did the job. Grandma’s been gone seven months now. I miss her.
John
Edited 1/24/2004 9:14:18 PM ET by JMartinsky
Replies
Google for "cobblewood flooring" That is what I am using in my kitchen, as well as my shop floor. MANY advantages, and spectacular looks. It also gave me an excuse to get a new Bosch 12" Slider..to dice up 4X6 for 'bricks'..neat flooring.
Wow! That would appear to be it. The floor that I worked on was no where near that pretty. What advantages would you say that a floor like that has?
Thanks!
John
well, you can make it ANY thickness, it wears like iron, it is easy to install , never squeaks, not expensive, can be patterened any way you choose, wont chip like tile, easy on the legs..you get the point.
Caterpillar sent me to Peoria a couple of years ago to tour their plants, and I was amazed to find one of those floors in one of the plants. I think it was the transmission plant, we hit 5 different places that day so my memory is a little fuzzy. The whole building was floored like that, except for pads of concrete for the machine tools to sit on. They said it worked great to isolate each machine from the vibrations of its neighbors. We had just walked for several hours on concrete in the foundry, and those wood blocks felt great on my legs.
I was under the impression that the blocks of wood sat on crushed rock or something, not concrete? Nice floor though, wish I had one in my woodshop, but it looks pricey to do now days.
The Navy Yard in DC had massive machine shops (where they could machine a 22 inch gun) and they had floors like that. I've also seen paving like that on Magazine Street in New Orleans. Slippery as h3ll when wet.
BJ
The factory I work in has this flooring. Most of it has been installed over 50 yrs ago and for the most part has held up well. It has a tendency to heave up though if it has been allowed to stay wet for too long. This usually results in that section of floor being tore up and replaced with new. Our maintenance dept. has tried a similiar block made from recycled carpet but this becomes slick with oil and grease whereas the pine blocks do not.
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